Galaxy Quest (on DVD)

Galaxy Quest
[DVD Galaxy] [No longer in library collection — order through InterLibrary Loan]

Galaxy Quest is often referred to as “one of the best Star Trek films ever made”, and with good reason. While on the surface, it appears to be a parody of Star Trek, mocking both on the on-screen tropes of that legendary TV and film franchise, and also poking gentle fun at the larger-than-life personalities of the actors associated with Trek, when you look at this film in a larger sense, you can see that it is only poking fun because it loves the source material so much. Tim Allen stars as Jason Nesmith, the actor who formerly played Commander Peter Quincey Taggert of the starship NSEA Protector, the main character of the 1970s era TV series Galaxy Quest. Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub , Daryl Mitchell and Sam Rockwell all play other actors who had portrayed regular characters on that TV series. They’ve been supplementing their meager incomes with appearances at science fiction conventions, or by portraying their “cult favorite” characters in cheesy promotional commercials (“By Grabthar’s Hammer, What a Deal!”).
After Nesmith throws a fit and gets drunk after hearing how is former co-stars think so little of him, a group of aliens kidnaps him (and the rest of his “crew”), believing them all to be the space-faring characters they played 20 years earlier on TV, and needing the help of a heroic starship crew to fight back against some monstrous aliens threatening their peaceful civilization. Nesmith and his fellow out-of-work actors must somehow become the heroic characters they once pretended to be, in order to save a peaceful race, and in the meantime find purpose in their own aimless lives.

This film is a tour-de-force of science fiction humor, with one of Alan Rickman’s best performances in any movie. The special effects are top-notch, while still poking fun at classic Star Trek’s kinda of cheesy-looking aliens and monsters. At its heart, however, Galaxy Quest is a love letter to the fans, who gather at convention to relive the glory days of television shows like Star Trek/Galaxy Quest — in fact, it is the fans of Galaxy Quest who end up ultimately saving the day as the evil aliens pursue Nesmith and his crewmates back to Earth. This is a hilarious, and yet touching, film. Other than a little problem with pacing, I can’t recommend this one highly enough! I’m disappointed to see that the libraries no longer own any copies of this, but you can easily get ahold of it through our InterLibary Loan service, and it should probably be available through various streaming services online.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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