Galaxy Quest

‘Galaxy Quest’ is a very funny space adventure, & a wicked but affectionate ‘Star Trek’ satire.

Phasers are set on ‘laugh’ as Tim Allen (the voice of ‘Buzz Lightyear’), a bimboed-up Sigourney Weaver, England’s Alan Rickman (‘Die Hard’, ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’) hamming it up to the max, scene-stealing Tony Shalhoub & Sam Rockwell play actors of a ‘Trek’-like TV series that was axed 18 years before & who now have to content themselves with fan convention appearances & tacky store openings.

Thinking they are being taken to a gig by organisers who are just taking their roles very seriously, they end up on an alien spaceship in the middle of a war with a very nasty species of warlike aliens. The aliens have been monitoring Earth TV & have taken the heriocs of the ‘Galaxy Quest’ TV show as fact. With their civilisation under threat, in desparation they have turned to the great Commander Taggert & his crew to once again save the day. Except they don’t know this yet…

This is a film that works equally well on several levels: it’s an extremely funny comedy, it’s a brilliant send-up of ‘Star Trek’, but it’s also well-done & affectionate enough in it’s satire to actually work as a straight example of the very genre it’s lampooning.

You don’t have to even know ‘Trek’ exists to enjoy this, but if like me you’re a bit of a ‘Trekkie’ but with a sense of humour, you’ll love it. The in-jokes are spot-on: Weaver’s character’s only role on the ship being just to repeat what the computer says; the actor whose one role was as an expendable crewmen on an away mission who becomes terrified of dying when on a ‘real’ away mission, etc. etc. Die-hard ‘Trekkers’ get a particularly hard time – but it turns out that even the worst of the geeks have their uses…

This film is a joy from start to finish: it’s clever, exciting, has great special effects, is hilariously funny & even quite moving in places. My verdict: go see it!