We wanted to watch a comedy at the weekend, and we decided to give Galaxy Quest a watch, it’s actually one of our most prized DVD’s, for as well as being a great comedy, it is signed by the late, great Alan Rickman, after we luckily saw him at the stage door, when seeing him in a play, in the London West End.
It really is a clever film, having elements of Science Fiction and Comedy but also making reference to comic conventions and cosplay too!
The set up is simple enough, we follow the crew of a minor TV hit, Galaxy Quest (clearly imitating the original Star Trek series)
The show was axed after one series, and we follow its stars, who are now doing as many conventions and store opening as possible to keep the money coming in.
The Cast and Crew are:
Tim Allen Who plays actor Jason Nesmith who was Captain Peter Quincy Taggart
Sigourney Weaver plays actress Gwen DeMarco who was Lt. Tawny Madison
Alan Rickman plays Alexander Dane who is Dr. Lazarus
Tony Shalhoub plays Fred Kwan who was Tech Sgt. Chen
Daryl Mitchell plays a grown version of Corbin Bleu, the child actor Tommy Webber who was Lt. Laredo
And joining them is Sam Rockwell as cast extra Guy Fleegman, or as he was known on the show #Crewman 6
Whilst at a convention, the crew meet many fans and cosplayers and unbeknown to them, real aliens called Thermians, led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) who manage to hire Jason, thinking he really is the heroic space captain, Taggart.
This is due to them whilst monitoring Earth, they discovered transmissions of the show, which they believe to be true ‘Historical Documents’
The Thermians take Nesmith to their spaceship where he plays along, thinking he is actually on a very elaborate set and gets involved in a battle with an Alien called Sarris (the late Robin Sachs, who we still know best as Ethan Rayne from TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
He manages to damage Sarris ship and believes he has done enough to save the day, heads off to another store opening, which is when he does actually realise this was not make-believe.
Needless to say Sarris survives the attack and Nesmith, with the help of his fellow actors must put in the performances of their lives, without script or director if they are to save the Thermians and indeed the entire universe!
The laughs come fast in this great film, Alan Rickman really is superb as the actor who despises his alien role, when all he really wanted to do was Shakespeare;
The rest of the crew are also excellent value; Tim Allen plays the Captain like he really does believe he is the star of the show; Sigourney Weaver goes blond and wishes she could be taking more seriously, she’s certainly not Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise in this; Sam Rockwell is brilliant as the actor dreaming of a bigger role than recurring crew member who gets shot each week; Tony Shalhoub is calm and collected as the tech office and Daryl Mitchell is great as the former child actor, who has had to deal with not turning that into success in later life.
The Thermians are all great too, we should mention Patrick Breen as Quellek who believes Dr. Lazarus would be a great mentor and Missi Pyle as Laliari, who ends up being a love interest for Tech Sgt. Chen.
It’s not all laughs, as some great science fiction sequences occur, a chase through a galactic mine field; an away mission with some seemingly cute aliens and a monster made of rocks, as well as battles with Sarris.
There are also down to earth jokes, especially amongst a bunch of school kids, led by Brandon (Justin Long) who study the tech of the show and are called upon to help Nesmith, whilst also dealing with household chores, such as putting the garbage out!
Laughs also come from the belief that Dane’s Dr. Lazarus is part of a real alien race, and they look for him to provide inspiring words; DeMarco also brings many laughs as she bemoans her female role and how she thinks her costume is too revealing!
The story was written by David Howard (who sadly has no other credits to his name) and he was assisted by the writer of Men In Black II & A Series of Unfortunate Events, Robert Gordon with the script.
Directed by Dean Parisot, who would go on to direct Red 2 and Fun with Dick and Jane and more recently has been attached to the long rumoured Bill and Ted 3.
Tim Allen’s character in the film has a catchphrase of Never Give Up! Never Surrender! Well, we’ll never give up watching this brilliant Science Fiction Comedy!
The film has had many rumours around it, including an unseen R-rated version; A proposed Sequel and an actual Galaxy Quest TV show, none which have never seen the light of day to date!
You can watch the Galaxy Quest trailer here:
You can buy the film from Amazon here:
Do you have a favourite SciFi Comedy? Would you have liked to have seen a sequel? How about a reboot, Galaxy Quest: The Next Generation anyone?
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