Galaxy Quest

It’s a double movie type of afternoon today and Galaxy Quest is the next on the menu.

This movie came out in 1999 and starred a variety of stars including, Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Daryl Mitchell, and Sam Rockwell. Galaxy Quest was directed by Dean Parisot and the screenplay was written by David Howard and Robert Gordon.

The story follows Tim Allen’s character, Jason Nesmith who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggert. Nesbitt’s character Taggert was the leader of a crew of the Protector on the hit scifi show Galaxy Quest. Sigourney Weaver played Gwen Demarco who was Lt. Tawny Madison on the show. Alan Richman was Alexander Dane, who on the show played Dr. Lazarus the only alien on the crew. Tony Shalhoub played Fred Kwan, Tech Sgt. Chen on the show, and Daryl Washington was Tommy Webber or Laredo on the show.

Galaxy Quest begins with the cast of the show waiting on Nesmith’s arrival at a scifi convention. Guy, played by Sam Rockwell, is trying to by time while showing the crowd episodes of the show and talking about aspects of it. As Nesmith arrives, Alexander attempts to leave and the rest of the cast begins arguing. Just then Guy begins the introductions and the cast comes running out. While taking a break from the autograph session, Nesmith in the bathroom overhears how big of a joke he is and that no one likes him. This leads to a heavy night of drinking for Nesmith. He is awoken by Mathesar, played by Enrico Colantoni, and the rest of Mathesar’s team. They are their to pick Nesmith up for what he believes in a paid gig. Nesmith falls asleep in the limo which results in him waking up on the ship in the middle of outer space. Nesmith still with no clue where he is, orders an attack on the enemy general Sarris, who he is suppose to be negotiating with. After this foolish act Nesmith wishes to return to earth, it is only then when he is sent in a pod through space that he realizes he is no longer acting and this is real. Mathesar and his people have been watching episodes of Galaxy Quest, but in a culture with out television they mistook these episodes as historical documents. Mathesar sought out Nesmith because they believed him to be the brave and always courageous Commander Taggert.

Once back on earth, Nesmith tries to convince the rest of his crew that he was in space on a real version of the ship. He finds them doing a promotion at a car dealership. Some of Mathesar’s crew show up right around the same time to inform Nesmith of the failure to completely destroy Sarris and he is needed for more talks. Thinking Nesmith may never offer them another opportunity, the rest of the cast decides to join the negotiations with Sarris. After being shot through space in some sort of gel pod, the crew arrives aboard a space station in which the Protector is docked. The cast is a little shocked by how real this aspects of the ship actually are. Tommy Webber is the first to experience this when he is asked to fly the ship out of the port. After the Protector is in space, they run into Sarris again. He is not happy with the way Nesmith treated him last time. Once the crew sees footage of the previous commander being tortured, they are ready to bail. None of them realized they could lose their lives during this gig. Everything changes once the group realizes all the consequences of their actions are real. They must band together and overcome foreign obstacles in order to survive the most dangerous role they have played yet. Can the crew figure out a way to defeat Sarris? Will they ever make it back to Earth? How will actors who pretend to fight evil throughout the universe react when they actually are forced to face real evil?

This is another film I enjoyed. I think the concept of this one is pretty good. I love the idea of an alien race treating television shows as actual historical documents. Added to it, taking that group of actors from the show and throwing them in real life scenarios they are played to portray.  This is an entertaining action, adventure and comedy flick. I give this film a three out of five stars. At only 102 minutes and with good moments throughout, this is a good watch if you’re looking to kill some time. Galaxy Quest takes a different look at people who take television shows too seriously.

“Never give up, never surrender.” – Commander Taggert

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