Galaxy Quest is both a spoof of and homage to sci-fi fandom, and more superficially, Star Trek and Trekkies. In the 80's, the TV series "Galaxy Quest" developed a huge cult following in the sci-fi community, and 20 years later (this movie was released in 1999), the actors from that show spend pretty much all of their time hopping from conventions to grand openings and all of them are type-cast into their previous roles, much to the chagrin of everyone but Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), the ship's Commander Taggert.
When a race of aliens, the Thermians, show up and believe that Nesmith and his fellow actors are really the characters they play, they are abducted and asked to help stop an evil alien bent on the total destruction and domination of the Thermian race. It seems that the Thermians, led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), started receiving Earth's "historical documents" and started modeling their society after the intrepid crew of the NSEA Protector. So, when Nesmith, Gwen (Sigourney Weaver), Alexander (Alan Rickman), Fred (Tony Shalhoub), Tommy (Daryl Mitchell) and one of the show's extras, Guy (Sam Rockwell), find themselves on a real-world version of their ship, they are a bit overwhelmed.
What's great is to see how the different types of characters played by all of these big names just worked well together. Gwen played the ship's communications officer and her whole job was to basically repeat what the computer said (much like Star Trek's Ahura). Alexander is a classically trained Shakespearian actor who is forced to play the token alien and hates his character's catch phrase. Fred is the ship's engineer and is pretty burnt out with everything. In fact, some of the show's funniest moments involve his laid back attitude towards everything. Tommy was the Protector's pilot and the ship's resident kid genius. This, of course, means that he once again has to sit in the pilot's seat and really fly the ship once they get on board, something he isn't all too keen on doing since he was just moving the sticks at random and pushing various buttons for no reason on the show.
Another character of note is Brandon (Justin Long in his first movie), an uber-geek fan of the show who appears at the opening convention. He approaches Nesmith about some small technical detail from the show, but when the two bump into each other, they end up switching communicators so that Brandon has the real one that the Thermians gave to Allen's character and Nesmith gets the cheap plastic knock-off.
Not only does this movie make a ton of inside jokes that hard-core Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans will get, but there is also a lot of humor to be had in the overall situations. There is something comical about a bunch of actors who are mistaken for their characters and have to save the day. It worked for The Three Amigos, right?
Celebrating the movie's 10-year anniversary, this Deluxe Edition comes with a ton of fun featurettes. Most of them are retrospectives with the cast and crew, and they are pretty good. "Never Give up, Never Surrender" interviews the actors who portrayed the show's main cast to discuss how they feel about the movie a decade later. "Alien School" talks about how they decided on the look, feel and style of the Thermians, as well as interviews about the actors who played the main aliens. The others like "Historical Documents" and "By Grabthar's Hammer" talk a lot about the casting of the movie, development of the script and the special effects. There are also a couple of special features that are a bit pointless, but fun nonetheless. "Sigourney Weaver Raps" is a home-video quality video of several of the cast rapping to show their appreciation for the movie (apparently they were taught by Mitchell, who made his debut in the House Party movies). The other fun-but-pointless feature is the Thermian Audio Track. Think of this as another form of dubbing, just in the alien race's high-pitched squealing and squeaking voices. After all, they had to translate those historical documents so that their whole society could watch the series anyway, right?
Galaxy Quest is a must-see. The mix of actors they got for this film just makes the whole thing worthwhile and it's a great experience. Even if you aren't a fan of science fiction, but enjoy a good comedy, then this movie is right up your alley. Whether you should simply rent it or buy it though depends on just how much you like it, but if you are going to pick up a copy, then this Galaxy Quest: Deluxe Edition is the one to grab.
