Galaxy Quest (Blu-ray)

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"Never give up. Never surrender!"

"Galaxy Quest" is a wonderfully silly film, but in order to appreciate its satire fully, I suspect one has to be at least marginally familiar with the "Star Trek" television and film series. The movie is a "what-if" proposition and one that requires a certain background knowledge on the viewer's part. But it's still OK even you've never seen a "Star Trek" episode. Because it ties in with the newest "Star Trek" motion picture, DreamWorks re-released "Galaxy Quest" with additional, newly made bonus materials and, as reviewed here, in Blu-ray high definition.

The movie does a splendid job mimicking the old "Star Trek" crew and their "what if" aftermath by pretending that "Galaxy Quest" was a real television show that played for a few years a couple of decades earlier, then went off the air maintaining a loyal following of "Questerian" fans. As the movie opens, the cast of the old show find themselves reduced to doing "Galaxy Quest" conventions since the show so thoroughly typecast them, they can't find any other work. To some extent, I suppose this actually happened to a few of the original "Star Trek" cast members. Certainly, there are "Star Trek" conventions to this day all over the globe, and they usually include a cast member or two.

The bit about the old "Galaxy Quest" cast doing conventions is also clever because it allows the scriptwriters, David Howard and Robert Gordon, and the director, Dean Parisot ("Fun With Dick and Jane"), to poke some lighthearted fun at washed-up TV stars and how their diminished status affects their egos. Yet that isn't all the movie has to offer, not by a long shot. It goes on to a much more enterprising (pun intended) "what-if" premise: What if visitors from another planet mistook the "Galaxy Quest" cast for real space heroes and enlisted them in a real-life fight to save their race? In other words, what if stars of a fictional sci-fi television show became involved in an actual outer-space adventure? It's fun stuff in the humorous mold of such comedy fantasies as "Men in Black" and "Ghostbusters," but it has the added twist of being based on familiar cultural icons.

Part of the fun of the original "Star Trek" series was the cozy, family atmosphere of the crew, all of them bickering as families do but showing genuine respect and love for one another when it counted. That's another aspect of the old show that "Galaxy Quest" spoofs. Although the "GQ" actors play conventions and supermarket openings together, they essentially hate each other's guts. Naturally, as the adventure warms up, the old gang of actors begin to warm up to one another, too, just as the old "Star Trek" crew did. So "Galaxy Quest" lampoons the old show, while paying tribute to it at the same time.

Tim Allen stars as Jason Nesmith, the star of the former "Galaxy Quest" television show, which ended its prime-time run about eighteen years earlier. Nesmith, like the rest of the cast, has been running on the old show's fumes ever since, but his ego has suffered. He was, after all, captain of the Starship NSEA Protector, and now he's a has-been. Allen is an immensely likeable fellow, although he hasn't been in too many films I've enjoyed. This one and the first "Santa Clause" head the list. Here, he shows his ability not only as a comic actor but as a serious actor as well, since there are several dramatic moments in the film among the humorous ones. In a featurette accompanying the movie, Allen says he wasn't consciously trying to mirror William Shatner's speech or gestures but admits that a few such nuances sneaked into his portrayal. To Shatner's credit, he never became a has-been, having gone on to success in a television cop show, supporting parts in a number of movies and TV commercials, and, as of this writing, a talk show.

Allen's co-stars are equally capable. Sigourney Weaver plays Gwen DeMarco, the TV crew's obligatory female, whose only jobs on the old show were to repeat whatever the captain said and to reveal as much cleavage as possible. As the movie goes on, amusingly, she shows more and more skin. Think of Weaver's first significant sci-fi role in "Alien." And Alan Rickman plays Alexander Dane, the TV show's Spock-like non-Earthly science officer. Dane continuously bemoans the fact that he used to be a promising Shakespearean actor, and now he's signing autographs and playing second fiddle to Allen's character at fan conventions.

Among the supporting players are Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan, who was the crew's unflappable tech officer (think Scotty). Sam Rockwell is Guy Fleegman, who was in only one installment of the old series, playing a red shirt so expendable he dies a few minutes into the episode, with nobody even remembering his name. Rockwell almost steals the show, doing a hilarious imitation of a whining Bill Paxton in "Aliens." Daryl Mitchell is Tommy Webber, the old show's obligatory young person and token black; Justin Long is Brandon, a typical teen fan geek so wrapped up in his love of the old series, he can't tell the difference between fiction and reality; Enrico Colantoni is Mathesar, the leader of the space aliens who are enlisting the help of the "Galaxy Quest" crew; and Robin Sachs is Sarris, the head bad guy.