DVD REVIEW
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As a life-long fan of "Star Trek," I have read my fair share of fanzines, all filled with essays and short stories written by fans like me. The best short story I ever read was titled "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited," in which William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley swap places with their real-life counterparts somewhere in a parallel future. They actually have to "be" Kirk, Spock and McCoy, not only to save the day, but to convince their crewmates that they really are who they say they are. A wonderful piece of fiction, but I never thought in a million light-years that the story would be put to film. Well, my prayers have been answered…sort of.
"Galaxy Quest" is great entertainment for much the same reasons that "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" is. They both deal with fish out-of-water stories and cultural displacement. As such, they both appeal to mainstream tastes and to die-hard Trekkies. However, in "Galaxy Quest," the transition is not from present-to-past, but from fiction-to-reality, as in the short story.
In case you're one of the few who hasn't seen this gem, allow me to set the scene. "Galaxy Quest"-not the film but the fictional TV series contained within the plot of the movie-is a Trek-like show that went off the air in the early-'80s. In typical Trek fashion, the legions of "Questerians" refused to let the legend die, resulting in countless "Galaxy Quest" conventions being held, with most, if not all, of the "Galaxy Quest" crew being invited to attend as honored guests.
The crew (save for the eccentric and original portrayal by Tony Shalhoub as Tech Sergeant Chen) are all wonderful references to just about every typical Trek character imaginable. Tim Allen is the Kirk-style commander-all ego, and not that great an actor; Sigourney Weaver is the token female, who does nothing but repeat the ship's computer and bring sex appeal to the show; Alan Rickman is the Spock character, an underappreciated Shakespearean actor who has been unwittingly pigeonholed into the character of Dr. Lazarus; Sam Rockwell is what is known in Trek circles as the "Red-Shirt"-the expendable crewmember; and Daryl Mitchell is the token teenager AND the token minority. I have heard many people openly wish that the REAL crew of the Enterprise could have been talked into appearing in this film as versions of themselves. I doubt that any of them could have done as good a job as the actors on board here, as they not only poke great fun at the stereotypes that they are playing, but do a good job convincing us that they really have been hanging out together for twenty-plus years, bickering just like a typical dysfunctional TV family.
Anyhow, the crew of the NSEA Protector is about to be called out of retirement for one last command performance. A race of oppressed aliens have mistaken the transmissions of "Galaxy Quest" as "historical documents," and not a TV show. The aliens bring the fictional crew to their spaceship in hopes that this brave group of "heroes" can save them from Sarris, the "bad guy." The displaced actors must now give the performance of a lifetime to not only save themselves and their crew/captors, but to get back to Earth.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]4270[/release]