Galaxy Quest

Date: August 17, 2021

Musical Accompaniment:

Interstellar News: Saturday was Indian food and game night with two of my dear friends and Sunday was a “chips and dip” kind of afternoon and more games with our other dear friends. Monday was the start of the semester and I was completely zonked out. Tonight, I didn’t have much energy to dive into Enterprise so I decided to reward myself with one of the most amazing movies… Galaxy Quest.

TL;DR: Actors from a 20 year old sci-fi show (a la Star Trek) are approached by real aliens at a convention. The aliens need the help of the crew, not realizing they were playing roles on a show. The crew actually helps the aliens and gets their show revitalized when they return home.

Favorite quotes: These are all by Fred, because he’s the best and Tony Shaloub is a national treasure in this movie:

• “Now that was a hell of a thing.” – after being beamed across the galaxy
• “Wow, the floors are REALLY clean.” – while taking a tour of the ship
• “Seems okay.” – sniffing the air after landing on an alien planet
• “Hmmm. . A little sticky. I’ll get one of my boys up here with a can of WD-40.” – after making a great save by spacing the hostile aliens
• “It’s the simple things In life you treasure.” – after sending the rock monster into the ship with the hostile aliens

“The show must go on.”: This movie is completely perfect to watch after finishing Nemesis. While very obviously trolling/paying homage to Star Trek, there are elements of The Next Generation too. It’s wonderful to watch the crew go from barely tolerating each other to working together and using their skills in a completely unusual situation.

All of the actors are completely wonderful, too. Tim Allen plays the Kirk/Shatner character to perfection while Sigourney Weaver braves it as the lone female who was used only for her looks but does her job anyway, even if it’s “stupid”. The late Alan Rickman is absolutely fantastic as the British actor who feels reduced by this role. He never takes off his headpiece and the one time he genuinely utters his catchphrase, it is heartfelt and moving. Tony Shaloub, as I stated above, is my new favorite Fred and he is just perfect every time he’s on the screen. Sam Rockwell, who is in all of the movies or shows I’ve been watching recently it seems, is wonderful comedy relief and he does camp so damn well. Daryl Mitchell does an excellent child actor turned adult but is still treated as a kid. The biggest stars, though, are all of the Thermians. Enrico Colatoni, Patrick Breen, and Missi Pyle just knock it out of the park with their movements, noises, and just their general ability to look so serious when they are being humorous.

There’s a great balance of comedy, drama, action, and science-fiction in this movie and I’m all for it. It does justice to parody films but is really a good film in its own right. There’s a plot that is completely ridiculous, but kind of works, and there are elements that can resonate with a lot of age groups. There are also clear parallels to Trek episodes and it’s called out when they say things like “we’re doing episode xx”. I love when Weaver’s character is yelling about the chompers and whoever wrote the episode should be killed because it’s completely illogical for them to be doing that. I also enjoyed the Omega 13 bit and how well it was used to both include time travel and give a happy ending (the first of several since the bad guy never really dies). It’s a testament to the movie that it even included fans who actually understood the technobabble on a level the writers and actors probably never did. Now that it’s almost 22 years old, and I’ve been going to more conventions, I can say it’s aged pretty well. There are some things I would change… but that’s if the movie was made today. For 1999, it’s a glorious culty movie that I adore so much.

Movie rating: Mark 10. Omega 13. Take your pick.

TA Out!