- The aliens are out there, and they're watching our television broadcasts! One would think that would only make extraterrestrial civilizations less likely to seek out contact with humanity, but the lighthearted sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest imagines that it inspires them to ask for our help. Unfortunately, that inspiration is slightly misplaced since these specific aliens (Enrico Colantoni, Missi Pyle, Patrick Breen) are sufficiently naive to have mistaken the Star Trek-type show they've been watching for a series of "historical documents." Will the semi-retired crew of actors from said show be able to tear themselves away from their Earthly responsibilities at sci-fi conventions and ribbon-cutting ceremonies to save the Universe for real?
- The characters these actors portray on TV are a humorous collection of Trek stereotypes, both on and offscreen. There's the brash leading man (Tim Allen) who "slept with every Terrakian slave and Moon Princess on the show," and the serious-minded thespian (Alan Rickman) disgusted with being famous for makeup and a catch phrase. There's also the alluring leading woman (Sigourney Weaver) whose primary acting duties are limited to wearing a tight uniform and repeating what the computer said, a child actor grown old (Daryl Mitchell), and a marked-for-death extra (Sam Rockwell). My favorite character, though, is surely the happy-go-lucky ship's engineer (Tony Shalhoub), whose only response after getting zipped across the Universe is "That's a hell of a thing."
- In fact, the cast of Galaxy Quest is so watchable, particularly Rickman, Shalhoub, and Rockwell, all of whom should be in pretty much every comedy, that their interactions tend to overwhelm everything else in the film. This is probably just as well, considering that the sing-songy good aliens and the reptilian bad aliens, the leader of whom shares his name with a famous film critic, are considerably less entertaining than their human counterparts. Still, Galaxy Quest's greatest achievement may be its tone. Realizing that classic sci-fi is too quaint to be seriously lampooned and yet too campy to be taken completely seriously, Galaxy Quest manages to pay affectionate homage to a genre that should always generate smiles, one way or the other.
