In the 80’s the nation was in love with a television series called “Galaxy Quest”. Since the program ended the main cast spent a lot of time at various comicon events and private showings. The cast is comprised of Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), who played Lt. Tawny Madison, Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), who played Science Officer Dr. Lazarus, Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub), who played Tech Sergeant Chen, and Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell), who played Lt. Laredo. Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell) is the casts’ manager for the various conventions as well as having played crewman No. 6 in one episode. Camaraderie between the actors is a little thin, especially since Jason has been taking on gigs without the other crew members.
At a recent convention Jason is approached by someone claiming to be Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) the leader of an alien race called the Thermians from the Klaatu Nebula. Jason thinks that he is just another fan wanting Jason to participate in a private performance. Later he overhears some kids trashing the show and describing him as pathetic. Jason gets drunk to drown his sorrows.
In the morning Mathesar shows up with crew members, Laliari (Missi Pyle), Lahnk (Rainn Wilson) and Teb (Jed Rees). Mathesar, who thinks Jason is a real starship commander, tells Jason that they are being slaughtered by Roth’h’ar Sarris (Robin Sachs), the leader of another alien race. While Jason sleeps in the back of a limo, they take him to their spaceship. The ship, the “N.S.E.A. Protector”, was constructed based on how the spaceship prop looked in the television series. Jason thinks that everything is really a mock-up and that he is there to perform an ad-lib skit for a bunch of fans. Jason insults Sarris, fires on him, and tells Mathesar that there should be no problems from him. They believe him and send him back to Earth. It’s not until Jason is transported back to Earth that he realizes everything was real.
Sarris renews his slaughter of the Thermians. They reach out to Jason once again to ask for his help. Jason tries to convince his associates that the aliens are real, but they dismiss him. They do, however, think that Jason is actually talking about a gig, so they decide they want in. It’s not until they are transported to the spaceship and are face to face with the Thermians in their natural state that they realize it is indeed real. Now on the ship they are faced with dealing with Sarris. Being actors, they come to the conclusion that they are way out of their element. Jason ends up reaching out to a group of nerdy fans on Earth for assistance in dealing with the intricacies of the ship as he and his crew tries to outwit Sarris and save the Thermians.
“Galaxy Quest” was released in 1999 and was directed by Dean Parisot. It is an American science fiction comedy film and an homage to the genre, especially the “Star Trek” series. Although the film is a parody and incorporates many aspects from various previous science fiction films and television series, subsequent science fiction films incorporated some of the plot devices from this film.
The models for the spaceship were made by Industrial Light and Magic. They created two for the movie. One was a cheaper looking version for the television clips shown at the convention. The other was the “real” spaceship created by the Thermians. This one has far more detail and realism to it. The serial number of the Protector spaceship is NTE-3120. The N.T.E. stands for Not the Enterprise.
The actors that play Thermians had to go to school to learn how to act like Thermians.
This is probably the best science fiction film out there because it is every science fiction film out there, and it’s funny as hell.