DVD Reviews

Galaxy Quest – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 17, 2009, 18:49 GMT

For four years, the courageous crew of the NSEA protector * "Commander Peter Quincy Taggart" (Tim Allen), "Lt. Tawny Madison (Sigourney Weaver) and "Dr. Lazarus" (Alan Rickman) - set off on a thrilling and often dangerous mission in space... and then their series was cancelled! Now, twenty years later, aliens under attack have mistaken the Galaxy Quest television transmissions for "historical documents" and beam up the crew of has-been actors ...more

To boldly go where no Blu-ray has gone before… oh wait, wrong movie. However, fans of that other film will want to pick up this Blu-ray when they’re grabbing the Blu-ray of the reboot of that unnamed franchise. Galaxy Quest is a delightful parody of that iconic sci-fi show that also has a heart of its own.

Galaxy Quest has been off the air for seventeen years. The original cast has been typecast by their science fiction appearances and only seems to get work at the Galaxy Quest conventions.

The intrepid crew includes Dr. Lazarus of Tev’Meck played by Sir Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), an actor who resents his role and catchphrase. Communications officer Lieutenant Tawny Madison is played by Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver). Tech Sergeant Chen is played by Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) and is pretty much laid back and nothing like the character he plays. Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell) played Lieutenant Laredo, who started off the show as a boy wonder (played by Corbin Bleu!) but is now much older.

Guy Fleegman’s (Sam Rockwell) claim to fame is that he once appeared on the show in a minor role and now tours the convention circuit cashing in on those five minutes of fortune. Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) is the egomaniacal actor who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart and is the only member of the cast who relishes his convention appearances, who wouldn’t if you’re the captain of the good ship Protector and not just a supporting player.

Nesmith is approached by some odd fans led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni). He thinks that they’re just some weirdo fans but they turn out to be real aliens, called Thermians, who think that Galaxy Quest is reality and not a television show. The Thermians are threatened by a reptilian warlord called Sarris (Robin Sachs) and they want the Commander to negotiate with him.

This does not go well as Nesmith is suffering from a hangover and thinks that it’s all a fan concoction. It’s not till he’s shot back to Earth that he realizes that Sarris and the Thermians are real aliens and that he’s caused the naïve Thermians a world of hurt since Sarris is now going to destroy them.

He enlists the remainder of his “crew” to beam aboard the Protector that’s been built by the Thermians and to take on Sarris so that the peaceful aliens can once again live in peace.

Those evil aliens in the marketing department strike again. They’ve waited until the release of the Star Trek reboot on Blu-ray to add this heartfelt parody of that same series to come to Blu-ray. Not that I can blame them as the 10th anniversary release was timed to cash in on the reboot appearing in theaters.

The parody is not grating but sure to bring a warm feeling to the uber-geek who wears Spock ears. The characters in Galaxy Quest are not so thinly disguised versions of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as well as the actors in the roles are parodies on the famous Star Trek stars.

The parody might’ve ended there but the characters in Galaxy Quest also have a life of their own and the film has the ability to entertain Trek fans and non-Trek fans. Of course, the Trek fans will get more out of it.

The film has some moving moments of its own as our reluctant stars find themselves in the middle of a real space war and have to rise to the occasion and find something about themselves in the process. A wonderful film on all counts and looking even better in high definition.

Galaxy Quest is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features are standard definition, except for the 2 minute theatrical trailer and the Blu-ray exclusive.

That exclusive is the “Galactopedia” track that unspools during the film. The rest includes the 18 minute “Historical Documents: The story of Galaxy Quest” that has interviews with Alan, Rickman, Weaver, Shaloub, Rockwell, Mitchell, Colantoni, Long, Missi Pyle, director Dean Parisot, producer Mark Johnson, and writers David Howard and Bob Gordon. That so much of the cast and crew sat down to talk about the film only shows the love that they had for the film.

The 23 minute “Never Give Up. Never Surrender: The Intrepid Crew of the NSEA Protector” has the cast talking about their characters. The 7 minute “By Grabthar’s Hammer” is about the special effects that brought the film to life. The 5 minute “Alien School” is about how the Thermians were developed and how the actors were trained to act like them.

The 6 minute “Actors in Space” are about actors in general. The 2 minute “Sigourney Weaver Raps” is a music video that Weaver did for her agent’s birthday from set. Next are 13 minutes of deleted scenes, some with new introductions. There’s also a Thermian audio track, which can grate after a while.

Buy and re-buy seems to be a tradition amongst Star Trek fans and why shouldn’t fans of Galaxy Quest be excluded from that tradition? I kid because I love. I greatly enjoy Galaxy Quest as both a parody of Star Trek as well as being a fine film.

The picture is improved over the previous release and all the extras from that release find their way onto the Blu-ray along with a new trivia track. By Grabthar’s Hammer, the Blu-ray is the way to go. To infinity and bey…. Oh wait, wrong film again.