Galaxy Quest (1999)

Official trailer

Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek film ever made and the best science fiction comedy of the 1990s. Dean Parisot directed. David Howard and Robert Gordon wrote. Tim Allen plays Jason Nesmith, the washed-up star of a canceled 1980s Star Trek-style television show. Sigourney Weaver plays Gwen DeMarco, the show’s communications officer who’s tired of having all her dialogue consist of repeating the computer’s announcements.

Alan Rickman plays Alexander Dane, the classically trained Shakespearean actor who played the show’s alien science officer and has spent twenty years embarrassed by the role. Tony Shalhoub plays Fred Kwan, the chief engineer. Sam Rockwell plays Guy Fleegman, the security guard who’s convinced he’s going to be killed because he never had a last name in any episode. Daryl Mitchell plays Tommy Webber. Enrico Colantoni plays Mathesar, the alien leader of the Thermians. Robin Sachs plays Sarris. Justin Long plays the teenage fan Brandon.

The film made approximately ninety million dollars worldwide on a forty-five million dollar budget. The cult following grew steadily across the later twenty-five years. The film is now widely regarded as one of the great science fiction parodies and as a sincere love letter to the Star Trek fandom and to Star Trek itself. The performances are committed. The script is structurally rigorous. The film does the rare double-duty of being both an excellent parody and an excellent film in the genre it’s parodying.

I can’t think of a funnier science fiction film, and I can’t think of a kinder one either. Everybody in it is a little ridiculous, the washed-up actors and the Thermians and the kid with the scale models, and the film loves every one of them anyway. That affection is why it’s a 10 for me and why it feels more like Star Trek than a lot of actual Star Trek does.

The Premise

The Thermians are an alien species who have been watching Earth’s television transmissions and have concluded that the broadcasts are “historical documents.” They’ve built an actual functioning starship modeled exactly on the Galaxy Quest series’s NSEA Protector. They’ve built their entire civilization around the show’s depicted values. A hostile species called the Fatu-Krey, led by Sarris, has attacked them, and they’ve come to Earth to recruit the show’s cast as their last hope for defense.

The cast believes the Thermians are eccentric fans and accepts the engagement as a paid appearance. They’re then transported to the Thermian ship and discover that everything is real.

The premise drives the entire film. The actors have to learn to do what their characters did on television. The Thermians have built ships that work because the actors said they worked in the script. The fake-science of the original show becomes the real science of the Thermian civilization. Each actor has to grow into a competent version of the character they once played as a paycheck. The growth is the film’s emotional arc. The actors have to become the heroes the Thermians believed they were.

The Thermians delight me. They’re so earnest and so literal that every silly convention of the old show becomes a real engineering problem, and Enrico Colantoni plays Mathesar with a sincerity that makes me laugh and then makes me feel bad for laughing.

Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman’s Alexander Dane is the film’s emotional center.

Dane is a classically trained Shakespearean actor whose decision to play an alien on a science fiction television show destroyed his career. He resents the role. He resents the fans. He resents himself. Rickman plays Dane with the bitterness of a man who knows exactly what he could have been if he’d made different choices and who blames everyone except himself for not having those choices.

The character’s growth is the film’s most emotionally affecting arc.

Dane’s friend Quellek, played by Patrick Breen, is a Thermian who believes Dane’s alien character is the noble warrior the show portrayed. Quellek’s death in the third act is the moment Dane finally accepts the role. The “By Grabthar’s hammer” eulogy that Dane delivers is one of the great moments in 1990s comedic acting and is moving. Rickman plays it without irony. The audience watches a man who has been ashamed of his career finally embrace it.

That eulogy wrecks me, and I think it’s the finest thing Rickman does in the film. He spends the whole story resenting everything the role stands for, and then he speaks the character’s words over a dying friend and means every one of them. I don’t know another comedy that turns its running joke into grief that cleanly.

The Fans

The film treats the show’s fans with affection instead of mockery.

Justin Long’s teenage Brandon is the audience surrogate for the science fiction fandom. He’s memorized every episode. He’s built scale models. He knows the technical specifications. The film argues that this knowledge, which the actors dismiss as obsession, is going to save their lives when Brandon turns out to know how to work the ship better than the actors do.

The key third-act sequence in which Jason calls Brandon from space and asks for help flying the ship is one of the great moments in 1990s pro-fandom cinema. Brandon initially thinks it’s a prank, then realizes it’s real. He proceeds to walk Jason through the technical specifications with the precision of someone who has been waiting his entire life to be useful. The scene is funny and also sincere. The film argues that fans aren’t pathetic. Fans are useful. The argument was unusual in 1999. It’s aged well.

That phone call might be the scene I treasure most. Justin Long plays the switch from suspicious to thrilled perfectly, and I adore that the film lets the nerd be the expert without a single wink at his expense.

Is Galaxy Quest as good as people say?

10/10. I think it’s the best science fiction comedy of the 1990s, and the best Star Trek film ever made even though it isn’t one. Rickman’s arc is the heart of it, Weaver is criminally underrated as a woman stuck repeating the computer, and Rockwell’s doomed, panicking Guy makes me laugh harder than anyone in it. It gets the 10 because the script is rigorous, treats the fans with respect, and builds every laugh on real affection for the thing it’s teasing.

Frequently Asked Questions