I often find myself marveling at the fact that of all the genres of movies that I watch, comedies tend to be put together the best. Stories are tighter, characters a utilized more effectively all around, pacing is better, and the experience just leaves me the most satisfied when it comes from a comedy. Of course, that's a generalization and there are certainly exceptions to be found everywhere, but I think it adequately describes how I tend to feel after watching a good comedic film. I watched Galaxy Quest a few nights ago because it was late and I had hoped that it would make for a good sleep aid. Alas, it had been so long since I had previously seen it, and it was so engrossing that I ended up watching the whole thing through despite the fact that I started the film at 1:30 in the morning. It was a genuinely fun time watching this movie, and I had forgotten just how much fun it is to watch.
It's no small secret that I love all things Star Trek, and although this movie isn't directly related, it does poke fun at the fan base, and I think that's pretty cool. I remember that my first encounter with this film was my trusty friend from last week's story telling me about this new movie that poked fun at Trekkie culture, and how I should see this movie. Spoiler alert, I did not. In fact, the first time that I watched it all the way through, I was in my twenties, and I picked up the DVD at a store from the $5 bin or something. Sleep deprivation allowed me to really dig into this movie this past week and I want to take a look at one of the greats among a dying breed of film. Galaxy Quest represents that parody sub-genre that hasn't really been done well since perhaps around the late 90s, and due to the globalization of the film industry, comedies in general are being produced less and less as the language barriers makes it hard for screenwriters to write the kind of nuanced comedy that we used to enjoy. It's kind of sad, but luckily we can pop in an old DVD and relive the glory days, and that's just what we're going to do this week with Galaxy Quest!
Galaxy Quest was directed by Dean Parisot, who I kid you not, only has five credits to his name. The story revolves around the cast of the cult phenomenon Galaxy Quest. The movie wastes no time in telling us this, or in drawing its parallels with Star Trek. You've got Daryl Mitchel playing Tommy Weber who played the whiz kid character not unlike WHil WHeaton. Then there's Tony Shalhoub who plays Fred Kwan. Kwan is a hard one to draw a parallel with as his character is the one that became kind of broken down after the brief success that he enjoyed on his show. The lovely Sigourney Weaver plays Gwen DeMarco, the former love interest of the lead cast member of the show Jason Nesmith, played by Tim Allen. Nesmith is quite obviously a parallel to William Shatner, and DeMarco could represent any number of women who had to deal with the man's world that was Hollywood television in the 60s. Rounding out the cast of regulars is Alan Rickman who plays Alex Dane. Dane might just be that cast's Nimoy. Adding to the shenanigans throughout the film is Sam Rockwell, one of my favorite 'that guy' actors, who plays Guy Fleegman. Guy played the redshirt on an episode, and has tried to ride out that brief moment of fame for as long as possible ever since.
We open to a screening of the 'lost episode' of GQ as back stage, we're treated to a thorough demonstration of the dysfunctional nature of the relationships between these actors. DeMarco, although upset, defends Nesmith, who's late, as usual. Dane starts to have a break down as he realizes the depths to which his career has sunk. Weber just kind of goes with the general tide of the others and lets annoyance get the best of him, and Kwan is just kind of there with no real spark at all behind his eyes. Nesmith shows up a few minutes after they're supposed to have gone on stage, and in a rush, they make their entrances. Nesmith tries to give a speech only to realize that his mic got cut off after only a few seconds. This one incident actually sets up a domino scenario for this first bit at this Galaxy Quest convention as we'll see. But let's just take a moment of reverence for the forward-thinking that went into this sequence. It's 2018 now and cosplay is huge. But in 1998, it was kind of an underground thing that only the most dedicated fans tried to do. There were some companies making cheap facsimiles of uniforms, primarily from Star Trek, but most fans hand sewed their own costumes, and did their own homemade make up. This movie captures that brilliantly, and at the same time, it kind of makes me long for those days again as it was harder to find cool stuff to buy, but the cool stuff was so much cooler.
Anyway, Nesmith is signing autographs and has to use the restroom. It's during his trip that two pivotal things happen. First, he bumps into the Thermians, a race that modeled their entire society off of Galaxy Quest and need help dealing with a tyrant. Second, during said trip to the loo, Nesmith overhears some jerks talking about how diluted Nesmith is and how his cast mates all hate him, and how silly it is that all of these people are so rabid about some silly show. This is going to start a chain reaction with Nesmith that's going to resonate throughout the film. Nesmith goes back to signing autographs haphazardly, and a young man named Brandon, played by Justin Long, starts trying to pester Nesmith with some really technical questions. Nesmith blows up at Brandon and leaves. Later, we see DeMarco and Dane talking on the phone about how worrisome it was to see Nesmith, who is always so gracious in front of fans, have an episode like that. Then we see Nesmith as he watches an old episode of the show and gets really drunk.
The Thermians show up at Nesmith's home the next day because he had agreed to make an appearance for them. They take him to their faithful recreation of the eponymous ship, and he's supposed to negotiate with Sarris, the tyrant. Instead, Nesmith just fires all of the ship's weapons at Sarris' ship and leaves thinking that he's fulfilled his obligation. It isn't until he's cocooned in blob and catapulted back through a worm hole to Earth that Nesmith realizes that everything about his show is suddenly more real than he ever could have imagined it being. He goes to where the rest of the cast are doing a gig at a supermarket grand opening, and tries to convince them to come with him. He'd taken a communicator device with him, and he tries to use this to prove what he's saying is true, but on his way to the gig, he's bumped into Brandon, and they had accidentally switched communicators. It isn't until the Thermians show up to bring Nesmith back that Nesmith is able to start convincing his costars that what he's been rambling about is true. They're all convinced to accompany Nesmith as they want money, and they don't have anything else on the horizon. This scene where they're all transported back to the Thermians base is just great because DeMarco, Weber, Dane, and Guy are all mortified by the experience, but Kwan is just as chill as an ice cube about the whole thing.
They're all ushered to an elevator where they get their first look at the real NSEA Protector, their ship from the show. It's a pretty great reveal. There's fanfare, and beauty angles, and it's all played very well. They board the ship and are ushered to the command deck where there are a lot of Thermians gathered to watch them fly out of dock. Weber, of course, screeches along the last bit because this is, after all, still a comedy, and it's really funny to watch, and I found myself wondering if anyone was worried about them busting windows on the dock as they scraped along, and also how the nose of the ship scrapes along, but the wing did not because that's the kind of fan that I am. At any rate, the slip the confines of the dock at which point, Weber suddenly gets really good at piloting the ship. They then meet back up with Sarris. Nesmith tries to use some subterfuge, but we get a glimpse into just how badly these people work together at this point. Nesmith tries to non-verbally tell DeMarco to kill the audio to the communications and then Nesmith starts giving orders to attack Sarris' ship. Sarris hears all of this and lets loose on the Protector. They have to escape and Weber finds a cloud nebula to go into, except that all is not as it seems. The cloud is actually a mine field, and it nearly destroys the ship as Weber pretty much hits every mine in their path from entry to exit.
Their ship crippled, the cast now have to figure out how to repair the ship. DeMarco does a hilarious bit where she plays mediator between Nesmith and the computer, and the impression that I get here is that she's the only one who can communicate with the computer, which would make sense since the Thermians based everything on the show, and she talked to the computer almost exclusively. They figure out that they need to replace their beryllium sphere, the Galaxy Quest version of dilithium crystals. Kwan and some of the Thermian engineers rig a way to run the engines on minimal power and they proceed to a planet with beryllium. They take a shuttle to the surface, and there's some bickering as Guy, who was worried about dying on the ship, is now worried about dying on the surface of the planet. Once they land, they scout the area and find some cute looking aliens that apparently mine the beryllium. Looks are, once again, deceiving as these cute cuddlies promptly eat one of their own that has been wounded. Since simply asking for some beryllium is no longer an option, Nesmith makes a plan. Nesmith, Dane, DeMarco, and Kwan go to steal a sphere while Guy and Weber keep a look out. As with most films, this is all a trap and the cast members have to get themselves gone fast. They scurry off with the sphere and load it in the shuttle, but that leaves no room for the last person. Nesmith and Dane quarrel over who gets to make the sacrifice. Nesmith clocks Dane and shoves him in the shuttle.
The aliens subdue Nesmith. When he awakes, there's a giant two-legged pig nosing at him, and the aliens are all chanting. Nesmith gets in a slight bout with the pig, and to solve the issue tells Kwan to digitize him. This goes horribly. The pig re-materializes inside out and then explodes. Kwan, his confidence shaken has a little breakdown, but things get even worse when the cast on the ship translate what the aliens are chanting. They find out that the chanted word means 'rock', and at about that moment, a rock monster forms and Nesmith finds himself quite outmatched against a superior enemy. It's up to Kwan to digitize Nesmith, but Kwan is still too shaken from the space pig. However, Kwan finally works up some nerve and gets Nesmith back on the ship. This is about the point that the cast starts to congeal as a group. Just in time for everyone to find out the hard way that Sarris has taken over the ship while they've been absent. They're all apprehended and taken to a room where Sarris has been torturing Mathesar, the pseudo-leader of the Thermians and played by Enrico Colantoni, in order to find out the secrets to the Omega 13 device. Mathesar, of course, doesn't know, and so Sarris uses Mathesar's torture to try and get the information out of Nesmith. When that doesn't work, Sarris threatens to torture DeMarco instead. At this point, Nesmith admits to Sarris that Galaxy Quest, and all that it represents were just a farce that the Thermians took way too seriously, and that he knows nothing of the Omega 13 device. Tickled pink, Sarris forces Nesmith to explain this to Mathesar in order to break Mathesar's spirit, which it definitely does. It's a heart rending scene as you see Mathesar reach the realization that everything that he's believed it was a lie.
Sarris, realizing that the cast are not going to be of any use, orders that they all be blown out of an airlock. The cast are shown during the interrogation that the other Thermians are slowly being deprived of air, and so the challenge is set. Nesmith has to figure out a way to free the cast and save the crew. He starts a fight with Dane while two guards are prodding them all into an airlock. During the altercation, Nesmith grabs a metal object and clocks one of the guards. The other is shot and the force of the blast pushes him into the airlock. Kwan then launches both of them out into space. Having freed themselves, Nesmith tells Dane to go try and free the other Thermians from the barracks. He tells Guy and Kwan and Laliari, one of the Thermians played by Missi Pyle, to go close the atmosphere release valve, and says that he and DeMarco will go turn off the ship's self-destruct. Weber is ordered to go and learn how to fly the ship. Splitting the party is never a great idea, but in this case, it just can't be helped. Dane goes with the metal object to see if he can open the door to the barracks. Along the way, he runs into Quelleck, played by Patrick Breen. Quelleck has attempted to pattern his life off of what he learned watching Dane's character Dr. Lazarus, and the two make the attempt to save the crew together. Dane to this point has been pretty resentful of what his run on the show left him sidled with. The cheesy one-liner, the type casting. It really is reminiscent of Nimoy and his initial feelings about Spock after leaving the Star Trek the first time. However, seeing how the character impacted Quelleck, Dane begins to come to terms with his experiences playing Lazarus and begins to embrace the aftermath of it all.
Meanwhile, Kwan Laliari, and Guy find that the control for the atmospheric vent is heavily guarded. Guy offers to rush in and draw their fire, convinced that he won't survive this ordeal, but Kwan has a much more devious idea. Instead, they digitize the rock monster into the control room. The monster chases the guards out of the room, down a corridor, and then the all get blown into space when the monster rips a hole through hull of the ship and exposes that area to space. Kwan, Laliari and Guy are able to save the crew even as Dane and Quellek realize that they can't simply pry the door open. The two are successful though, and there's a very brief celebration. But then Quellek is shot, and killed by one of Sarris' men. Dane feels a rush of anger over the loss of Quellek and attacks the soldier that killed Quellek. This incites a riot amongst the Thermians who quickly begin to overrun the ship again. In the meantime, Nesmith and DeMarco realize that they have no idea how to get to the bowels of the ship to turn of the self-destruct. But Brandon does, and he has a communicator! They get him on the line. There's some apologizing for being too pestering, and an 'admission' that it is just a show, and then Nesmith tells him that it's all real and that they need to shut down the self-destruct. I imagine that faced with the revelation that all things Star Trek are real, I'd probably react in much the same way that Brandon did.
At any rate, Brandon and his buddies guide Nesmith and DeMarco the room where they can shut off the self-destruct. There are some crushers and the two get to see the Omega 13, and there's a thoughtful conversation about what the device might do. Brandon suggests that it can rewind time by 13 seconds. This is important for later. Nesmith and DeMarco traverse every obstacle between them and the abort button and when they find that all they have to do is press a button, it all seems a little anti-climactic. But, pressing the button does nothing and for a few seconds, it seems as if they're all going to die anyway. The two make indirect professions of love towards each other, and with only one second left on the countdown, the self-destruct ends. Nesmith goes back to the bridge to find that the ship is in ship shape and they start to head out, but Sarris swoops back in for a final attack. Nesmith orders Weber to fly them through the mine field, which Weber does incredibly well. Nesmith then asks Weber to fly close enough to start dragging mines behind the ship. Sarris is waiting for them when they emerge. Sarris sees victory in sight and unloads all he's got on the ship. It's tense as it looks like the Protector will be destroyed, but in this game of chicken, Sarris has overlooked one thing, the Protector is dragging a ton of mines behind it! Weber veers off just in time for all of those mines to collide with Sarris' ship, destroying the ship.
Mathesar, his faith restored in Nesmith and the cast, is jubilant. Nesmith tells him that they all still have to go home, but that Mathesar himself will make a fine leader for the crew. The plan is to go through the wormhole that brought everyone from Earth and return the Earthlings home, but Kwan appears on the bridge suddenly and starts shooting everyone. It turns out that Sarris had transported off of his ship at the last minute and used a camouflaging device to infiltrate the command deck. Nesmith activates the Omega 13 device and resets everything to the point at which Sarris enters the command deck. Nesmith is then able to attack Sarris, who still looks like Kwan. But the rest of the cast pull Nesmith off 'Kwan'. Sarris shows his hand too soon, and Mathesar knocks Sarris out right there. Just lays the guy right out on the deck. The ship goes through the wormhole, but picks up too much speed to slow before burning up in Earth's atmosphere. It's decided that the cast, and Laliari will detach the command module and land that in LA while the rest of the Thermian crew plot a slingshot trajectory to get back into open space. Brandon rushes to the parking lot of the convention center where the Galaxy Quest convention is taking place and uses fireworks to guide the command module in for a landing. The module slams into the asphalt and crashes into convention where, if you have fast eyes, you'll realize that Patrick Breen is playing Emcee! The cast exit the ship module as the emcee announces their names, and the crowd applauds. But then, Sarris, the villain who refuses to die, emerges with a weapon! Thinking fast, Nesmith grabs a pistol from Weber's belt and does the commando roll, and vaporizes Sarris. The crowd goes wild, and Nesmith begins to take a bow. But finishing out his character growth arc, Nesmith calls the other cast members forward to take a well deserved bow with him. We then see a credits sequence for a new Galaxy Quest show starring all of the original cast as well as Laliari, and Guy as new cast regulars.
There really isn't a lot that this movie didn't do well. It's one of those instances where everyone involved knew exactly what they wanted their film to be and as a result, the film was brilliant. As I said earlier, this was a parody film that was poking some harmless fun at Trekkies. You see it in the Thermians and their insistence that it's all real. You see it in Brandon and his pals and how obsessively they're caught up in the whole thing, and you see it in the 'cast members' and in how they're dealing with the fallout of their shared experiences. It's a swan song to what it meant to be a Trekkie in the 80s and early 90s. I was a Trekkie at that time and I know that it was something that could net you some odd looks from people. It was a hobby that was a little misunderstood, and that the mainstream just kind of avoided. But it was a good time. Everyone involved in Star Trek at that time genuinely wanted to make great Trek and were genuinely grateful to all of the fans who kept everything alive. It was a far cry from today where Star Trek is seen as a cash cow that's going to be milked until its dehydrated husk dissolves into dust. Unpopular an opinion though this may be, the 80s and 90s were the cool time to be a Star Trek fan because Star Trek wasn't cool, and that's a realization that Galaxy Quest helped me to reach.
The film presents itself extremely well. It's well written, it's well acted, it's thoughtful, it's hysterical, and it's just fun to watch. David Newman, who did the score, created a fantastic accompaniment to a great film. The special effects are top notch. I don't even have to say for the time. They still hold up today, even on my 4k TV! I love the developmental arcs that each main character undergoes. I love that each main character is dynamic and that they've changed somewhat by the end of the film! This truly is a gem, and a great time capsule for reliving those grand days gone by. Assuming that you haven't seen it, I can't recommend enough that you do so quickly. I can confidently say that you won't be disappointed by this movie. It delivers on every level and you'll grin from start to finish.Take a stroll down memory lane with this classic comedy and stay tuned to next week to see what we're cooking up!
We open to a screening of the 'lost episode' of GQ as back stage, we're treated to a thorough demonstration of the dysfunctional nature of the relationships between these actors. DeMarco, although upset, defends Nesmith, who's late, as usual. Dane starts to have a break down as he realizes the depths to which his career has sunk. Weber just kind of goes with the general tide of the others and lets annoyance get the best of him, and Kwan is just kind of there with no real spark at all behind his eyes. Nesmith shows up a few minutes after they're supposed to have gone on stage, and in a rush, they make their entrances. Nesmith tries to give a speech only to realize that his mic got cut off after only a few seconds. This one incident actually sets up a domino scenario for this first bit at this Galaxy Quest convention as we'll see. But let's just take a moment of reverence for the forward-thinking that went into this sequence. It's 2018 now and cosplay is huge. But in 1998, it was kind of an underground thing that only the most dedicated fans tried to do. There were some companies making cheap facsimiles of uniforms, primarily from Star Trek, but most fans hand sewed their own costumes, and did their own homemade make up. This movie captures that brilliantly, and at the same time, it kind of makes me long for those days again as it was harder to find cool stuff to buy, but the cool stuff was so much cooler.
Anyway, Nesmith is signing autographs and has to use the restroom. It's during his trip that two pivotal things happen. First, he bumps into the Thermians, a race that modeled their entire society off of Galaxy Quest and need help dealing with a tyrant. Second, during said trip to the loo, Nesmith overhears some jerks talking about how diluted Nesmith is and how his cast mates all hate him, and how silly it is that all of these people are so rabid about some silly show. This is going to start a chain reaction with Nesmith that's going to resonate throughout the film. Nesmith goes back to signing autographs haphazardly, and a young man named Brandon, played by Justin Long, starts trying to pester Nesmith with some really technical questions. Nesmith blows up at Brandon and leaves. Later, we see DeMarco and Dane talking on the phone about how worrisome it was to see Nesmith, who is always so gracious in front of fans, have an episode like that. Then we see Nesmith as he watches an old episode of the show and gets really drunk.
The Thermians show up at Nesmith's home the next day because he had agreed to make an appearance for them. They take him to their faithful recreation of the eponymous ship, and he's supposed to negotiate with Sarris, the tyrant. Instead, Nesmith just fires all of the ship's weapons at Sarris' ship and leaves thinking that he's fulfilled his obligation. It isn't until he's cocooned in blob and catapulted back through a worm hole to Earth that Nesmith realizes that everything about his show is suddenly more real than he ever could have imagined it being. He goes to where the rest of the cast are doing a gig at a supermarket grand opening, and tries to convince them to come with him. He'd taken a communicator device with him, and he tries to use this to prove what he's saying is true, but on his way to the gig, he's bumped into Brandon, and they had accidentally switched communicators. It isn't until the Thermians show up to bring Nesmith back that Nesmith is able to start convincing his costars that what he's been rambling about is true. They're all convinced to accompany Nesmith as they want money, and they don't have anything else on the horizon. This scene where they're all transported back to the Thermians base is just great because DeMarco, Weber, Dane, and Guy are all mortified by the experience, but Kwan is just as chill as an ice cube about the whole thing.
They're all ushered to an elevator where they get their first look at the real NSEA Protector, their ship from the show. It's a pretty great reveal. There's fanfare, and beauty angles, and it's all played very well. They board the ship and are ushered to the command deck where there are a lot of Thermians gathered to watch them fly out of dock. Weber, of course, screeches along the last bit because this is, after all, still a comedy, and it's really funny to watch, and I found myself wondering if anyone was worried about them busting windows on the dock as they scraped along, and also how the nose of the ship scrapes along, but the wing did not because that's the kind of fan that I am. At any rate, the slip the confines of the dock at which point, Weber suddenly gets really good at piloting the ship. They then meet back up with Sarris. Nesmith tries to use some subterfuge, but we get a glimpse into just how badly these people work together at this point. Nesmith tries to non-verbally tell DeMarco to kill the audio to the communications and then Nesmith starts giving orders to attack Sarris' ship. Sarris hears all of this and lets loose on the Protector. They have to escape and Weber finds a cloud nebula to go into, except that all is not as it seems. The cloud is actually a mine field, and it nearly destroys the ship as Weber pretty much hits every mine in their path from entry to exit.
Their ship crippled, the cast now have to figure out how to repair the ship. DeMarco does a hilarious bit where she plays mediator between Nesmith and the computer, and the impression that I get here is that she's the only one who can communicate with the computer, which would make sense since the Thermians based everything on the show, and she talked to the computer almost exclusively. They figure out that they need to replace their beryllium sphere, the Galaxy Quest version of dilithium crystals. Kwan and some of the Thermian engineers rig a way to run the engines on minimal power and they proceed to a planet with beryllium. They take a shuttle to the surface, and there's some bickering as Guy, who was worried about dying on the ship, is now worried about dying on the surface of the planet. Once they land, they scout the area and find some cute looking aliens that apparently mine the beryllium. Looks are, once again, deceiving as these cute cuddlies promptly eat one of their own that has been wounded. Since simply asking for some beryllium is no longer an option, Nesmith makes a plan. Nesmith, Dane, DeMarco, and Kwan go to steal a sphere while Guy and Weber keep a look out. As with most films, this is all a trap and the cast members have to get themselves gone fast. They scurry off with the sphere and load it in the shuttle, but that leaves no room for the last person. Nesmith and Dane quarrel over who gets to make the sacrifice. Nesmith clocks Dane and shoves him in the shuttle.
The aliens subdue Nesmith. When he awakes, there's a giant two-legged pig nosing at him, and the aliens are all chanting. Nesmith gets in a slight bout with the pig, and to solve the issue tells Kwan to digitize him. This goes horribly. The pig re-materializes inside out and then explodes. Kwan, his confidence shaken has a little breakdown, but things get even worse when the cast on the ship translate what the aliens are chanting. They find out that the chanted word means 'rock', and at about that moment, a rock monster forms and Nesmith finds himself quite outmatched against a superior enemy. It's up to Kwan to digitize Nesmith, but Kwan is still too shaken from the space pig. However, Kwan finally works up some nerve and gets Nesmith back on the ship. This is about the point that the cast starts to congeal as a group. Just in time for everyone to find out the hard way that Sarris has taken over the ship while they've been absent. They're all apprehended and taken to a room where Sarris has been torturing Mathesar, the pseudo-leader of the Thermians and played by Enrico Colantoni, in order to find out the secrets to the Omega 13 device. Mathesar, of course, doesn't know, and so Sarris uses Mathesar's torture to try and get the information out of Nesmith. When that doesn't work, Sarris threatens to torture DeMarco instead. At this point, Nesmith admits to Sarris that Galaxy Quest, and all that it represents were just a farce that the Thermians took way too seriously, and that he knows nothing of the Omega 13 device. Tickled pink, Sarris forces Nesmith to explain this to Mathesar in order to break Mathesar's spirit, which it definitely does. It's a heart rending scene as you see Mathesar reach the realization that everything that he's believed it was a lie.
Sarris, realizing that the cast are not going to be of any use, orders that they all be blown out of an airlock. The cast are shown during the interrogation that the other Thermians are slowly being deprived of air, and so the challenge is set. Nesmith has to figure out a way to free the cast and save the crew. He starts a fight with Dane while two guards are prodding them all into an airlock. During the altercation, Nesmith grabs a metal object and clocks one of the guards. The other is shot and the force of the blast pushes him into the airlock. Kwan then launches both of them out into space. Having freed themselves, Nesmith tells Dane to go try and free the other Thermians from the barracks. He tells Guy and Kwan and Laliari, one of the Thermians played by Missi Pyle, to go close the atmosphere release valve, and says that he and DeMarco will go turn off the ship's self-destruct. Weber is ordered to go and learn how to fly the ship. Splitting the party is never a great idea, but in this case, it just can't be helped. Dane goes with the metal object to see if he can open the door to the barracks. Along the way, he runs into Quelleck, played by Patrick Breen. Quelleck has attempted to pattern his life off of what he learned watching Dane's character Dr. Lazarus, and the two make the attempt to save the crew together. Dane to this point has been pretty resentful of what his run on the show left him sidled with. The cheesy one-liner, the type casting. It really is reminiscent of Nimoy and his initial feelings about Spock after leaving the Star Trek the first time. However, seeing how the character impacted Quelleck, Dane begins to come to terms with his experiences playing Lazarus and begins to embrace the aftermath of it all.
Meanwhile, Kwan Laliari, and Guy find that the control for the atmospheric vent is heavily guarded. Guy offers to rush in and draw their fire, convinced that he won't survive this ordeal, but Kwan has a much more devious idea. Instead, they digitize the rock monster into the control room. The monster chases the guards out of the room, down a corridor, and then the all get blown into space when the monster rips a hole through hull of the ship and exposes that area to space. Kwan, Laliari and Guy are able to save the crew even as Dane and Quellek realize that they can't simply pry the door open. The two are successful though, and there's a very brief celebration. But then Quellek is shot, and killed by one of Sarris' men. Dane feels a rush of anger over the loss of Quellek and attacks the soldier that killed Quellek. This incites a riot amongst the Thermians who quickly begin to overrun the ship again. In the meantime, Nesmith and DeMarco realize that they have no idea how to get to the bowels of the ship to turn of the self-destruct. But Brandon does, and he has a communicator! They get him on the line. There's some apologizing for being too pestering, and an 'admission' that it is just a show, and then Nesmith tells him that it's all real and that they need to shut down the self-destruct. I imagine that faced with the revelation that all things Star Trek are real, I'd probably react in much the same way that Brandon did.
At any rate, Brandon and his buddies guide Nesmith and DeMarco the room where they can shut off the self-destruct. There are some crushers and the two get to see the Omega 13, and there's a thoughtful conversation about what the device might do. Brandon suggests that it can rewind time by 13 seconds. This is important for later. Nesmith and DeMarco traverse every obstacle between them and the abort button and when they find that all they have to do is press a button, it all seems a little anti-climactic. But, pressing the button does nothing and for a few seconds, it seems as if they're all going to die anyway. The two make indirect professions of love towards each other, and with only one second left on the countdown, the self-destruct ends. Nesmith goes back to the bridge to find that the ship is in ship shape and they start to head out, but Sarris swoops back in for a final attack. Nesmith orders Weber to fly them through the mine field, which Weber does incredibly well. Nesmith then asks Weber to fly close enough to start dragging mines behind the ship. Sarris is waiting for them when they emerge. Sarris sees victory in sight and unloads all he's got on the ship. It's tense as it looks like the Protector will be destroyed, but in this game of chicken, Sarris has overlooked one thing, the Protector is dragging a ton of mines behind it! Weber veers off just in time for all of those mines to collide with Sarris' ship, destroying the ship.
Mathesar, his faith restored in Nesmith and the cast, is jubilant. Nesmith tells him that they all still have to go home, but that Mathesar himself will make a fine leader for the crew. The plan is to go through the wormhole that brought everyone from Earth and return the Earthlings home, but Kwan appears on the bridge suddenly and starts shooting everyone. It turns out that Sarris had transported off of his ship at the last minute and used a camouflaging device to infiltrate the command deck. Nesmith activates the Omega 13 device and resets everything to the point at which Sarris enters the command deck. Nesmith is then able to attack Sarris, who still looks like Kwan. But the rest of the cast pull Nesmith off 'Kwan'. Sarris shows his hand too soon, and Mathesar knocks Sarris out right there. Just lays the guy right out on the deck. The ship goes through the wormhole, but picks up too much speed to slow before burning up in Earth's atmosphere. It's decided that the cast, and Laliari will detach the command module and land that in LA while the rest of the Thermian crew plot a slingshot trajectory to get back into open space. Brandon rushes to the parking lot of the convention center where the Galaxy Quest convention is taking place and uses fireworks to guide the command module in for a landing. The module slams into the asphalt and crashes into convention where, if you have fast eyes, you'll realize that Patrick Breen is playing Emcee! The cast exit the ship module as the emcee announces their names, and the crowd applauds. But then, Sarris, the villain who refuses to die, emerges with a weapon! Thinking fast, Nesmith grabs a pistol from Weber's belt and does the commando roll, and vaporizes Sarris. The crowd goes wild, and Nesmith begins to take a bow. But finishing out his character growth arc, Nesmith calls the other cast members forward to take a well deserved bow with him. We then see a credits sequence for a new Galaxy Quest show starring all of the original cast as well as Laliari, and Guy as new cast regulars.
There really isn't a lot that this movie didn't do well. It's one of those instances where everyone involved knew exactly what they wanted their film to be and as a result, the film was brilliant. As I said earlier, this was a parody film that was poking some harmless fun at Trekkies. You see it in the Thermians and their insistence that it's all real. You see it in Brandon and his pals and how obsessively they're caught up in the whole thing, and you see it in the 'cast members' and in how they're dealing with the fallout of their shared experiences. It's a swan song to what it meant to be a Trekkie in the 80s and early 90s. I was a Trekkie at that time and I know that it was something that could net you some odd looks from people. It was a hobby that was a little misunderstood, and that the mainstream just kind of avoided. But it was a good time. Everyone involved in Star Trek at that time genuinely wanted to make great Trek and were genuinely grateful to all of the fans who kept everything alive. It was a far cry from today where Star Trek is seen as a cash cow that's going to be milked until its dehydrated husk dissolves into dust. Unpopular an opinion though this may be, the 80s and 90s were the cool time to be a Star Trek fan because Star Trek wasn't cool, and that's a realization that Galaxy Quest helped me to reach.
The film presents itself extremely well. It's well written, it's well acted, it's thoughtful, it's hysterical, and it's just fun to watch. David Newman, who did the score, created a fantastic accompaniment to a great film. The special effects are top notch. I don't even have to say for the time. They still hold up today, even on my 4k TV! I love the developmental arcs that each main character undergoes. I love that each main character is dynamic and that they've changed somewhat by the end of the film! This truly is a gem, and a great time capsule for reliving those grand days gone by. Assuming that you haven't seen it, I can't recommend enough that you do so quickly. I can confidently say that you won't be disappointed by this movie. It delivers on every level and you'll grin from start to finish.Take a stroll down memory lane with this classic comedy and stay tuned to next week to see what we're cooking up!
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