Galaxy Quest, 1999.
Directed by Dean Parisot.
Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell.
SYNOPSIS:
By Grabthar’s Hammer, Galaxy Quest has made its long-awaited 4K Ultra HD debut! The film arrives in a snazzy Steelbook with a code for a digital copy. You don’t get a Blu-ray, but Paramount did commission a new bonus feature for this edition, along with porting over nearly all of the previously available extras. Highly recommended, but you may want to hold onto your old discs.
One thing I’ve learned as I get older (I’m 54 years old as I write this) is that I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing things. As a result, for example, I can appreciate Star Trek in its various incarnations while also enjoying William Shatner’s famous turn on Saturday Night Live and his “Get a life!” sketch.
As a result, I was a perfect audience member for the 1999 movie Galaxy Quest, which lovingly skewers fandom and the many tropes found in shows like Star Trek. I made sure to use the word “lovingly” in the previous sentence because I think it’s clear that director Dean Parisot understood the film’s goal, which was to have fun without trampling on people. Mission accomplished.
In the Galaxy Quest story world, a TV show of the same name was a big hit during the 1980s before it came to an end and the cast went their separate ways. They reunite every so often for various kinds of events, including the fan convention where the story opens.
Tim Allen plays Jason Nesmith, the actor who portrayed Commander Peter Quincy Taggart on the show. Jason is just as bombastic as his character, although he also enjoys kicking back with a few drinks and making money off his fans any way he can.
When Jason mistakes a group of aliens known as Thermians for fans who are making a Galaxy Quest movie, he and his former co-stars are thrust into a real adventure among the stars. Joining him are: Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, who played the ship’s communications officer; Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane, who played the ship’s doctor and has a very over-the-top catch phrase that the fans love; Tony Shaloub as Fred Kwan, who played the ship’s engineer; Daryl Mitchell as Tommy Webber, who played the role of the ship’s pilot as a kid; and Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman, who played an unnamed crewman who died and now handles the cast’s convention appearances.
The Thermians have watched the entire Galaxy Quest TV series from the broadcasts that made their way into outer space, and they think it’s a real depiction of humans who are great at getting their way out of intergalactic problems. They’re up against a nasty alien named Sarris, who wants to destroy them, and they figure Jason and his crew can help out.
It’s not too hard to see where the plot goes from there, with many of the characters experiencing nice little arcs over the course of the story, but the real enjoyment in Galaxy Quest goes back to what I said before: it does a great job of lovingly skewering shows like Star Trek and their fans. I suppose if it was made today, we’d need a toxic group of online trolls who show up at the convention to complain that the show “went woke,” or some other nonsense.
Fans have been hoping for this one on 4K Ultra HD for a while now, and Paramount didn’t disappoint with this new Steelbook edition. You only get the 4K Ultra HD disc, but the studio tossed in a code for a digital copy too.
The movie looks great, and fans will be happy to know that Paramount paid enough attention to detail to make sure the movie switches aspect ratios at the right times. It starts with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio as we see footage from the original show, which is a highlight reel being played at the convention, where the film opens up to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
When our heroes realize that they’re really in outer space, Galaxy Quest shifts to a 2.39:1 aspect ratio befitting an intergalactic adventure. The first two aspect ratios are window-boxed inside the 2.39:1 frame, which is the way the movie was originally shown in theaters. And on a side note, Parisot has confirmed that Gwen’s “Screw that!” line is intended as a joke, so her original “Fuck that!” exclamation has not been restored.
On the bonus features front, Paramount commissioned a new extra, the 19.5- minute Filmmaker Focus with Director Dean Parisot, which has the filmmaker looking back on the movie’s long-lasting legacy. After revisiting Galaxy Quest for this review, I can say I agree with him.
Everything else is in standard-def and has been ported over from the old DVD days, but they’re still a solid complement of extras. No need to toss them out, of course. Here’s what you’ll find:
• Never Give Up, Never Surrender: The Intrepid Crew of the NSEA Protector (23 minutes): A look at the cast and the roles they played, which use many tropes that are familiar to sci-fi fans.
• Historical Documents: The Story of Galaxy Quest (18 minutes): The title of this one is a reference to the Thermians’ insistence that the show is a bunch of “historical documents.” It’s a pretty standard making-of, but it’s still worth a watch.
• By Grabthar’s Hammer, What Amazing Effects (7 minutes): And the title of this one is a reference to Alan Rickman’s character’s catch phrase. It’s a quick tour of the special effects, which still hold up 25 years later.
• Actors in Space (6 minutes): This one expands on the first bonus feature by digging a little deeper into the tropes. Acclaimed Star Trek movie director and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer is among those who show up to tie Galaxy Quest to that series.
• Alien School: Creating the Thermian Race (5 minutes): This is a quick look at the Thermians. Fun fact: Rainn Wilson, who became well-known as Dwight Schrute on The Office, had his film debut as one of the Thermians.
• Sigourney Weaver Raps (2 minutes): I’d like to say this is a fun little extra, but, sorry, I can’t.
• Deleted scenes (12 minutes): You get eight excised scenes here, mostly with other fun “inside baseball” kind of moments that are enjoyable but also could have made the movie feel a bit bloated. Sometimes less is more when you’re trying to skewer something.
You also get a Thermian Audio Track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo, which, if you’ve seen the movie, is exactly what you’d expect: all of the characters speaking the Thermians’ language. And as you might expect, it’s fun for a couple minutes, but I can’t imagine very many people want to watch the whole film that way.
A trailer rounds out the platter. Unfortunately, there are a few things missing from previous releases, including Michael and Denise Okuda’s Galactopedia viewing option, which was a great idea because they produced similar content for many Star Trek movies on disc.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
