What it gets right: Literally everything We're cheating a little bit here, but whatever. By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, more people shall watch this underrated gem of a satirical sci-fi comedy, released in 1999 to little fan fare but building up a little cult following since then. Where do we start? The amazing cast, which includes Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and a pre-fame Sam Rockwell and Tony Shalhoub (we say fame...)? The hilarious premise, which sees the cast of a Star Trek-style sci-fi show being abducted by aliens who believe their TV series to be "historical documents", assume they're actually astronauts and enlist them to help defeat another, evil extraterrestrial race? Or the fact that the whole thing is a pitch-perfect parody of Trek, both on and off-screen? Galaxy Quest is a rip-roaring, hilarious film that goes right for the jugular, Allen providing the best screen Shatner we've seen this side of the man himself, without ever providing a hackneyed impression of James T Kirk. Rickman is great as the long-suffering Leonard Nimoy analogue, too, bemoaning his alien make up the same way Spock hated his pointy ears, and constantly wanting to escape the shadow of these campy genre fare in favour of being a serious, Shakespearean thespian. Rockwell is especially brilliant as the Quest's equivalent of a redshirt, petrified that because he was only ever an extra on the show he's destined to be "killed off" in the crews real-life space faring adventure. The film is also a surprisingly sweet love letter to Stark Trek, both the franchise itself and its considerable fan base. In the end the cast have to rely on the advice of the Galaxy Quest obsessives who know far more about the workings of the universe than the people who pretended to be saving it every week on TV, and they return to the convention they started the film at not with a grim reluctance but with a renewed optimism, excitement and love for their fellow human being. Which is exactly the way that Star Trek is meant to make you feel.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
