Galaxy Quest: The Big "What If?"

Movie Review by: Jody Isaackson

Just missed seeing Galaxy Quest in the movie theatre. That would have made a bigger impression. Watching it at home was still interesting as it seemed to beg the question: "What if a space alien race came to earth and kidnapped the stars of Star Trek and expected them to be the heroes they were in the show(s)?"

Tim Allen portrays the captain of an outdated space adventure much like the Classic Star Trek episodes. His science officer is an alien. His communications officer is female (Sigorney Weaver in a blonde wig looks a little like Janice Rand, not Uhura), and his chief engineer is the actor who plays the cab driver on Wings - - and is just as corny. The only character from Star Trek: The Next Geneneration mentality would be their pilot: must be a normal-seeing Geordi LaForge. They even have an "ensign expendable", except he doesn't die! And the bickering that goes on between the cast backstage can only be likened to the Classic Star Trek series actors.

Even some scenes begged comparison to either episodes or motion pictures. Remember the Mutara Nebula? This crew hid in a mine field and in the end, used its magnetism to destroy the enemy. Aliens similar to those in "By Any Other Name" - - in appearance and disguise - - implore the captain to lead negotiations with a crustacean bad guy in their galaxy. They had been following the show for so long and thought it was historiacl documentation of real life; they felt the captain was their only hope.

The greatest salvation of this "crew" being plopped down in a real-life space battle is that the aliens have designed a ship that functioned exaclty as the characters pretended to operate their fictitious ship on their TV show. The second saving grace was that as actors, they were able to mimic their own acting and get through this ordeal, not only alive, but as actual heroes.

Fantasy, yes! Definitely! But, don't we all hope - - deep down inside - - that faced with such an unlkely situation, that our favorite actors would pass the test? C'mon, admit it. We'd all like to see it happen. Even those of us who would le to see a certain "re/tired" captian get taken down a peg or two. It would give that type of character a chance to redeem himself, just as Allen's character did.

There were many other simlairites too many to list. It would make an interesting contest to see how many comparisions we actually could make.

Copyright 2000 by Jody Isaackson

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