Galaxy Quest (1999)

Twenty years after their television programme was cancelled, the crew of the NSEA protector now open supermarkets and attend Galaxy Quest conventions. Alexandar Dane was a classical British Shakespearean actor who, along with the rest of the crew, have been typecast forever.

Whilst appearing at a Galaxy Quest convention Jason is approached by a group of aliens requesting his help. Naturally, he just thinks that they are fans and give the impression that they have some work for him. Beamed on to the ship he is unaware of his surroundings and impressed with the "set" he unknowingly orders an attack on Sarris' ship. Only when he asks for the way out does he realise where he really is and soon gets the rest of his "crew" on board and he and the cast do battle to save an alien race without a script and end up being their show characters in real life.

Galaxy Quest is a brilliant take on Star Trek and its many fans. Even the main characters give a passing resemblance to their Star Trek counter parts. However, the character which stands out the most is Sam Rockwell who's character is Guy Fleegman. His character in the series was one of those many disposable extras, and he is having a crisis as he knows all too well what happens to extras! Let us not forget Sigourney Weaver who dons a blonde wig and has pushed up breasts. Who says that blondes don't have more fun?

At first I was worried about the picture quality, but I needn't have worried. At the beginning of the film the audience is actually looking at a Galaxy Quest episode at one of the conventions and we gradually pan back to auditorium and the picture instantly becomes bright with vibrant colours. The dark corridors of the space ship are especially good with the dark colours solid. The bit-rate is high throughout, and the CGI space battle effects are awesome, even surpassing the Star Trek films.

The DTS soundtrack is astounding with some of the best sound separation I've ever heard on a DVD. The dialog is clear and glued in the centre of the sound stage plus there's plenty of action in the rear channels along with deep booming LFE's during the space battles. It is just a pity that DreamWorks couldn't fit both the DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks on the disc like Universal have managed to do, perhaps they haven't compressed the DTS soundtrack like Universal have had to do.

The animated menus are brilliant and amusing. I couldn't stop laughing on the special features menu where an alien wanders around mopping the floor! It also looks like this was some additional footage created specially for the DVD. Along with the usual production notes and cast biographies there are some cracking deleted scenes, preview trailers plus a bizarre Thermian soundtrack which is funny for a short time.

At least we don't have to pay a price premium for the DTS version and we do get a nice DTS introduction informing us that our "theatre" is equipped with DTS. It even looks like it was filmed in a cinema by somebody with a camcorder! However, there is one annoying thing with my DTS set-up. Although the trailers and features are all in DTS, the menu sounds aren't and I had to keep switching decoders to hear the none DTS sections. Mind you, I suppose this isn't a problem with people with switching all-in-one DD/DTS systems.