Galaxy Quest

Twenty years after the television series Galaxy Quest has been shelved, its stars are still reluctantly turning up at fan club conventions. Jason Nesmith who played the Captain is late as usual causing resentment from Alexander Dane who despises his recurring role as Dr. Lazarus and irritation from Gwen DeMarco who played the communications officer. But amongst the wildly dressed crowd are a group of real aliens, Thermians, who are under threat from the evil Sarris. They have modelled their society on historical documents which turn out to be the episodes of Galaxy Quest and they're on earth to get help from the Captain and his crew.

This truly is a fish out of water story as the washed up television stars try to cope with real-life drama in outer space. Rarely have I heard a group of critics laugh so much for so long in a movie. Galaxy Quest is simply delicious fun, there are so many truly entertaining situations, so many truly witty lines and such good sport performances from Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell and Daryl Mitchell as the phony crew and Enrico Colantoni and Missi Pyle as the very naive aliens.

The film's been directed with wonderful flair by Dean Parisot from a screenplay by Robert Gordon and David Howard. It knows only too well the target it's lampooning – Star Trek – and yet it manages to reinvent the wheel while doing so – this is also a reminder of how romantic our dreams of adventure can be. What a buzz this movie was, what a lovely surprise...