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In 1982, Galaxy Quest, a series very much like Star Trek, was cancelled. Eighteen years later, its washed-up stars are fixtures on the fan circuit, though most of them despise both the show and its fans (and each other). Only Jason Nesmith (played by Tim Allen), the egomaniac actor who played The Captain, is still enjoying himself — and the rest of the cast think he's a total jerk.
One day, a hungover Jason is approached by what he believes to be a group of fans who want him to star in an amateur film. Only when the "film" is over does he realize that it was all real. He had been abducted by real aliens, and taken to a real spaceship, a perfect copy of the show's Protector, where he'd fought a real space battle.
When the aliens ask him to pay a return visit, Jason ropes in the rest of the main cast, plus one Red Shirt, for what Jason believes will be more ego-boosting fun.
Instead, the actors find that they are the last hope of the Thermians, a race of naïve aliens fighting a losing war, who mistakenly believe that Galaxy Quest was actually a documentary. They now have to play their roles for real, defeating an alien warlord with nothing more than mediocre acting skills.
This loving film parody of Star Trek ( with aspects of the film Three Amigos!) hangs a lampshade on most of its tropes.
This film provides examples (and in most case parodies) of:
- Affectionate Parody: Notably manages to avoid the typical pitfalls of the genre and keeps up both the affection and the parody straight through the end credits.
- Alan Rickman: He was in this film.
- Alien Blood
- Alien Lunch
- Attack Its Weakpoint: lampshaded ("Go for its vulnerable spot" "It's a rock! It doesn't have a vulnerable spot!")
- Bathroom Stall Of Overheard Insults: Jason is badmouthed as a hack and delusional, eventually making him snap at his fans and get drunk.
- Becoming The Mask: Over the course of their adventure, the actors become actual heroes.
- Berserk Button: Happens with Alexander. Those Serrans really shouldn't have killed Quellek...
- Bridge Bunny: Gwen, as a parody.
- Buffy Speak: Happens during the first fight against Sarris
Guy: "Red thingy moving toward the green thingy... I think we're the green thingy."
- Cannot Tell A Lie: The Thermians have no concept of lying or fiction in their culture. The protagonists learn this the hard way.
- Captain Obvious: A bit misleading, since this is not actually The Captain, but rather Gwen, since the show actually wrote her that way.
- Cargo Cult: Arguably, the Thermians are an inversion of real-life cargo cults: they produce real, working technology based on nonfunctional, for-show templates.
- Catchphrase: "Never give up, never surrender!" "By Grabtharr's Hammer!" (now hugely despised by its original user, especially since fans constantly repeat it to him.)
- Chekhovs Gun: The Omega-13.
- The Chick: Gwen really spoofs this.
- Classically Trained Extra: Alexander Dane.
- Clothing Damage: Gwen's costume gradually disintegrates over the course of the movie.
- Command Roster: Done in classic tradition, with the actors slowly becoming these roles for real
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - "And what you fail to realize, is that my ship is dragging mines."
- Deadpan Snarker: Alexander.
- Death Course
- Eyepatch Of Power: Sarris
- Fanboy - The convention attendees and the Thermians.
- Fictional Counterpart
- Though George Takei, when interviewed about it, described it as a "chillingly realistic documentary..."
- Genre Blindness: After more than a few moments of this on part of the characters, Guy at one point frustratedly asks whether any of the actors actually watched the show they starred in.
- Genre Savvy
- Glory Days: Jason Nesmith hasn't done anything since Galaxy Quest. Alexander Dane bemoans that he was a 'proper' Shakespearean actor before Galaxy Quest
- Head Tiltingly Kinky
- Hey Its That Guy - Justin Long, the Mac Guy (from the "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials) in his first film role as one of the Galaxy Quest fanboys.
- Human Aliens: Subverted when it turns out that the cephalopod-like Thermians use "appearance generators" to put the visiting earthlings at ease (and presumably, to man the Protector II prior to their arrival).
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Tommy Webber at the helm, Fred Kwan on the Digital Conveyor.
- Justified as the controls were designed by the Thermians replicating them from the "Historical Documents"
- I Need A Freaking Drink: "Where are you going?" "To see if there’s a pub!"
- Innocent Aliens: The Thermians are the very personification of this trope.
- Inventional Wisdom The Chompers
- Ironic Echo: Alan Rickman's character hates his Catchphrase, but says it with real feeling for probably the first time in decades after Quellek is shot.
- Just In Time: Parodied — on the show, bombs only ever stopped when the timer was at 1, so the bombs on the new ship are designed to only stop with one second left no matter when the emergency stop button is pressed.
- The Krusty: Alexander Dane, played to perfection by Alan Rickman. You can feel the self-loathing as he has to say "that stupid line".
- Lampshade Hanging. All over the place.
- Large Ham: Keep in mind that Tim Allen has to parody one of the biggest hams in television history. He does so with gusto.
- Magic Countdown
- Magnificent Seven: Spoofed.
- Mandatory Line
- The Man Who Knew Too Little
- Mauve Shirt: Guy Fleegman (for laughs) and Quellek (for tears).
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: After the crew escape from Sarris' attempt to blow them out of an airlock.
- Ms Fanservice: Gwen DeMarco, and she's well aware of it.
- Naughty Tentacles: A doubly-rare example in that the "victim" is both male and fully willing.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: "You broke the ship, you broke the bloody ship!"
- No Biochemical Barriers
- No Name Given: Guy was one of these in the show, identified only as "Crew Member #6". His panic over the fact that this was not unconnected to his Redshirt status leads to him forgetting that he actually has a name in real life:
Jason: "Guy, you have a last name."
Guy: DO I?! DO I?!
- No OSHA Compliance: Naturally Lampshaded, to the point where Gwen wants to kill the writers.
- Not Now Bernard: "Not now, Gwen!"
- Oh Crap: Right after the line "And what you fail to realize is that my ship is dragging mines!"
- Plucky Comic Relief: The Trope Namer. Guy is told that he can survive because he might be this instead of a Redshirt.
- Post Historical Trauma: When Jason tells Mathesar that they're actors while he's on the torture table, Mathesar is distraught. Their culture doesn't understand acting, and consider it akin to lying. However, after the crew is successful, Mathesar thinks he was just kidding (or, at least, pretends so in order to spare the rest of the aliens the disappointment. Given his general naivete, however, this isn't likely.)
- The Power Of Acting: Although they end up using their character's skills for real, their acting does come into play a few times.
- Promotion To Opening Titles: Guy, who formerly played a Redshirt on the canceled Show Within A Show, plays the chief of security on the relaunched series.
- Say, wasn't Tasha Yar chief of security before she was killed?
- Red Shirt: Guy spends most of the film terrified that he will die since it was his only role on show.
- Inverted, in that when Sarris goes on a killing spree, Guy is the only character not killed or mortally wounded.
- Reset Button: The Omega 13 is a very limited Reset Button as it could turn time back only thirteen seconds. Just barely enough time to fix a major mistake. Fortunately, it wasn't a plot Reset Button. The movie was way too good to try that.
- Right Behind Me: The Captain insults Sarris after mistakingly thinking the viewscreen connection was turned off.
- Rubber Forehead Aliens: Doctor Lazarus is a literal rubber forehead alien. In fact, Alexander Dane is never seen without the prosthetic during the entire film, including at home, and even when its half torn.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Using the Omega 13 to prevent Sarris opening a can of whoop-ass.
- Shirtless Scene: Jason Nesmith.
Gwen: "And there goes the shirt..."
Alexander (later): "I see you managed to get your shirt off."
- The Show Must Go On
- Show Within A Show
- Sick And Wrong: Guy's reaction to Fred and Laliari making out: "That's just not right!" (OK, so she's reverted from pretty humanoid to tentacle creature.)
- Smashing Hallway Traps Of Doom: "Whoever wrote this episode should DIE!"
- Stan Winston: Responsible for the marvelous Alien effects in one of his few notable comedic efforts.
- Star Trek Shake: Subverted by really shaking the set when the cast go into space, played straight in the clips of the 'show' we get to see.
- Starfish Aliens: The Thermians in their native form look like an octopus mating with a squid. Sarris' reptilian race are standard People In Rubber Suits.
- Um...considering the WINGS, EXOSKELETONS, and the WINDSHIELD SQUISH SCENE, I'd say Sarris' people are insectoids...
- Stripperiffic: Gwen's uniform, more so after Clothing Damage. In a Deleted Scene, she uses it to her advantage.
- Squick: The aforementioned Naughty Tentacles
- Take That: Sarris is named after movie critic Andrew Sarris, who trashed The Natural, also produced by Mark Johnson
- Teleporter Accident
- Training The Peaceful Villagers
- Took A Level In Badass
- Translator Microbes
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: And the character who does it actually loses his gun when he rolls.
Alexander (exasperated) "Does the rolling help?"
- Unpredictable Results: Nobody knows what the Omega 13 does, except the die hard fans, whose Wild Mass Guessing turned out to be right.
- Viewer Friendly Interface - Webber is initially confused by the helm controls, and later figures out it's just point and click.
- We Will Not Have Pockets In The Future: Parodied, of course.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Guy, as mentioned above
- Who Writes This Crap: Gwen laments about her character having a dumb job, and she then freaks out over the obstacle course.
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