Released at Christmas of 1999 as one of the very last movies of that decade, the science-fiction adventure spoof Galaxy Quest was a solid box office hit, if not quite one of the year’s huge blockbusters. Marketing for the film presented it as a goofy Tim Allen comedy vehicle, like The Santa Clause in outer space, which undersold its charms to the intended target audience that would mostly not discover it until much later on home video. Over the years, the movie has slowly grown into a minor classic, but continues to be the sort of thing most viewers regard as a pleasant surprise after expecting much less out of it.
I didn’t see Galaxy Quest in the theater. Truth be told, Tim Allen’s presence in the lead was a turn-off for me at the time. I’m not much of a fan of his sitcom work or those Santa Clause movies, nor some issues I have with him off-camera. On the other hand, Allen is an integral part of the Toy Story franchise, and is quite good in this role, able to hold his own against some powerhouse stars in the supporting cast.
| Title: | Galaxy Quest |
| Year of Release: | 1999 |
| Director: | Dean Parisot |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Paramount+ Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
On its surface level, Galaxy Quest is a meta-parody of the Star Trek franchise – specifically of the original 1960s Star Trek TV show. Jason Nesmith (Allen) is the washed-up star of a very similar old sci-fi series, both notorious and beloved for its cheesy production values and campy performances. A couple decades later, after his career has otherwise foundered, Nesmith is reduced to working the convention circuit, where he’s regularly besieged by obsessive fans who pester him with ridiculous questions about the show’s sloppy writing and countless plot holes.
Still keeping his company, some of them reluctantly, are former castmates including Sigourney Weaver as the sexpot female lead whose character on the show never served any purpose except as spank-bank material for horny teenage boys, Alan Rickman as the theater-trained Shakespearean thespian who resents his most famous role playing a lumpy-headed alien, Tony Shalhoub as the burn-out who can barely remember any of the technobabble he had to recite as the fictional starship’s chief engineer, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as a child star now grown up, and Sam Rockwell as a hanger-on background player still trying to cash in on his glory days as anonymous Crewman #6 in one episode.
As little as some of them may wish to spend time with the sometimes insufferably smug Jason, this entire group is roped into a new, much more realistic adventure when a race of weirdo aliens called Thermians (primarily Enrico Colantoni, Rainn Wilson, and Missi Pyle), whose culture has no concept of fiction, intercept the transmission of “historical documents” from Earth and mistakenly believe that all the stories they watched about the heroic crew of the NSEA Protector were true. Seeking help in a conflict against an evil grasshopper-like warlord called Sarris, the Thermians have constructed an exact, but working, replica of the spacecraft and beg the assistance of its dashing captain.
The genius of Galaxy Quest is that the film is simultaneously a send-up of all the corniest aspects of Star Trek, and also an affectionate tribute to the franchise and its fans. It pokes fun with only love in its heart, and not a trace of mean-spiritedness (well, except perhaps for the backhanded reference to film critic Andrew Sarris). The movie’s writers and director understand how and why shows like this can become so meaningful to certain viewers, and even incorporates a storyline in which the fans (embodied by a nerdy Justin Long) play an important part in saving the day.
Somehow, Galaxy Quest also tells enough of a self-contained story that it can be enjoyed just as much by someone not terribly versed in the minutiae of Star Trek lore. Its references are broad enough to work just fine on their own, and the characters all have a genuine arc about learning to embrace their pasts and their shared legacy.
The movie has a gentle humor that’s consistently funny, despite rarely being an outrageous laugh riot. Many of its 1990s CGI visual effects looked pretty cheesy even at the time, in a way that’s different from yet entirely in the spirit of the old Star Trek‘s cardboard props and models on strings. Now two-and-a-half decades into its own lifespan, the film remains a delight, perhaps even more on repeat viewings than on the first.
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Paramount previously released Galaxy Quest on Blu-ray in late 2009. That disc was mostly serviceable, if imperfect, but made one significant change to the film that the new 4K Ultra HD remaster addresses.
Originally, as it played in theaters back in 1999, Galaxy Quest was a multi-aspect ratio presentation that started in a windowboxed 4:3 ratio for the first minute and a half (representing a clip from the characters’ old TV show), then expanded in width to 1.85:1 for the next eighteen minutes during most of the scenes set on Earth, and finally expanded again out to 2.35:1 when Tim Allen’s character discovers that he’s been sent to outer space. From that point on, even during return visits to Earth, the rest of the movie remained at 2.35:1. All three ratios were projected in Constant Image Height format, maintaining the same top and bottom lines but growing progressively wider as the story advanced.
Early DVD and Blu-ray editions modified all the 1.85:1 scenes by opening the side mattes, exposing extra picture on the left and right, so that the movie would jump directly from 4:3 to 2.35:1. This was done, presumably, because someone at the time worried that viewers watching at home would be confused as to why eighteen minutes of the film appeared to be shrunken into small box in the middle of the screen. The effect that worked great in Constant Height theatrical projection might not make as much sense on a TV. As a result, this compromise was reached to make the transitions less jarring.
The 2024 remaster still presents the opening TV show clip in 4:3, but the following scenes on Earth have been restored to their original 1.85:1. This means that, in addition to the windowboxing with black bars on all sides, the Earth scenes are also cropped on the left and right when compared to the prior Blu-ray. A viewer unaware of the film’s original presentation might find this confusing, if not disconcerting, but the framing is actually more accurate to the filmmakers’ intent in this version.
After about the 20-minute mark, the rest of the movie is then presented in a standard 2.35:1 letterbox format that most viewers should be familiar and comfortable with.
The 2024 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray edition comes with a Digital Code, but no remastered standard Blu-ray. A limited SteelBook case edition was also available at release, but I chose the less expensive version in a regular keepcase with slipcover. During my first playback, the disc glitched-out on me and completely froze up near the beginning of Chapter 9 (around the 42-minute mark). Fortunately, it worked better after ejecting and cleaning the disc, but continues to have occasional hang-ups with repeated attempts. I may need to replace this while I can.
Aside from the aspect ratio, the 2024 remaster is not a significant improvement over the 2009 Blu-ray. In fact, in some scenes, I think the Blu-ray may actually look better. That’s pretty disappointing, considering that I was underwhelmed with the Blu-ray in 2009 and remain so today. The old transfer was a little too obviously processed with DNR and artificial sharpening.
I’m not convinced that Paramount scanned the film’s Original Camera Negative for this remaster. The studio may have even deliberately chosen an element further down the post-production chain in order to restore the 1.85:1 masking (rather than re-create that effect digitally, which might have been a better option). Even in 4K, image quality is generally soft, flat, and dull. It still looks to suffer some DNR that results in very light, mushy grain, and it has nowhere near 4K worth of appreciable detail. By eye, I’d equate this closer to 720p.
Screencaps I’ve used in this review from the HD SDR Digital Copy have a decidedly warmer color balance than the prior Blu-ray, normalizing the grayish skin tones of the Thermian characters. I didn’t notice that when watching the disc on my calibrated projector, so it may not be a problem in the 4K version. However, although encoded in HDR, the disc has no sense of High Dynamic Range or Wide Color Gamut.
Galaxy Quest played theatrically in 1999 with a 5.1 soundtrack, which has been pointlessly reworked into Dolby Atmos for this release. All the early scenes on Earth are sonically understated by design, with the track becoming more active after the characters go to space. It has a very modest amount of bassy rumble now and again, but is still pretty tepid overall. Surround activity is present but nothing special. If the overhead Atmos speakers are used at all, I didn’t notice it.
The only new bonus feature is a 20-minute interview with director Dean Parisot. Everything else has been recycled from the old Blu-ray. These include five featurettes ranging from 5 to 23 minutes each, some deleted scenes, a silly rap Sigourney Weaver performed (badly) as a birthday message for her agent, a trailer, and a Thermian dub audio track that’s amusing for about a minute before the gag runs thin. Missing is a hilarious “Galactopedia” interactive trivia interface that’s worth keeping the Blu-ray around for.
Related
- Dean Parisot (director)
- Sigourney Weaver
- Justin Long
- Source Inspiration
Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from either the 2009 Blu-ray edition of the film, or the 2024 remastered 1080p HD Digital Copy (grabbed off a web browser), and are used for illustration purposes only.
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