The premise of this movie intrigued me from the very first time I heard about it. A group of out-of-work-actors from an old Star Trek-type television show (Galaxy Quest) are mistaken for actual intergalactic travelers by real-life aliens and recruited to help the space people conquer some actual other-worldly bad guys.

The movie proved to be even better than I expected.

The pathetic actors are forced to spend their time attending Galaxy Quest conventions and the openings of electronic super stores. Tim Allen (studly and pathetic at the same time) is the commander of the ship and the only actor still seeming to enjoy his notoriety. Sigourney Weaver is the sole female crew member and proves she is a fantastic comic actress. Hung over, Tim travels with the aliens on a first voyage, thinking it is another promotional appearance. Upon returning, he realizes it's all very real and tells his cast mates about his adventure. They don't believe him, of course, but when the aliens return for additional help, the whole group goes, thinking Tim is going to a gig on his own.

The aliens have watched every episode of the TV program and believe them to be historical documents. Their ship is an exact duplicate of that from the show. The space people expect the crew to know how to operate the ship. In fact, the only people who truly know about the ship are some teenage geeks from a Galaxy Quest convention. (That was a touch of brilliance.)

As you can well imagine, the cast/crew pulls together and learns about being good friends and team players. Yeah, that's real nice and provides a happy ending to the movie, but the beauty of the entire production is the knowing joke it tells on itself. For instance, Miss Weaver's character really had nothing to do on the show. In the parallel universe based on Galaxy Quest, she still has nothing to do. She realizes her job is stupid, but insists on doing it anyway. Commander Tim loses his shirt in a battle with a space monster. Not only do we get to laugh at the homage to such ludicrous happenings on such shows, one character also points out "I see you managed to get your shirt off." It's so wonderful for the movie to make fun of the genre and tell you about it at the same time.

Listen to me: I'm just a doctor, Jim. We need more power! Go see it, aye sir.

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