Emperor Tod Spengo (Jon Lovitz), with General Afir (Thalmus Rasulala) at his side, takes over a small planet at the edge of the galaxy populated entirely by idiots, and renames it after himself.

When Spengo peeks at the laser's planned point of impact (a Southern California suburb), he beholds housewife Marge Nelson (Teri Garr) and becomes instantly infatuated with her.

In the meantime, Spengo finds that his advances towards Marge are failing, so he tries to read Dick's mind in order to discover the secret to her heart before having him executed.

Dick manages to escape the sewers and steal an escape pod, and winds up crashing in the desert, where he meets the rebels led by King Raff's son, Prince Sirk (Dwier Brown), and daughter, Princess Semage (Kathy Ireland), all of whom dress as 6-foot-tall birds (although such creatures are not naturally found on Spengo).

With Spengo defeated, Raff is reinstated as the rightful king, and he reverses the polarity on the Magnobeam to send Dick and Marge back to Earth.

Upon arriving home, Dick and Marge proceed to show their son (Danny Cooksey), daughter (Suzanne Ventulett), and her boyfriend Carl (Michael Stoyanov) slides (including an image of their space journey to Planet Spengo) from what they claim is "Santa Barbara".

[2] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 12% from 25 reviews with the consensus: "There is no saving this off-putting family adventure from its mirthless script, although some inspired production design gives it some visual polish.