Here's a (Quite long) review I've put together for the upcoming Volume 34 DVD release, just incase anyone was thinking about whether or not to get it.
There is a summary and score at the bottom of the review, enjoy
Region: 2
Languages: English, Deutsch, Castellano
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
RRP: £19.99
Release Date: 29 March 2003
INTRODUCTION
With five seasons under its belt, the television show, Stargate SG-1, was swiped up by The Sci-Fi Channel where it spent its sixth season outing with an uncertain future. Stargate fans over the world were discussing and arguing over rumours that Sci-Fi would drop the series and our journeys across the universe would be over.
Thankfully, SG-1 wasn’t kicked out of the Sci-Fi house into the cold winter’s night, and is now enjoying an airing of Season Seven, with both Season Eight and a spin-off, Stargate Atlantis, in production.
With the ever-approaching season finale in the UK this March, the Season 7 Region 2 DVD release schedule has been put in motion.
BACKGROUND STORY
Okay, before I get to the DVD, I’ll give a quick introduction for all those who don’t know the back-story.
Back in 1928 an alien artefact was uncovered. Decades later, Egyptologist Dr. Daniel Jackson joins the project and reveals the key to activating the artefact, known as the Stargate. Soon after, Jackson and a military unit – lead by Colonel Jack O’Neill voyage through the Stargate to the far side of the known universe where they find a colony of enslaved Humans.
The team take out the ruler Ra – one of a race of parasitic aliens named the Goa’uld – and free the people of Abydos.
The series follows the exploits of SG-1, a team made up of O’Neill, Jackson, and two new members; another Human named Samantha Carter and an alien called Teal’c, as they travel to many planets via the Stargate to try and find allies and technology that can help defend Earth against the Goa’uld.
EPISODES Avenger 2.0
Facing unemployment, Dr J. Felger develops a virus that is capable of making any stargate inoperative. After developing and deploying the virus to a stargate’s DHD under Ball’s control the SGC await the results of a test from a Tok’Ra operative on the planet, soon however the entire stargate network begins to fail leaving Earth with the only working device and 12 SG Teams stuck offworld. In order to solve the problem, Felger and Carter travel to Ball’s stronghold to fix the originally infected DHD.
Dr Felger – whom you may remember from the episode entitled ‘The Other Guys’ – brings a humorous edge to the episode, which otherwise is a generic and technically oriented story. The characters of Carter and Felger play off of each other very well, I especially liked the scene at the river where Felger is feeding the none-existent ducks – Amanda Tapping’s facial expression subtly shows her characters emotive response and managed to get a small smile from me (FYI, that’s a big response for me).
This episode makes little use of CG effects; mostly these are reserved for the cargo ship/bomber towards the end of the episode. Normal special effects aren’t used too often and aren’t anything too flashy, the odd lightning and rain effect here, electrical spark there. For an episode that is not based around action and mostly stays in the SGC this is perfectly adequate.
As a whole is the most amusing episode on the disc and provides a little light relief that is required every now and again in a Sci-fi series to break up the standard overtone and stop every episode from becoming much the same.
Birthright
As with ‘The Warrior’, this episode is also written by Christopher Judge (Teal’c) and tells the story of a group of female Jaffa that live in their own community much like the legend of the Amazons. The rebel Jaffa women encounter SG-1 on a planet and take them to their home after requesting their help. Here, SG-1 finds that the group are rescuing young Jaffa girls – who would otherwise be killed – from their fate. However once the symbiotes within the children mature, the group are forced to hunt down other Jaffa and steal their symbiotes. They wish SG-1 to help them to overthrow the Goa’uld Moloc, so that the Jaffa may turn the table on them and use the symbiotes only to sustain their life. The episode follows the precarious views of the Jaffa women as SG-1 tries to convince them that they should try to use Tretonin as Teal’c has.
This episode also helps to explore the character Teal’c and his relationship with others as well as showing how he has moved on from his wife. One thing I really enjoy with these Jaffa oriented episodes by Christopher Judge are the brilliantly choreographed hand-to-hand staff weapon fights. The slow-mo technique that was used to great effect in ‘The Warrior’ doesn’t seem to have been used at all in this episode, which I think was a good choice, as it would have made the episode feel as though it were unable to hold its own and needed to play off of the success of the previous episode.
Again, CG effects seem to be limited to a few staff battles, however the art department have done a great job of kitting out the Jaffa encampment. The tapestries and paintings give the camp a very tribal feel that seems to borrow from Native American and African cultures.
Overall, I feel that this episode is lacking in some areas when compared with ‘The Warrior’ however aspects; such as the lack of a Goa’uld (With screen time) allowing a more human face to be put to the plight of the Jaffa, lift the episode back on par with its ‘prequel’ so-to-speak.
Evolution (Part 1)
After learning of a summit meeting between Ramius and Tilgath – two minor Goa’uld – Teal’c and Bra’tac go to confirm the possible alliance but find that both sides have been decimated by a lone soldier of Anubis, implanted with a Goa’uld and clothed in armour that is resistant to energy weapons.
Finding that they may be able to track down an Ancient’s device – that was the origin of both the Goa’uld Sarcophagus and the Fountain of Youth myth – and use it as the basis for a weapon against these new soldiers, Daniel Jackson and Dr. Lee travel to southern Honduras where they are kidnapped by rebels.
Meanwhile, the rest of SG-1 and several rebel Jaffa lay a trap for another soldier in an attempt to capture it and learn where Anubis is constructing his army.
Evolution (Part 2)
In Part 2 the rebels torture Dr. Jackson and Dr. Lee as to the origins and purpose of the Ancient’s device. Meanwhile Jack O’Neill mounts a Black Ops rescue mission with an old acquaintance, Agent Burke.
Eventually, the rebels find out information on what the device is from Dr. Lee and turn it on. Slowly the leader becomes corrupted and after objections to the activation of the device kills one of his own men.
O’Neill is treated to the truth behind both his and Burke’s past and the previously dead rebel is reanimated by the device, promptly going on a rampage and allowing Jackson and Dr. Lee to slip away unnoticed.
O’Neill meets finds Jackson at the mercy of some very angry rebels and with a zombie in tow.
Offworld, Carter, Selmac (Jakob), Teal’c and Bra’tac slip unnoticed into Anubis’ base to find that he has enlisted the help of a Queen Goa’uld to produce an endless supply of symbiotes to implant into his new army.
They also observe the size of the army and realising how bad this situation is, try to hinder Anubis’ production of any more soldiers.
‘Evolution’ (Part’s 1 and 2) is probably my favourite story arc from the entire of Season 7 – We’ll have to wait to see how ‘Lost City’ turns out. Part earthbound mission, part offworld, this episode balances the two different missions very well. I enjoy Earth-based missions as a whole, however some in the past have been less than inspiring (Read ‘the clip show that was ‘Disclosure’’). In this two-part episode the content of the earth-based mission is above reproach and if it weren’t for the scene in Anubis’ base where the full extent of his army is revealed, I would say that the Honduras mission is by far, the better of the two.
I love the jungle scenes; the set decorators have proven that a few banana-leafs can go a long way to converting a Canadian forest to a South American paradise.
The CG and touch ups on this episode are of a high standard, particularly the model of Anubis’ base. A beautiful and awe-inspiring sight to behold most definitely, the architecture of the building is built with what seems to be great care and attention to detail. Even the CG army is rendered wonderfully; this is truly a shining moment for those computer artists on the Stargate team. Traditional special effects are used subtly and to great effect in the earth-based side of the story, from the bullets hitting surfaces and launching bark and dirt up into the air, to the water tumbling down onto Jackson and Dr. Lee when they first find the device.
Both episodes are a testament to what Stargate SG-1 is at its heart. A perfect blend of character rivalry, story development and action, ‘Evolution’ stands above the two other episodes on this disc by a long way.
EXTRAS SG-1 Directors Series: Avenger 2.0 with Martin Wood
Continuing in the long line of the ‘behind the scenes’ features, this one focuses on the filming of ‘Avenger 2.0’ with the episode’s director, Martin Wood. The program shows how various stunts and effects in the episode were prepared and carried out as well as giving you a look at what kind of work goes on in pre-production.
The feature is well put together and is at times quite humorous. I personally would have preferred the Directors Series to show you what happened behind ‘Evolution’, however this does reveal how some simple effects are carried out – such as the shimmering light from the stargate that is cast into the Gate Room – to achieve a great end product.
At 8 minutes in length, the feature is quite short but is still long enough to show a fair amount without being too strung out and boring.
SG-1 Beyond the Gate: Christopher Judge Featurette
This featurette is a look at the actor Christopher Judge who plays Teal’c. Throughout the course of the feature, Judge answers a few questions about the show and his relationship with the other actors as well as giving a small insight into what he gets up to away from the show.
Watching this, I really enjoyed finding out a little about the guy behind the character, particularly about his venture into script writing and how he was able to get a true assessment of his writing abilities and go on to produce a story that he had previously been working on but put on hold; ‘Birthright’.
Production Design and Photo Gallery
This section is a rolling video of photos showing a variety of the characters and some of the comic book artwork for Avenger 2.0.
The photographs are more-or-less straight from the episodes or at the very least taken during breaks between filming and are comparatively few when compared to the amount of unique costumes and sets that are present in the episodes on the disc, particularly ‘Birthright’ with the Jaffa women which don’t feature at all in the gallery.
Overall this section is very poor when compared with the rest of the disc, maybe its just me, but after looking though the extras in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy where they have thousands of images showing costumes and sketches and set designs, this is what I would have expected in a so-called ‘Production design’ section. Even if it weren’t on the same kind of scale, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to have somebody go around taking snap-shots of the sets, props and the actors in costume.
This section had so much promise and scope but in the end it feels as though it were quickly added as a last minute extra to fill up space in the menu. The Production Design and Photo Galley is definitely the most disappointing part of this DVD.
Audio Commentary
In a long line of additional commentary, each episode is voiced over by a variety of directors, actors and team members. ‘Avenger 2.0’ is voiced by Amanda Tapping and director, Martin Wood. Throughout this episode, Wood and Tapping talk a lot about Patrick Mckenna who plays Dr. Felger and why they choose him to play the character, as well as commenting on internet forums and messages saying how much they disliked the episode. I enjoyed the commentary and there are a few interesting points that come to light about why Carter is given a new gun, dubbed the Carter Special.
For ‘Birthright’ the commentary is by director Peter F. Woeste, director of photography Jim Menard, and set decorators, Mark Davidson and Robert Davidson. This episode’s commentary is very based around the technicalities of how the look for the episode was achieved. It goes into great detail about the design of the sets, how the lighting effects were created and how some of the visually stunning and subtle effects were created, such as the introduction of the Jaffa Women emerging from the smoke was pure accident but came out so well that it was included in the final cut. There isn’t much humour or general chitchat, however leaning the commentary towards the technical side of things was a good decision and makes up for some of the damage made by the poor Photo Gallery.
Evolution is commented on by the director Peter DeLuise and actor, Gary Jones (Part 1) and Amanda Tapping (Part 2). These two episodes are great to listen to, featuring a lot of funny and humorous comments as well as revealing a lot of ideas behind the various scenes. Part 1 has a lot of small comments on how the technical side of the visual effects work such as the monitors in the SGC. Where as Part 2 tends to focus more on the actors and how the sets were done, as well as the slight obsession that Tapping and DeLuise seem to have with Michael Shanks’ penis, commenting on it in jest to parts of the storyline and the look on the actor’s face at several points in the episode.
The Audio Commentary on this disc is of high quality and is well worth listening to. It is both funny at points and informative at others and is a good addition to the episodes.
VIDEO
The episodes for Stargate SG-1 are recorded in anamorphic widescreen with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio meaning that people with a wide screen television are able to view a full picture without any distortion and those with normal 4:3 televisions aren’t given the letterbox that is so common with widescreen programming.
As well as this, it is recorded at a high resolution of 720x576, which allows a very sharp and clear image. The colouration throughout the four episodes is consistent, even when the video drops to dark colours, such as those in Anubis’ base in Evolution, definition is maintained and graininess is practically – if not – none existent.
The CG effects throughout the four episodes are of high quality and looks very good. Unlike the cargo ships crash land in Season 5’s ‘Last Stand’, the computer-generated effects blend well with the live-action video. Of note are the subtle effects including the light on the Ancient’s device and the introduction of Anubis’ drone soldiers in ‘Evolution’.
AUDIO
The audio for the episodes is available in English, German and what I think is Spanish or some language that looks/sounds similar to someone who never took Spanish at school.
The episodes are recorded with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, although I couldn’t really tell if it were actually being used during the first two episodes. That aside it was a nice addition that did make the episodes more involving through the use of background sounds and effects such as the whirring sound of computers coming through the rear speakers. In the last two episodes the directional sound was used during the firefights to good effect. Overall, the sound options aren’t overly great, but still do well to provide the show with as good audio as is possible.
MENU
The DVD menu for this season is a far cry from the hideous lack of investment that was Season 5. While I haven’t got Season 6 on DVD yet, I really hated with a vengeance, the cheap, ugly graphics that accompanied the menu for the DVD’s in the fifth season.
Graphically, more capital has obviously been spent on this interface; either that or they’ve got better value for their money. The video that plays in the background is based around a military base in the field, and while it isn’t photo-realistic, this actually plays to its advantage. The interface is easily navigable and understood, while the options are well laid out and displayed for the user to see.
SUMMARY
Looking at the DVD as a whole, it is well worth the money, with a host of extras showing and talking about the actors and what happens behind the scenes. Ignoring the rather pathetic addition of the photo gallery, the extras are all of high quality and well put together. Sound and video are of good quality and the episodes themselves range from good to excellent, with a variety of episode types on this DVD to cater to whichever mood your in; humorous, action or character-based storylines.
I would recommend this DVD to any SG-1 fan, and while I’m unsure as to whether or not someone new to the series would enjoy it, this DVD does contain some of the better episodes of this season.
SCORE Video: A
Audio: B
Extras: C+
Menu: B+
Overall: B
