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Title:
Stargate: SG-1: Season 8 DVD Box Set
Region:
One
Genre:
Sci-Fi Television Action Series
Episodes
Volume 1: “New Order Part 1”, “New Order Part 2”, “Lockdown”,
“Zero Hour”
Episodes
Volume 2: “Icon”, “Avatar”, “Affinity”, “Covenant”
Episodes
Volume 3: “Sacrifices”, “Endgame”, “Gemini”, “Prometheus
Unbound”
Episodes
Volume 4: “It’s Good To Be King”, “Full Alert”, “Citizen Joe”,
“Reckoning Part 1”
Episodes
Volume 5: “Reckoning Part 2”, “Threads”, “Moebius Part 1”,
“Moebius Part 2”
Stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Judge
Guest Stars: Torri Higginson, Gary Jones, David DeLuise, Jolene Blaelock, Tony Amendola, Claudia Black, Don S. Davis, Wayne Brady, Ronny Cox, Dan Castellaneta, Isaac Hayes, David Hewlett, and Cliff Simon
Writers:
Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie,
Robert C. Cooper, Damian Kindler, Peter DeLuise, Ron Wilkinson, Michael
Greenburg, and Christopher Judge
Directors:
Andy Mikita, William Waring, Peter E. Woeste, Martin Wood, William Gereghity,
and Peter DeLuise
Developed
For Television By: Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner
Executive
Producers: Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, Michael Greenburg, and Richard Dean
Anderson
Feature
length: Approximately 44 Minutes Per Episode
Extras:
Audio Commentary For Select
Episodes, Beyond The Gate: An Air Force Experience With Richard Dean Anderson
Featurette, Director’s Series: AVATAR Featurette, Director’s Series:
COVENANT Featurette, Super Soldier: The Making Of A Monster, Beyond The Gate: A
Connection Experience With Christopher Judge Featurette, Director’s Series:
RECKONING Featurette, Photo Galleries
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French Language Dolby Surround
Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Five Keep Cases Within A Sturdy Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 5 Per Episode
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 2004-2005/DVD Release: 2005
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
At
the time of this writing, the SCI FI Channel has officially announced a renewal
of both “Stargate: SG-1” for an unprecedented tenth season and “Stargate:
Atlantis” for a third season. This will make “Stargate: SG-1” the single
longest sci-fi television series on American television, beating the record
previously held by “The X-Files,” which aired for nine seasons on Fox.
“Stargate: SG-1” originally began as a an original series of the premium
cable and satellite “Showtime Network.” After five seasons the series moved
over to basic cable and satellite’s SCI FI Channel where the series has
prospered. In addition syndicated reruns of previous seasons air on both SCI FI
and on regular non-cable/satellite broadcast television. It is interesting to
note that “Stargate: SG-1” is only one of several Showtime original series
that have aired additional first run episodes on SCI FI. Among the hit series to
move from Showtime to SCI FI are “LEXX”, “Poltergeist: The Legacy”, and
“The Outer Limits: The New Series.”
“Stargate:
SG-1” is also honored by having the support of the nation’s armed forces as
regular advisors to make sure that the action is as realistic as possible. In
the eight and a half years since “Stargate: SG-1” premiered, the series has
developed a sci-fi universe just as diverse as “Star Trek” and the series
has a huge fan base too. With the addition of “Stargate: Atlantis,” the
universe of both shows have expanded to include all sorts of interesting
possibilities. Another key to the success of the franchise is you do not have to
have started watching the show from episode 1 in order to get into it. While the
more familiar one is with the series, the more one will get out of it, it is
never too late to enter the gate.
Season
eight of “Stargate: SG-1” marked a pivotal turning point for the series.
Many of the villains from the first seven years are eradicated along with
intergalactic threats. Of course this opens the show up to more possibilities
than ever before. Having used
the knowledge of the Ancients to defeat Anubis and save the Earth, Colonel
O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) has been placed in bio-stasis while Teal’c
(Christopher Judge) and Carter (Amanda Tapping) search for Thor and the Asgard
with the hope that they will be able to save O’Neill as they had once before.
However when they arrive at the Asgard homeworld of Hala, they find that it has
been completely overrun by the Replicators and Thor needs O’Neill’s acquired
knowledge to find a way to halt their spreading infestation. This places
O’Neill’s life in jeopardy since in order to tap into the knowledge he has
of the Ancients requires that he be taken out of stasis. To make things worse,
Carter is kidnapped by the Replicators for committing an act of betrayal upon
them two years earlier. Meanwhile Dr. Jackson (Michael Shanks) and Stargate
Commander Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson) receive a message from Goa’uld
System Lords, who wish to enter into a treaty with the Earth in light of their
victory against Anubis.
The
events of the two-part season premiere episode “New Order” are a direct
prelude to the series premiere of “Stargate Atlantis” entitled “Rising.”
The series premiere of “Stargate: Atlantis” is now available on DVD and UMD
for PSP along with the complete first season of “Stargate Atlantis” recently
made available as a DVD box set through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.
I will have a review of “Stargate: Atlantis: The Complete First Season On DVD
Box Set” presently, but there is a review of the series premiere episode
released this past summer on DVD that can be read by clicking
here.
The
three main story arcs for season eight of “Stargate: SG-1” revolve around
the resistance to free the humanity from the tyranny of the Goa’uld System
Lords, the threat the Replicators place the entire galaxy in, and the endgame
between Daniel Jackson and Anubis. While there are many side stories and
character oriented episodes, ultimately it is these three challenges that when
faced by the season’s end opens up the show for the events that are going on
now in the series’ ninth season as well as even on “Stargate: Atlantis.”
Both shows will return to SCI FI from their midseason hiatus in January of 2006.
This
is the first “Stargate: SG-1” DVD box set to be released through MGM since
the studio was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Thankfully the packaging
for the eighth season remains identical to the packaging of the previous seven
seasons released by MGM. I sincerely hope that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
will remain true to this release format for future seasons because as much as
DVD collectors love to watch movies, they also care very much about how they are
packaged. Recent DVD set releases for the first seasons of both “The Outer
Limits: The New Series” and “Stargate: Atlantis” feature three slim keep
cases containing five discs in total. Since this is the beginning of a new
series on DVD, I have no problem with the packaging, but it would really suck if
when the eventual DVD release of the ninth season of “Stargate: SG-1”
arrives, it was repackaged in slim cases. I’m sure I speak for all the
“Stargate: SG-1” DVD fans here when I state, “Sony, please keep future
Stargate SG-1 DVD sets identical to the previous ones. Thank you.”
That
aside, I have to state that the picture and sound quality of “Stargate: SG-1:
Season 8 DVD Box Set” is perhaps the best the series has ever looked and
sounded on DVD yet. Since Sony masters the studio’s DVD releases, I can only
assume it is a result of the superior DVD mastering facilities Sony has created
for the Columbia TriStar and now MGM DVDs. Each episode is presented in an
anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio down converted from High Definition
masters. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is quite rousing. A
French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired as well as English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles have
been encoded onto all five discs as options too.
As
with previous DVD releases of “Stargate: SG-1” there are episode length
audio commentaries for 17 of the 20 shows in the set that include “New Order
Part 1”, “New Order Part 2”, “Zero Hour”, “Icon”, “Avatar”,
“Affinity”, “Covenant”, “Sacrifices”, “Endgame”, “Prometheus
Unbound”, “It’s Good To Be The King”, “Full Alert”, “Citizen
Joe”, “Reckoning Part 1”, “Reckoning Part 2”, “Moebius Part1”, and
“Moebius Part 2.” The commentaries are informative and some feature cast
members such as Christopher Judge and Amanda Tapping. Among the fans of the show
is Conan O’Brien who had one of his crewmembers do a guest spot on the episode
“Zero Hour,” which was a cross promotion I remember seeing on “Late Night
With Conan O’Brien” between SCI FI and NBC, which had acquired Universal to
form the conglomerate NBC Universal.
There
are six featurettes spread out across the five DVD volumes that make up the
eighth season box set. On disc one we have “Beyond The Gate: An Air Force
Experience With Richard Dean Anderson” (12:42), which profiles Mr.
Anderson’s attendance at Annual Air Force Association Anniversary Dinner. This
is a black tie event that honors veterans of the Air Force who have attained
outstanding achievement in their military career in various forms. The
featurette shows Mr. Anderson visiting veterans at a hospital as well as shows
clips of the real life guest appearance by Chief Of Staff General Ryan on the
show. Volume two features two Directors Series featurettes profiling Director
Martin Wood for the episodes “Avatar” (9:08) and “Covenant” (8:04). Disc
three contains an interesting exploration into the development and design of the
“Dark Warriors” created for the show in “Super Soldier: The Making Of A
Monster” (14:57) while disc four contains another Behind The Gate segment with
Chris Judge attending a fan convention (13:54). Judge is quite personable and
jolly and it is interesting to note that he has a mild form of Tourette’s
syndrome as well as Adult Attention Deficit Disorder so he frequently forgets
the answers to fan questions. At
the convention he tried to be extra sensitive about his language so he told the
kids in attendance if a curse word comes out of his mouth, he would give each
child 2 dollars. He ended up having to break a large bill for a lot of singles
to give anxious kids in order to keep his promise. Finally there is another
Directors Series profile of Peter DeLuise, who appeared in the 1980s on “21
Jump Street” and in the 90s in the second and third seasons of “Seaquest.”
This is a more candid behind-the-scenes look at the making of the two-part
episode “Reckoning” and at times is quite humorous because DeLuise is very
down to earth and personable in his own right (16:48). Each disc also features
galleries of pre-production design art, production photos, behind-the-scenes
pictures, and publicity shots related to the four episodes contained in the
respective volumes. The interactive menus are all standard interactive still
frames that are easy to navigate.
Get
into the gate! “Stargate: SG-1: Season 8 DVD Box Set” is available at
retailers on and offline now courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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