Wonder Woman-Complete Third Season (1978)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Lynda Carter - "My Teenage Idol Is Missing" Featurette-Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Feminist Icon
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	1090:50 (Case: 1077)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Jack Arnold Ray Austin Bruce Bilson Michael Caffey
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Lynda Carter
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Charles Fox Johnny Harris Artie Kane

    The last of the seasons of Lynda Carter’s seminal run as Wonder Woman.

    I don’t have much to add to my previous reviews of the First Season and Second Season. The Third Season is very much a continuation of the second season in terms of production, plotlines, etc.

    Having done all 3 seasons in a massive weekend binge, I’m fairly to the point of Wonder Woman saturation. If you are a fan, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this. If you’re not a fan, well...

    All 24 episodes of the Third Season are here, in all their glory. You can get a full summary at TV.com amongst other places. The following is a list of the contents of the second season as set out on these 4 dual sided DVDs in original broadcast order:

Disc 1

• 1. My Teenage Idol Is Missing (45:55)
• 2. Hot Wheels (45:55)
• 3. The Deadly Sting (46:00)

Disc 2

• 4. The Fine Art Of Crime (45:33)
• 5. Disco Devil (45:29)
• 6. Formicida (45:23)

Disc 3

• 7. Time Bomb (45:50)
• 8. Skateboard Whiz (45:48)
• 9. The Deadly Dolphin (43:21)

Disc 4

• 10. Stolen Faces (43:51)
• 11. Pot Of Gold (45:47)
• 12. Gault’s Brain (45:39)

Disc 5

• 13. Going, Going, Gone (45:43)
• 14. Spaced Out (45:47)
• 15. The Starships Are Coming (45:47)

Disc 6

• 16. Amazon Hot Wax (46:29)
• 17. The Richest Man In The World (45:54)
• 18. A Date With Doomsday (46:19)

Disc 7

• 19. The Girl With A Gift For Disaster (46:20)
• 20. The Boy Who Knew Her Secret: Part One (46:18)
• 21. The Boy Who Knew Her Secret: Part Two (43:37)

Disc 8

• 22. The Man Who Could Not Die (45:45)
• 23. Phantom Of The Roller Coaster: Part One (46:18)
• 24. Phantom Of The Roller Coaster: Part Two (42:02)

    Although I think I like The Bionic Woman just a little better, I still get a kick out of this. It’s got a very amusing nostalgia factor, and with titles like Disco Whiz and The Deadly Dolphin, it’s not hard to work out why...

Video

    Like the First Season and Second Season, the transfer here is in its original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1, Full Frame, non-16x9 enhanced.

    There are no issues with colour saturation or balanced.

    There is still some graininess in darker scenes, about on par with the Second Season.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video transfer artefacts are limited to minor background aliasing and occasional moire which will show up on a smaller CRT screen, but are not obvious with proper scaling to a larger monitor / projector.

    There is a some dirt on the print.

    There are a variety of subtitles listed above. They are white with a black/grey border. The English subtitles are reasonably accurate.

    Although there are only 3 episodes per disc, again I didn’t spot one dual layer pause. So, again, either: (a) I’m going blind; (b) there are no dual layer pauses, (c) the dual layer pauses are in between the episodes somewhere; or (d) the dual layer pauses are so subtle I can’t see them, perhaps hidden in one of the many fade-to-blacks for ads.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English and French 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono track encoded at 192Kb/s. I listened to the English track and sampled the French track.

    Another good mono track, with clear dialogue, decent range and effects. Any sync faults are faults of the source.

    Sadly, no surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio. The other menus are static and silent.

Audio Commentary: “My Teenage Idol Is Missing” by Linda Carter (Disc 1)

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, this is a decent commentary track.

Featurette: “Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Feminist Icon” (13:51) (Disc 8)

    Presented in 1.33:1, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, this is a great little featurette about feminist interpretations of Wonder Woman.

    I do not have an R1 copy for an exact comparison, but from what I can tell the content is identical, aside from the NTSC picture format and the region coding. Buy whichever is cheapest.

    Wonder Woman is more than a show - it’s an institution. Makes Smallville look like garbage (though Superman Returns wipes the floor with this).

    The DVD set is pretty good - nice work Warner Home Video.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall