Stargate SG1-Volume 6 (Season 2) (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	169:46
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter DeLuise David Warry-Smith William Corcoran
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Richard Dean Anderson Michael Shanks Amanda Tapping Christopher Judge Don S. Davis
Case	DV-8
RPI	$36.95	Music	Joel Goldsmith Richard Band Kevin Kiner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch French Italian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    So we have another slight change in format of the DVD this time, courtesy of this transfer being sourced from France. Does that hopefully mean there is some improvement here visually? More of this anon.

    As I wander through the "missing" reviews of the show, it is perhaps a good time to expand a little upon why I like this show so much (read - I have run out of ideas of what to write so I am getting desperate). Over the years, I have been a really big science fiction fan and have watched most of what has been turned out for television. Some has been pretty diabolical stuff indeed, much pretty average stuff but a very few standout shows have genuinely stood out. Surprisingly for a trekker, only one of the incarnations of that franchise makes the list (Deep Space Nine if you are interested, although Voyager almost makes the list too), along with two other shows: Babylon 5 and Stargate SG-1. So why do these three shows stand out for me? Well, I could be slightly dishonest and say it is because of the quality writing, producing excellent stories that excellent casts can bring to life. Whilst that will be true for some people, and there is no denying that these factors are important, it is not necessarily the complete answer for me. I have to be honest I guess and say I don't really know for sure why, I just like the d*** shows. Something about these three shows simply clicked with me.

    These are the only television science fiction shows that I can really sit down and consistently enjoy, and that ultimately is the reason why they stand out. Sure I can enjoy individual episodes of any science fiction show, including the really diabolical ones, but for the sheer consistent enjoyment on a repeated basis, these are the shows I look to. As such, I presume that it is a combination of some quality writing, some excellent casting and some very decent production values, for these really are part of what makes the shows stand out and easy to return to. Perhaps also important is the originality of the shows. That might sound a bit daft for a Star Trek show like Deep Space Nine, but within the context of the franchise it is the most individual of the series. In the case of Babylon 5, again the setting plays an important part along with the purpose of the setting.

    In the case of Stargate SG-1, there is no doubt in my mind that a lot of the enjoyment from the show comes from not just the premise but also from the casting. I would suggest that very few science fiction shows have had as good a core cast of this: Richard Dean Anderson (who brings a refreshingly informal take to the military man), Christopher Judge (in a nicely stoic and stilted role), Amanda Tapping (beauty, brains, bravado - what more could you want?) and Michael Shanks (the "weak" member of the group in a nice change in the gender stakes). The cast certainly gelled well and after Season One became a firm favourite of mine on television.

    Mind you, if I were to be less than politically correct, a lot of the attraction of Stargate SG-1 is actually Teryl Rothery. Now where can I find a doctor like that?

    The episodes on offer on Volume 6, the fifth volume of episodes from Season Two, are:

• Serpent's Song (Episode 217) - The SG-1 team find themselves on an isolated and seemingly uninhabited planet after the SGC received a summons that was presumed to be from the Tok'Ra. Since they have now been waiting awhile, it is assumed that they have misread the message and O'Neill is toey to go home. However, an arrival from the skies soon shakes up their day. Turns out that the ship that just crashed to ground was piloted by none other than a Goa'uld - one both injured and seeking what we would called asylum. Now that's liable to put the spark into your day on its own but when you find out who the Goa'uld is, well you best hold onto your jaw. With the obviously badly injured Goa'uld accompanying them, the SG-1 team returns to Earth and some rather daunting decisions. Things go from bad to worse when it is discovered that without the aid of a sarcophagus, the Goa'uld is dying, brought about by some nasty stuff, and that the reason for his seeking asylum may just be to get revenge upon the Tauri who have really stuffed up his position within the System Lords. Especially as he is being chased by some rather unsavoury characters who will happily destroy the Tauri to get him. So decision time is at hand - do beliefs and human decency override the practicalities of having the living daylights belted out of the whole planet? Almost as importantly - exactly how does a Goa'uld die? Taking the whole event to a more existential plain, does a Goa'uld really die or does he just get thrown in a sarcophagus and revived ad infinitum?
• Holiday (Episode 218) - The SG-1 team take the day off on some far off planet. Well not really, but it would be nice to do that. What they actually do is head to another of those planets in the galactic chain of Stargate destinations and discover - well something a bit unusual. To be precise, an old man named Marchello. Now he is not the unusual bit, but the piece of technology he has in his possession is. Turns out that he seems to be the caretaker of a transference device which has rather unsettling results for Daniel - and physically devastating to Marchello. Everyone heads back to Earth. Ever have an out-of-body experience? Daniel does and the problem is just how do you get back into your body - especially when it is off having a holiday of its own? As problems mount it is decided to return to the planet and retrieve the device. Now you would have thought that after one little problem that the macho types of the team would be less than thick enough to realise that you best give this device a very wide berth until it can be figured out. Well, no one ever accused O'Neill of being the brightest star in the universe, and Teal'c has been hanging around him too long anyway. So everyone and the device is back on Earth so that the bright girls at SGC command (read - Sam) will sort all this mess out and end everyone's holidays and all these out of body experiences.
• One False Step (Episode 219) - Whilst playing around with a new toy - namely a UAV - the SGC lose contact with the unmanned recon plane on one of those alphanumeric-soup named planets. When they get visuals back, they discover a) that the UAV has crashed into some weird plant and b) that PJ2-455 is not uninhabited after all. SG-1 is sent to retrieve their little toy, even though it is about ten miles away from the Stargate. Their little toy has been recovered by the inhabitants of a village on the planet so inter-species contact is pretty well unavoidable if they want the UAV back. What happens with inter-species contact? Well, keeping this above the waistline as this is a family site after all, bugs. Lots of little bugs that might have no effect on one species but a serious effect on another species. So the poor unsuspecting inhabitants start keeling over with some illness that is both virulent and obviously caused by SG-1's presence on the planet, right? Just because we can't see things does not mean that they aren't there and when the SG-1 team start falling under the influence of the plague as well, it is left up to the brains of the outfit to set things right. Doc Fraiser gets to do a galactic house call and returns with a victim in tow to experiment upon. Nothing seems to work as far as curing the plague is concerned until the other brains of the outfit, namely Sam, makes the connection between the UAV crash and the current galactic predicament.
• Show and Tell (Episode 220) - What, a galactic classroom? Well, not far short of it anyway. When an unauthorised Stargate activation results in a young boy being left in the Gate Room, naturally there is much puzzlement. Even more so when it is discovered that this young boy might well be a cloned effort. He comes bearing a message - well more correctly a warning - that he is to deliver to Jack O'Neill only, under strict instructions from his mother. His mother happens to be a Reetoo, a bug-like race that seems to have been cloned from Starship Troopers and about as nasty. As well as being nasty little buggers, the old can of Mortein will not destroy them as you simply cannot see where to spray. These suckers are out of phase with our universe it seems. It seems the Reetoo have suffered at the hands of the Goa'uld and some rebels have decided that the best form of defence is attack - just not the Goa'uld. They intend to stop the Goa'uld domination by stopping the flow of what the Goa'uld need most. Completely out of their depth, the Tauri seek aid from the Tok'Ra, who just so happen to know a thing or two about the Reetoo. They also have some nifty little gadgets - apparently cloned at least in style from The Fifth Element - that the Reetoo don't especially like. So just how do you stop an alien bug invasion when you cannot see the buggers? And how are you sure that the little buggers aren't already here doing their worst?

Video

    Decent early rains have seen the grain farmers in certain parts of the country planting their crops already. One can only hope that the harvest they reap is as blessed with copious quantities of grain as are Stargate SG-1 DVDs. Yes, I know it is getting monotonous, but not even switching to French-sourced transfers seems to have any effect on the overall harvest. Just for sheer perverse delight, I went and dragged out one of my VHS tapes containing episodes taped from television. Really, there isn't that much difference between them and the DVDs. As far as everything else is concerned, you might as well read any of the earlier reviews of the series.

    The transfers are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and are 16x9 enhanced. The DVD is also Auto Pan and Scan encoded, for those of you wishing to see the series in that cropped form. Having checked out that VHS tape, I am buggered to understand why anyone would want to, but so be it.

    This is merely a decent transfer as far as sharpness and definition go, but still on the acceptable side of things in the overall context of the series. The generally soft definition, not aided by the grain in any way, just robs the transfer of enough detail to annoy, and again makes shadow detail quite ropey here. Once again clarity borders on being pretty lousy, especially in One False Step, where the sickeningly grainy image reminds me of looking at a Petri dish of amoebae through a microscope. This to me cannot be just grain and has to be low level noise mixed with grain - just check out the section from 5:00 to 5:30 to see what I mean. Thankfully this is by far the worst affected episode on the DVD, but the other three still show problems to a far more than acceptable extent.

    In general, the colours come up well, and they are quite consistent. As is quite common with the other DVDs in the series, the contrast could be a little better with more definition in the darker colours. The tonal depth remains mediocre in general. Thankfully, there are no noticeable issues with oversaturation or colour bleed - although the transfers could just about hide a multitude of sins.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There did not appear to be any significant instances of film-to-video artefacts and there are no problems with film artefacts either.

    This is a Dual Layer formatted DVD, as I cannot detect any layer change during the episodes. It is therefore presumed that the first two episodes are mastered on one layer with the other two mastered on the other.

    There are four subtitle options on the DVD, although I restricted myself to only the English for the Hearing Impaired effort. These are good, although as usual missing a bit more of the dialogue at times than I would normally be expecting or wanting.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Whilst this DVD has the consistent three soundtracks available, the options are a little different in being a French Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack, an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack. If you expect me to sample anything other than the English effort, then you are going to be disappointed.

    The dialogue comes up well and is quite clear and generally easy to understand throughout the episodes. There did not seem to be any issue with audio sync here at all.

    The original music comes from Joel Goldsmith in general, with the aid of Kevin Kiner and Richard Band in the episode Holiday. More typical stuff, broadly similar to all the other DVDs and what we would expect from a television series. It does its job pretty well and is quite supportive of the show throughout.

    Surround sound wise, this is very much in the same sort of mold as Volume 5,with remarkably little difference to that effort. It does its job well enough, albeit with more loss of body than would be preferred for this sort of action science-fiction at times.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The usual.

    As far as we are aware, this has not been slated for release in Region 1 yet. However, it should be pointed out that Season One in its entirety was released in a box set and it is to be presumed that Season Two will be so released too. Personally, I would probably wait for that eventuality....

    The usual summary - grain, grain and more grain. Note that some early DVDs were coded Region 2 only, and are therefore only playable on multi-zone players. Large screen owners would again be well advised to audition this DVD before purchase, just in case they suffer from some form of grain-induced motion sickness. Interesting to note the back cover: the photos for Holiday and One False Step have been reversed, and the blurb for Show And Tell especially is not exactly accurate.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall