Stargate SG1-Volume 7 (Season 2 & Season 1 bonus episodes) (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	169:48
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Charles Correll Martin Wood Brad Turner
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 Kevin Kiner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish 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 German for the Hearing Impaired Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    One of the big complaints regarding the the entire issuance programme for Stargate SG-1 on DVD has been the lack of season by season box sets. The other big complaint is the fact that we haven't seen most of Season One, whilst we have with this Volume 7 in the series seen all of Season Two. As compensation for not seeing most of Season One, MGM Home Entertainment think that we are going to be satisfied with two isolated episodes bunged onto the tail end of the last Season Two DVD. Sorry, it does not satisfy at all and the presentation is an absolute joke. Indeed, the presentation here only serves to highlight the utterly ludicrous nature of the release format.

    How on earth can an episodic series where each episode builds upon the foundation created by the prior episodes be presented having a dozen or more of its building blocks missing? Even MGM Home Entertainment to some extent admit this by the choice of the Season One episodes used to fill out this DVD. The Season Two episodes refer to events and people that were first brought to the attention of the viewer back in Season One. Without understanding the context of those events and people, the Season Two episodes to some extent simply do not work. So in order to sort of cover that gaping void created by not having Season One on DVD in its entirety, the Season One episodes on the DVD - Thor's Hammer and Hathor - have been chosen to try and fill in the void. Of course, since they are presented as the last two episodes on the DVD, you don't know this until after you have watched the two Season Two episodes upon which they draw. Worse still is that there are other references in those Season Two episodes that remain unexplained due to the fact that there is not enough space on the DVD to include all the relevant Season One episodes.

    In some ways, I would almost prefer not to have Stargate SG-1 on DVD at all rather than this botched up release programme that we, and Region 2, have suffered and are suffering. MGM Home Entertainment should look to what their competitors, and their Region 1 affiliate, are doing and see that season by season box sets are the way to go. To continue this disgraceful presentation of the series on DVD is doing them no favours whatsoever. When exactly can we expect episodes 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118?

    Well, having got that rant out of the way, on with the offerings on Volume 7:

• 1969 (Episode 221) - In theory time travel is possible thanks to the laws of physics, but it creates all sorts of problems. As anyone who has ever watched Star Trek knows, you have to be very careful about what you do with time travel or otherwise you might snuff yourself out of existence. So exactly how is time travel possible? Talk to a physics whiz, I am just watching a television show! The SG-1 team are heading off on another mission but this time the journey mapping is critical as solar flare activity is rampant. The ever-brilliant Sam has calculated a trajectory that should keep them safe on their journey through the Stargate. So why exactly have they turned up in a cavernous missile silo staring up at the very wrong end of an ICBM? As O'Neill would say "this is not good". Even worse is when the team is arrested by the local military under the assumption that they are spies. Well, it is the Cold War and Commie spies are everywhere - at least according to the Americans. The slightly less brilliant Sam advises the team to shut up and concentrate on getting out of jail. To do so, they need some help and this comes in the form of some guy they know real well, as well as two refugees from the height of flower power on their way to some concert in upstate New York. This is what the SG-1 team have to work with in their efforts to either get home or find a nice secluded place to live out the rest of their lives.
• Out Of Mind (Episode 222) - Deep in the bowels of Stargate Command, Jack O'Neill is awakened to be told that he has been frozen for 79 years and everyone he ever knew is dead. Talk about a serious head ****. The efficient staff start seeking information from him about what happened to the rest of the team all those years ago. Unfortunately, Jack does not remember anything. This makes Jack rather perplexed. Deep in the bowels of Stargate Command, Daniel Jackson is awakened to be told that he has been frozen for 79 years and everyone he ever knew is dead. Talk about a serious head ****. The efficient staff start seeking information from him about what happened to the rest of the team all those years ago. Unfortunately, Daniel does not remember anything. This makes Daniel rather perplexed. Deep in the bowels of Stargate Command, Samantha Carter is awakened to be told that she has been frozen for 79 years and everyone she ever knew is dead. Talk about a serious head ****. The efficient staff start seeking information from her about what happened to the rest of the team all those years ago. Unfortunately, Sam does not remember anything. This makes Sam rather perplexed. Deep in the bowels of Stargate Command, Teal'c is awakened to be told that he has been out of commission for three weeks and what the heck happened to the other three members of SG-1? Just because it looks like SGC does not mean that is SGC. So which one of the team is in the true reality, and which ones are having serious head *****? To be continued.... arggghhhhhh.
• Thor's Hammer (Episode 109) - The resident mythologist, Daniel Jackson, is connecting mythical persons from various ancient cultures to the Goa'ulds that the SGC teams are meeting on their little jaunts around the universe. Reasoning that there is some connection between "bad" gods and the Goa'uld, there should be connections between good gods and galactic protectors. One such should be Thor from Norse mythology, and they happen to know a planet where Thor is revered. So the SG-1 band heads off to Cimmeria in search of a potential ally in Thor. Arriving on the planet, they find that Thor is indeed protecting the planet as his hammer has been erected in the front of the gate and acts as a security guard against certain unsavoury characters. So Teal'c and Jack find themselves separated from Sam and Daniel. Teal'c and Jack are in a place they don't want to be, meeting a hologram of Thor and being consigned to a labyrinth from which escape is not going to be easy - especially as the labyrinth is the home of Unas, the first Goa'uld. Meantime, Daniel and Sam are engaging the local populace in trying to locate their missing companions. This puts them into contact with Kendra, an unusual character who was once a Goa'uld. So how exactly has she survived the "removal" of the slug, and can she help Daniel in the quest to save his wife? Oh, and does she have any way of aiding them in their search for their companions?
• Hathor (Episode 113) - Having met Hathor in the episode Out To Mind, we now get to see the first appearance of the rather sensual Goa'uld. The setting is a Mayan pyramid, where an archaeological dig has made a rather startling discovery - an Egyptian burial box. Since this basically turns up more puzzles than could possibly be answered, the archaeologists inadvertently open the box. The consequences you will have to discover, but by a convoluted trail the box ends up in the presence of the only person who has ever speculated on cross-cultural interaction between ancient civilisations - Daniel Jackson. It would appear that Hathor is still in residence and when she rises from her slumber, demands to be returned to Ra. Obviously that is a slight problem - one which Jack explains. For some reason Hathor is rather overjoyed by the news. Plus she now has a mission - to repopulate the universe with Goa'uld. With her irresistible attraction to men, this should not be any great problem. Except that the women of SGC decide to take matters into their own hands.

Video

    Short form: just the same as earlier Volumes in the series, only slightly less blessed with grain. Long form: read the short form twenty times over.

    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 form.

    A slightly better than decent transfer as far as sharpness and definition go, that is the best that we have seen thus far in the series. Not that this really means that much as this is only a modest improvement and still barely near acceptable standards. The generally soft definition continues to rob the transfer of a little too much detail, and there is certainly no improvement in the shadow detail. Still, any improvement in the transfer quality has to be welcomed.

    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 is decent enough in general. There are no noticeable issues with oversaturation or colour bleed.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, although at about 17:44 of 1969 there is some obvious pixelization in the background. There is also a slight glitch at around 3:20 of the same episode where there is a white screen for a brief moment. 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 three 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 an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack. You might have noticed that these choices are a tad different to Volume 6.

    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 in Out Of Mind. 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.

    As regards surround activity, this soundtrack is very much in the same sort of mold as the previous volumes, with remarkably little difference to those efforts. It does its job well enough, albeit with that slight 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....

    Well at least there is less grain to complain about, but the transfer is still far from acceptable. Large screen owners remain well advised to audition this DVD before purchase, just in case they suffer from the overabundance of grain.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall