Stargate SG1-Volume 10 (Season 3) (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Profile on Teal'C (10:31)
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	169:44 (Case: 168)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	William Gereghty Peter DeLuise
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Richard Dean Anderson Michael Shanks Amanda Tapping Christopher Judge Don S. Davis
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Joel Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/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 Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Stargate SG-1 Volume 10 sees us just about caught up on the releases thus far for the series (sorry, we have not yet obtained Volume 11). It has seen us cover seven volumes in about two months (yes, I know - I am very slack), these volumes having seen an overall significant improvement in quality as we have progressed to Season Three. Hopefully, this overdue improvement in quality will be continuing henceforth and thus make a significant contribution to the enjoyment to be had watching the series. I might not always show it in the reviews, but after well over five hundred reviews for this site it takes something pretty special to make the reviewing process an enjoyable one - and this series is pretty special. When you add this uniqueness, for that is pretty well what it is amongst current science fiction television series, to transfers that are eminently watchable, it makes the prospect of sitting down for hours to do a review a far more palatable prospect indeed. The adventures of the SG-1 team are amongst the few things that genuinely keep my interest up.

    Anyway, before I got too maudlin, I suppose we should check out the episode offerings on Volume 10:

• Rules Of Engagement (Episode 309) - The SG-1 team arrive on another planet in the galactic Stargate system to find what seems to be their long missing-in-action comrades from SG-11 in battle with a Jaffa army. Some might question what is so special about an army of oranges, but they would obviously be showing their ignorance of the entire System Lord system thing. Suffice it to say, these are not oranges battling away - they are honest-to-goodness warriors in the service of a Goa'uld System Lord. Nasty stuff. So naturally enough the SG-1 team come to the aid of the beleaguered SG team, which therefore doubles the surprise when their comrades start firing upon them. Err, did anyone notice something wrong here? Well, it is so obvious that even Jack O'Neill, always the intellectually challenged one, knows that this is not right. Slowly but surely enough hints are dropped so that even Jack catches on - these may not be SGC comrades after all. Well, what would you do if you had to learn all you could about an enemy that is dangerous enough to have managed to stop a Goa'uld invasion of Earth and contributed to the death of one of the most feared System Lords in Apophis? Things never go quite the way you want them to though, especially when these Jaffa seem to be loyal vassals of that System Lord!
• Forever In A Day (Episode 310) - Multiple SG teams are involved in the rescue of captured Abydonians, including Kasuf, Daniel's father-in-law, when Daniel sees his long lost wife Sha're. As she disappears into a tent, Daniel follows her only to be reminded that she is Sha're in appearance only - she is now the Goa'uld Amaunet, former wife of Apophis. As the SG teams come under blistering attack from a large number of Jaffa, Daniel tries to get Sha're to return with him. All he ends up doing is being brought to the brink of death by the Goa'uld ribbon device being brandished by Amaunet. Only the intervention of Teal'c saves his life, but the cost is extreme. Daniel has a tough time accepting the cost and resigns from the SGC, never to return it seems. However, despite the fact that Sha're is dead, Daniel still keeps seeing her and she is trying to tell him something. Even Kasuf knows that Sha're is trying to pass on a message and Daniel eventually has to seek clarity on this matter. The only way that is going to happen is from within SGC - of which he is no longer a member.
• Past And Present (Episode 311) - The SG-1 team find themselves walking through the Stargate and into - a warehouse of sorts. For all intents and purposes it appears that the Stargate has not been used for a long time. Nonetheless, their arrival does get noticed and they find themselves in the presence of two locals. It is interesting that these people have no idea of who they are or any memories before a mysterious event called the "Vorlix". Turns out that the whole planet is suffering from some sort of mass amnesia, compounded by the fact that there are no elders around and children are also conspicuous by their absence. The team is introduced to a young woman named Ke'ra who seems to be in charge around these parts. She reveals that so far their researches into what happened have been relatively fruitless, and she is grateful for the help that the SG-1 team offer. When Doc Fraiser makes another of her galactic house calls (only a government could afford these bills), she decides that some volunteers are needed back on Earth to aid her research. It turns out that there is a logical cause for the lack of children, the lack of memory and the lack of elders. It all seems to relate to a little event that SG-1 had a hand in - the release of a woman named Linea (remember her?).
• Jolinar's Memories (Episode 312) - More bad news for Sam - Selmak has been captured by the evil System Lord Sokar, and has been incarcerated on Hell following his torture. Martouf comes enlisting the aid of Sam as it seems that the only person who has ever escaped from Hell is Jolinar. He wants to access Jolinar's memories in order to mount a rescue mission to get Selmak. The method for accessing these memories we have seen before - although then in the hands of the Goa'uld rather than the Tok'ra. Sam agrees, and the rest of the team volunteers for the mission. The main problem is that Jolinar's memories have been partially inaccessible as they might reveal things that former lover Martouf might not want to know. Once on Hell, Jolinar's memories come in useful and things might be going their way when Selmak and Sam also gets called to see the Lord of Netu (a.k.a. Hell), Bynarr. She seems convinced that Bynarr is the key to getting off Hell, but when he is killed by his second-in-command, things go really wacky. And wait until you see who his second-in-command is. To be continued..... bugger!

Video

    As with the previous two volumes in the series, the quality of the transfers here are much improved and given the general lack of notes I made during the review session, this would be arguably the best volume we have yet seen. It is still by no means perfect and certainly not of reference quality, but for a television series it is not half bad. As usual, the transfers are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and are 16x9 enhanced. To accommodate those that have not yet seen the light with respect of widescreen presentation, the DVD is also Auto Pan and Scan encoded.

    Read my lips (well, really, just read the review for Volume 9): in general, this is a nice, sharp transfer with above average definition for a television series. There really is not much hidden by the transfer and apart from slight lapses in shadow detail at times, this is a nice looking transfer. Unlike Volume 9 however, the grain seemed to be a little improved here and basically fell into a more consistent nature that is generally noticeable throughout the transfers, but not really that much of an intrusion. Clarity continues to be much improved as a result of the slightly improved grain, and there did not appear to be any problem with low level noise.

    The colours continue to be a little underdone, very much on a par with the previous volumes in the series. Overall though, they remain quite vibrant and nicely rendered, with interior shots having a good tonal depth to them. There is no issue with saturation nor with colour bleed.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Aliasing and other film-to-video artefacts are again pretty much absent from the equation. There are no problems with film artefacts.

    This is a Dual Layer formatted DVD, with no 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 seven subtitle options on the DVD. I restricted myself to only the English for the Hearing Impaired effort. Very much in the same mold as the earlier DVDs in the series, they are missing just a little here and there as far as dialogue is concerned.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three soundtracks available on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack. I valiantly stuck with the English option.

    The dialogue comes up well and is 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 for all four episodes. Nothing much more than what we have heard before and doing the job well enough to contribute to the overall success of the television series.

    For most people there is not likely to be much complaint with the soundtrack. Only 5.1 fetishists will be clamouring for more action in the soundtrack. There seems to be good presence from the surround channels, with the rear channels making a decent contribution. The sound is not suffering any form of congestion and the overall result is quite natural.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Again, nothing really and truly exciting but still a nice enough inclusion.

Menu

    The same vibrant menu style introduced on Volume 8 continues here with the better audio and animation enhancement. The menus themselves are also 16x9 enhanced. It should be noted that this time the DVD goes straight to the menu therefore the usual animated introduction to the main menu is absent.

Featurette - Profile On Teal'c (10:31)

    Continuing the look at the characters of the series, which would indicate that we will see one for each major character. Featuring some interview material with Christopher Judge and others, with a bit of behind the scenes footage mixed with episode footage, it really does its job of providing an EPK-style introduction to the character and the actor playing it. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The picture is quite grainy at times, reflecting the quality of the transfers from Season Two.

    As far as we are aware, this has not been slated for release in Region 1 yet. When it eventually gets released in Region 1 it will most likely be in a season box set, which is by far the preferred presentation for television series. Still, if you cannot wait, the Region 4 version is of a sufficient quality to recommend now.

    Stargate SG-1 Volume 10 is somewhat improved upon previous volumes of the series, and represents the best we have yet seen in quality terms for Stargate SG-1. Whilst the usual caveat emptor exists for large screen owners, this continues the improvements in general for Season Three and makes this an eminently watchable DVD.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall