Stargate SG1-Volume 12 (Season 3) (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Profile On Dr Jackson (9:32) Featurette-Production Design - Richard Hudolin (7:16) Trailer-Volume 13 Episode Previews; Crystal Skull, Nemesis
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	169:44 (Case: 168)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Warry-Smith Martin Wood Chris McMullin Peter F. Woeste
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 Kevin Kiner

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 German Spanish Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Let's see: Volume 9 was Sam Carter, Volume 10 was Teal'c and Volume 12 is Daniel Jackson. That can only mean that the profile on Jack O'Neill is on Volume 11. You will note that Volume 11 has not yet emerged from the Stargate system. Sorry ladies! Whilst we still await Volume 11 we move right along with Stargate SG-1 Volume 12 which has returned through the Stargate to grace us with its presence. At least the advent of Teryl Rothery and Amanda Tapping has ameliorated to some extent the disappointment arising from the interruption of Marilyn Monroe DVDs for review!

    For those in need of reminding, we are still progressing through the delights of Season Three, with a further four episodes on offer here. The quality of the show continues at a high level and if anything some of the effects work is getting more impressive. The effects for A Hundred Days for instance are almost worthy of feature film status.

    Anyway, the episode offerings on Volume 12 are:

• A Hundred Days - On the lovely but technologically backward planet of Edora, O'Neill has met a lady. One evening, with Sam, Teal'c and Daniel as chaperones, he is sitting out with Laira watching the fire rain. This is an annual event on Edora that the team is privileged to watch - although on earth such displays are better known as meteor showers. The rather pleasant show starts to get a little nasty when some rather big asteroids start to bombard the atmosphere and come very close to actually breaching same and raining down on the planet. The nearness of the disaster that the unsuspecting Edorans understand little of prompts Daniel and Sam to indulge in some further research. That further research indicates that whilst the fire rain is an annual event, resulting from the passage of the planet through an asteroid belt, every hundred and fifty years the fire rain is especially dangerous. So dangerous that the evidence suggests that rather large chunks of the planet are rather devastated. You can pretty well guess that this is the hundred and fiftieth year and that things are going to get very rough. So rough in fact that Jack encourages the Edorans to evacuate the planet for the duration of the fire rain. Unfortunately, some decide to stay and amongst those is the son of Laira - so naturally Jack leaps into action and heads off to find Laira's son. This equally naturally means that when the proverbial hits the fan, Jack is not safe and sound. When the dust settles, Jack has to face up to one rather large home truth. Mind you, there is the delight of Laira's company to assuage the situation.
• Shades of Grey - Diplomatic relations have been established with the Tollans as a result of actions involving the SGC. SG-1 have been delegated to negotiate a trade of technology but when the Tollans refuse - for cultural reasons - Jack gets a little more annoyed than perhaps he should. So annoyed in fact that he summarily terminates the negotiations and as he leaves the conference he rips from the wall a piece of technology that is very useful in locating and neutralising weapons. Upon return to Earth General Hammond is outraged at the actions of O'Neill and basically demands that he return the device to the Tollans immediately. Naturally Jack intends to do no such thing and as a result is told that he is relieved of command. When the Tollans arrive on Earth demanding the return of their technology, things go from bad to worse with the result that Jack is offered early retirement or court-martial. Early retirement it is - whereupon Jack receives a visit from his odiousness, Colonel Maybourne, offering him a chance to do what he obviously likes doing - procuring technology that could prove very useful against the enemy. Despite the history between Maybourne and almost every other member of SGC, Jack agrees to the offer and sets off ostensibly to live out the rest of his days on Edora. All of which is greeted like a lead balloon by SG-1 who take very unkindly to their new commanding officer - Colonel Makepeace. Have we seen the last of Jack? Hint - the Tollans and the Asgard end up quite happy.
• New Ground - On a distant planet in a galaxy far, far, away... two cultures on two continents have developed with opposing points of religious view regarding the origin of the human race. The Bedrosians believe that the human race evolved on their planet. The Optricans believe that the human race originated elsewhere and were somehow transported to the planet. Such is the disagreement between the two views that the two continents have been at war for many years. Hum, interplanetary religious wars? Where would we have heard of this before? Anyway, Bedrosian archaeologists Nyan and Millin have discovered a Stargate buried in the rock at a "dig". This discovery coincides with the Stargate being activated from Earth and a MALP being sent through. This initial contact results in SG-1 going to visit Nyan, who recognises them as human and also recognises that Bedrosian beliefs are a complete sham and that the Optricans are right. Still, scientific truth and accuracy never got in the way of a good war and when the Bedrosian military lead by Rigar arrives, things cannot get much worse for SG-1. The interrogation is painful and lengthy, mainly because Rigar believes only one thing - SG-1 are Optrican spies. So how is SG-1 going to get out of this pickle?
• Maternal Instinct - Master Bra'tac unexpectedly arrives at SGC with a mortally wounded Jaffa apprentice. The bad news is that Apophis has attacked Chulak, wiping out huge chunks of the Jaffa population. So why would a Goa'uld System Lord, who seems to have a knack for not dying, wipe out the Jaffa, the warriors of the Goa'uld? Well, it seems that he might be after something - his son Harsesis perhaps? You know, the one that would have all the knowledge of the Goa'uld? Two plus two equals serious trouble so SG-1 have to locate the child and take him in to safe custody. Through some nifty conjoining of the knowledge of the Jaffa and Earth mythology, the destination chosen is a planet known as Kheb. Turns out this mystical place is sacred to the Jaffa, so seems a likely place to hide a child. Upon arriving at the planet, it is soon discovered that they are not the first with this idea and things look mighty bad for the child when the SG-1 team find some very well burnt Jaffa remains. However, a mystery requires unlocking and when a serene place is found, along with a mysterious monk, Daniel is in his element trying to work out the riddle. A riddle that just might have a huge bearing on the safety of Harsesis.

Video

    After the significant improvements in the last few volumes reviewed in the series, it has to be said that this volume sees something of a return of the bad old days of grain. Whilst nowhere near as bad as the earliest volumes, it is significantly worse than we have encountered in the last three volumes reviewed. A disappointment therefore as grain is the only issue that makes an appearance in my notes.

    As usual, the transfers are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and are 16x9 enhanced. As usual too, to accommodate those that have not yet seen the light with respect to widescreen presentation, the DVD is also Auto Pan and Scan encoded.

    In general, this is a decently sharp transfer with above average definition for a television series. Shadow detail could at times be a little better, and it has to be noted that there is just the slightest digital edge to some of the outdoor scenes at various times. Other than that the only reportable issue with the transfer is the grain - poor examples of the problem can be found at 14:34 of A Hundred Days, 20:50 of Shades of Grey, 16:40 of New Ground and especially bad examples at 0:13 and 29:29 of Maternal Instinct. The latter episode is by far the poorest on the DVD and is the poorest we have seen since Volume 7. Naturally, clarity is somewhat diminished by the return of the grain harvest, and low level noise is also almost on the verge of breaking out at times. After previous improvements, this is a sad reversal of form.

    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 not exactly a problem but some aliasing does get a little noticeable: 20:50 of Shades of Grey exhibits some issue here. There are no problems with film artefacts.

    This is a Dual Layered DVD, with no layer change during the episodes. It is therefore presumed that the first two episodes are mastered on one layer and the other two mastered on the other.

    There are seven subtitle options on this DVD. I restricted myself to only the English 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 but are generally pretty good.

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 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 episodes except Shades Of Grey, which is handled by Kevin Kiner. He also assists on New Ground. Nothing much 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. Whilst there could have perhaps been more action in the soundtrack, given the television nature of the programme, the surround work on A Hundred Days in particular is very impressive. 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

    A reasonable enough package.

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.

Featurette - Profile On Dr Jackson (9:32)

    Continuing the look at the characters of the series, this features interview material with Michael Shanks and others, with a bit of behind the scenes footage mixed with episode footage. Like the others we have seen, it does its job of providing an EPK-style introduction to the character and the actor playing it pretty well. 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 very grainy at times.

Featurette - Production Design: Richard Hudolin (7:16)

    A bit of a change here with a look at the production design of the show and how it is handled, featuring interview material with Production Designer Richard Hudolin. One thing that becomes readily apparent - this is no ordinary television series from a design point of view. 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 very grainy at times.

Trailers - Volume 13 Episode Previews (2)

    Something else a bit different - we get two promotional trailers for episodes to appear on the next volume in the series. The two episodes are Crystal Skull and Nemesis and both trailers run for 0:47. They are the "next week's episode" trailers that usually appear on television at the end of the evening's episode. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, they are not 16x9 enhanced and come with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

    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 here now.

    Whilst Volume 12 is somewhat of a regression from a transfer quality point of view, there are not too many qualms about the quality of the episodes. This is a series in its maturity and it is reflected on screen in all ways possible. Whilst the usual caveat emptor exists for large screen owners, the episode quality almost overrules the transfer quality and makes this a watchable DVD. Just be warned though - do not let the copyright notices start after the last episode, otherwise you will be stuffed. They are mastered to lock out the remote commands and once started the only way to escape them is to eject the DVD. Extremely poor stuff in my view. Oh, and I have to say that the blurb writer employed by MGM Home Entertainment is getting even more away from reality with the little cover blurbs. I am beginning to wonder whether they actually watch the episodes before they write the blurbs. As well as that, photos have again been transposed between the episodes!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall