Category: Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy - Movie - TV Shows - Television
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Our Price: $28.97YOU SAVE $21.01!
Buy it
DVD Stargate SG-1 Season 5 (Thinpak)
It now seems clear that season 5 of Stargate SG-1 will be remembered as the one in which something went awry with Daniel Jackson. Lots of behind-the-scenes rumors fueled the idea of cast tension, but whatever the problem, his sudden departure from the show was obviously through a quickly contrived scenario. In retrospect, there must have been a problem for some while before the weird penultimate episode ("Meridian"). Michael Shanks looks frequently bored in his rare moments of individual screen time as he infiltrates a Goa'uld meeting and even when making friends with a creature everyone else wants dead. In fact, there's only one point when everyone really seems to be having fun, and that's in the spoof 100th episode "Wormhole X-treme!"
Most shows go through a run-around, skin-of-their-teeth period awaiting renewal, and it certainly seems to have affected storylines this year. For example, a next generation of younger SG teams is introduced. Replacements? The most unfortunate aspect of things, however, was that not a single episode managed to stand alone on its own merits. Every single story was dependent on a part of the greater interwoven warring-species threads. Some of the one-off tales were terrific in and of themselves, but it was as if the writers fell into the trap of having to refer to as much backstory as possible, perhaps to ensure loose ends could be easily wrapped up? Ultimately none of this mattered since the show went on for quite a while. --Paul Tonks
The series as always an excellent and fun to watch, all the characters always gives their best and really worth it.
I Really Enjoy The Series (TV) & I'm Happy To Own This Season on DVD
Due to my occupation, I might catch one of the episodes on TV one Friday night-but then the next Friday night I'd be at work & didn't want to bother with taping the show... (I'm slowly working on replacing all of the VHS movies I have with DVDs).
Now, I have the entire season on DVD & can watch them when it's convenient for me. No VHS tapes to wear out & the pack takes up quite a bit less space compared to buying the series on videocassette tape.
Another fine set of episodes for one of TV's most consistent shows
I have an extremely conflicted relationship with STARGATE SG-1. On the one hand, I think it one of the most consistently entertaining shows on TV, almost always featuring very strong individual episodes with remarkably few truly awful episodes. Although THE X-FILES was a much greater series than STARGATE SG-1, it probably had far more truly weak episodes (although it also had many more truly great ones). STARGATE SG-1's greatest virtue is its amazing consistency. Given that it is now heading into its tenth season, its track record for steadily solid episodes is almost without precedent. On the other hand, there was after Seasons Two and Three an opportunity to do something extraordinary, the potential for true greatness. In those two seasons it appeared that the show was going to embrace the long story arc format with one episode after another spilling into the next. Unfortunately, that did not occur. Luckily the show does possess a memory, and frequently builds new episodes on previous episodes. But in the end its narrative is more like STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION instead of FARSCAPE or FIREFLY. When I reflect on how good the individual episodes are, I inevitably wonder just how good the show could have been if in Seasons Four and Five they had fully embraced the long narrative format.
Why didn't STARGATE embrace the long narrative format after seemingly flirting with it in the second and third seasons? My suspicion is that the network put pressure on them to stress stand alone episodes. Networks are leery of long narrative shows because the assumption is that it makes it more difficult to attract new viewers. There is undoubtedly some truth to this. It would have been very hard for a new viewer to pick up BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER in the middle of Season Five while someone trying to start right now with LOST would have a great deal of difficulty, just as someone trying to start 24 with the 13th hour would be very much at a loss. But there is also no question that the long narrative format is vastly superior as entertainment and as art for the viewers. There is simply no greater experience on television than becoming deeply immersed in a series as it tells a rapidly developing and evolving story.
Another mark of the long narrative format is character development. Think of how much Aeryn Sun grew and changed over four seasons of FARSCAPE or Cordelia or Willow in BUFFY. One of the marks of the best shows is how characters change and grow over the course of a series. In this regard, STARGATE was by the end of Season Five quite a disappointment. Even factoring in Daniel Jackson's ascension at the end of the season, none of the main characters had changed or grown since the show began. Compare this to any of the main characters on BUFFY, where all of the characters had changed dramatically. Another contrast with BUFFY: each season of BUFFY was strikingly different from any other season. The show never was content with simply doing the same thing each year. Unfortunately, by Season Five of STARGATE it was pretty clear that the series had fallen into a formula. It had become a "safe" show, one that was not going to play with its core formula or truly shake things up. At the end of Season Five the ascension of Daniel Jackson seemed to show promise for altering the formula, but that was a hope that would prove short lived.
So the show had at the end of Season Five become enormously dependable. Each episode was almost certainly going to be a good one, but it was also going to be one in which nothing new was truly going to happen. It had become a show whose each episode I would very much look forward to, but one that never caused the viewer to say, "Oh my God! What's going to happen next!?" That is a question that I always asked with BUFFY or ANGEL or LOST or FARSCAPE or even SMALLVILLE, but that I never wanted to ask with STARGATE.
I find all of this tragic. One of my regrets about STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION is that it ran before shows like THE X-FILES and BUFFY made it possible for Sci-fi or supernatural shows to embrace the long narrative format. I find it perplexing that STARGATE did not choose to do so. It did, however, by continuously referring to previous episodes give some of the feeling of the long narrative format. But I would have so much more enjoyed the series if each week left many of the central plot elements unresolved. I would have liked to see an episode effect a character so deeply that they couldn't forget what had happened for weeks to come.
Still, all in all this remained an extremely fine Sci-fi series. And even as we head into Season Ten it remains a show that I enjoy very much indeed.
It wasn't until the beginning of Stargate SG-1's fourth season that fans knew to take the Replicator threat seriously. The spidery nasties had only seemed like one of many new enemies introduced in previous years. But when the one seemingly omnipotent backbone of the galaxy was asking Earth for help, clearly we were in real trouble! In fact, the team's list of enemies expanded and got far more complicated this year. Proving without a shadow of a doubt that this is science fiction, the Russians reveal they have their own Stargate program and ask the Americans for help. This twist allows for exploration of all the political machinations occurring behind the scenes of the SG-C, all of which appear to stem from the embittered Senator Kinsey (Ronny Cox).
There were quite a few... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $28.97YOU SAVE $21.01!
Buy it
The biggest change for Stargate SG-1's sixth season was its move to the Sci-Fi Channel. Financial rescue or genre haven from cancellation? Whatever the behind-the-scenes politics, the departure of Daniel Jackson (actor Michael Shanks) the previous year most certainly contributed to the need to run a tighter ship somewhere. With the addition of his replacement, Jonas Quinn, the new show dynamic (hinted at by the new title theme) meant far more convolutedly involved story arcs and less individual focus. One of very few solo spotlights came from Christopher Judge writing his own show, when "The Changeling" saw Teal'c act out a life as a fireman. One reason for its being a fan favorite was the cameo from still-alive-after-all Daniel Jackson. There'd be several more through the year,... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $24.97YOU SAVE $25.01!
Buy it
To resolve the season 2 cliffhanger, General Hammond rounds up every conceivable ally to rescue the SG-1 team from Hathor's clutches and gets a much-needed field trip in the process. "Into the Fire " is actually a weak opening for the new year, but does boast some impressive visuals as Hammond and Brat'ac pilot a shuttle through an open Stargate (euphemistically called "threading the needle"). In subsequent episodes, Daniel Jackson is intrigued by the planet Orban's scientific advances over only a few years. An exchange of knowledge is agreed and the precise "Learning Curve" of their children is revealed. Still recalling the original movie, O'Neill is concerned for the siblings because of the loss of his son. In "Demons" some serious lambasting of organized religion occurs in a storyline... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $28.97YOU SAVE $21.01!
Buy it
A gradual shift in overall style, character homecomings and departures, and evolving on- and off-screen roles for the major players are among the attractions of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1. Spread out over five discs, these 21 episodes are ample indication that changes notwithstanding--and admittedly, not all of them are for the better--the series remains arguably the best-made, most compelling sci-fi program on television.
Perhaps most noticeable is the reduced role of star Richard Dean Anderson, who opted to limit his number of trips to Vancouver, where Stargate SG-1 is filmed. But that's not a bad thing. The show's ability to poke fun at itself has always been a strong suit, and while Anderson still brings a welcome sense of humor to his portrayal of... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $24.97YOU SAVE $25.01!
Buy it
The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted with Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Replacing the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill (Kurt Russell) and Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) are, respectively, Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaonic Goa'uld--the ancient... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 13 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $24.97YOU SAVE $25.01!
Buy it
