Stargate the feature film, brainchild of Independence Day writers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, hit our cinemas in 1994. It has greeted with a luke-warm response and enjoyed somewhat mixed success. Although it rose above the b-grade status that is normally associated with its star Kurt Russell, it was far from a box office smash. It wasn't until 1997 that the spin-off TV show Stargate SG-1 appeared, starring MacGyver's Richard Dean Anderson. Thankfully, the series has also managed to rise above the legacy of it’s star; and has even picked up a few awards along the way. For a great overview of the series, check out Anthony‘s review of the previous volume Stargate SG-1 Vol 2.

Here we take a look at Volume 3 which presents 4 episodes that continue series 2. The first 4 episodes of series 2 appear on Volume 2. Confused? Read on!

NEED: Arriving on a lush green planet, the SG-1 team witness priests sending Naquida through the stargate. When a young woman breaks off from the main party and heads into the woods, the team follow her and the plucky Jackson prevents her from an apparent suicide attempt. Captured and accused of being sent by the Goa’uld, SG-1 is taken to the Naquida mine and forced into slavery. But the princess is convinced that Jackson has arrived out of a prophesy foretold by her mother and has him pardoned. So begins a love affair between Jackson and the princess. As Jackson employs his increasing influence to try and free his comrades, little does he realise the danger brought on him by his desperate new sweetheart.

THOR’S CHARIOT: Receiving what they believe to be a disguised cry for help, the SG-1 team return to Cimmeria, their previous visit having robbed the Cimmerians of their primary weapon of defence (known as Thor’s Hammer). When the planet is attacked by the Goa'uld, it is up to O’Neill and the team to try and organise the local inhabitants in its defence. Meanwhile theorising that the Asgard, makers of Thor’s hammer, may have installed some other weapon about the place, Daniel Jackson and Carter set off to find it.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Exploring a now extinct world, the SG-1 team detect a source of electro-magnetic emissions. – a strange orb. The orb is seemingly the last remnant of a long-dead civilisation. The team decide to seize the artefact for further study back on Earth. Too late they discover that the orb contains some kind of virulent organism that infects O’Neill and threatens to destroy the world. Only by reasoning with the organism, which exhibits a remarkable collective consciousness, does the Earth stand a chance of survival.

FAMILY: An emissary from Teal’c’s home world of Chulak arrives through the stargate with some terrible news. Tealc’s son Rya'c has been kidnapped by the local Goa’uld System Lord known as Apophis. The SG-1 team accompany Teal’c on a mission back to Chulak to rescue Rya’c. However, all is not well with his family and Teal’c soon discovers that his wife has remarried and his son has been brainwashed against him.

If you’re an SG-1 fan, then you're going to enjoy this disc, and have probably already bought it. If you are new to SG-1, it is perhaps not as good a representation of the series as the first two discs. With one episode based around a love affair (Need) and one around family wrangling (Family), there’s maybe a little too much melodrama here than action. Thor's Chariot however is a fantastic episode, by far the best on the disc and one of the standouts of series 2. It contains some nice effects and jaffa being blasted all over the shop. Message in a Bottle is also a reasonably good episode, with an interesting scientific premise.

Overall, I enjoyed the series and this disc. The episodes are fairly well written, although with two heavies and two geeks in the SG-1 team the mechanics of each episode are pretty formulaic – heavies shoot things, geeks solve problems and guard the womenfolk. Although some endings are a little trite, the exposition is reasonably well dramatised – a novelty for the genre and American TV in general.

MGM have provided us with an anamorphic transfer, at the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. With the series most likely edited and mastered on video tape, no film artefacts can be seen. Like most of the television series transferred to DVD (that I have seen), the image displays an almost constant level of grain. For most of the disc however, especially the bright outdoor scenes, the grain is very light and you have to look to really notice it. In fact, despite limitations in the image, some of the scenes are quite stunning with vivid colours and a great level of detail. At all times the image is sharp yet devoid of any aliasing problems.

The grain is heavier during darker scenes, and on dark and out of focus backgrounds. In this respect, the image reaches its worst in Thor’s Chariot, with a few scenes shot in dark caves; a higher film speed obviously exacerbating the problem. At these times the grain is very noticeable indeed, with large black areas speckled with noise. This is a shame because, for the majority of the disc, the black level is great. Limitations in the video source material are also apparent when presented with panning shots, with some shimmer and loss of detail created when panning across detailed locations such as dense foliage.

Overall however, I’d have to say that the image on the disc looks pretty damn good, and MGM have done a fine job given the source material. The transfer in no way hinders your enjoyment of the episodes and, despite the odd bad section, it’s the vivid colours that draw your eye. You really stop noticing image limitations after the first 10 minutes.

This is a dual-layer disc, with no layer change detected during the episodes. I can only guess that the episodes are configured two to a layer. There are no extras, but the episodes can be played back-to-back. Like volume 2, the commercial breaks have been removed completely to create a seamless 40-odd minutes for each episode.

Two soundtracks are provided, English and German Dolby Digital 2.0 – I listened only to the English. At all times the dialogue is clear and nicely integrated, and audio sync is not an issue. More so than for any other television series I have watched, the audio provided with SG-1 is nothing short of spectacular. The audio mix has a surprisingly large dynamic range, with the subwoofer getting a good work-out throughout. The surrounds are well utilised, creating a wide sound-stage with an impressive level of ambient noise. The score is also partially mixed to the rear, creating an almost continually enveloping sound experience. It is easy to see where most of the production budget has been spent. Full marks.