Stargate SG-1 - The Best of Series 1 [DVD]

For a start, important themes from Children of the Gods are concluded in The Enemy Within which is not included on this disc. Also many episodes which begin far-reaching story arcs continued in later seasons (which are available on DVD) are not included here, leading to more bafflement for the viewer. Quite apart from their value as conveyers of important information about the team, there can be no excuse for not including such excellent episodes as The Nox, The Torment of Tantalus, Bloodlines, Fire & Water, Cor-Ai, Enigma, and Solitudes.

It's true that not every S1 episode was a winner. Some, like Emancipation are downright embarrassing, and Broca Divide, Brief Candle, and The First Commandment also have their less than stellar moments. However, with the exception of Emancipation, there isn't a single S1 episode that doesn't have *some* merit; something that can't be necessarily be said about some S4 and S5 episodes which are being granted a DVD release.

What is even more galling is that the far more 'patchy' fourth season of Stargate has been released in its entirety by MGM simply because it was filmed on 35mm and S1 wasn't. The film quality of S1 may not be quite as high as later seasons but there are scripts and stories in this season which are equal to anything produced since (Solitudes for one) and in some cases superior to almost every Stargate episode produced later (The Torment of Tantalus) in fidelity to the original themes of the Stargate feature film and originality of storyline.

So, great to have some S1 episodes on DVD, but how much more satisfying if MGM had released them all in a boxset for Region 2 viewers as well as for Region 1 viewers.

The DVD itself is a pretty sorry example of its kind. First of all, the video quality is one of the worst I've seen. It's very grainy and quite distracting at times. The box says "widescreen version" but apart from the menu, it was fullscreen (this may be Amazon's fault -- the DVD wasn't shrink wrapped, unlike others, so it's possible that it's the wrong box). There are no extras, and it's even impossible to move from one episode to the next by skipping to the next chapter, which is what I usually do when I don't want to see the end credits. At least there are subtitles for the hearing impaired (which, as sometimes happens with DVDs, take an occasional license to deviate a bit from the actual words being said).

I bought this DVD on a sale at Amazon, and for that price I think it's decent value. The normal price seems too high to me for the value that this DVD provides. It allowed me to refresh my memory about the first season, and was enjoyable for that. It's also a good way to tie in to the second season for those who want to buy just the second. However, I doubt there are many such people. Most people would prefer buying the complete first season, which provides over four times the number of episodes for a little over twice the price.