Stargate SG-1: Season 7 (Vol. 36) [DVD]

Heroes (Part 1): The Air Force sends a documentary crew to capture the historical importance of the Stargate programme. Members of the Stargate Command greet the crew with resistance. Tensions rise when an off world emergency forces General Hammond to restrict the crews access to SGC.

Heroes (part 2): The documentary crew is given a true look at the heroic nature and bond between the soldiers of SGC when a key member of the Stargate Crew is killed in action.

Resurrection: The team are sent to investigate the murder of a group of rogue NID scientists. Whilst piecing together the events of the crime SG-1 discover the scientists may have experimented and combined DNA to create the ultimate evil: a human being that possesses the conscience of a Goa'uld.

Inauguration: On his first day in office, the newly elected President of the United States is told about the Stargate programme and must be brought up to speed on the past seven years of it's existence.

Special Features
Commentaries on each episode
SG-1 Director's Series: Heroes with Andy Mikita
SG-1 Beyond The Gate: Amanda Tapping
SG-1 Director's Series: Resurrection with Amanda Tapping
Production design
Photo gallery

Having said that, although this volume continues that trend, the episodes are strong enough to stand without the character interaction. In particular, the two-parter "Heroes" is the stand-out episode of the season, beautifully played and perfectly poised. The first part manages to give us the old SG-1 character comedy even with the limited interaction, and the second part balances the first with its sudden descent into high tragedy. Excellent use is made of the framing device to keep the viewer in the dark about what's going on, and the episode manages to avoid sentimentality with some great performances. Although I did wonder where the episode was going at some point in the middle, it was consistently entertaining.

"Resurrection" also manages to rise above the lack of Jack O'Neill (although his humour would have added a little more balance to the episode). Smart use of a dark, shadowy warehouse set in which all but on scene takes place imbues the episode with a sense of gloom and claustrophobia that suits the subject matter nicely. As usual, SG-1 manages to consider a difficult issue in all its complexity, and doesn't shy away from ambiguities or unpleasant aspects.

"Inauguration" is the obligatory clip-show, but as usual with Stargate, they manage to make it a cut above your average flashback show, with a strong storyline and a sense of urgency. It's always impressive to see how the show manages to combine the various different political maneuverings of several alien races as well as our own. Although the regular characters only appear in flashback, the script was good enough to keep me interested in the characters who did appear.

All in all, I would say this is the only volume of season 7 that manages to consistently rise above the problem of reduced character interaction, with two strong episodes and one outstanding one.