For the uninitiated, Stargate SG-1 is the hugely successful, award-winning TV spin-off from the 1994 sci-fi blockbuster movie, Stargate and this is my second review from Season 7, continuing on from the Volume 33 review. Anyway, SG-1 follows the exploits of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson from the movie and their teammates as they investigate a myriad of other worlds via the Stargate. Volume 34 is the third instalment from Season 7 and shows episodes 9-12 from this season so here's a brief synopsis of each of these…
Avenger 2.0 - While most of SG-1 are off world, their old friend and number one fan Dr. Jay Felger manages to blow the SGC power supply while testing a new plasma cannon. Since General Hammond isn't very pleased with him, he promises to have a new solution in 24 hours and he comes up with Avenger, a computer virus designed to shut down any Stargate in the network. Felger gets the go-ahead to test it and targets a mining world owned by the Goa'uld system lord Ba'al but, as you'd expect with Felger, the test doesn't go exactly to plan and all of the Stargates are shut down, trapping Daniel in a flood and Jack and Teal'c in the middle of a battle. Meanwhile, Ba'al seizes takes advantage of the situation and launches a series of attacks on his fellow system lords.
Birthright - SG-1 and some friendly Jaffa warriors are attacked by a group of female Jaffa who salvage the Goa'uld symbiote larvae from the dying Jaffa and take the team to their camp on another world. It turns out that the women are subjects of the system lord Moloch, who kills all Ha'ktyl or first-born female Jaffa, so they've rebelled but still need the symbiotes to keep their female children alive when they reach puberty. Sam offers them the drug Tretonin as a substitute for the symbiotes and Teal'c helps convince them that the drug will work for them but the tests don't go well when one woman dies and both Teal'c and Daniel are held hostage as the Ha'ktyl go in search of more symbiotes in the only way they know how.
Evolution Part 1 - When two groups of Jaffa are struck down by an immensely powerful warrior who only goes down after multiple Zat blasts, Sam and her father Sel'mac run an examination on the body. They discover that the warrior is a modified Goa'uld that has been fused into an energy absorbing suit and it died from the strain of that rather than the Zat shots. While Sam tries to come up with a way to penetrate the armour and Bra'tac tries to capture a warrior alive, Daniel and Dr. Lee heads off to South America following a lead suggested by Sel'mac concerning a superior healing device created by the Ancients but used by the system lord Telchak to develop the healing sarcophagi. Telchak was defeated by Anubis, so he could be involved as well.
Evolution Part 2 - The team have concluded that Anubis creating the new bio-warriors and Daniel and Dr. Lee have found a mysterious artefact in South America but been taken hostage by local rebels who are demanding a ransom for their lives. Jack, having located the secret bio-warrior base, is sent to rescue him while Sam, Teal'c, Bra'tac and Jacob infiltrate Anubis' warrior base and discover that the future could hold some serious problems for the team.
Review
As ever, the core cast of Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Amanda Tapping, Don S. Davis and Michael Shanks give solid, entertaining performances and regulars Teryl Rothery, Tony Amendola and Carmen Argenziano give great supporting performances where they appear.
As previously stated in the Volume 33 review, Season 7 sees Richard Dean Anderson taking more of a back seat in the storylines as he's decided to cut down his workload, which means that the other members of the team get a bit more focus in the storylines, although they still don't get the witty one-liners.
The picture is presented in 1.78:1 (16:9) anamorphic widescreen and the picture is excellent throughout. Colours are solid, blacks are black and there are no obvious signs of grain or artefacts. Visual and CG effects are again excellent where they are used and alien make-up is good as well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a bonus for a TV show and as with earlier seasons, it can't really be faulted although it could be better. Dialogue and music is up front and centre with effects and ambient sounds from the surrounds.
On to the episodes, which were a great improvement over some on the previous volume. Every one of them has Goa'uld involvement this time - one with a computer virus line, one with a new line in Amazon women and a great two-parter with something that could cause some real problems for the team down the line…
Avenger 2.0 - Remember Dr. Felger, the daydreaming hero of Season 6's "The Other Guys"? Well, he's back and this time he has to save the entire Stargate network and rescue the stranded SGC teams. The thing is - it looks like his computer virus caused it all in the first place - queue the funny episode. As you might imagine from that, this episode is one of those in a more humorous vein and it works pretty well as a bit of light relief all round, although I didn't think it was quite as funny as "The Other Guys". Good performances by Patrick McKenna as Jay Felger and Jocelyn Loewen as Chloe.
Birthright - This episode brings in a new set of players to the mix - female Jaffa and, although that in itself doesn't further the major Goa'uld storyline much, it does add a new dimension to the potential character mix for forthcoming tales. It's also an excellent episode with a pretty interesting plot and a fair bit of action for those like that. It's written by Christopher Judge and, as you'd expect, his character Teal'c has a much more prominent (and vocal) role here. You might just recognise that high priestess Ishta is played by Jolene Blalock who plays T'Pol from Enterprise.
Evolution Parts 1 and 2 - There's not much point treating these as separate episodes as they were written and directed by the same people. Anyway this two-parter spans the middle of the season's episodes and as such it should be a cracker so are we disappointed? Certainly not - this is an excellent story loaded with plot and action. It gets a bit confusing at times as there are two main threads running and we have to try to catch up with Jack's old buddy, Burke who, as a new character, has a great deal of history to get over. Good performances by Bill Dow as Dr. Lee, Frank Roman as Rafael and Enrico Colantoni as Burke.
Extras
Audio Commentaries - All four episodes have a pretty interesting optional commentary and as before the various groups involved give entertaining and interesting descriptions of what's going on and some of the how and whys involved with a fair amount of humour in there as well. Avenger 2.0 is commented on by Amanda Tapping and director Martin Wood. Birthright is commented on by director Peter Woeste, director of photography Jim Menard and set decorators Mark and Robert Davidson. Evolution Part 1 is commented on by director Peter DeLuise and actor Gary Jones who plays Master Sergeant Walter Davis, the Stargate technician. Evolution Part 2 is commented on by Amanda Tapping and director Peter DeLuise. As usual, Peter DeLuise gives the most fun commentaries but Martin Wood has his moments as well as he gets the funny episode to do.
SG-1 Director's Series - Avenger 2.0 - Director Martin Wood and some of the production team give us a just over eight minute long look at the first episode on the disc. There's some humorous interview material with Amanda Tapping and Patrick McKenna and some comparisons of final edit shots with behind the scenes footage.
SG-1 Beyond The Gate: Christopher Judge - An entertaining, 13-minute featurette featuring Christopher Judge, who plays Teal'c. Christopher, sporting hair and earrings, talks about his seven years on the team and we get some behind the scenes footage on top. He also talks about his love of golf and his developing talent for writing some of the storylines.
Production Design and Photo Gallery - Just 13 design artworks, stills and behind the scenes photographs from the four episodes on the disc. Plays as a continuous slideshow in just under a minute.
WWW - The same revamped, 30-second promo for the US and Canadian Stargate Fan Club as on the previous disc. For anyone interested, have a look at the UK Stargate Fan Club, although it does seem to be a bit out of date.
Overall
If you're a fan and have been collecting the show, then this a must buy. Stargate SG-1 Season 7 continues with yet another good set of episodes, including an excellent two-parter to finish it off - This is what us Stargate fans want more of.
The accompanying commentaries add a great deal of value to the package, especially as they managed to get Amanda Tapping to do two of them. Again, the other extras are not much more than disk filler but the Director's Series and Beyond The Gate feature are still worth watching. All in all, this is a good value package considering you're getting that with four episodes with accompanying commentaries lasting in all about six hours on one disk.