DVD MGM Home Entertainment 23735DVD MZ. Price: £20.97 (UK) 21 episodes. time: 15 hours).stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S. Davis and assorted guests.

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With the price of the early 'Stargate SG-1' early seasons boxsets dropping considerably in recent months, the desire to replace my copies recorded off TV started to overwhelm, especially as these would take up less space than video tapes with no ads and no cuts.



If you're familiar with the show, then this should be home territory. The fact that the series is reaching it ninth season now is a clear indication of its longevity and is likely to survive any cast changes, a sore point that has hit other successful TV series in the past.

Before the series, there was the film. The discovery of a wormhole portal or Stargate and getting it activated on Earth leads the United States Air Force to send a small team including an archaeologist translator, through to determine the threat to the Earth on the planet Abydos. There, they discover that the Egyptian gods and goddesses were in fact humans controlled by an alien worm-like parasites called Goa'ulds. Seeing one of these off, all but the archaeologist return to Earth and the report was believed that the place was destroyed.

The TV series follows a year later where everything is questioned and the Stargate Project is opened widely. The original team might have a new cast but were sent to Abydos to return with the archaeologist Daniel Jackson and in the process getting involved with the Goa'uld Apothesis' resurrection and the abduction of Jackson's wife and one of the Abydos' youngsters as hosts. They also recruit a Jaffa leader, Teal'c, onto their team.

Although there are many teams sent through the Stargates, the series focuses on its initial team, SG-1, as they explore once they figured out how to adjust the co-ordinates for spatial drift to other planets, not to mention arriving as though they walked out of a refrigerator. I'm still compiling info before I write a piece about Stargate technology and although I can go along with moving a different key for distance not sure if that would sort out the polar effect.

OK, that covers the background. The game plan for the series was essentially to explore, bump into the Goa'ulds occasionally and have some SF-spiced adventures. This is done with rather interesting results. Picking out favourites would be more difficult. If I had to choose, then it would be 'Solitudes', largely because of the discovery of the second Stargate on Earth and how some logical reasoning had to be applied when O'Neill and Carter don't arrive where they should be.

Comparisons to the TV version only raised my eyebrows on the pilot episode, 'Children Of The Gods' when Jackson's wife had a full-frontal before she became a Goa'uld host. It was also rather fun seeing actor Rick Anderson (O'Neill)'s hair style change subtly to cope with flattening in caps and helmets over a couple episodes. Quite how Carter (actress Tapping) can get the time to backcomb her hair is more questionable but her changing hairstyle over the seasons probably took that into account.

No extras are included with this boxset but as I haven't seen enough boxes of the individual episode blocks from this season, I can't speak for this being a major difference. Whatever, its something that can be lived without. It's going to be fun working my way through the seasons.

GF Willmetts