DVD: MGM Home Entertainment 24318DVD MZ1. Price: £21.97 (UK) 22 episodes plus extras. time: 15 hours). Stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S. Davis and assorted guests.

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When watching these seasons of 'Stargate SG-1' again, combined with my knowledge from the companion books and media mags, its obvious to see the production creative team's desire to ensure that they didn't leave too many loose ends just in case this was potentially a last season. As such, they went for broke throughout rather than not to rest on their laurels because they felt they were here for the long term...well apart from actor Michael Shanks at the time. Remembering what he said about his feeling he was being under-used, this again seems odd in perspective as he was involved in a lot of episodes but that's from an outsider's point of view. Maybe he felt he was getting stale in one role.



Anyway, Season Five is an important year for the lives of SG-1 with a lot of their previous season's history being played out. The consequences of meeting the rather genocidic Aschens whom they were warned about by their future counter-parts to the early stages of a free Jaffa nation to seeing Russia's involvement in the program develop. Along the way, there was also the 100th episode which involved a previously met alien running a TV series based rather loosely designed on their exploits. The desire from all quarters not to take themselves so seriously probably balances out their activities with a depth a certain other long-running TV series failed to achieve.

If anything, I learnt far more from the extras and audio commentaries with this season block, specifically from director Martin Wood. If you ever wanted a beginner's course in becoming a director then it is as well to listen to what he has to say about the episodes he directed as they give incredible insight, not to mention making something bigger than it actually is. Together with director Peter DeLuise, this builds up an incredible picture of how things are kept in budget and how information is given rather than being shown all the time - a useful trait when the budget was tighter in Season Nine. I mean, if you take the nature of them sitting down for a briefing at Stargate Command as a natural state of affairs then you don't mind its also a convenient way to keep things within budget. The fact so little is actually there but added in post-production clearly indicates the leading cast ability to act to nothing.

If you're a Stargate fan then you probably own this season already. With the prices dropped then there is no real excuse to ignore them.

GF Willmetts