Whether you’re a longtime fan of the Stargate series or just a Sci-Fi buff looking for their next TV series to devour, the complete series Blu-ray box set of Stargate: Atlantis could be a perfect fit with its premise of explorers playing King of the Hill against a race of conquerors hoping to harness an incredible power. It’s an interesting deviation from the model established by Star Trek and the other Stargate series, but it’s rather shallow in its overall themes and ends with a finale that betrays fans that followed it loyally through all five seasons. However, watching it in one sitting instead of over five years waiting for it to unfold softens the blow of the self-defeating ending, but it doesn’t fix some of the weaker characters and ultimately the series never ranks above a B- in the genre. Beyond wrapping up all the flaws and highlights of a series into one package, the main plus of a box set is the promise of new extras and creative packaging – so how does Stargate: Atlantis – The Complete Series on Blu-ray stack up?
For the benefit of the uninitiated in Stargate: Atlantis, the series follows the efforts of a team of explorers who arrive in the abandoned city of Atlantis, built by a race of aliens known only as ‘The Ancients’, and use the stargate they find there to take their first steps into the Pegasus Galaxy. As they take in the wonders of their new galactic sandbox, they encounter the Wraiths, another sentient race hell bent on locating Atlantis and harvesting its dormant powers for their own destructive ends.
The cast for Atlantis is perhaps the second best (maybe third) of the Stargate series, with only Stargate Universe’s players being clearly superior. Complementing the ensemble cast of science geeks are military Lt. Colonel John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), the Pegasus Galaxy native Teyla (Rachel Luttrell), the Pegasus warrior Dex (Jason Momoa), and IT guy Chuck (Chuck Campbell). Then we have head scientist Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett), political strategist Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), the original Chief of Medicine Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion), his eventual replacement Dr. Jennifer Keller (Jewel Staite), and Dr. Radek Zalenka (David Nykl) make up the exploratory team taking note of every detail and solving problems that brunt force just can’t handle. The series is fairly good at rotating in new characters to keep things fresh, and consequently familiar TV faces like Amanda Tapping, Mitch Pileggi, Beau Bridges, Richard Dean Anderson, Colm Meaney, and David Ogden Stiers (among others) pop up for cameos and recurring roles.
As fans of serialized Sci-Fi have come to expect from their favorites, the visual effects of Stargate: Atlantis work best when they’re not put front and center, and for the majority of the series, Atlantis never puts too much stress on the big showpieces, relying more on sets and costumes to get the Sci-Fi elements down. When viewed on Blu-ray that sense of restraint that guided the series to an emphasis on practical effects (which did eventually even out to include more CGI, but never too glaring), saves the series because nothing outs low-budget special effects like an HD presentation. Overall, the show looks quite good in high-definition, but as there are still quite a few moments of low-grade CGI to be found in the series, it can’t be given too high marks in that respect.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Now for the big question: Did Fox add any new extras or develop some cool packaging for the Complete Series set? The truth is, if you want a piece that looks great on your shelf, you’re better off buying the original DVD complete series release that hit shelves back in October 2009. The Blu-ray complete series set is much more compact and simply has three cases (divided between Seasons 1 & 2, Seasons 3 & 4, and Season 5) with the main cast set spread out against a basic Atlantean backdrop. So that’s a no on packaging incentive, how about extra features?
All of the extras found on the Blu-ray set have been taken from the DVD version with no new value added. The basic extras, the ones with variations for different episodes, include audio commentaries and quick little behind the scenes featurettes called “Mission Directives”, of which there are about four or five per season. Unique extras include set visits, season retrospectives, creature features, video actor profiles, visual effects demonstrations, a blooper reel, and deleted scenes. Once you get to the fifth season, you start to get some of the meatiest extras and the perspectives are much more valuable as they come with a knowledge of how the show ended and allow the cast and crew to voice their favorite moments along with things they wish they could have done.
You might be wondering, if Fox didn’t add anything new, why has it taken them 2 years to release the complete series on Blu-ray? It probably has a lot to do with the planned movies that were to continue the franchise but which were permanently shelved in April of this year. With that realization, it looks like Fox decided not to wait any longer and just made an exact copy of the DVD set on Blu-ray. Turns out the fans’ wait was for naught. It’s a shame, but at the same time, it’s a crime against a fanbase that has since moved on (mostly) to other series and who’ve probably already purchased it on DVD anyways. Which means the Blu-ray release is really intended more for newcomers or established fans who’ve just procrastinated in buying the set, and for them the Blu-ray box set has as much value as one could hope for from five seasons of B-grade Sci-Fi.
"Stargate: Atlantis - The Complete Series" is on sale July 26, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Sci-Fi. Directed by Andy Mikita, Martin Wood, William Waring. Written by Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, Martin Gero, Carl Binder. Starring David Hewlett, Jewel Staite, Joe Flanigan, Paul McGillion, Rachel Luttrell, Torri Higginson, Jason Momoa, David Nykl, Chuck Campbell.
