Stargate Atlantis The Complete Series
Stargate Atlantis has been released on this complete five season, 26 disc set with all the Atlantis series along with bonus content on many of the discs through each season.
Film making 20/25
Video 20/25
Audio 22/25
Bonus Features 20/25
Total 82/100
I love Stargate, have since I first watched the original movie with Kurt Russell and James Spader and the series continues to thrill and excite my imagination and keep me entertained disc after disc. I own them all from Stargate the original movie up to the latest release of Stargate Universe and receiving the Stargate Atlantis series as a collection was an excitement for this Sci-Fi fanatic.
I was only disappointed in two things, the lack of any content beyond the series DVD releases I have purchased prior to reviewing movies and the packaging of the Complete Series. Stargate Atlantis is the second spin off of the film and continued the adventures based on the Stargate story with plenty of great science fiction action.
The premise of Stargate Atlantis is a continuation of the previous Stargate SG-1 series where man has discovered he can travel to distant planets using the Stargate. The Stargate network is a wormhole that people can use to travel from one star system to another making interplanetary travel as easy as stepping through the gate.
Dr. Daniel Jackson of the original and first series discovered the six symbol combination as star constellations that pinpoint the location the Stargate is dialed into. The seventh and subsequent symbols are the point of origin and farther addresses in different galaxies.
In Atlantis the Stargate is dialed up to the Pegasus galaxy using not the usual 6 address coordinate but with 7 so a team of volunteers headed by a civilian with a military contingent heads off to find this mythical city called Atlantis. The team does not blindly go forth but after years of study and planet hopping by Stargate "SG" teams they have found rumors and actual evidence of the lost city of Atlantis.
The race of aliens called Ancients that are humans forefathers actually built the city as well as the gates and other technology. In the previous series military teams named SG teams travel to different planets in search of technology to defend Earth from alien attacks.
The Atlantis team goes there in hopes to find technology to defend earth from their constant threats from the previous series mainly in Replicators. I could go on for days about plot lines and stories but the show has a main enemy all its own in what are called Wraith.
The Wraith are a human alien crossbreed that are mostly hibernating with a few caretakers until the Stargate Atlantis team blunders through the gate and awakens several colonies of Wraith. Now with more and more Wraith awakening they are having to fight the new humans because they feed on human life force and of course the humans from earth are fighting back.
The main stars of Atlantis are Patrick Flannery who plays Captain John Sheppard, a mostly good and ambitious Air Force officer who is a bit head strong but very witty. Rodney McKay is played by David Hewlett who is the somewhat chicken but genius science geek who is probably the best character and actor of the show.
Dr Elizabeth Weir is the civilian leader of the expedition played by Tori Higginson who was picked to lead the expedition due to her excellent diplomatic skills. Teyla Emmagen is an alien, actually a human descendent lost on another planet who is played by the beautiful Rachel Luttrell.
Ronon Dex played by Jason Momoa is the other member of the four person team that usually heads out exploring the new galaxy for the Atlantis expedition. Ronon is your typical strong silent type who is very skilled in weapons and combat and along with Teyla are the main fighters of the group.
Captain Sheppard is the leader of the Atlantis team and Rodney McKay usually goes with them to find out all that alien technology and often getting the group out of some difficult spots if technology is involved. There was a few dozen members of the expedition that came through the gate and often other characters are used to move along the story but for the most part the plot revolves around the four member team.
Like Stargate SG-1 the plot is ever changing but they do not get rid of the main nemesis in the Wraith at all by the end of the five season show unlike the Stargate SG-1 series where they did get rid of the first shows enemy race. The show has a great interplay of characters and on occasion has appearances from many members of Stargate SG-1 that was also filming during much of the first seasons.
The show uses the same type of interplay and long standing themes as the previous Stargate series with good writing and well done acting but does not get stale or old until later on in the series. By the end of season four you could tell the stories were running dry and an end was near so it was no surprise when season five came and went as the final season.
The show was good and lasted about as long as you could expect without radically changing the story which is better to have as a standalone show like they did with Stargate Universe. Stargate Atlantis had a good run and is more than worth a purchase for a great science fiction series complete in its own storyline.
You really do not have to have watched the previous Stargate series as the show does a great job of introducing the story in the first episode and you get all you really need to know before the end. By the end of the series some characters will have moved on but the four main characters of Sheppard, McKay, Teyla and Ronon are still fighting the good fight.
Stargate Atlantis has all a good science fiction series needs and the Complete Series has bonus content in interviews and more with one disc that is a real addition not found in the individual season sets. The one bonus disc has two episodes that were changed from the ones in the season sets and a goodbye type feature along with the 100 episode feature.
The bonus content was a bit of a disappointment but what can you expect when the show released about all the bonus content on the individual seasons when they were first released. The Complete Series has the bonus content that was originally on the season releases as well as the extra bonus disc with four features, the two changed episodes and the two bonus features.
The Complete series is very good in both audio and video with as usual audio being better for the complete series with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Video is great with good color and well done special effects from a series that has plenty of money to make things look great.
The Complete series has another problem in the packaging itself which was a disappointment in how it was designed and the cardboard case. The discs of each season are combined in a fold out cardboard holder with the discs slid into slots of the cardboard.
There is a rubber knob that holds each disc in the center and this along with the slot that you slide each disc into amounts to disc scratching possibilities beyond what I like. I do not like the fact of sliding discs into a slot of the cardboard holder and the rubber knob in the center can rub the disc when taking each disc out or inserting them.
The holder is not the best and beyond just a bad design is better left as a keepsake and not to store your discs in, I would really prefer DVD plastic cases. I would purchase a set of DVD holders from a store if I was going to purchase this set as it is but then I would probably not purchase this set if I could get the individual seasons for the same or even a lower cost.
Stargate Atlantis is a great science fiction show and more than worth the cost of purchasing, after all I have bought the entire series. If you do not have any seasons of Stargate Atlantis I would look at buying the seasons separately or if you do find a deal on the complete series do purchase some DVD cases with the set.