Stargate - Continuum [2008]
£12.75
Better than Ark of Truth, but not quite right... - Stargate Continuum is the second feature length special to continue the legacy of Stargate SG1. The first special, Ark of Truth, was a bit of a disappointment, Continuum however, is close to a return to form.The story starts with SG1 (plus General O Neill) attending the extraction ceremony of the last remaining clone of the Goa uld System Lord Ba al, on a Tok ra planet. Ba al claims that there is some kind of plan to undo all of this, which we see come into affect when characters seemingly disappear in mid-air.It turns out that Ba al has travelled back in time to the point where the Stargate was being transfered to America via cargo ship after its discovery in Egypt, and has managed to kill all the crew and send the ship far off course.SG1 are somehow protected from the timeline correcting itself as they are travelling back through the gate at the time, only to rematerialise inside the frozen hold of the cargo ship.They find themselves in a world where the Stargate programme did not exist, and as such are forced to live within this alternate reality, without contacting each other.Meanwhile, after going back in time, Ba al set about making himself the most powerful system lord, and is now finally ready to claim the Earth as his own.Its left to SG1 to set things right...Personally, I felt the way this was done was a little rushed, but I cannot go into that without spoiling the ending, but it does prevent me from giving it the full five stars, as I was hoping for a bit more of an epic ending similar to that of the Season 7 finale, Lost City.All in all, this was an enjoyable special, and I hope that there will be more to come in the future...
Stargate in the Arctic! - After years of running round the same forest we actually get to see some of SG-1 in one of the least accessible places on Earth - the Arctic. Not only that but the US Navy actually lent one of their real submarines to the shoot, making the loan of two fighter jets by the US Air Force almost seem small in comparison. I could go on about the sheer number of guest appearances in this film, and the fact that it s got Ba al in the lead villain role, and he s probably the most popular Stargate villain ever... But the most important thing is that it is a great SG-1 story, on a much larger scale than we ve ever seen before. Well worth the money, even if you ve seen it on TV (it has a very good set of extra features, including a long look at the Arctic shoot and the Navy sub).Oh, and if you re a parent worried about what the reviewer concerned about the swearing said, then I d be more concerned with the couple of scenes involving a very sharp sword than a couple of uses of the s-word. If you re that concerned, buy them Stargate Infinity - Vol 1 instead.
Buy this DVD - you won t get dissapointed SUPER - Having been a little dissapointed with The Ark of Thruth, I was a bit unsure wheter to buy this DVD, but hey, it s Stargate! I was very nicely surprised with this film. A classic Stargate story. Great effects and a lot more time to tell the story. So great to see all our favourite caracters (good and bad) again. The only dissapointment was the lack of screen time of Richard Dean Anderson. I would have loved to see more of him. And why was the wormhole-travel suddenly as in Atlantis? For all who hesitate: DON T,!
A Simple And Brilliant Ending - Having brought this DVD on the day it came out for the UK (18th April) I can honestly say that this DVD is awesome how they finish the whole Ba al storyline. Or is it finished? It probaly is otherwise they d be starting to really repeat themselves. Some people compare this storyline to the Season 8 ending Moebius and although they are both focused around time travel and having to go back and fix the timeline they are both different and Continuum s ending is brilliant and if your a hardcore fan who has been watching SG1 since the early years then you ll feel a weird feeling at the end.Just one problem. I think that at the end of the movie they should have dedicated it to Don S. Davies.
Better Than I Might Have Feared, But That s Not Saying Much - As a hardcore fan of SG-1, I was compelled to buy this film against my better judgement. After all, one look at the description told me that it was merely a reworking of `Moebius. I despise clichés in science fiction, and to be honest, I think that I despise the Alternate future created by messing with the timeline cliché most of all. But in the end, the basic premise of this film was so weak that I spent more than an hour just shouting GET ON WITH IT.With just five minutes of actual plot and almost ninety minutes of filler, the only scenes that earned this film two stars were at the beginning and at the end:Firstly, Vala describing the experience of being freed from a Goa uld parasite. Secondly, Teal c whispering I...Die...Free with his dying breath before he drops a hand grenade. And finally, the completion of the Tok ra extraction ceremony in which Baal s host was freed and the glass container holding the parasite was smashed onto the ground.Each one of these scenes was a triumph that reiterated the depth and soul of the series. In fact, this last scene alone would have earned the film three stars, if only it wasn t for the return of O Neill and his petty, bigoted, narrow-minded, selfish quipping in the midst of such an emotive event. And indeed, the sight of O Neill being stabbed by Baal made me do the Dance of Joy! :-)In the end of course, I knew that the timeline would eventually be restored and nothing in this film would ever have happened. So sure enough, after more than an hour of We ve got to get back through the Stargate...We ve got to get back through the Stargate, this predictably one-dimensional story was allowed to run its course. And having originally planned to sell this DVD after a single viewing, I ve decided to keep it and simply bookmark the scenes that I mentioned above.