The Good

Each show plays like mini movie packing in as much action and story as possible.

The Bad

Navigating around all the extras was a little tricky.

Stargate Atlantis: Season 2 opens with our faithful crew having gotten past a huge Wraith attack. The crew now goes about trying to find out more about their history, as well as finding people that can aid them in their cause. Compromise seems to be all around because Atlantis needs energy yet they also know that they need to find the member of the crew that has gone off on their own. Mixed in with all of this are well put together battle scenes, strongly written characterizations and the feeling that the subject matter is very much speaking to today's world.

Some of the stand out episodes in this collection are "Aurora," which sees the crew of Atlantis discovering a very old crew inside an older ship and are then brought face to face with their worst nightmare. "Trinity" was an episode that seemed to speak to today's oil problems when a new form of energy is found to power Atlantis. However, nothing is ever this simple for our faithful crew and this is never more apparent here. Lastly, "Allies" really struck me because we got to see a different side of the Wraith as they ask to join forces with Atlantis. The main questions are what are their motives and is something like this even possible?

All in all, Stargate Atlantis: Season 2 is one DVD set that offers a lot of bang for your proverbial dollar.

Features

Commentary Track

The gracious folks behind this DVD set have kindly donated their voices to commenting on every episode in this collection. I decided to make things easy on myself and just listen to the first commentary for the first episode titled, "The Siege - Part III." The creators talk here about wanting to create "3 times" the excitement for the Second Season. Also, they say that this episode would have had a better title but they sadly couldn't think of anything better. After this they discuss keeping the plot points organized over this three part show, the various camera moves that were employed, and how they tried to put across the arcs of their characters. The only problem that I had with this track was that the audio needed to be turned over half way up for me to hear things.

Photo and Production Design Galleries

Featurettes

This release is swimming in featurettes. Here is a general listing of what they are on this release:

- Mission Directives: The Intruder and The Siege - Part III

- Road to Dream

- Profile on Paul McGillon

I watched the Mission Directive for The Siege - Part III and the Road to Dream featurette. The Mission Directive was helpful because I never had watched this show before I was given this DVD set to review. It essentially walks us through this show, going beat by beat as it takes us through the various pay offs. Then we get to see some "behind the scenes" aspects of the production, informing us of who the characters are and breaking down, essentially, what is going on in the show. The Road to Dream featurette shows us how Stargate Atlantis basically came into existence.

Video

Widescreen - 1.78:1. Fox, as usual, has done an amazing job bringing these shows to DVD. The look really sharp and clear and even better than that, the visual effects look top notch. I never felt like I was watching a show that was taking any shortcuts in a production value sense. Add to this that each episode feels like a mini- war movie and you have a set that seems to build upon itself, upping the ante as the arc of the entire Second Season plays itself out.

Audio

Dolby Digital. English - 5.1 Dolby Surround. French - Dolby Surround. Close Captioned. Subtitled in English and Spanish. Like the picture, the audio is of very high quality. Aside from the minor audio problem that I mentioned with the commentary track, everything played really well. The only real question I had as I was watching this show is, "Why do actors when they work in military movies and on spaceships, feel the need to talk in the lowest possible voices?" It seems to me like it's in an actors playbook that they would do this, but ultimately I find it annoying and distracting.

Package

This aqua, gray, slipcase cover features the main cast with various sci-fi accouterments surrounding them. The back maintains this motif as it offers up a description of this show, a Special Features listing and also points out where the various episodes are in regards to each disc. Underneath this are system specs for your DVD player. The five discs that contain the 20 episodes are each laid out with individual artwork. They showcase different characters and important scenes from each show. Those back covers offer up episode listings and descriptions, as well as what Special Features are available on each disc.

Final Word

I normally am not a huge fan of these sorts of shows mainly because I find them hard to follow. I will admit it, there is something about TV shows set on my own planet that make it very easy for me to grasp. Give me something like Hawaii Five-O or Boston Legal and I am all over it. There is something about seeing the day to day jobs, set in a world I know, that really grabs me. Now, Stargate Atlantis might touch on issues that are relevant to my world (good television usually does this and it's especially well done by shows that don't take place in this world), but often times I find that the characters and situations are too "out there" for my tastes. Overall, I liked Stargate Atlantis but there was also something about it that made me pull back from fully embracing it here.

Sci-Fi fans will be ecstatic to own Stargate Atlantis: Season 2 on DVD. It is packed with bonus features and it has stellar production values for a sci-fi television show.

Stargate: Atlantis was released .