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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Enterprise - Vol. 1.13 - Two Days And Two Nights / Shockwave - Part 1 [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Shane (II)
  • Ron Silver
  • David Twohy
  • Lindsay Crouse
  • Richard Schiff
  • Charlie Sheen
Release date: 2002-11-18
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £24.99

Review Enterprise - Vol. 1.13 - Two Days And Two Nights / Shockwave - Part 1 [2002] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Calling this 1996 science fiction thriller "a glorified B movie," isn't a criticism. Writer-director David Twohy managed to get interesting material on the screen despite a limited budget, and the film is just believable enough to be satisfying as a tale of paranoid conspiracy. If you can ignore the hokey parts and accept Charlie Sheen as noted radio astronomer Zane Ziminski, you'll get thoroughly involved when the reception of an alien radio signal leads him to Mexico and to a huge underground power plant operated by aliens bent on the eventual takeover of Earth. Ron Silver is suitably chilling as the astronomer's boss, whose real identity is more horrifying than Ziminski ever imagined. The underground alien lair is memorably creepy, and The Arrival is just smart enough to qualify as more than a guilty pleasure. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.1 [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Scott Bakula
  • Anthony Montgomery
  • John Billingsley (II)
  • James L. Conway
  • Jolene Blalock
  • Dominic Keating
Release date: 2002-04-01
Run time: 83 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £1.45

Review Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.1 [2002] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 2001-03-19
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.05

Review Thunderbirds - Episodes 17 And 18 [1965] / ITV DVD:


Review MGM Entertainment / Stargate SG-1 - Vol. 1.3 Missions 1.04 & 1.05 - The Broca Divide & The First Commandment [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Gerard Plunkett
  • Michael Shanks
  • Richard Dean Anderson
  • Amanda Tapping
  • William Gereghty
  • Dennis Berry
  • William Russ
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.80

Review Stargate SG-1 - Vol. 1.3 Missions 1.04 & 1.05 - The Broca Divide & The First Commandment [1998] / MGM Entertainment:

The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Replacing the Kurt Russell and James Spader roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They are joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's pet primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaohnic Goa'uld-the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. The welcome notion of a continued plot thread sees offshoots that follow the reincarnation of Daniel's wife, Sam's father literally joining a renegade faction of the Goa'uld, and Jack in an unending quest to out-sarcasm everyone. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but amid a dearth of derivative look-a-likes, Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. The episodes are not always properly sequenced on the tapes, making the order of events potentially confusing, something that ought to be taken into account when viewing. [+]
These episodes, which are actually the fifth and sixth from the series, look at the touchy subjects of disease and ego respectively. In "The Broca Divide" a planet is split in two by those Touched and Untouched. The team could just leave them to deal with their racial divide, but then they go and catch the disease that separates the people. A cure turns out to be right under everyone's noses. Then it's a case of abusing one's power in "The First Commandment" when Captain Hanson (guest star William Russ) from SG-9 sets himself up as local deity on a primitive planet. A situation made more complicated by an earlier relationship he had with Captain Carter. -Paul Tonks.

Review Entertainment in Video / Highlander: The Sea Witch
Actors & Directors
  • Adrian Paul
  • Alexandra Vandernoot
  • Stan Kirsch
Release date: 1994-02-28
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.95

Review Highlander: The Sea Witch / Entertainment in Video:


Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 1993-07-12
Run time: 193 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £0.58

Review Thunderbirds - Volume 7 [1965] / Universal Pictures UK:


Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 1993-07-12
Run time: 195 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.50

Review Thunderbirds - Volume 2 [1965] / PolyGram Video Ltd/ITC Entertainment Group Ltd:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Star Wars - Special Edition [1977]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Cushing
  • Alec Guinness
  • George Lucas
  • Mark Hamill
  • Harrison Ford
  • Carrie Fisher
Release date: 1997-10-06
Run time: 120 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £2.98

Review Star Wars - Special Edition [1977] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

What's interesting about this video is also what makes it seem amateurish at first: it is neither endorsed nor authorised by 20th Century Fox or Lucasfilm. The result: a montage of interviews with everybody of importance to the Star Wars world-from George Lucas and Liam Neeson to Samuel L. Jackson and Harrison Ford, with intelligently written voice-over narration, and a unique exploration of Star Wars and Star Trek together. This is at once an homage to the Star Wars trilogies and a documentary of its sci-fi precursors, from silent film to Star Trek. Since this collection of interviews isn't authorised by Lucasfilm, you won't find footage of the Star Wars movies here, although you will find terrific snippets from sci-fi milestones such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis. A youthful Carrie Fisher talk about the interplanetary appeal of the original Star Wars, while a 20-years-older Fischer talks about the films' fairytale-like grasp across generations. Young and older Harrison Fords and Mark Hamill give interesting perspectives as well; the video also sports one of the longer interviews recorded with the man inside C-3PO. Besides the actual cast and crew of the Star Wars movies, including The Phantom Menace, there are interviews here with stars as fans, famous people who love the movies as much as anyone: Sharon Stone, Gary Busey, Hugh Hefner, Magic Johnson, Christina Ricci and William Shatner. A fun and provocative look through uncensored interviews across the spectrum at all that is Star Wars, worthy of any fan's archive, this is a must for any serious collection. -Erik Macki.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 3.8 - Sarek / Menage A Trois / Transfigurations / The Best of Both Worlds Pt.I [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Gates McFadden
  • Tom Benko
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Michael Dorn
  • Cliff Bole
  • Les Landau
  • Robert Legato
  • LeVar Burton
Release date: 2000-10-02
Run time: 132 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.89

Review Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 3.8 - Sarek / Menage A Trois / Transfigurations / The Best of Both Worlds Pt.I [1990] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

In 1987, some 20 years after the original series had ended, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched into a decade renowned for its materialistic greed, but also for its hesitant steps towards a more unified world order. Creator Gene Roddenberry revised his vision of humanity's future accordingly, shifting the Trek timeline 80 years on and reinventing the new Starship Enterprise as an Ark-like exploration vessel full of families, schools, soothing recreational facilities and a maternally pacifying computer voice (Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett). The Next Generation crew were not soldiers, but scientists and diplomats. Unlike the fiercely individualistic Captain Kirk, Patrick Stewart's patrician Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a model team leader: no matter how desperate the crisis, he ensured that everyone got to sit round the Conference Room table and talk it over. And in a true late-1980s touch, a key member of the Bridge crew was psychoanalyst Counsellor Troi, always on hand to discuss everyone's feelings. Season Two saw the welcome introduction of the cybernetic horror that was the Borg. Originally a powerful symbol of technological misuse in an otherwise technologically utopian universe, ultimately their hive-like existence served to reinforce the message that everyone would be much happier as a team player. Even renegade super-entity Q (John De Lancie) relied on Picard as much as his fellow god-like playmates; Data followed Pinocchio and Spock in a quest to discard what made him an individual; and there was even an episode that rationalised why all aliens basically looked alike (we're all one big family). Even the slogan change to "Where no one has gone before" acknowledges that there's no "one" in a team. But for all its earnest political correctness and an over-reliance on "technobabble", good stories played by an appealing ensemble cast were at the heart of the show's success. [+]
After seven successful seasons, "All Good Things" finally came to an end. Until Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, that is. -Paul Tonks.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 86 : Genesis / Journey's End [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Corey Allen
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Michael Dorn
  • Gates McFadden
  • Gates McFadden
  • LeVar Burton
Release date: 1994-08-22
Run time: 88 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 86 : Genesis / Journey's End [1994] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.5 [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Vejar
  • Jolene Blalock
  • LeVar Burton
  • Scott Bakula
  • Dominic Keating
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £0.37

Review Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.5 [2002] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Enterprise, the fifth live-action series to hail from the Star Trek universe, is without doubt the bravest concept since The Next Generation. Here we boldly go back to the future, 100 years before Captain Kirk, to the very first voyage of a starship called Enterprise. In fact, the concept-once announced at long last-caused an enormous furore among both fans and critics. Would the costumes and sets be primary coloured like the 1960s' original? Would the ship look like something made on Blue Peter? Would the Klingons look like Fu Manchu in boot polish? No, no and no came the official word at the same time as announcing that Scott (Quantum Leap) Bakula would be sitting in Captain Archer's squeaky new chair. He's accompanied on the new/old ship by his cute dog Porthos, antagonistic Vulcan T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) filling the obligatory pin-up-babe role and an alien Doctor with indeterminate head make-up and mysterious origins. It took some time for the show to lift off. An over-familiar format (too much like Voyager) and too much involvement from previous cast and crewmembers were sources of dissatisfaction. But lurking behind the brand-new/old adventures there was an insidiously intriguing subplot. Why are the Vulcans so darn manipulative? Who are the shadowy time-travelling baddies? How will matters build toward the Romulan War? The show also attracted guest B-star power from the likes of Dean Stockwell, Clancy Brown and Clint Howard (Blalock in the classic original series episode "The Corbomite Manoeuvre"). It boasts consistently cutting-edge CGI effects work and survived the marketing-driven placement of a dull MOR pop song over the opening credits. [+]
Either despite or because of these warped factors, Enterprise has been a literal flagship for the franchise in a period when many thought Trek's star was dwindling. -Paul Tonks.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 73 : Lessons / The Chase [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Brent Spiner
  • Marina Sirtis
  • Michael Dorn
  • Robert Wiemer
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Gates McFadden
  • LeVar Burton
Release date: 1993-11-22
Run time: 86 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 73 : Lessons / The Chase [1993] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review ITV DVD / Thunderbirds - Volume 2 Episodes 3 And 4 [1965] The Perils of Penelope + Terror in New York City
Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 2000-09-11
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.57

Review Thunderbirds - Volume 2 Episodes 3 And 4 [1965] The Perils of Penelope + Terror in New York City / ITV DVD:

"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too) and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracy boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines-the real stars of the show-while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracy, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company. ) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nailbitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. On this tape: Lady Penelope indulges in some James Bond-style counter-espionage measures in the third episode, "The Perils of Penelope", while Parker indulges some of his famous Eliza Dolittle-isms; although he is trumped by the Cary Grant sound-a-like character Sir Jeremy Hodge (or 'odge as Parker would have it), whose response to a crisis is, "I say, open the door, we're British!". Then it's back to the action for the fourth episode, "Terror in New York City", in which poor Virgil is shot down by the US Navy in Thunderbird 2 before the boys must rescue an unscrupulous newshound from the wreckage of the Empire State Building (featuring the first appearance of their very own yellow submarine, Thunderbird 4) -Mark Walker.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation: All Good Things - The Full Length TV Movie [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Gates McFadden
  • Michael Dorn
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • LeVar Burton
  • Winrich Kolbe
Release date: 1995-05-22
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £12.95

Review Star Trek The Next Generation: All Good Things - The Full Length TV Movie [1994] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

In 1987, some 20 years after the original series had ended, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched into a decade renowned for its materialistic greed, but also for its hesitant steps towards a more unified world order. Creator Gene Roddenberry revised his vision of humanity's future accordingly, shifting the Trek timeline 80 years on and reinventing the new Starship Enterprise as an Ark-like exploration vessel full of families, schools, soothing recreational facilities and a maternally pacifying computer voice (Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett). The Next Generation crew were not soldiers, but scientists and diplomats. Unlike the fiercely individualistic Captain Kirk, Patrick Stewart's patrician Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a model team leader: no matter how desperate the crisis, he ensured that everyone got to sit round the Conference Room table and talk it over. And in a true late-1980s touch, a key member of the Bridge crew was psychoanalyst Counsellor Troi, always on hand to discuss everyone's feelings. Season Two saw the welcome introduction of the cybernetic horror that was the Borg. Originally a powerful symbol of technological misuse in an otherwise technologically utopian universe, ultimately their hive-like existence served to reinforce the message that everyone would be much happier as a team player. Even renegade super-entity Q (John De Lancie) relied on Picard as much as his fellow god-like playmates; Data followed Pinocchio and Spock in a quest to discard what made him an individual; and there was even an episode that rationalised why all aliens basically looked alike (we're all one big family). Even the slogan change to "Where no one has gone before" acknowledges that there's no "one" in a team. But for all its earnest political correctness and an over-reliance on "technobabble", good stories played by an appealing ensemble cast were at the heart of the show's success. [+]
After seven successful seasons, "All Good Things" finally came to an end. Until Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, that is. -Paul Tonks.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.3 - Reunion / Future Imperfect / Final Mission
Actors & Directors
  • Les Landau
  • Brent Spiner
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Michael Dorn
  • Corey Allen
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • LeVar Burton
  • Patrick Stewart
Release date: 2001-06-04
Run time: 130 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.30

Review Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.3 - Reunion / Future Imperfect / Final Mission / Paramount Home Entertainment:

In 1987, some 20 years after the original series had ended, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched into a decade renowned for its materialistic greed, but also for its hesitant steps towards a more unified world order. Creator Gene Roddenberry revised his vision of humanity's future accordingly, shifting the Trek timeline 80 years on and reinventing the new Starship Enterprise as an Ark-like exploration vessel full of families, schools, soothing recreational facilities and a maternally pacifying computer voice (Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett). The Next Generation crew were not soldiers, but scientists and diplomats. Unlike the fiercely individualistic Captain Kirk, Patrick Stewart's patrician Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a model team leader: no matter how desperate the crisis, he ensured that everyone got to sit round the Conference Room table and talk it over. And in a true late-1980s touch, a key member of the Bridge crew was psychoanalyst Counsellor Troi, always on hand to discuss everyone's feelings. Season Two saw the welcome introduction of the cybernetic horror that was the Borg. Originally a powerful symbol of technological misuse in an otherwise technologically utopian universe, ultimately their hive-like existence served to reinforce the message that everyone would be much happier as a team player. Even renegade super-entity Q (John De Lancie) relied on Picard as much as his fellow god-like playmates; Data followed Pinocchio and Spock in a quest to discard what made him an individual; and there was even an episode that rationalised why all aliens basically looked alike (we're all one big family). Even the slogan change to "Where no one has gone before" acknowledges that there's no "one" in a team. But for all its earnest political correctness and an over-reliance on "technobabble", good stories played by an appealing ensemble cast were at the heart of the show's success. [+]
After seven successful seasons, "All Good Things" finally came to an end. Until Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, that is. -Paul Tonks.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Ronny Cox
  • Michael Ironside
  • Sharon Stone
  • Rachel Ticotin
  • Paul Verhoeven
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
Release date: 1996-08-12
Run time: 206 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990] / Universal Pictures UK:

A triple-bill of Schwarzenegger at his muscular monosyllabic best:The Running Man is an action thriller based on an early story by Stephen King. When Arnold is chosen as a contestant on the ultimate reality TV show, all hell breaks loose. Cheesy sets and a slimy role for game-show host Richard Dawson make this violent mess of mayhem a candidate for guilty pleasure; it is the kind of movie that truly devoted Arnold fans will want to watch more than once. Total Recall is the science-fiction blockbuster from 1990, loosely based on Philip K Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the movie has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a legitimate sequel: there's more story to tell about a hulking, leather-clad android (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who arrives from the future to protect a rebellious teenager and future leader (Edward Furlong) from being killed by the tenacious T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick), whose liquid-metal construction makes him seemingly unstoppable. The fate of the future lies in the balance, with Linda Hamilton (who would later marry her director) reprising her role as the rugged woman whose son will change the course of history. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Outer Limits - The New Series - Vol. 3 - Caught In The Act / The Voyage Home [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Sobel
  • Tibor Takacs
  • Saul Rubinek
  • Alyssa Milano
  • Jason London
  • Garry Chalk
  • Matt Craven
Release date: 1996-07-22
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £9.60

Review The Outer Limits - The New Series - Vol. 3 - Caught In The Act / The Voyage Home [1995] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 15 : Elementary, Dear Data / The Outrageous Okona [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Douglas Rowe
  • Robert Becker
  • Rob Bowman
  • Albert Stratton
  • William Campbell
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Alan Sherman
Release date: 1991-06-03
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £9.49

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 15 : Elementary, Dear Data / The Outrageous Okona [1988] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • Scotty Morrow
  • Paul Langton
  • John Carradine
  • Herbert S. Greene
  • Bruce Bennett
  • Angela Greene
Release date: 1996-02-26
Run time: 69 min.
Price: £9.99

Review The Cosmic Man / First Class Films:


Review MGM Entertainment / Stargate SG-1 Vol. 1.11 - Missions 1.20 & 1.21 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Don S. Davis
  • Mario Azzopardi
  • Michael Shanks
  • Amanda Tapping
  • Richard Dean Anderson
  • Christopher Judge
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.98

Review Stargate SG-1 Vol. 1.11 - Missions 1.20 & 1.21 [1998] / MGM Entertainment:

The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Replacing the Kurt Russell and James Spader roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They are joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's pet primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaohnic Goa'uld-the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. The welcome notion of a continued plot thread sees offshoots that follow the reincarnation of Daniel's wife, Sam's father literally joining a renegade faction of the Goa'uld, and Jack in an unending quest to out-sarcasm everyone. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but amid a dearth of derivative look-a-likes, Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. The episodes are not always properly sequenced on the tapes, making the order of events potentially confusing, something that ought to be taken into account when viewing. [+]
It's one year after the events of the original motion picture. We find that Colonel O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson replacing Kurt Russell) has retired from the military, thinking he can forget about the Stargate and those who were left behind. Events conspire to re-commission him alongside old faces and new when it's discovered there's more than one Gate in the galaxy. A lot more! Although it assumes familiarity with the preceding movie, "Children of the Gods" is still an excellent pilot show. Characters are introduced sensibly, the expanded premise is engaging, and there's clearly a healthy sense of never taking itself too seriously. -Paul Tonks The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Replacing the Kurt Russell and James Spader roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They are joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's pet primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaohnic Goa'uld-the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. The welcome notion of a continued plot thread sees offshoots that follow the reincarnation of Daniel's wife, Sam's father literally joining a renegade faction of the Goa'uld, and Jack in an unending quest to out-sarcasm everyone. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but amid a dearth of derivative look-a-likes, Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. The episodes are not always properly sequenced on the tapes, making the order of events potentially confusing, something that ought to be taken into account when viewing. Following straight on from Vol. 10, "Politics" sees Jackson banging his head against a brick wall when Senator Kinsey (a powerful cameo from Ronnie Cox) threatens to exercise his hold over the Stargate programme. This is what's known in TV as a "clips episode", but the flashbacks are cleverly incorporated to continue building suspense toward the finale. And "Within the Serpent's Grasp" is the pay-off. The SG-1 team ignore orders and follow Jackson's warning about an attack. It's a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire however; when their disobedience leads them to the one place they really shouldn't be-aboard the lead attack ship headed to destroy Earth! -Paul Tonks.

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Enterprise - Vol. 1.13 - Two Days And Two Nights / Shockwave - Part 1 [2002], Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.1 [2002], Thunderbirds - Episodes 17 And 18 [1965], Stargate SG-1 - Vol. 1.3 Missions 1.04 & 1.05 - The Broca Divide & The First Commandment [1998], Highlander: The Sea Witch, Thunderbirds - Volume 7 [1965], Thunderbirds - Volume 2 [1965], Star Wars - Special Edition [1977], Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 3.8 - Sarek / Menage A Trois / Transfigurations / The Best of Both Worlds Pt.I [1990], Star Trek The Next Generation 86 : Genesis / Journey's End [1994], Star Trek: Enterprise, Vol. 1.5 [2002], Star Trek The Next Generation 73 : Lessons / The Chase [1993], Thunderbirds - Volume 2 Episodes 3 And 4 [1965] The Perils of Penelope + Terror in New York City, Star Trek The Next Generation: All Good Things - The Full Length TV Movie [1994], Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.3 - Reunion / Future Imperfect / Final Mission, Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990], The Outer Limits - The New Series - Vol. 3 - Caught In The Act / The Voyage Home [1995], Star Trek The Next Generation 15 : Elementary, Dear Data / The Outrageous Okona [1988], The Cosmic Man, Stargate SG-1 Vol. 1.11 - Missions 1.20 & 1.21 [1998]

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