Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Third Season

Movie: 4 out of 5
Season three begins right where season two's cliffhanger left off, concluding the space battle with the Wraith. After resolving the cliffhanger, the series departs somewhat from its standard formula by taking time to develop its main characters and making the enemies less generic by using recurring characters. This season also further develops the theme of creating your own worst enemy in Michael, played by Connor Trinneer (Tripp from Star Trek: Enterprise), a Wraith the Atlantis team experimented on near the end of season two to see if they can be turned back into a human. The third season consists of 20 episodes spread out over 5 discs, all housed in 3 individual slim cases within an outer paperboard sleeve. I definitely prefer this over digipak cases, although the paperboard sleeve used on this set was somewhat flimsy. One more added bonus to the presentation of the episodes is that the producers have had the normal commercial breaks removed to provide each episode with an even flow.

Disc One:
No Man's Land
Misbegotten
Irresistible
Sateda

Disc Two:
Progeny
The Real World
Common Ground
McKay & Mrs. Miller

Disc Three
Phantoms
The Return, Part 1
The Return, Part 2
Echoes

Disc Four
Irresponsible
Tao of Rodney
The Game
The Ark

Disc Five
Sunday
Submersion
Vengeance
First Strike


Video: 3.5 out of 5

The series is filmed with HD 24p cameras in Vancouver, Canada, which provides a nice, film-like look to the show. Colors are not oversaturated, with deep blacks. Compression artifacts are rarely present, and are not distracting when they do appear. This is about as good as the series will look unless you are watching reruns on Universal HD or when the eventual Blu-ray version is released.


Audio: 3.5 out of 5
For a cable series, the sound design, in Dolby Digital 5.1 and encoded at 448 kbps, is rather impressive. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, emanating mostly from the center channel. Music is mostly stereo, with some bleed to the surrounds. Discrete sound effects are used, but mostly during action sequences. The soundtrack is active, but only when it needs to be.


Special Features: 4 out of 5
Stargate: Atlantis follows the same Special Features formula that was set starting with Season 6 of Stargate: SG-1. That formula consists of an audio commentary for most, if not all, episodes for that season, plus two featurettes per disc, one focusing on behind the scenes of an episode with the director, and the other a character, actor, or department spotlight. The commentaries on this set have improved over many of the earlier ones heard on SG-1, as both series share many of the same directing, producing, and writing staff. Photo galleries are also included on each disc.

Disc One
Commentary on all 4 episodes
Inside the Stargate: Atlantis Visual FX Department featurette
Mission Directive: SATEDA</> featurette
Still Photo and Production Design Galleries

Disc Two
Commentary on PROGENY, COMMON GROUND and McKAY & MRS. MILLER
Profile on: Rachel Lutrell featurette
Mission Directive: PROGENY featurette
Still Photo and Production Design Galleries

Disc Three
Commentary on all 4 episodes
General O'Neill Goes to Atlantis featurette
Mission Directive: PHANTOMS featurette
Still Photo and Production Design Galleries

Disc Four
Commentary on all 4 episodes
Masters of the Alien featurette
Mission Directive: THE GAME featurette
Still Photo and Production Design Galleries

Disc Five
Commentary on all 4 episodes
Stargate Atlantis: A Look Back On Season 3 featurette
Mission Directive: FIRST STRIKE featurette
Still Photo and Production Design Galleries


Overall: 4 out of 5 (not an average)
Fans of the series will definitely find this a must-have set, and this is the season that showed what potential the series would later have. With a video and audio presentation that widely surpassed that of its standard definition broadcasts on the Sci-Fi Channel, plus an impressive set of special features make this an above average season set of a television series on DVD.