Will SG-1 come out on Blu-Ray?

[garak1]

Just wondering if there is any news on whether Stargate SG-1 will be coming out on Blu-Ray?

I have the first couple of seasons on DVD but have held off buying the rest in expectation that it will come out on Blu-Ray soon.

SG-1 was a special show to me. I remember watching the first season in Australia back in 1998. The previous year had been particularly difficult, and watching SG-1 became a big part of my recovery process.

It was so much more than a TV show. The SG-1 team held the line against impossible foes, and they did the right thing even when it broke the rules. I was only 15 at the time, but I still look back fondly on that time and the example set by SG-1.

O'Niell, Carter, Jackson, Teal'c and Hammond became my heroes.

In the years ahead, when I faced moral choices and challenges, I would often think of what Colonel O'Niell would do.

Stargate SG-1 deserves a big fancy Blu-Ray set with lots of new updated effects. I would be immensely proud to have such a set on display in my home.

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

There are no plans at the moment. I'm not even sure if it would be practical. The first seven seasons weren't filmed in HD, and for all I know it's possible they could be in a similar situation that 1990s Star Trek shows are in that requires extensive work done just to get them on blu-ray. And the truth is, I'm not sure if there is enough interest in Stargate at the moment to justify spending that kind of time and money.

 

[Lindley]

There are no plans at the moment. I'm not even sure if it would be practical. The first seven seasons weren't filmed in HD

Some of them were. "Entity" was the first episode filmed in HD. I'm not sure if they used it consistently after that or not.

The biggest problem would be seasons 1 and 2, which used a lower-grade film than the rest. I'm afraid the details have slipped my mind.

 

[Harvey]

I think the first three seasons were shot on 16mm rather than 35mm, except for "Entity," in which the crew experimented with HD video. Seasons 4-7 were shot in 35mm, as were the two post-cancellation movies. Seasons 8-10 were shot in HD video.

Now, 16mm can look quite good in HD -- it certainly has more resolution than standard definition video -- but it won't look as good as 35mm footage. And that doesn't cover the show's visual effects, which I presume were not rendered in HD.

Given the waning popularity of the franchise, I'm not sure a Blu-Ray release of the flagship series is in the cards.

 

[DrunkUncle]

Yeah, don't hold your breath.

I'm starting to suspect that the next time we'll see any official realese of a Stargate SG-1 related item will be 2017 as that will mark the series 20th anniversary.

If you haven't watched it yet, you should check out the "Children Of The Gods - Final Cut" DVD that was released in 2009.

It's the first episode with updated visual effects, better plot and "new" music by Golsmith that fits better than the original.

 

[AJ86]

I wouldn't waste your money. The new effects are worse than in the original. Most of which seem to be there purely to replace any original movie footage.

 

[DrunkUncle]

I still thinks the updated image fits better with the episodes to come.

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

I found the editing in the special edition to be rather sloppy and struck me as someone removing the scenes they typically fast forward through.

Particularly sloppy is the way they hack up the banter between Carter and O'Neill in the briefing room. They remove Carter's infamous "just because my reproductive organs are on the inside" line but leave O'Neill's response in ("this has nothing to do with you being a woman."). With Carter's line gone, gender's no longer an issue in this conversation, so why is O'Neill fixated on it?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

There are no plans at the moment. I'm not even sure if it would be practical. The first seven seasons weren't filmed in HD, and for all I know it's possible they could be in a similar situation that 1990s Star Trek shows are in that requires extensive work done just to get them on blu-ray. And the truth is, I'm not sure if there is enough interest in Stargate at the moment to justify spending that kind of time and money.

I think the first three seasons were shot on 16mm rather than 35mm, except for "Entity," in which the crew experimented with HD video. Seasons 4-7 were shot in 35mm, as were the two post-cancellation movies. Seasons 8-10 were shot in HD video.

Now, 16mm can look quite good in HD -- it certainly has more resolution than standard definition video -- but it won't look as good as 35mm footage. And that doesn't cover the show's visual effects, which I presume were not rendered in HD.

Given the waning popularity of the franchise, I'm not sure a Blu-Ray release of the flagship series is in the cards.

The franchise might be waning in popularity, but every time I'm on Facebook at MGM's Facebook page, I keep seeing messages urging MGM to film more Stargate and also an organization that wants to see Stargate come back as a movie or as a TV show; Save Stargate Universe and Save Stargate

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

You're always going to have someone who wants more. Even Enterprise had a fan campaign that raised over a million dollars to keep it on the air. But unless it looks profitable, nothing will be done.

And on the matter of blu-rays, I don't think season 2 of SGU was released on blu-ray, just DVD.

 

[Harvey]

A small, but vocal contingent of online fans isn't going to convince MGM to pay for an expensive HD remaster. That the HD-ready second season of Stargate Universe was DVD-only (along with the re-cut pilot episode of the flagship series) indictes the studio's inclination to invest in such a project.

 

[garak1]

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

I appreciate the candour shown by everyone, and I take the point that it is unlikely that SG-1 will come out on Blu-Ray, however well deserved such a release would be.

It does sounds as if they would be in a similar situation to TNG and the massive remastering project that was required there. As I understand it, the only thing that got the TNG Blu-Ray project off the ground was that CBS wanted a classic flagship series to use as a platform from which they could launch further Blu-Ray releases of other non-Trek series.

If MGM take a similar approach to their marketing then we could be in luck, but my I am not expecting this to occur.

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

If MGM take a similar approach to their marketing then we could be in luck, but my I am not expecting this to occur.

Another factor is that MGM is still recuperating from being bankrupt, so it could be quite a while before they even contemplate anything like this.

 

[AJ86]

Money isn't a problem for MGM. They came out of their chapter 11 with a half a billion dollars to spend.

 

[JarodRussell]

I wouldn't waste your money. The new effects are worse than in the original. Most of which seem to be there purely to replace any original movie footage.

That's the same problem TOS-R has.

The composition of the shot is a lot weaker, the colors are off. Change for the sake of change is always a bad idea.

 

[MacLeod]

Money isn't a problem for MGM. They came out of their chapter 11 with a half a billion dollars to spend.

Half a billion isn't a lot of money when films can cost in the region of 100+ million to make.