STUDIO: Twentieth Century Fox
RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2008
STARRING: Amanda Tapping, Claudia Black, Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Don S. David, Ben Browder, and Cliff Simon
WRITTEN BY: Brad Wright
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
FEATURES: Audio Commentary with Executive Producer/Writer Brad Wright and Director Martin Wood
The Making of Stargate Continuum Featurette
Stargate Goes to the Arctic Featurette
The Layman's Guide to Time Travel Featurette

Stargate: SG-1 may have been cancelled in its weekly form, but the franchise is alive and well on DVD with Stargate: The Ark of Truth getting good reviews and sales and the latest "sequel" to the series likely to do even better. Continuum is no quickie DTV sequel. The film features the entire cast from the final season of Stargate: SG-1 along with a small role for Beau Bridges and a significant one for Richard Dean Anderson. It was shot in Vancouver last year with an impressive budget of $7 million. I know I'm getting old, but I remember when a $7 million budget was huge and would have been completely unheard-of for a project that never even intended to go to theaters. It just shows you how much profit there is to be made in DVD and Blu-Ray that Continuum could support such a price tag. Even with all of that knowledge, I have to admit that the first Stargate experience that I've had on Blu-Ray still feels like a TV show. The video and audio aren't up to theatrical releases on the format and one has to assume that it's the production value of the film itself and not Fox's handling of it on Blu-Ray that makes the technical presentation purely average at best. Having said that, Continuum certainly looks better than the standard edition TV episodes that millions have watched, so a step up is a step in the right direction.

As for the film itself, it's more of a step sideways. Both Stargate movies have featured interesting plots and they probably have massive appeal for hardcore fans, but for the more casual viewer like myself (and probably many who will be drawn to the disc just because of its Blu-Ray format and their interest in seeing sci-fi in HD), there's something flat about the storytelling and acting in these movies. There isn't the glee for the genre that you'll find in the best Star Trek or even Babylon 5 incarnations and it doesn't even touch the best of BSG. To be honest, Joss Whedon and Firefly kind of ruined all TV sci-fi for me. Nothing's better than that. But maybe that's not fair. The Stargate universe is its own unique creation and those familiar with it are sure to fall in love with Continuum.

Continuum opens with SG-1 and Jack O'Neill attending an extraction ceremony for Ba'al, the last of Goa'uld System Lords. But, of course, it's a trap. The Ba'al being extracted is just a clone and the real one has traveled back in time to 1939 Earth, where he massacres the crew of the Achilles, the ship that first carried the Stargate to the United States. As anyone who will tell you about time-space rifts knows, that causes some problems. Just like Back to the Future, people and objects start disappearing at the extraction point of the Ba'al clone. Daniel and Mitchell manage to reach the Stargate and leap before its too late, but they end up inside the Achilles, which has drifted all the way to the Arctic. There is now what sci-fi fans love - an alternate timeline, one in which the Stargate program never happened. Can Daniel and Mitchell convince the government what has happened and that all mankind is doomed if something isn't done to fix it?

Science fiction is littered with stories about time travel and alternate timelines. Continuum falls somewhere in the middle. Fans of the show and time travel flicks in general should have a good time and the presentation on Blu-Ray is never bad (even if it's also never great). Continuum was clearly developed and filmed for the millions of Stargate lovers out there and I have a hard time believing they won't be satisfied. If you're not a fan and are just looking for a sci-fi fix, you could probably do better, but even casual viewers will probably find something to like here. Like almost all Stargate, Continuum is never all that bad or all that good, but it gets the job done. And the Blu-Ray edition gets in done in High-Def with an audio commentary by the producer/writer and director with three featurettes. The Stargate universe is alive and well.