Customer Reviews

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I have to admit that I was apprehensive about the content and undecided as to whether or not I would buy this DVD. I read the reviews on Amazon.com, and ultimately decided to buy it, since I was very curious to see it, and wondered what exactly was put in that was different. Brad Wright, in the featurette, admits he took out 7 minutes of the original footage, but enthusiastically says that he "put in new footage." I am an ardent Stargate fan, and I was hoping to see some interesting new footage.

First, several of my favorite lines were removed - Carter's "Just because my reproductive organs are on the inside..." speech is removed, and frankly I object to that for two reasons - first, people watching Moebius in season 8 will not get the joke as she repeats those lines, and secondly, I think it makes O'Neill's line a bit later "I don't have a problem with women, I like women..." seem a bit out of context to me. Also removed - O'Neill's back and forth with Hammond about writing a book after retirement - that was funny, and I miss it!

Changed, just for example, when the team first gets to Abydos, and O'Neill brushes past Daniel to get to Skaara, he actually brushes him in the original, leading to a slightly hurt look from Daniel as he recoils from the brush-by. In this version, that does not occur. It is interesting to me to see the different ways the shoot a scene. The dead Jaffa that is unveiled now also has a friend - female at that, which goes against Canon. The prison scene where Daniel regains consciousness seems to have more dialogue between him and Jack, and he seems to almost pass out a couple more times than I remember from the original. The scene where Daniel and Sam are dialing the gate at the end is shorter. They took out Daniel's "got it" and big smile moment - or shortened it, which disappointed me.

Totally new, well, there is now a short briefing room scene right after they return from Abydos where Daniel is still in his robes. Frankly, the end to that scene bothered me a lot - I felt that Hammond was overly rude. I know in the pilot he was not especially friendly or patient, but I thought his comment was very rude. Chris Judge redid his lines for his version, and now sounds too much like season 10 Teal'c.

Overall, I am mostly glad I bought this, but as Brad Wright said in his featurette, "those that don't care for this version can watch the original" - count me in that group. I hope this helps people get a better understanding of what is different.

First off, dont get me wrong i LOVE Stargate! i own every DVD of both SG1 and Atlantis, even have a few novles! Shows i watch and watch and love the more i watch! When i first heard last year about this "re-imagined" pilot movie i was excited! Becaused it is one of my fave episodes of SG1 (If not my first)
But when i watched this right off the bat i was deeply disappointed! Lines were cut out from the movie that didnt even need to be! making much of the start seem rushed! Sam's intro scene got a big chop, She has a few new lines here and there in the movie as well. Brad Wright said it made her character 'stronger' i didnt see this! Because she seems more wide eyed then in the original! Especially when she meets Dr Jackson for the 1st time!(i did a face palm to that one!)
Teal'c (Christopher Judge) had his ADR re looped making him sound out of Season ten where his voice has become alot deeper with age. The new CGI isnt anything that made me go 'wow what an improvement!' Yeah the nudity scene was cut, this i didnt mind cause thats not what Sg1 is about, but the few new 'scenes' added in have changed the flow of the movie for me! The new scenes are nothing worth the money of this DVD! They seemed rushed and poorly scripted (and the reason why this dvd was done was cause Wright didnt like most of the early writing?) Most are just different takes of scenes that were in the original, which i guess were not In the original because they werent as good in performance and scripting!!
The biggest sin of a change was taking out the "Macgyver" referance, which i thought was a nice touch to Richard Dean Anderson who is one of may fav actors! But this next change is what has me stumped the most! Where Major Kawalsky gets a Goa'uld in him is completely removed, why? I have no idea!! Has Wright in his thirst for easy money forgotten about the episode "The Enemy Within" ?? Which follows up from the Children of the Gods!!!! As i said, im stumped with that one!
I never thought the day would come where i would be upset with a Stargate dvd for it is my most loved TV show, but sad to say, that day as arrived...
All in all this 'Re-hashed' version might be for one off new comers! Since it has no ties with the next Episode in the 1st season now! I dont know how any true Stargate SG1 fan can find anything in this to make it seem worth it or that is is better! This DVD has gone into my collection (which i guess makes it complete still) and when i next start the SG1 saga again, i will be watching the original polit movie over this!

I don't know about the others on this board, but I have actually watched through the movie, listened to the commentary track, and viewed the featurette. If I have any one complaint, it would be for a longer featurette.

First of all, this is a completely new re-edit. Expositional scenes that are establishing the basis of the series (which are wordy and slow the pace of the original pilot) are trimmed. The action is tighter. The movie has also been re-scored, whereas the pilot contained re-hashed music from the original Stargate feature film. There are also a handful of new shots, improved special effects, and a re-recording of Teal'c's voice (no longer does he have that strange accent that he had in the pilot, but it is now in keeping with the rest of the series).

There is no longer any graphic nudity. Carter no longer makes the cringe-inducing comment about her reproductive organs being on the inside, nor does she say she can "McGuyver" anything, and a continuity error has been removed regarding being able to step back through the Stargate once entering (see Apophis' entrance at the beginning of the film).

There are new scenes trimmed from the pilot now restored in this film. In all, this feels like a film and not like a studio pilot. As a result, the entire feature "feels" more in keeping with the series as a whole.

Richard Dean Anderson joins the commentary track; all in all, an enjoyable commentary.

The feature is presented in Widescreen 1.78:1 and Dolby 5.1 surround. The quality of the presentation on DVD is much better than the original box set pilot and feels much less "compressed."

*PLEASE SEE COMMENTS AND MY REPLIES FOR MORE INFORMATION*

Really overall I think this "recut" was completely unnecessary. When I heard it was coming I preordered the DVD thinking it would enhance my collection. OK some stuff was cleaned up and a few things restored but then things were also removed which led to a couple of inconsistencies later on. I guess the idea was to make the "pilot" more in line with the rest of the series. Why? It was a pilot in large part based on the first movie, which is just fine. People have said that is was OK to remove the brief "nude" scene. Well it wasn't for me. Frankly I liked that bit because lets face it, she had a beautiful body, and the scene fitted into the storyline just fine. Apophis and his mate wanted to admire the body in which she was to exist. Also removed is the Kowalsky storyline which is a problem for later.

Removing Sam's McGuyver reference was another annoyance. Maybe some younger people might not get it but it was a nice little homage to RDA's past. There is more but it has been covered before. While I think that changing the music was OK, it wasn't necessary, and I think the stuff that was removed in this version could have been left in, as well as returning the deleted scenes. Really with a recut version I expect to get more for my money not less. It should be an addition to a series which it isn't.

Casual viewers of the show or newbies may enjoy it but I think most fans of the show will be disappointed. When I rewatch the series I will be watching the oiginal version of the pilot.

I have to disagree with those reviewers who say the original nudity was gratuitous and didn't add ANYTHING to the pilot. (certainly nothing gratuitous about the near constant violence in the series, is there?)

The forced nudity most clearly demonstrated just how little the "gods" cared for the lives, feelings, and basic humanity of their subjects. By including a few dozen frames of a married woman's forced nudity and inspection by the "gods" it clearly dealt with the implied violation and rape to come. This very effectively demonstrated the level of dominance by the "gods" beyond the all too stereo-typical downtrodden slaves/cannon fodder/tortured subjects level so often seen in commercial science fiction fare...as can be seen over and over again in the subsequent Stargate: SG-1 episodes.

Without the Share character's non-consensual nudity the issue of rape and sexual violence against women under the "gods" would have never been examined. The later depiction of Share's after-the-fact pregnancy just does not provide the same focus on this topic.

Editing-out the nudity cuts a vital statement and important content out of the product and I think it is weaker for it.

It is nice that a version "suitable for children" is available (even though it contains extreme violence and depictions of torture, murder, and death).

It would have been better to be provided both versions in the same disc set so people could compare them or provide the "safe" disc to their children as desired.

I also suggest that providing the "re-imagined" version in ONLY a "fullscreen" format (according to the "format" tag in the amazon.com product description) greatly lessens the experience for the viewer.

However, as a well-considered way to enlarge the paying customer-base...re-releasing a "re-cut, re-mastered, re-imagined, re-markable" version is a brilliant commercial move.

I just watched the movie and I kept waiting for some new scenes that would justify the "re-imagining". Boy, was I disappointed. Not only was there not enough new material to justify making a new movie, but some important scenes were omitted, including the nuditiy scenes and the scene where Kowalsky gets invaded by a goauld, just to name a few. Cutting these scenes removes important cues and clues from both the movie and the series that follows. There isn't enough new material to come even close to justify saying the movie is "re-imagined". What were they thinking? I am seriously disappointed and will think twice before falling for this line again.

Brad Wright does say that some fans will hate him for what he did with this pilot. Well I don't! A masterful job and I've been a fan since the Kurt Russell movie!

Brad Wright went back to his original 1994 pilot and cleaned it up; he changed several scenes, added CGI in a few places that needed it (without the invasive stuff that plagued Star Wars: A New Hope when Lucas tried the same thing), got rid of the scratches and marks, and even had Christopher Judge redo a few scenes to make it come across better.

I do miss the nude scene with Ms. Bandera, sigh. But I digress.

Watching this reawakened my love for this series and why it lasted for ten full years of excitement and adventure. The big, bad Goauld, the betrayal of T'lck, the struggle between military orders and humanity by General Hammond.

I forgot how much tougher the military was in this pilot. They really, really wanted to set off that nuclear bomb and send it through the gate! Even Hammond was saying how much he just wanted to bury the damn thing and wish they never unearthed the thing.

And the actors are so young! The meeting with Captain Carter was cleaned up to where she is not bragging about her reproductive organs being on the inside than the outside...blah blah. If you have seen the original original, you know this did not work well at all. Brad Wright cut all that and with some re-editing made it a much more positive meeting.

The development of the plot points and the establishment of Apophus and the loss of Shari and Skara was very intense.

A dedication to the memory of Don S. Davis, the actor who played General Hammond and passed away in 2008, was a touching thought.

The DVD has a making-of, an interview with Wright, and a discussion of the many changes that were done with the pilot. He even said some of the fans may hate him for making changes, but if they don't like it, let them watch the old one!

Ja-Fah!

Most TV shows spun off from movies are uninvolving and uninteresting ("Blade," anyone?), and hopefully die and are forgotten.

That wasn't the case with the spinoff of the 1995 movie "Stargate," an okay science fiction movie that spawned an excellent television series. And "Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods -- a recut and polished-up version of the original pilot movie -- is actually far better than it sounds, with a tightened narrative, souped-up special effects (more modern puddles), and a more dramatic soundtrack.

The Stargate has been inactive for a year -- until it is activated, and a bunch of Egyptian-styled warriors come through and kidnap a young officer. General Hammond (Don S. Davis) pulls Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) out of retirement to learn what really happened on the planet of Abydos, and where these mysterious aliens have come from.

O'Neill and a small team go to Abydos and encounter Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) who has been learning about a vast network of Stargates over the past year. But when Daniel's wife Sha're and brother-in-law Skaara are abducted by the same warriors, O'Neill, Jackson and Air Force scientist Sam Carter (Amanda Tapping) use the Stargate to venture to where they're being kept.

What they find is an alien race who inhabits human hosts, the Goa'uld, and their ruthless slave warriors, the Jaffa. Carter, O'Neill and Jackson are captured by the powerful Apophis -- but to escape, they must have the help of an unlikely ally: Teal'c (Christopher Judge), one of the Jaffa.

"Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods had some beginning-of-series awkwardness, and even the recut scenes don't quite cover this (Teal'c is still an enigma, and the team hasn't quite gelled into the trusting, close-as-family unit). But it shows the seeds of what would become an excellent TV series, both in the overall arc storyline and the standalone episodes.

It also has some wonderfully snappy, tart dialogue, mostly provided by the brilliant O'Neill. The Egyptian-styled sets and effects have a slightly low-budget style, but the script adds some brilliant twists to the original idea, such as hundreds of Stargates scattered through the cosmos. And the makers add some warm scenes, such as the eager Abydonian teenagers celebrating with O'Neill and his pals, which really makes the characters seem human.

As for the recut edition, it's actually not as bad as it sounds; there aren't any George Lucas-style mega changes just for the heck of it (the Abydonians aren't suddenly replaced by screeching dancing CGI bands). It's mostly about tightening up the original episode. The soundtrack is made more dramatically orchestral, and apparently the actors did a bit of rerecorded vocals (honestly, I didn't notice, but I wasn't listening carefully). It also some has some nice behind-the-scenes information about the recut movie and going back to the series' start, and a fun little commentary with Richard Dean Anderson and Brad Wright.

Additionally, dialogue is trimmed off (Sam's silly "reproductive organs" spiel) or added back in ("Anyone can send a NOTE!"), the special effects are tweaked (the event horizon has been turned a more luminous blue, and the pyramid matte painting has been replaced), and some alternate takes have been inserted (Sam's audible yelp when Jack shoves her through the Stargate). The most controversial aspect of it is that Share's full frontal nude scene has been removed, which is bad or good depending on your attitude -- apparently the creators never wanted it, but they were forced to.

The cast is also quite good -- Michael Shanks and Richard Dean Anderson have excellent chemistry as the cynical military man and the enthusiastic nerd, both of whom are still struggling with their own personal tragedies. Tapping is also quite good as a capable scientist/soldier, but Judge sadly doesn't get to show much of his formidable range as Teal'c (although you can see little flickers here and there of his awesomeness).

"Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods" was a good start to the classic, epic sci-fi series, and despite a few controversial twiddles the "Final Cut" is a solid polish-up of the original TV movie. It's not essential, but it's a good complement.

If you already have the original cut of the SG-1 pilot on DVD as part of a season set, don't bother buying this one. If you don't have it and don't want to buy a whole season, go ahead and get this one.
Apart from removing the brief nude scene (whether that's an improvement or not is up to you) the changes are so trivial that they just make no real difference at all. The new special effects are well done, but the original special effects were just as good. It's interesting to see the extra lines of dialog here and there (none are whole new scenes, just fragments of scenes) but makes little overall difference.
In summary: it's slightly different from the original but not in any way that makes it better, worse, or worth having both in your library. I give it two stars against the overstated promise of real differences.

My wife and I rented this "re-edit" of the original pilot through Netflix, and I'm really glad we didn't buy it. For the most part, they didn't change much.

I enjoyed what little updated special effects they put in. but it wasn't the big "Ooo, aah!" moment it was hyped to be.

Editing out the nudity ... I can see both sides of the argument. On the one side, Showtime wanted it, MGM didn't. On the other, the forced nudity established that humans are nothing more but cattle to the Goa'uld. Although basically that happens in the re-edit, it's not as shocking as the original.

Re-dubbing Teal'c's voice was a plus. Taking out Carter's "reproductive organs" line was a win. No one ever liked that line. The show writers even made fun of it later on in the series. Taking out the "Macguyver" line was a fail. That line was always hilarious and a nod to Anderson's previous work.

My biggest beef with the re-edit is that they took out the Goa'uld taking over Kawalsky's body. Which would in turn change the plot of the series. Without that takeover, they wouldn't have had to Kawalsky in "The Enemy Within" and he would, I think, have played a major role in the series as the leader of SG-2. However, the writers of the show loved writing time travel and alternate realities into episodes, so this could be explained away with one of those theories I guess.

Bottom line - it's worth the rent. Just don't buy it.