Product Description

When a secret base abandoned by the original builders of the Stargates is found buried in the ice of Antarctica the newly formed Stargate Atlantis team is born. The team's discovery leads to a daring expeditiion to the distant Pegasus galaxy where they encounter a primitive human civilization and a sinister new enemy that threatens human life everywhere. The Stargate Atlantis mission is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Weir a specialist in diplomatic relations. Her political savvy is balanced by the bravado of her military counterpart Major John Sheppard a courageous pilot. Rounding out the crew are Lt. Aiden Ford Sheppard's second-in-command Dr. Rodney McKay a clever and quick-witted astrophysicist and Teyla a beautiful young leader among the primitive alien civilization that the Atlantis team encounters.System Requirements: Running Time 873 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 027616121011 Manufacturer No: 12101

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2428 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2005-11-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Czech, English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Dubbed in: Portuguese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: .75 pounds
• Running time: 873 minutes

Amazon.com
It's not a franchise on the order of Law & Order, CSI, or Star Trek--not yet, anyway--but with Stargate Atlantis, a more than worthy successor to SG-1, Stargate is becoming a nice little cottage industry in itself. The premise, in a nutshell: The Ancients, the greatest race the universe has ever known (or something like that), abandoned Earth millions of years ago, taking Atlantis with them; they then sunk the entire city in order to escape the clutches of the dreaded Wraith, an implacable bunch of villains who nourish themselves by sucking the life from humans. Now, as the two-hour "Rising" pilot details, a new team has gained access to the legendary city. Once they arrive, Atlantis loses the power to sustain its protective shield and rises to the surface, and thus begin the team's adventures (i.e., using the stargate to travel to other planets in the Pegasus galaxy, encountering aliens both hostile and friendly, and trying to defeat the Wraith, or at least stay out of their way).

Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), SG-1's driving force, is missed, but Atlantis has a strong replacement in Major John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), easily the most charismatic member of the new team. Like O'Neill, Sheppard is a wiseacre and a loose cannon, as well as a superb pilot with an innate understanding of the Ancients' arcane technology. His humor, humanity and conscience provide a welcome contrast to the other characters, especially brilliant-but-neurotic Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) and ultra-serious project leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), who has little to do but give orders and stand up for her people. The Wraith, who resemble a vampire mutation of the albino blues guitarist Johnny Winter, are the focus of most of these 19 episodes (including the pilot). These bad boys will stop at nothing--nothing, I tell you!--in their quest to snack their way through every galaxy in the universe, with Earth their ultimate feeding ground. And while the final four episodes, dealing with the Wraith's massive attack on Atlantis, end with an unsatisfying cliffhanger (basically, nothing is resolved), earlier shows effectively keep their ominous presence in the forefront. The episodes in which the Wraith play little or no active role are often compelling as well, including "Thirty Eight Minutes" (one of our heroes' "puddle jumper" spacecraft gets stuck in the stargate), "Childhood's End" (we meet a race whose members are convinced that only ritual suicide is keeping the Wraith at bay), and "The Eye" (a planet-size hurricane/tsunami bears down on Atlantis). As is the case with SG-1, the visual effects work, especially by TV standards, is excellent; in fact, one might wish for bit more cool sci-fi action and less talk in some of the episodes. Special effects include commentary (by directors, writers, and/or actors) for every episode, as well as the occasional behind-the-scenes featurette. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

New series...
Season 1 provides Stargate loves with new exciting villians! I was still sad to watch Stargate Atlantis knowing that Stargate SG-1 would soon be over but it was really excellent to know that the spin off had awesome scene's and villians.

Great Follow up
Being a fan of SG-1, this is a nice follow up. Caracters well developed, well written stories, super special effects. It's fun to watch.

The series is great! The merchandise wasn't...
I think the Stargate series (both Atlantis and SG-1) are great. I already had seasons 1-10 for SG-1 and had watched all of the dvd's several times. So I decided to get the season 1 of the Atlantis shows. I purchased the box set from iNetvideo along with other dvd merchandise from other sellers. iNetvideo's shipment was delivered within a couple of days prior to the the deadline date. And the shipment arrived more than week after I had already received the merchandise from the other sellers eventhough the same shipping method was used.

After inspecting the merchandise and playing only the first dvd, I did gave an excellent seller's feedback. When I finally was ready to play the 5th and last dvd I instantly realized that something was wrong. The exact same episodes that are on Disk 1 Volume 1 were on Disk 5 Volume 1. I removed the dvd from the player and looked at the label - the label said Disk 5 Volume 1. I read the DVD case cover and it listed the episodes that were suppose to be on that disk but were not.

Now, how one dvd can get mislabeled and placed into a 2005 box set without a massive recall because other customers experienced the same problem is strange to say the least. My girl friend and I have order quite of few dvd through Amazon's website and this is the first time there has been a problem. I removed the feedback that I had previously give and contacted the seller via the Amazon website about this defect.

After two and no response from the seller, I contacted Amazon. They quickly responded and taking care of the situation with their A-Z guarantee. Meanwhile, I have download the last 4 episodes using Amazon's Unbox feature. I want to view these esipodes and found out what happens. I really like this series - it's as good as SG-1. Great originality in the storylines. There's actiion, humor and sometimes a tear jerker (my girl friend, of course). The characters every once in awhile make a comment about Star Trek (in a good way - I like Star Trek, too).

After I am refunded, I'll be returning the box set to the seller and will probably just download the rest the season 1. Lesson learned - watch all the dvd's before giving a seller's rating. I'll be purchasing season 4 but not from this seller regardless of what their prices are.