Stargate: The Ark of Truth

After ten seasons on the air, Stargate SG1 left viewers with an unresolved storyline regarding the evil "ascended beings” named the Ori, closing out the final episode while the Milky Way was still under threat from an invading force of fanatical soldiers. Stargate: The Ark of Truth brings back the SG1 team to take on the enemy invaders in a decisive final battle (minus Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neil, who left the show at the end of the eighth season). The Ark of Truth is not a stand-alone story but rather a feature-length final episode that wraps up the story arc that began in season nine. If you are unfamiliar with the Stargate franchise, or haven’t seen the last two seasons of the series, then this straight-to-DVD film is not for you. The story, directly continued from the television series, has the SGI team working to stop the invasion by locating an ancient all-powerful weapon. The SG1 team must journey to the Ori galaxy through the black-hole powered Supergate and find the relic that will help them defeat their enemies. Though The Ark of Truth does have a few cinematic moments, the familiar storyline, continued from the television series, prevents this movie from feeling like a feature film and instead feels more like a double-length series finale. Fans will not, however, be disappointed with The Ark of Truth, as it does satisfactorily conclude a long standing plot-line while allowing the writers to explore the Stargate universe in a little more detail than the weekly series allowed. In terms of the Stargate timeline, The Ark of Truth takes place directly after the events of the SG1 series, prior to Samantha Carter’s (Amanda Tapping) move to Atlantis in season four of the Stargate: Atlantis series. The disc has only a few special features, including a commentary track with writer/director/producer Robert C. Cooper, actor Christopher Judge (Teal’c) and DOP Peter Woeste, an "Uncovering The Ark of Truth” "making of” feature that goes into some detail on the creation of Stargate universe and a "Prelude to The Ark of Truth” featurette that is just a montage of clips from the series designed to remind viewers of the story so far. The Ark of Truth is the first of two straight-to-DVD features based on the SG1 series. Hopefully the second movie, Stargate: Continuum (due out July 2008), will have more of a standalone, feature film feel, now that the story can move away from the plot-lines directly continued from the series.