Actually, the entire name of this feature is “Stargate SG-1 Children of the Gods FINAL CUT,” the re-edited version of Stargate SG-1’s two-part pilot episode, which takes place two years after the Kurt Russell-James Spader film, “Stargate.“I have had the recently issued dvd for a couple of weeks now, and finally got a chance to watch it last night. I was pleasantly surprised and highly entertained by this greatly improved product.
Series co-creator Brad Wright revisited Children of the Gods a year ago and felt he could have done a better job. So, applying all that they had learned during the series’ 12-year run, they changed a lot of the original footage, deleting this and adding that.
In the original 1997 version, Christopher Guest’s (Teal’c) voice was a bit high-pitched and not as deeply resonant as it was toward the series’ end. So they had the actor do some ADR (additional dialog recording) work for his entire dialog in the reissue. The result? Teal’c sounded more confident and stronger.
Amanda Tapping’s character, Capt. Samantha Carter, had a rather silly introduction scene that was replaced it with some footage that had originally been deleted, resulting in a slightly longer – but vastly improved and more-subtly humorous – first meeting with Col. Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson).
Technology, especially CGI, had advanced to such an extent in 12 years that the producers were able to fix flaws in the picture, add in exciting effects, improve scenes, and better integrate the work they’d originally doled out to various sub-contractors.
The result is a vastly superior product, more contemporaneous than if they’d just slapped the original parts 1 and 2 together.
In the bonus featurette – Back to the Beginning – Mr. Wright explains the process they went through, with an eye to releasing a top-shelf product that would do justice to the longest-running science-fiction series in the history of television.
They did a commendable job. If you’re an SG-1 fan, you need to watch this.
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