[

BOOK
Stargate: SG-1
The Essential Scripts

Editor: Sharon Gosling
Titan Books
RRP £16.99, US $17.95
ISBN 1 84023 887 9
Available 23 August 2004


Stargate: SG-1 has established itself as one of the most popular sci-fi shows. Over the years the galaxy-spanning exploits of Jack O'Neill and the entire military team SG-1 have showcased some of the most imaginative scripts to have graced our TV screens. Six of the scripts have been selected by the show's writing team and are now available in one volume...

Stargate: SG-1: The Essential Scripts is only going to appeal to hard-core fans. The problem with having such a limited amount of content when there are so many great episodes to choose from will probably have fans questioning why certain episodes were chosen while much better stories were left out.

The episodes included are: The Torment of Tantalus, The Fifth Race, Window of Opportunity, 2010, Wormhole X-treme! and Abyss.

What you have here are the original, uncut shooting scripts, all of which include material that never made it to the final edit of the episodes - there are also handy boxes included in the text to point out exactly what was different in the finished episodes.

Also included is an introduction on writing for the show, interviews with all the writers that were involved with the episodes included here; behind the scenes photos; and detailed annotations for each script.

As I mentioned previously, this is only really going to appeal to a small percentage of SG-1 fans. Personally, I got nothing from this book. While I enjoy watching the episodes, reading them in script form is about as riveting as watching paint dry. Not only that, but why bother to showcase a bad job? What I mean is, the writers constantly write too much material for the episodes and that is surely a shoddy job. When you know you have 44 minutes of air time, why constantly overwrite?

Sure, fans may be interested to know what "important" scenes were cut from the finished episodes, but then if the writers had run a tighter ship, these "essential" segments wouldn't have needed to be chopped.

If you are interested in writing scripts, or just want to know more about SG-1 then I'm sure you'll lap this up. If, on the other hand, you are not an anorak and you have a life - maybe go out of your house once in a while - then you won't have time for such nonsense. What it does, it does well, but do you really want to spend £17 of your hard earned money on it?

Pete Boomer

Buy this item online
We compare prices online so you get the cheapest deal! Click on the logo of the desired store below to purchase this item.


cover
£11.89 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
£15.29 (WHSmith.co.uk)

All prices correct at time of going to press.