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Sci-fi series Stargate: SG-1 continues to reach new
heights of popularity, as Colonel Jack O'Neill and his elite
military team, SG-1, explore the worlds and face the challenges
beyond the Stargate: a mysterious, ancient portal that allows
instantaneous travel to remote planets throughout the universe...
The
fourth authorised volume of the SG-1: The Illustrated Companion
series contains coverage of seasons 7 and 8, and includes
behind-the-scenes interviews, scores of pictures and a comprehensive
episode guide. Plus, this time there's a bonus 16-page colour
gallery as well. This
edition also features contributions written by cast and crew
members, including a Foreword by Martin Wood, an Afterword
by Peter DeLuise, and an exclusive piece from Jack O'Neill
himself - Richard Dean Anderson.
While
author Thomasina Gibson's writing is more than adequate, I
couldn't help feeling that she was wasting her talents and
was stuck with a very rigid style to ensure this volume fitted
in with the previous three. Maybe that's why she tries to
sing her own praises at every opportunity.
Last volume she managed to stick three pictures of herself
in amongst the pages. While this time we are only treated
to one image of her, she's really topped herself in the editorial
department. What on earth is Gibson doing with her Citizen
Joe inclusion? The fact that this stars Dan Castellaneta
(the voice of Homer and others in The Simpsons) hardly
gets a look in. No, instead the majority of the text is taken
up with her telling us that she was an extra in this episode
and what that experience was like. Now I'm not saying that
this information isn't interesting... it is. But, shouldn't
it have been used somewhere else? Maybe even a page dedicated
to a day on the set. Or she could have her included experience
in the 'Stargate and the fans' section. I wanted to
read more information on the episode and decision to include
Castellaneta, not about how scary it was to push a pram -
even though she was probably out of focus in the background.
In
actuality all you are really paying for are the few exclusive
photos and material from the cast and crew. Everything else
has been on the Internet (on sites like TV Tome) for months
already. And that brings up a question on the future life
of these sorts of collections. With the Internet at everyone's
finger tips why should you pay just under £44 for the
four guide books in this series? Publishers are going to have
to start coming up with new and interesting ideas if they
don't want to see dwindling sales.
Guide
books don't have to be dry affairs. It's been brought to my
attention that an old boss of mine, from my DreamWatch
days, has breathed much needed new life into the companion
genre with his work on the Farscape and now Smallville
series of guide books. Now I'm not just saying this because
he used to pay me a salary, but Simpsons's research is akin
to a hard-nosed journalist with a smell of a good, meaty story
- he rummages around and digs up tons of little nuggets of
insider information. What Gibson gives us are short and sweet
snippets on the episodes - the sort of thing you can find
on any fansite.
It's
not that this book is bad - far from it. It's just that it
doesn't really offer anything that the hardened fan won't
already know.
Darren
Rea
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