Stargate SG-1: The Complete Tenth Season

It's not really the series finale, since direct-to-DVD movies continuing the story are coming soon, but the longest consecutive running sci-fi series reaches its episodic conclusion in this 10th and final season collection. For those unfamiliar with the SG-1 team—scientists and soldiers who explore a multitude of planets via the Stargate, a portal to an intergalactic wormhole (as established in the popular 1994 movie)—nothing I say from here on will make any sense. The last 22 episodes of the 2006-07 last season are wildly hit or miss: the Ori and Merlin narrative arcs never really satisfy; the Lucian Alliance stories only hint at their lost promise; and suggestions that Sam Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Cam Mitchell (Ben Browder) are on the verge of hooking up are totally uncalled for, particularly when all true fans are convinced that Sam and the lamentably absent Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) are carrying on a long-distance romance off-screen. Still, this season contains standalone episodes that rank with the series' very best, including “Memento Mori,” which takes the clichéd amnesia plot—in this case, revolving around Vala (Claudia Black)—in a bittersweet direction; “Bad Guys,” which tweaks our heroes' attitudes about themselves; and “Family Ties,” with Fred Willard as Vala's con-man father. But the best episode is clearly “200,” the series' 200th episode, which features the return of Wormhole Xtreme creator Martin Lloyd (Willie Garson) and a number of sci-fi send-ups that are both loving and hilarious. DVD extras include audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, photo and production design galleries, and an exclusive trailer for the first direct-to-DVD Stargate feature film, The Ark of Truth. Recommended. (M. Johanson)