Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Fourth Season | 
| Actors: Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Jason Momoa, Torri Higginson, Amanda Tapping
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.98
Buy New: $23.95
You Save: $26.03 (52%)
New (51) Used (17) from $21.99
Rating:  98 reviews
Sales Rank: 444
Format: Box Set, Color, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 5
Running Time: 827 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 1
MPN: M111013
UPC: 883904110132
EAN: 0883904110132
ASIN: B0017MO11O
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Disc 1:AdriftLifelineReunionDoppelgangerDisc 2:TravelersTabula RasaMissingThe SeerDisc 3:Miller's CrossingThis Mortal CoilBe All My Sins Remember'dSpoils of WarDisc 4:QuarantineHarmonyOutcastTrioDisc 5:MidwayThe KindredThe Kindred Part 2The Last ManSystem Requirements:Running Time: 900 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 883904110132 Manufacturer No: M111013
Amazon.com
Replicators and Wraith. ZPMs and hyperdrives. Good guys, bad guys, and guys who could go either way. They’re all on hand for the fourth season (originally aired in 2007-08) of Stargate Atlantis, still one of television’s finest sci-fi shows. There are a number of new developments in the course of this 20-episode run. The first is the departure of leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), who’s gone from the team by the third episode, replaced by Col. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping, who will be familiar to Stargate SG-1 fans after her long stint on that now-defunct series); seems Weir’s body contains “nanites,” the elements that make up the “sentient machines” known as the Replicators, which leads to her making a supreme sacrifice on behalf of her fellow humans. (Speaking of the Replicators, these bad boys are so formidable a threat to the entire known universe that even the Wraith--the cat-eyed, white-haired, weird-skinned, vampire-like Johnny Winter lookalikes who feed on humans--fear them, resulting in a rather fraught, on-again-off-again alliance with the Stargaters. Unfortunately, the Replicator-Wraith showdown, which could have made Godzilla v. Megalon look like a game of tag, isn’t exploited to nearly the degree one might have wished for.) Meanwhile, the team’s personal lives are examined more closely this time, as Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) becomes pregnant, dreadlocked beefcake dude Ronon (Jason Momoa) considers rejoining his original tribe, irreverent hero Lt. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) returns to Earth for his father’s funeral (where he runs into his ex-wife and estranged brother), and genius scientist Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett, a good actor whose character’s incessant glass-half-empty, pessimistic whining is getting a bit old by now) once again meets up with his sister, who also made an appearance in Season Three. Overall, the fourth season contains several terrific stories (like “Adrift,” in which the entire city of Atlantis heads into space in search of a new home planet, “Tabula Rasa,” in which the crew is infected with amnesia, and “Trio,” described by its creators as the most logistically complex episode of the entire series), and a smattering that aren’t so hot. As always, Atlantis has terrific special effects, sets, and action (this show ain’t cheap to produce, and it shows), plenty of wit (Sheppard, upon being served a strange-looking meal by his captors: “Is that a form of torture?”), and a very generous selection of bonus features, which include commentaries for every episode, featurettes, and photo galleries. --Sam Graham
Beyond Stargate: Atlantis – Season Four on DVD 
Stargate: Atlantis – Season One on DVD | 
Stargate: Atlantis – Season Two on DVD | 
Stargate: Atlantis – Season Three on DVD |
Stills from Stargate: Atlantis - Season Four (Click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 93 more reviews...
 My favorite of the first four seasons of ATLANTIS June 23, 2009
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
I'm currently engaged in a pretty exhaustive TV viewing project, one that will see me watching just about every major Sci-fi series made in the past few decades. Unfortunately I'm at a bad point in my project. I've already seen almost all of the shows that I've had reason to believe are better than average shows. I'm now left with the dregs.
Now, STARGATE ATLANTIS is hardly a "dreg" show. I watched the first three seasons as they were coming out, until I became disenchanted with the series, in particular with the increasingly reliance on standalone episodes and on poor character development (i.e., lack of character development). I was also concerned about the show because of the elimination from the show of Paul McGillion, who played Dr. Carson Beckett, one of the more interesting characters on the show. Also, Tori Higginson, who had played head of the Atlantis Project Dr. Elizabeth Weir for three years, was planned to depart the show. Despite the addition of Jewel Staite, who I had loved on FIREFLY, I suddenly found myself uninterested in watching the show any longer.
I'm delighted to learn that not only was Season Four not a decline in the quality of STARGATE ATLANTIS, it was actually the most interesting season of the first four of the show. Part of the reason was the replacement of Tori Higginson with Amanda Tapping, who reprised her role from SG-1 of Samantha Carter, sadly available with the ending of that show. I never disliked Higginson, but I never felt that she brought much gravitas to her character (she also bore a disconcerting similarity to an ex-girlfriend of mind, which I personally found oddly distracting). But the main reasons I found myself enjoying Season Four more than the previous seasons were a significant abandonment of the standalone format and the interesting inclusion of a wraith (Todd) as a recurring character. In fact, apart from the third episode of the season, most of the first 13 or 14 episodes of the season were tied to the main overall arc. Only in the final third of the season did a number of standalone episodes creep back into the mix. The overall result was a dramatic improvement in the quality of the show's narrative. Christopher Heyerdahl had played a variety of wraith characters in the first two seasons of ATLANTIS. Then in Season Three came one of the best episodes in the entire series, in which Shepperd is imprisoned with a wraith (whom the Atlanteans later name Todd), who to keep from starving gradually drains Shepperd of life. The two cooperate in escaping from their prison and over the course of the final two seasons Todd would provide an interesting character, often making an odd colleague in advancing causes that were in the interests of both humans and wraiths. In one alternative future, Todd and Ronon even die a heroic death together, teaming up to kill their common enemy. I've always had a love for characters that defy surface expectations. On BUFFY I loved Angelus for being the completely evil doppelganger of the incredibly good Angel, and then later the utterly evil Spike gradually transforming (even before he gains a soul) an increasingly decent character. Almost always Todd's presence in an episode means a good episode.
Also in Season Four there was an increase in the quality of the special effects. I'm not terribly conversant on CGI, but I do know that at about the same time the special effects on just about all CGI-heavy shows dramatically improved, led by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I'm assuming that there may only be one CGI software package catering to customers at this level. I imagine that the small handful of F/X companies all get the latest upgrade at about the same time. In the 1990s there was a very small market for CGI and you could tell from the way that it was used on TV that it was very pricey. Because much of it was custom, there was a dramatic difference from the way that it was used on one show and on another. There are still differences. Although they are certainly using the same software programs, on STARGATE ATLANTIS the CGI shots are very clear and crisp, featuring panoramic shots fairly distance from the objects of interest. On BATTLESTAR GALACTICA you get very complex shots. In Season Four of BSG, for instance, you might get a super close up of the Galactica, with a large hunk of the fleet in the background, the whole shot not centered from an ideal observer's point of view, but from what you would see if you were in a spaceship very close to Galactica. In ATLANTIS the visual field is uncluttered, with no cosmic dust or anything else to impair perfect clarity of picture. On BSG there are often vast clouds of cosmic dust that causes a complex diffusion of light from a nearby nebula. Both shows feature photo realistic CGI, but the uncluttered clarity of ATLANTIS shows a different set of priorities with the more complex version of BSG (and for the record, I much prefer the CGI on BSG, which I believe represents the highest achievement so far of what can be achieved with CGI on TV).
All in all, I really enjoyed Season Four. I am only now getting around to watching Season Five (the DVDs come out later this month, but friends showed me some sites that stream the individual episodes) so I don't know how it will compare with Season Four, but I definitely prefer Season Four more than any of the first three. I now definitely regret that I stopped watching ATLANTIS. Now that I'm watching many shows that I have little confidence in to be any good (I just recently managed to grit my way through ANDROMEDA and fairly soon need to force myself to watch all of LEXX, concerning which I still haven't heard anything to make me at all optimistic), discovering how good ATLANTIS was in the season after I gave up on it has been a very pleasant surprise.
 Exceeded Expectations June 2, 2009
Greyhound Parent (Canada)
Again I was very pleased with my product and the time to delivery. It was received before the promise date and I will not hesitate to place another order again. Thanks for the great service!
Out of this world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! April 25, 2009
Nancy A. Hampton
I have enjoyed this set very much. The quality is great. I can't find one thing that I would change.
LOVE IT! April 20, 2009
F. Lattimore (Cincinnati, OH United States)
I've loved Stargate since the very beginning and when they took it to another level (Atlantis) it made it all worth it but sadden that it had to end and hoping not for long. Love the thought of being able to go to different planets and this and other movies have made that possible in a realistic way. Thank you for five exciting years of Stargate Atlantis...the ride was AWESOME!!!
Sci-fi Stargate March 20, 2009
Michael A. Sinclair (Mount Airy, NC)
Of the few TV series I owned this is the only one I have kept and will not sell for a long time to come. I started out in the days of SG1 and have kept following on through to the current 4th season of Atlantis.
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