Roughnecks is one of those shows that I kept meaning to watch on TV but always seemed to miss it. Thanks to Columbia TriStar Home Video I can watch them whenever I want.
"The Hydora Campaign" contains episodes 6-10 from the series and takes place on the water planet Hydora. When I watched this release I hadn't seen episodes 1-5 (The Pluto Campaign) and I have to admit I was a little bit lost. I spent the first episode sorting out who was who and trying to erase some of the events from the movie "Starship Troopers". If you've never seen the show I'd recommend viewing "The Pluto Campaign" before watching this one. I wish Columbia TriStar Home Video had included "Character Profiles" on the DVD to catch the viewer up with what has happened to the characters in previous episodes.
Video
I have to say that the video transfer is perfect. There aren't any compression artifacts or dust specs, but there are some problems related to texture maps so I can't give it full marks. In some shots you'll see a shimmering effect which is caused by the texturemaps and the rendering. It's really noticeable off in the distance of water shots, and on some of the rocks. I have a feeling that these shimmering effects wouldn't be visible in the broadcast, but appear due to the higher resolution of the DVD format.
I was also concerned with some scenes that contained choppy animation but they explain this in the commentary tracks. Due to the time constraints the producers were under, and because these were the some of the first episodes, the animation couldn't be fixed before the show had to air. It's not that distracting but you may notice it.
Audio
There are 4 different audio tracks included on "The Hydora Campaign" and I listened to the English Dolby Digital 5.1 track for this review. Most dialog comes from the center speaker with the left and right speakers used when characters are speaking off screen. There are lots of explosions, gunfire and spaceships that use all the speakers and sound great. The rears aren't used a lot, but you'll hear some nice ambient sounds that help add to the audio mix. Also included on the disc are French, Spanish and Portuguese tracks.
Although the audio is good, I found it was lacking bass. I wanted to feel the explosions, not just hear them. I know it's a TV show, but the audio was remastered for DVD release so I expected a little bit more. It sounds nice, but could have been a little better.
Commentary Tracks
I'm really impressed by the commentary tracks included on this release. There are 2 tracks, one a "Filmmakers'" track and the other a "Technical" track. The filmmakers' track deals with the rushed production schedule, comparisons to the movie, audio production and the story. The track features: Audu Paden (Producer), Jeff Klien (Executive Producer), Marsha Griffen (Writer), Jim Latham (Composer), Vincent Edwards (Episode Director), David Hartman (Episode Director), Michael Smith (Editor), Sue Blue (Voice Director), Rino Romano (Voice of Rico), Jamie Hanes (Voice of Razak), Sam Liu (Episode Director), Ray Leung (Prop Designer) and Vince Toyama (Background Supervisor). Audu Paden hosts the track and is heard throughout while the others come and go. The technical track features members of Foundation Imaging who join Audu Paden to discuss their work on the show. If you're at all interested in 3D animation this is an excellent track to listen to. You'll hear about the plugins they developed to help animate, time constraints they faced, how they created some of the models, some "easter eggs" or hidden things they inserted into the show and how many the characters in the show resemble some of the animators at Foundation.
Filmographies
Filmographies for Jeff Kline (Co-Executive Producer), Audu Paden (Producer), Tish Hicks (Carmen), Rider Strong (Carl), E.G. Daily (Dizzy), James Horan (Doc), Alexander Polinsky (Higgins), Jamie Hanes (Razak) and Rino Romano (Rico).
Trailers
These trailers are ads for the previous Roughneck releases; "The Pluto Campaign" and "The Tesca Campaign". They're both the same with the only difference being the name of the campaign that's displayed.
Photo Gallery
The photo gallery holds 66 drawings from 6 catagories: Backgrounds, Bugs, Characters, Props, Structures and Vehicles.
Summary
I've read a lot of complaints that Columbia TriStar Home Video doesn't release any TV product on DVD yet here's a great release from them. People seem to focus on the major shows and forget releases like "Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles". I was so impressed with this release that I went out and picked up "The Pluto Campaign" the next day. I hope everyone who buys this release listens to the commentary tracks because I found them almost as entertaining as the feature. Look for my "Pluto Campaign" review to follow shortly.
