Website Review
Review by Kelly, HW Famine

Hi!

I'm kicking off the reviews of the Stargate: SG-1 Internet sites with a look at the official MGM site, www.stargate-sg1.com.

All of these reviews are based on a dial-up connection using Microsoft Explorer 6.x.

The main page is eye-catching, with a nice Flash presentation of stills from seasons four and five.  The popup in the presentation reads "Season 5: Another Week, Another Universe", which leads one to think that this is going to be based on the Syndication schedule.  Unfortunately, this isn't quite the case.


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Each of the pages linked off of the main page takes some time to load, and each has been updated (and I use that term loosely) independently of the others.  Some have fairly current information (up to and including what I believe is Richard Dean Anderson's 2003 Saturn nomination) and some do not.  Cast and crew biographies do not seem to have been updated in some time, and, even though the episode information page has a listing for seasons one through five, the topic header for the page states "Episode information, including synopses, guest star lists, original air dates, and more for seasons one and two." It appears that the information for the first few seasons is correct, but seasons four and five have fairly large errors, including airing order, episode titles, and, in the case of season five, an incomplete list of episodes.

One of the more glaring problems is the listing of Corin Nemec on the Biographies page, and no mention of him anywhere else on the site. There are no pictures (other than the one attached to his stock bio) and no mention of a season six, which at this time (early April, 2003) has already aired in its entirety on the SciFi Channel. Equally as glaring on the Biographies page is the lack of information on Michael Shanks, who was one-fourth of the lead ensemble for seasons one through five.

The Interact section is probably the best, but it also has problems related to outdated viewing formats and the fact that most of the footage is at least 4 years old.


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All in all, it appears that the major updates over the past few years have been in the MGM "Superstore" and on the home page.

This is a pretty site, but only has accurate and moderately complete information for the early seasons of Stargate: SG-1. If you are looking for general information on the later seasons, or on specific episodes after season two, I wouldn't recommend this as your only source of information.

In my opinion, the "Official Site" needs some TLC to bring it back up to speed.

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