The Movie

I first saw Roughnecks - Starship Troopers Chronicles when it aired on the Sci-Fi channel, and from day one I was hooked. I was intrigued by the cutting edge computer generated 3-D animation, but was most interested in the non-stop action as well as the superb writing. The show was intense, witty, and never failed to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's a pity that there were only 40 episodes created. I would kill for them to make another 40 more.

Oddly enough, the idea for this animated series based on Robert A. Heinlein's book, "Starship Troopers" was being kicked around long before the movie Starship Troopers came out in theaters. At the time it was thought that a conventionally hand drawn cartoon would be the best way to present the show, but as more research was done, it seemed like a tedious and unproductive way to go. So the idea of using computer generated 3-D imaging was kicked around, and was thought to be the perfect, if not groundbreaking method to use. The show was immediately praised for it's storyline and amazing progress in 3-D animation when it aired on the Sci-Fi channel, and was soon nominated for a Emmy Award. The show quickly amassed a loyal following, and was off and running.

The interesting thing about the story behind Roughnecks is that it isn't supposed to be a sequel or continuation of the movie, Starship Troopers. It is merely based on the book, and follows roughly the same storyline. Dangerous giant bugs have invaded Earth in the not-so-distant future. Our world is now controlled by a central military governing body and has gone to war against the bugs. They are slowly but successfully forcing the bugs away from Earth and out of our Solar System. Each campaign in the Roughnecks series follows our beloved group of fighting grunts as they push the bugs back, before they can launch an attack that will destroy our planet and our entire race.

The latest Roughnecks installment to be released on DVD is The Zephyr Campaign. As with past releases, five episodes comprising one campaign have been combined to make one feature length movie. The cuts between episodes are nearly seamless, so it is not distracting in the least. In this campaign, our crew of Roughnecks find themselves marooned on a frozen asteroid deep in space. Their mission is to find a powerful poison that can kill the enemy bugs from the inside out, only they believe that they've crash-landed on the wrong rock. They soon encounter fire-breathing bugs, and asteroid-shaking quakes that make their hope of escaping grim.

This is actually an interesting point in the Roughnecks series because this campaign marks the change of the production studios that worked on the show. Having your entire workforce change in the middle of a hit series is hard enough, but things got worse when the new studio had to convert all the existing 3-D artifact models into a new program. The conversion process not only ate up precious production time, but it made for a slightly quirky end result as far as the show's look is concerned. That's why the animation in this campaign looks worse than that of the shows appearing prior to, and after this five-episode campaign. This particular campaign was sort of the testing ground for new software, and less than ideal time schedule. But despite the limitations, they did a remarkable job getting it on air on time, and looking better than it really should have.

This is not my favorite campaign in the series, but it is a great one nonetheless, and one that I remember watching on TV. The suspense is always there to keep you on the edge of your lazy boy, and the fighting action never lets up. In reality, all the campaigns are fantastic, and should be on every sci-fi fan's list to see. If you loved the movie, you'll probably love this show even more, as every episode offers the same great action, with even better writing.


The DVD

Video:
Roughnecks is presented in 1.33:1 full screen. And for coming from fully digital source, Roughnecks looks surprisingly awful. Edge enhancement halos are noticeable, but are the least of this transfer's problem. The two biggest spoilsports are excessive graininess, and extreme pixelation. The graininess found, is at times so bad, the picture looks quite blurry. And the severe pixelation will virtually ruin the viewing experience if you're watching it on a large screen application. If you view the DVD on a 25" TV or smaller, you may not be bothered by these faults, but anything larger will leave you severely disappointed. I expected better from this computer generated digital 3-D material, but I was fully dissatisfied.

Audio:
Thankfully the audio is better than the picture, as we're given a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. As far as 5.1 audio tracks are concerned, this one is nothing special. In fact, given that this is a sci-fi action series, I expected more punch from the soundtrack, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Low frequencies are rarely heard, despite the bountiful amount of explosions in every episode, and the rear surrounds aren't very active even though there is constant gunfire present. The dialogue is very clear and easily heard even when the action picks up. Overall this is a disappointment in terms of a 5.1 track, but it was much better than it could have been considering the awful treatment the video transfer received.

Extras:
Filmmakers' Commentary: I was very glad to have this feature offered on this DVD. We get to hear commentary by the producers, writers, animators, and directors of this fantastic animated series. I learned more from this commentary in the first 10 minutes than I ever thought possible. And the best part is, they just keep going. They always have something to say. It can be extremely interesting for those into the complex computer animation process as well. You may have to be a hard-core fan to get through the entire commentary as is does get monotonous, but for purists it is well worth the time.

Starship Troopers Animated Series Guide: This is a scrollable essay that explains the concept and storyline for the show. This is where you'll learn tons about the show's plot, and its characters. This is a fantastic inclusion, and I hope more studios plan on offering such features to their releases.

Production Artwork: Here you'll find a multitude of concept drawings from everything to the backgrounds, ships, equipment, and alien bugs. Most of the drawings are in black and white, or pencil sketches so they aren't that pretty to look at, but they're worth a look.

Filmographies: Here is a short list of the actors and producers who make Roughnecks the show that it is. Clicking on a name will take you to a mug shot, and short bio of each person.

Trailer: Here is a trailer for the show, Roughnecks.


Final Thoughts:
Roughnecks - The Zephyr Campaign is a must have if you are a collector of the Roughnecks series. The animation isn't quite as good as later episodes, but the action and suspense found here is just as good, if not better than earlier campaigns.

The video quality is a huge disappointment, but the audio track is decent. If you are not familiar with the Roughnecks series, and would like to start watching them, you will want to start at the beginning and work your way up to this release, as the series follows a chronological timeline. Highly Recommended