Since Rhino is apparently not putting episodes of G-Force on their Battle of the Planets DVDs any more, they have decided to release a Best of G-Force disc containing some of the most exciting episodes from the show's run.  I generally dislike these compilation DVDs, how does this one stack up?
 

A brief history of Gatchaman, Battle of the Planets, and G-Force.

In the 70's there was a big push to make TV programing for children non-violent.  The networks, not wanting to make waves, began only airing 'kid-friendly' shows on Saturday mornings and cartoons quickly went from action/adventure shows to situation comedies.  But then in 1977 something happened: Star Wars.  This movie was such a hit, that everyone started scrambling to get a science fiction shows on the air.  One of the first was Sandy Frank, a film syndicator, who came up with a quick way to get a show on the air: he'd take a Japanese cartoon, edit it for American TV, dub it, and he'd have a ready made show.  He secured the rights to the cartoon Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, took the 105 original episodes and created 85 shows suitable for US TV, changed the name to the more exciting (and Star Wars-like) Battle of the Planets and successfully sold the show to TV stations across the country in 1978.

Most of the violence and fighting was edited out, and new characters were added to bridge the continuity gaps that these edits created:  The R2-D2 like robot, 7-Zark-7 and his companion robot dog 1-Rover-1 who were stationed at Center Neptune.  The show consisted of a team of five orphans who made up the team G-Force; leader Mark Venture, Tiny, The Princess, (another nod to Star Wars perhaps?) and Keyop.  Together these "five acting as one" would battle the evil Zoltar from the planet Spectra who was determined to conquer the earth.

The show ran its course, and did well, but not spectacular.  The ratings to the show weren't strong enough to warrant adapting the sequel to Gatchaman, but the show lived on in syndicated reruns and on cable for years.

Jump ahead to the 1980's when Frank's licence to the series expired.  When it did, Ted Turner's organization bought up the rights and redubbed the show.  This time they left in the violence, but to confusion of viewers everywhere changed the name of the series and the characters.  This new version was entitled G-Force (the same name as the team in Battle of the Planets) and featured Ace Goodheart (previously Mark,) Dirk Darling (Jason,) Agatha June (Princess,) Pee Wee (Keyop,) and Hoot Owl "Hootie" (Tiny.)  Gone was 7-Zark-7 and the command center.  G-Force was edited, but not nearly as much as the Battle of the Planets version of the show.  Just about all of the fight scenes, violence and death were left in, and Turner's version didn't skip nearly as many shows as the Sandy Frank version.  (Only two out of the first 87 episodes.)  As originally planned, most of the Gatchaman episodes were to be dubbed in English, but as luck would have it only 85 shows were done before monetary support for the project ran out.

After the dubbing and editing was completed, Turner broadcast the show in 1986.  For a whole week.  (Though some sources say only three show were aired, and other say as many as 12)  G-Force then sat on the shelves unaired, until the Turner owned Cartoon Network aired the entire series in 1995.

While G-Force was much closer to the original Japanese program, in a lot of ways it is inferior to Battle of the Planets.  Sandy Frank, to his credit, spent nearly $5 million dubbing and editing Battle of the Planets.  Turner didn't spend nearly as much.  He didn't buy the rights to the music from the original program and replaced it with a horrible synthesized tune that is grating on the nerves.  The dubbing is mediocre at best, with the cast not really taking their roles seriously.

This set of shows does contain some good episodes, nearly half of which were not adapted for Battle of the Planets.  I haven't seen all of the G-Force programs, and truth be told the horrible background music gets on my nerves, but these episodes were entertaining for the most part.  I escpecially like the last three shows, where Galactor (Zoltar in BotP) send a series of missles to poison Earth's atmosphere with radiation.  In the final episode Ace at last gets reunited with his father in a touching scene, although the reunion is brief.

For adventure, nothing beats The Dinosaur Man, where G-Force gets to fight robotic dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs are cool, and robotic dinosaurs running amuck are really cool.

It is too bad that Rhino didn't put out the shows in order, but I can understand why they chose to put out a 'best of' DVD.  This show is inferior to Battle of the Planets in a lot of respects, and I don't think there is a market for both BotP and G-Force.  Of course I'd prefer the original Gatchaman series to either of the American edits of the show.  Here's hoping Rhino releases that one day.

The Best of G-Force contains the following episodes:

The Racing Inferno - episode 19, not adapted for BotP
Invisible Enemy - episode 28, not adapted for BotP
The Sinister Star-One - episdoe 31
The Dinosaur Man - episode 38, not adapted for BotP
Wheel of Destruction - episode 51
Secret Red Impulse - episode 52
The Van Allen Vector - episode 53

Audio:

The two channel mono audio mix is adequate.  There is a fair amount of dynamic range, and the track is clean.  Unfortunately that allows the hoorible background music to shine through.  In any case the dialog is easy to hear, and there are not an major defects.

Video:

The full frame image looked good, a lot better than the Battle of the Planets: 25th Anniversary Collection reviewed here.  The colors were a little dulled, but not significantly.  While the image was a little soft, there was a good amount of detail and the contrast was good. There was some damage to the print, with dirt and spots popping up occasionally, but not too often.

Extras:

Unfortunately there aren't any extras included with this set.  The earlier releases of Battle of the Planets contained original Gatachman episodes, and I wish that Rhino had continued that practice with this disc.

Final Thoughts:

While I'm not the biggest G-Force fan, I did enjoy these shows for the most part.  I don't really like these 'best-of' sets, and would rather have Rhino release the whole series so that those fans who enjoy it can buy copies.  Die hard Battle of the Planets and/or G-Force fans will want to pick this up, and with a retail price of only $14.98 for seven episodes casual fans should probalby snag a copy too Recommended.