Trying to figure out how this series was produced was a little confusing. The plan was to produce 40 episodes. However, the filmmakers ran low on money late in production and so they cheated a bit. They made several "clip" shows that were nothing more than scenes from previous episodes strung together. They skipped an episode completely (episode 33). So there are not really 40 complete episodes, which explains why there are only seven discs, with an eighth due in June 2004. But they also did not film the final three stories that they wrote--the stories that end the war. This campaign ends and the war is still raging.
But when they released the DVDs they also did some annoying things. For starters, the DVDs are not clearly numbered, so it is a little hard to figure out which one is first, second, third, etc. unless you look that information up. Some of the filmmaker's commentary tracks are repetitive. But one of the more annoying things is that they actually SKIPPED an episode that was after the Klendathuu Campaign and before the stories on this DVD. That one had the troopers hunting down the alien queen in space. The result is that this campaign starts rather abruptly with the war over and no explanation as to how that happened. It is really annoying and you only learn what happened by listening to the commentary track. That episode will be released in June 2004, but its exclusion from this disc lowers the value of this DVD.
That said, there is some excellent storytelling here, and also some plot holes. A major character gets killed and the troopers hold a funeral for him. It is fairly powerful for a show that was ostensibly aimed at kids.
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However, I also was annoyed at some plot holes. For starters, at one point we are told that earth has been devastated by the bugs and that "no major landmarks remain standing." Then a few minutes later we learn that San Francisco is completely intact. When Lt. Razak gets killed he is blown up, underwater. Yet in the next episode the troopers are gathered to spread his ashes over a lake. Where did they get the ashes from? He was blown up! And in the final episode, when they are battling on Hawaii, most of the action concerns their efforts to keep a radio tower up and yet one wonders why they don't simply use satellite communications. The show was usually well thought and executed, but occasionally they had the characters do rather stupid things just so the plot could carry along.
