Great on regular T.V. only. Not created for H-D TV.
For anyone who love computer-generated science-fiction, you'll be in for a blast.

If you have read Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" -- and *liked* it -- then you were probably thoroughly disgusted by Paul Verhoeven's live-action movie adaptation. Completely aside from the bad acting, bad script, bad direction, and incredibly excessive gore and violence (a Verhoeven trademark, apparently), the sad truth is that the movie had almost NOTHING in common with the book.

"Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles" is a much better adaptation. It doesn't tell the same story as the book, any more than the atrocious live-action movie did; but it is a million times truer in SPIRIT to what Robert Heinlein wrote.

The Best Anime I have seen. Wonder why they stopped making anymore series. I hope they make these more.

Roughnecks used the look and feel of the movie, plus a lot of the storylines of the book to retell the story of the Mobile Infantry fighting a war against an alien invasion. But they also introduced some unique ideas of their own and this episode had one of the better ones.

One intriguing idea that the series introduced was that of an alien race that did not use technology at all, but "bred" or "grew" whatever it needed. So their ships are biological, their artillery is biological, and they have various kinds of fighting bugs as well. That was a clever idea.

But this episode introduced another clever idea as well--the idea of giant "sleeper bugs" that could sleep in space for perhaps thousands of years, looking like an asteroid, until one day waking up to head off to a new planet to invade. I don't know if that is a unique idea of their own, or if the writers got it from science fiction literature, but it is clever. The one downside is that they never really show this sleeper bug very well.

Something that I liked about this series that this campaign showed off well is that the story does not always progress in ways you would expect, but in some ways is more "real." For instance, at one point the troopers manage to get the Zephyr off the ground only to crash it only a short time later. I did not see that coming.

One downside is that the commentary tracks occasionally leave something to be desired. The filmmakers often re-cover the same background and explanations that they have on previous discs and we don't need to hear all of that stuff again.

Having read Starship Trooper when it was first released many years ago, I felt like a purist when it came to the movie and a viewer of the Chronicles. But having purchased the first six dvd's and now this new one, I am hooked and convinced that this series is a winner big time.
I am a bit confused about the issue of the last two episodes. I watched Homefront and of course I was totally irritated by the fact that the producers left our heros on earth with bugs doing there dirty best to wipe out the human race and nothing follows.
Are the missing episodes the undrawn conclusion to Homefront episode? I would hate for the bugs to win in the end. :(
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR PURCHASE to anyone that loved the book and the movie. Our heros get more time to rescue all our butts and it is a great story.