Cheap Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tesca Campaign (DVD) (Jay Oliva, Michael Chang, Chris Berkeley, Sam Liu, Alan Caldwell, Sean Song, Audu Paden, David Hartman (III)) Price

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Customer Reviews of Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Tesca Campaign

Welcome to the Jungle
The second DVD in the "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" CGI series, the Tesca Campaign takes Razak's Roughnecks to a jungle world teaming with new, frightening arachnid species. The squad will face not only the 'bugs' but also serious trials within its own ranks. Some old faces will be lost in battle, new faces in the unit are met with suspicion and hostility. These are by far the best episodes of the series, in sophistication of animation, superior story, and realistic characterization. One warning: these episodes take place in the middle of the series, well after the events of the Pluto campaign (the first DVD). In the interim the Roughnecks have fought campaigns on several worlds including Tophet, where they faced the Skinnies, a sophisticated alien race allied to the bugs (a plot device pulled directly from Heinlein's book). During the campaign they discover the Skinnies are being used against their will by tiny control bugs. The Skinnies are freed, but Carl Jenkins, the Roughneck's psychic is critically injured in the process and lost to the squad. The Tesca campaign opens with the Skinnies, now allies to the humans, joining the war effort. The Roughnecks are chagrinned to learn that this includes a Skinnie being added to their squad. Pvt. T'Phai, a former adversary must now weather the resentment and predjudice of the squad. The alien soon proves his worth in battle, and not a moment too soon. For one of the Roughnecks will fall in battle. I won't say more and spoil the surprise. Again the animation work by Sony and Foundation Imaging is first rate. Realistic action, incredible vehicles, emotionally real performances from the virtual 'cast'. This isn't just another 'cartoon'. If you enjoyed the Pluto campaign, or just enjoy first rate science fiction or war stories, you want this DVD.

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WARNING: Contains Negative Portrayal of Giant Space SPIDERS!
This disc contains episodes 16 thru 20 of Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (40 episodes altogether). For those of us who have seen the entire series, we're happy to see some of our favorite episodes finally released in DVD format. For those of you who are new to the show, this DVD contains a Filmmakers' Commentary feature which will bring you up to speed on the series as well as provide some insight into the quirky production process of this completely computer-generated show.

Over the course of the series, some of the main characters get wounded and spend time "off stage" to recuperate. One of the main characters is ultimately killed. Each planetary campaign introduces the possibility that not every member of the Roughnecks squad will survive. Such is the case at the beginning episode 16 where an alien character (and former enemy) is recruited to replace a trooper who was hospitalized in a previous episode. This is a very well written series which takes the consequences of war and combat seriously. The characters are fully developed over time and the sheer ambition and complexity of the CGI is truly breathtaking. Also, the techno-inspired soundtrack continues to be one of my favorite elements of the show. The original score contributes much to the energy and mood of every scene.

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Tesca Nemerosa is awesome...
This was one of my favorite campaigns for the series. My favorite episode is in it. It is the one with the huge Jungle Spider picking everyone off. Then Rico is forced to help T'Phai. They Recover the team and everything is well.