Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Klendathu Campaign (1999)

In "The Klendathu Campaign," Rico and his fellow Troopers are confronted with a disturbing turn of events when their leader Lieutenant Zander is infected with a bug virus and is transformed into a super-strong half-human/half-bug mutant. Intent on destroying the Troopers, Zander follows them in the fiery Klendathu planet. Now, while they try to beat impossible odds fighting the enormous Arachnid army, they're also trying to save their former leader--before he destroys them.

The Klendathu Campaign

The Best Anime I have seen. Wonder why they stopped making anymore series. I hope they make these more. February 28, 2007

Pretty cool

I enjoyed this campaign a lot because it started out onboard the USS Valley Forge, the starship carrier that houses the Razak's Roughnecks.

It is clear from watching these disks that the writers and animators borrowed a lot of ideas from other movies and television shows. Here one of the obvious influences is Aliens. There are several episodes where the troopers are running around darkened starship corridors searching for the bugs that borrow the atmosphere and look of that movie.

[SPOILER]

If I have any complaint, it is that occasionally the show delved into comic-book-like stories and I think this is the worst example, when one of the human characters turns into a bug but still taunts the troopers with quips and snide wordplay. It is too much like a Spiderman comic book.

[MAJOR SPOILERS]

There is also a choice that Rico makes late in the episode that is not really touched on later in the series that I found troubling: at one point he has the opportunity to kill the alien queen but does not do so in order to save the life of one of his friends. The problem is that the queen then makes it to earth, leading to massive warfare and presumably the deaths of millions of people. But they never again revisit Rico's bad decision. May 24, 2004

Excellent Release

I was already quite pleased by the released of the Hydoran and Tophet campaign. This one is just as good. I look forward to the next one. June 22, 2002

Keeps Getting Better!

Second to last in the series, this group of five episodes is extremely fast-paced and nicely plotted.
Best of all, in spite of this being "juvenile" action (as Heinlein originally planned to market his novel), the Klendathu Campaign has more depth of character, gung-ho humor and just plain good old-fashioned story-telling charm than anyone would ever expect from a CGI "cartoon".

As I have said previously, the creators of Roughnecks deserve at
least one Hugo award for their efforts. Granted, the graphics and movement are not up to the Spirits Within level. But for all the reasons that really matter - the heart and soul of a story well told with characters that have some resonance - Roughnecks Chronicles has all the spirit that counts.
Let's hope the creators of this thing get to finish it someday. And go on to give us more quality science fiction CGI.
Live Forever, you apes! June 16, 2002

Missing Sequential Episodes!

Great dvd, however we are missing a story arc. I have loosely named it the Frozen (or Lost) Asteroid Campaign and it directly precedes the Klendathu Campaign.

The missing episodes are 121 - Ice-Olation", 122 "Mixed Signals", 123 "Hot Ice", 124 "The Inside Story", and 125 "The Ice Men Goeth".

Without revealing content, this arc introduces a new bug (Fireflies) and answers the question, what happened to Zander. We still have one more dvd to wait for...and that's a good thing. June 9, 2002

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