With big-screen theaters fully booked these days by gloomy, steroid-injected tales of superheroes and arch villainy, cable-TV's "Terminator -- The Sarah Connor Chronicles" found just enough time and resource to hold forth on the home front with the most thoughtful and humanizing sci-fi writing since "Star Trek."

"Terminator -- The Sarah Connor Chronicles": The Complete First Season arrives Monday, Aug. 18 from Warner Home Video as a precursor to its second season (beginning Sept. 8 on Fox). It's a not-at-all-coincidental reminder of what a smartly produced show it is.

The premise is drawn mainly from the first two Arnold Schwarzenegger classics, involving a powerful computer system of the future named Skynet waging an all-out war to wipe mankind from the Earth. That battle has seeped backwards in time to present-day Los Angeles where "Terminator" cyborgs come hunting a somewhat rebellious teenager named John Connor (Thomas Dekker), the destined-to-be leader of the future resistance.

English actress Lena Headey plays John Connor's mother, Sarah. The job of protecting John and prepping him for his future role as mankind's savior has fallen on her shoulders -- talk about carrying the weight of the world! Headey makes a suitably tough-minded Sarah, though, and eventually displaced even this diehard fan's male fantasies of the buff Linda Hamilton.

While staying true to the outlines of the megahit movies, these initial nine one-hour episodes develop their own new threads. For one thing, John Connor is given a protective cyborg in the form of exotic young beauty Summer Glau ("Firefly"). She more or less assumes the Schwarzenegger role from "Terminator II" as the killing machine programmed for a more innocent if alien role. In this case, the babe in the woods is also quite literally a babe.

Sarah Connor is given ties to the present world, as well, in the form of a jilted fiancé (Dean Winters) and a doggedly tenacious FBI agent (Richard T. Jones). Both of them fall in and out of the fugitives' orbit with very little idea of the bigger war they are intruding upon.

Series creator Josh Friedman cannily develops new situations while orchestrating a more serialized framework for the season. One early script is built around the old time travel canard about the inevitability of fate. Here a character jumps some eight years ahead in time only to learn that her former self succumbed to cancer. Can she use this ultimate "early warning" to head off a disease not yet manifest? In other words: When it comes to the game of destiny, is the ball always squarely in our court?

"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" does not enjoy all the special effects gimmickry of the original movies, but that is a blessing in disguise. It frees the writers to concentrate more on the drama and on the lighter moments of fish-out-of-water comedy in the story's themes and implications. I missed the original weekly broadcast of the series last winter, but I can safely predict this much about my near-future: I'll be there when season two begins.

"Terminator -- The Sarah Connor Chronicles": The Complete First Season comes on three DVDs containing nine episodes and some extra features. Three key episodes are given commentaries by cast and crew, and a three-part mini-documentary delves into the three years it took to develop the series. There's an extended cut of one show and a number of deleted scenes, plus storyboards, a gag reel and a glimpse of Glau's dance rehearsal, of all things. It lists for $29.98.

The same package of shows and extras is also available in high-definition on the new Blu-ray Disc format retailing for $39.99. It provides a much clearer look at the handsome art design and high-tech detailing of the production. The sound is gutsy when it needs to be, but it won't have the neighbors calling the police.

Also new on DVD

"The Legend of the Shadowless Sword" (Warner Home Video, rated R, $19.97). Your library of ancient Korean battle epics just wouldn't be complete without this 2005 gem, premiering now on DVD. In fact, this might be the only one you need as it covers all the armor-clad bases. Gravity-defying stunts? Check! Supremely composed heroes? Gorgeous action heroines? Check mate! Set in 927 A.D., it follows the quest of beautiful warrior Soha (Yoon Soy) to find exiled prince Jung-Hyun (Lee Seo Jin) and bring him back to rally the loyalists against the occupation of the fierce "Killer-Blade Army." It's looking bad for the home team, because the KBA are masters who can float into palace courtyards on invisible hands and send razor-sharp swords slashing like boomerangs through the guarding troops. The wide-screen transfer is marvelously bright and cinematic, and features DTS digital stereo. A behind-the-scenes featurette, character introductions and a music video are among the bonuses.

"Quid Pro Quo" (Magnolia Home Entertainment, rated R, $26.98). Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga ("The Departed") play characters here with problems you wouldn't believe. And that's the trouble. He's a public radio reporter of some sort who has been rendered semi-paralyzed by a childhood trauma, and she is a sassy blonde nutjob who is fully ambulatory but yearns for a life like his, confined to a wheelchair. Did we mention the pair of "magic shoes" that restore Stahl's use of his legs just in time for him to go chasing around the bend after Farmiga? The screenplay was inspired by a documentary about a recently "discovered" syndrome dubbed Body Integrity Identity Disorder, about people who are attracted to amputations and such. The direct-to-cable movie deal must have been clinched when it was discovered that all the fun syndromes had already been taken.

"Smart People" (Miramax Films, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated R, $29.99). The filmmakers fail to live up to the promise of their title in this sour relationship drama about a small society of ivy league elitists. Dennis Quaid stars as a slovenly university professor who may or may not be reeling from the unexplained death of his wife. Sarah Jessica Parker of "Sex and the City" fame tumbles into his life as an attending physician who fixes his bruises and projects her own romantic yearnings and fantasies onto him. Supporting players include the appealing Ellen Page of "Juno" and Thomas Haden Church of "Sideways" and "Spider-Man 3," but both mainly appear at a loss as to explain what they're doing here.

"The Ultimate 'Mulan' Two-Movie Collection" (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated G, $34.99). The 1998 animated hit "Mulan" returns in a two-disc special edition, along with its 2004 sequel, "Mulan II." "Mulan" is probably the best animated musical ever based on a 2,000-year-old Chinese folk tale, and follows the feisty and self-reliant Mulan as she disguises herself as a man and takes her father's place in the Imperial Army to defend the homeland from invading Huns. It's the main reason to check out the double-feature, as "Mulan II" has a more improvised feel, and riffs on the characters (including Eddie Murphy's wise-cracking dragon) and themes as Mulan undertakes a mission to deliver three princesses across a region fraught with dangers. The extras on "Mulan" are truly impressive, and include several deleted scenes and a lost song, an interactive game called "Mulan's World," music videos by Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder and Raven, and an extensive "Backstage Disney" section detailing the film's entire production history.

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