Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[majorsal]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92...SamWelcome.jpg


Clockwise from the top: NC baby picture, RDA, AT, MajorSal, ForeverSG1's daughter Kallesta, MS, CJ, Astro on Half Dome.

Background credited to SNY at www.snyart.com although I had to resize it and it got a bit stretched. The original is much nicer.

Not only am I impressed, I'm *honored* to be in it! And next to Sam/Amanda to boot!

Thank you.



Sally

[majorsal]

I'm going to 'try' to think straight to give my reasons for my fave s8 Sam eps.

New Order part two: The Sam/Fifth torture scenes. How often have we ever seen Sam so physically or mentally upset that she's broke down? Sam was pushed to her breaking point, and I LOVED how Amanda played that. I wasn't that much of a fan of this ep, but THOSE scenes and Amanda's performance made it worth it.

Gemini: A second Sam. One that has been through maybe even worse than our own under the hands of Fifth. A broken and fractured soul that wanted to die. A liar and manipulator that relished in destroying what she was sickened by in our Sam - trust in humanity. Two Sam's the same, yet profoundly different. An absolutely *wonderful* performance by Amanda!

Threads: THE turning point for Sam. She was being pulled at many ends emotionally. She'd lost her friend (Daniel), she was being pushed and pulled (Pete), her true love had found another (Jack), and her father was dying. There were *so* many scenes in this ep that I loved that I don't know where to begin. Besides the wonderful shippy scenes concerning Jack, my fave moments were with her father. That scene when Jacob said goodbye... everytime I see it it feels like I've been punched in the stomach. Everything that Sam's been going through since Grace culminated in this ep. Bravo!


Sally

[majorsal]

Shippy moment spoiler regarding Sam...please feel free to disregard.

Spoiler:

Hmm, it really wouldn't be completely out of character if you think about it. She agreed to marry Pete only seven months after meeting him and wedding date was suppose to be some time around Threads which would have only been like 14-16mos from their first date.

From Threads until the first time we'll be able to see Sam will be nearly six months and they have an established eight year friendship already. Not that I expect her to come back from the hiatus married, but I think her marrying Jack after such a short period of time makes much more sense than Pete.

Kat

I agree. It's not rushed. She's known Jack for 8 years already.

I still hope there's some ship for Sam and Jack in season 9. Hope's all I've got left, since I've not heard ONE SINGLE thing about what's going to happen for Sam's character next season.



Sally

[ForeverSg1]

I agree wholeheartedly. Sam needs to stand on her own and stand strong - you said it well! I always thought that they'd developed the character of SC into someone who'd handle things well when she had her own command... competent, smart, level-headed... but Season 8 didn't showcase her leadership or command qualities... so here's hoping that Season 9 does some of that showcasing!

And I was pondering what we've said about the hopes for seeing Sam in command in Season 9... and how we didn't get to see much of it in Season 8... and I was wondering if, perhaps, the reason that we didn't get to see much of it in Season 8 was because Jack was promoted to General, and CO of the SGC... My first impression was that with Jack heading the base and Sam in command of SG-1, then Season 8 should have been filled with opportunities to see Sam commanding... both SG-1, and occassionally other teams as well, when they joined SG-1 for a mission or excursion.

However... with Jack in command of the SGC... it seems that the writers wrote a lot of 'on Earth' episodes... and that allows Jack to be more easily incorporated into stories - even if he just had small parts, at least they were already on Earth, so it would be easy to write scenes with Jack in them. With SG-1 dealing with on-earth issues and crises... it also kept them on the same planet as Jack... keeping more of the 'team is all together' feeling... Perhaps the writers and such didn't want to leave Jack behind all the time - like SG-1 left Hammond and the SGC as they went off exploring in the early seasons.

So, what I'm trying to say is... weird as it sounds... is that perhaps we didn't get to see Sam offworld leading SG-1 and other teams... because that really would leave Jack behind (and therefore, emphasize his absence from the team). Keeping SG-1 on Earth, keeps SG-1 close to Jack, and perhaps that was to soften the 'blow' of his absence.

Now, of course, there are exceptions... SG-1 was offworld for a short time (short time on screen) in Icon... and again in It's Good To Be King (but they didn't let it stay that way, as they brought Jack to the team for this episode)... and Sam was offworld with her Dad in Reckoning (but not in command of SG-1 or shown to be in command of any other SG teams)...

As a true Sam-fan, I am sad that we didn't get 2 or 3 episodes where Sam led the team offworld exploring... And I would have really enjoyed seeing Carter commanding not just SG-1, but a couple of other SG teams at the same time... in some mission that required the manpower of several teams.

For Season 9, I have hopes that we still might see something along these lines... but with so much unknown as to when AT will be coming back and how the writers and such are going to reform the team... the whole 'who will be in charge' issue... sigh...

And... has anyone checked out the couple of screencaps GW has posted of Lt. Cameron Mitchell? In the one where he is touching the Stargate, what struck me was the large amount of commendations and citations and such on his dress uniform...I don't know the correct terminology for it (salad-board?), but I'm looking at the little colored rectangles on the breast pocket. Very close to what they showed for Jack, if I remember what his looked like in New Order... But Sam's is much, much less. (And I didn't think much of that when I saw it in New Order... surely after the past 8 years of spectacular heroics that SG-1 has accomplished, she would have had a lot more to show for it!).

One thing to keep in mind is Sam has been a member of SGC for nearly ten years. It's a highly classified, top-secret facility and much of what is done is never admitted by the government. Because all missions are classified, Sam has been limited in what types of awards she has been able to recieve as they do not exist. Mitchell on the other hand, has had much more opportunity to recieve official citations for his contributions to the Air Force.

I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out what citations Sam has actually been awarded as of season eight. I think I figured out all, but one, of them. I had typed it all up, with pictures, but then I found a cool site that I thought offered a much more detailed explanation of each award and decided to post it instead.



This is a really nice site, but it only shows Sam as a Major.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/sam.html

In addition to the above, she now wears the
Air Force Achievement Metal

I'm not sure what the first ribbon on her uniform is... It may in fact
be the Air Medal award she was given in season 2, but it's hard to
tell.

Kat


P.S This page shows Jack's citations for anyone interested.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/jack.html

[MajorSam]

I've been away for a long while, and I miss picture marathons! So here are some more:

[binkpmmc]

Astrogeologist - absolutely excellent post - thanks. I know things are up in the air with ATs return like when and how, etc., but I do hope that TPTB give Carter (and AT) the respect she deserves upon her return and keep her in command (if it fits with ATs wishes and amount of time she wants to spend on the show) and if they cannot do that because of ATs time limitations, I at least hope they revert to showing this character as the competent, strong, intelligent Air Force Lt. Colonel she is and focus on that and get away from all of this emotional cr$p (at least it's cr$p IMO).

If Carter is not in command of SG1 on a full time basis upon Carter's rejoining the team I hope it is because it is AT's decision about how much she wants to put into the show with the new baby and all and NOT because TPTB are chicken-sh!ts and make Mitchell the full-time leader.

[Uber]

One thing to keep in mind is Sam has been a member of SGC for nearly ten years. It's a highly classified, top-secret facility and much of what is done is never admitted by the government. Because all missions are classified, Sam has been limited in what types of awards she has been able to recieve as they do not exist. Mitchell on the other hand, has had much more opportunity to recieve official citations for his contributions to the Air Force.

I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out what citations Sam has actually been awarded as of season eight. I think I figured out all, but one, of them. I had typed it all up, with pictures, but then I found a cool site that I thought offered a much more detailed explanation of each award and decided to post it instead.

http://img173.exs.cx/img173/5900/pdvd8858je.jpg

This is a really nice site, but it only shows Sam as a Major.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/sam.html

In addition to the above, she now wears the
http://img173.exs.cx/img173/5797/usafcom2ng.jpg Air Force Achievement Metal

I'm not sure what the first ribbon on her uniform is... It may in fact
be the Air Medal award she was given in season 2, but it's hard to
tell.

Kat


P.S This page shows Jack's citations for anyone interested.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/jack.html

I have a friend who served in the Air Force a couple decades ago. He did some exceedingly classified work. He shared with me that, after one of the missions he returned from, he had a wonderful ribbon ceremony - even had his picture taken with the award...but then was forced to return the ribbon seconds after receiving it and the picture was taken away moments later.

Why? Because the mission never officially existed.

So it makes sense then that Sam might have more difficultly getting and keeping ribbons as part of the SGC than other individuals who served more of their time doing perhaps more visible things...Although, we do know that she logged over 100 hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War.

Who knows what else she did "officially"?

[ForeverSg1]

I've been away for a long while, and I miss picture marathons! So here are some more:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1Vaudville.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda23.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda25.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda26.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda22.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda24.jpg

Ya know... I'm always amazed when I see pictures like these of AT because they look so different from Carter. Not just that she's all dressed up like a girl, but I'm not sure I would even consider them to be the same person if I was just looking at the picture. I showed my 14 yr old the picture of AT in the Love t-shirt and the american flag, his response was 'Wow, who is that?' and when I told him it was Carter on Stargate his mouth literally dropped open and then he said 'No way...those must have been taken a long time ago.'

Things to keep in mind when looking through pictures of Carter/Amanda.

Carter...green bdu's...combat boots...good.

Amanda...american flag...mischievous smile...not good. ROFL

Kat

[Uber]

Ya know... I'm always amazed when I see pictures like these of AT because they look so different from Carter. Not just that she's all dressed up like a girl, but I'm not sure I would even consider them to be the same person if I was just looking at the picture. I showed my 14 yr old the picture of AT in the Love t-shirt and the american flag, his response was 'Wow, who is that?' and when I told him it was Carter on Stargate his mouth literally dropped open and then he said 'No way...those must have been taken a long time ago.'

Things to keep in mind when looking through pictures of Carter/Amanda.

Carter...green bdu's...combat boots...good.

Amanda...american flag...mischievous smile...not good. ROFL

Kat

That's great Kat...

I love her better when she's dressed either in her kick-butt SGC digs or when she's dressed in a casual leather jacket...and sporting a nice handgun.

[astrogeologist]

http://powerpromoz.com/stargate/roseglasses.gif

Very cool! Thanks for posting it!

[astrogeologist]

Kat….Thanks for the video links. I agree with Astro that “Not Just Another Pretty Face” is a five-star experience! Whenever I watch it I just have to grin. Here are a several others vids I found.

Janet
Voice over is Sam’s eulogy
Music: "The Departure" (Gattaca soundtrack) - Album: "The very best of Michael Nyman"
Spoilers: Seasons 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 (Spoilers from "Heroes part II")
Size: 10.02 MB
http://www.snyart.com/vids/janet_fraiser.zip

Mysterious Times (Sam/Jack)
Music: Mysterious Times - Sash
Spoilers: Season 6
Size: 12.5 MB
http://www.snyart.com/vids/mysterious_times_sash.zip

Unforgettable
Song by Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole
Just some good ol' Sam and Jack Shippyness! This one has been in progress for quite some time and had hit a lull until Death Knell aired.

Small Size Zip: 3.74 MB
http://www.hoodatlair.com/vids/Unforgettable.zip

Large Size Zip: 28.04 MB
http://www.hoodatlair.com/vids/large...ettable_lg.zip

Uber! I loved your Basic Ingredients to Romance. What a hoot!

SamFan31

Unforgettable is extremely well done! (It really played my soppy romantic side to the fullest!) Thanks for posting the link, Samfan!

[astrogeologist]

I'm going to 'try' to think straight to give my reasons for my fave s8 Sam eps.

New Order part two: The Sam/Fifth torture scenes. How often have we ever seen Sam so physically or mentally upset that she's broke down? Sam was pushed to her breaking point, and I LOVED how Amanda played that. I wasn't that much of a fan of this ep, but THOSE scenes and Amanda's performance made it worth it.

Gemini: A second Sam. One that has been through maybe even worse than our own under the hands of Fifth. A broken and fractured soul that wanted to die. A liar and manipulator that relished in destroying what she was sickened by in our Sam - trust in humanity. Two Sam's the same, yet profoundly different. An absolutely *wonderful* performance by Amanda!

Threads: THE turning point for Sam. She was being pulled at many ends emotionally. She'd lost her friend (Daniel), she was being pushed and pulled (Pete), her true love had found another (Jack), and her father was dying. There were *so* many scenes in this ep that I loved that I don't know where to begin. Besides the wonderful shippy scenes concerning Jack, my fave moments were with her father. That scene when Jacob said goodbye... everytime I see it it feels like I've been punched in the stomach. Everything that Sam's been going through since Grace culminated in this ep. Bravo!


Sally

Great comments, Sally! I have downloaded them and archived them into the growing Season 8 Comments file.

[astrogeologist]

One thing to keep in mind is Sam has been a member of SGC for nearly ten years. It's a highly classified, top-secret facility and much of what is done is never admitted by the government. Because all missions are classified, Sam has been limited in what types of awards she has been able to recieve as they do not exist. Mitchell on the other hand, has had much more opportunity to recieve official citations for his contributions to the Air Force.

I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out what citations Sam has actually been awarded as of season eight. I think I figured out all, but one, of them. I had typed it all up, with pictures, but then I found a cool site that I thought offered a much more detailed explanation of each award and decided to post it instead.



This is a really nice site, but it only shows Sam as a Major.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/sam.html

In addition to the above, she now wears the
Air Force Achievement Metal

I'm not sure what the first ribbon on her uniform is... It may in fact
be the Air Medal award she was given in season 2, but it's hard to
tell.

Kat


P.S This page shows Jack's citations for anyone interested.
http://www.geah.org/stargate/jack.html

Wow! Great links - those webpages give clear and easy to understand explanations. Thanks for posting this, Kat!

[astrogeologist]

I've been away for a long while, and I miss picture marathons! So here are some more:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...1Vaudville.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda23.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda25.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda26.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda22.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...m/amanda24.jpg

Great pics, MajorSam! Thanks for sharing them with us!
Where's this one from? Looks like AT was in some kind of theatre production?

[MajorSam]

Great pics, MajorSam! Thanks for sharing them with us!
Where's this one from? Looks like AT was in some kind of theatre production?

Thanks, glad you like them

Where's that pic from? Well you see it's... it's... ok, fine, I admit it, I have no clue where any of those pics are from!!! No place i've seen them in yet have had explanations...