Female Characters

[EH-T]

you mean will they ever have a show that has 'starring....' before the title?

no

at least not until the network folks get over their idea that all lead characters MUST be male to appeal to the inner geek in their desired demo - young males 18-44 - and that the 'prime' roles for females is to pretty up the place and support the male

It's not necessarily the writers, it's the network execs and their predisposition towards male leads

ITA.

It made sense in the beginning that they had RDA. He was well known and had a built in following. Excellent choice to launch a new show. Then RDA left and TPTB whether on the show, at the network or both had the perfect opportunity to have a female lead but what did they do? They brought in BB (whom I love but ... ) and put his name first in the credits. Based on what? His success on a show that had lasted 8 years? Nope, Farscape was cancelled long before that. So it is hard to see any other reason than they didn't want a female lead.

[Skydiver]

i'm sure AT's maternity leave made it eaasy, but yeah, in MY OPINION, it was blatant sexism adn gender bias. the show HAD to have a male lead and by golly the only requirements he needed for the job were a Y chromosome. (note, i'm NOT dissing ben, ben did as good as he could with what he had)

so, the idea of 'male lead' is so ingrained that the networks would rather have untrained and unqualified male character in charge than 'risk' having a female as the lead (of course i doubt the networks fussed over the character beyond his gender and the idea that the actor in this case, came with a 'ready made' fandom to augment the existing one.)

ideals like this, the fact that the network demanded a male lead on an 8 year old show with an already established main female character pretty much suggests that if a new show were to try having a female lead they'd likely not make it past the pitch process.

[Flyboy]

ITA.

It made sense in the beginning that they had RDA. He was well known and had a built in following. Excellent choice to launch a new show. Then RDA left and TPTB whether on the show, at the network or both had the perfect opportunity to have a female lead but what did they do? They brought in BB (whom I love but ... ) and put his name first in the credits. Based on what? His success on a show that had lasted 8 years? Nope, Farscape was cancelled long before that. So it is hard to see any other reason than they didn't want a female lead.

Carter effectively became the leading lady from the moment RDA left - look at all Stargate promo material - it either has Shep or Carter on it. I see nothing wrong with this.

I see EVERYTHING wrong with O'Neill's stupid 3 man team lead by Carter, and I see everything wrong with giving Carter two commitments (science expert who will ALWAYS need to do sciency stuff and leader), but imo they should have just gone the whole hog, put someone like McKay or Hailey on the team (preferbly the latter to keep things military) and gone with Carter leading the team. Apart from that GLARING error - you can SEE that AT was the leading lady, in EVERY capacity.

[Spirit]

Carter effectively became the leading lady from the moment RDA left - look at all Stargate promo material - it either has Shep or Carter on it. I see nothing wrong with this.

I see EVERYTHING wrong with O'Neill's stupid 3 man team lead by Carter, and I see everything wrong with giving Carter two commitments (science expert who will ALWAYS need to do sciency stuff and leader), but imo they should have just gone the whole hog, put someone like McKay or Hailey on the team (preferbly the latter to keep things military) and gone with Carter leading the team. Apart from that GLARING error - you can SEE that AT was the leading lady, in EVERY capacity.

It certainly didn't felt the way Never felt like Sam was in charge, with the exception of a few episodes and in Atlantis, somewhat.

I actually like that they put Sam into a more than just a military personnel charac.. Science is a must in an exploration of that type

[Flyboy]

It certainly didn't felt the way Never felt like Sam was in charge, with the exception of a few episodes and in Atlantis, somewhat.

I actually like that they put Sam into a more than just a military personnel charac.. Science is a must in an exploration of that type

By leading lady I don't mean 'leading the team' she is the show's lead. I don't care who they SAY is the lead role, Carter is. You can TELL.

I also agree that there is a requirement for a scientist on the team, and Carter being both military and a scientist works great - it doesn't however work if she's leading the team itself which is all I'm saying. Which is why I think SG1 consisting of Carter, Jackson, Teal'c and say Captain Hailey would have worked so well - you'd have seen Carter have to learn to trust Hailey to do the tech stuff whilst Carter commanded the troops.

[Spirit]

By leading lady I don't mean 'leading the team' she is the show's lead. I don't care who they SAY is the lead role, Carter is. You can TELL.

I also agree that there is a requirement for a scientist on the team, and Carter being both military and a scientist works great - it doesn't however work if she's leading the team itself which is all I'm saying. Which is why I think SG1 consisting of Carter, Jackson, Teal'c and say Captain Hailey would have worked so well - you'd have seen Carter have to learn to trust Hailey to do the tech stuff whilst Carter commanded the troops.

No I get what you meant, it just didn't felt that way for me.

[Stewart5]

I like those words ... agreeance or disagreeance. I may start using them in my own vocabulary.

Good good!

I personally think BB was a mistake as team leader. He was great at working with what he was given, but it made no military, practical, common, 6th or any othe rkind of sense.

Random General/O'neil - "So, you wanted to be part of SG-1. Well, we are going to let you LEAD the team, even though you have no experiance of going off world like this, you have little or no tested diplomatic skills, you are a pilot, not an infnatryman, and you are a very young colonel. Oh, and we have a perfectly good leader available, but ur a hulking slab of US maleness! Happy?"

Mitchel - "Ermm.....sure, why not....?"

See, because they don't think about(even tho the show is MEANT to be contemporary) how contemporary militaries work. I will not let this go. TWO colonels? TWO??? in one, four man team???? AAARG!!!!!!!!
No one follows Protocols!!! They don't respect authority!! They don't issue any!! THe next time I see Vala ordering USAF airmen and NCO waht to do during a base invasion, I will scream!!!!
So, you want a strong, leading female? I agree. but I doubt it, because they can't even get the little details right!!!!!!!!!



I should just add, I still love SG.

[Skydiver]

just a reminder folks, this isn't for indepth discussion about the leadership of season 9 and 10. I know we all have some very defined feelings about it, but the topic is 'female characters' no a reprise of 'who should lead'

[suse]

Spoiler:

Random General/O'neil - "So, you wanted to be part of SG-1. Well, we are going to let you LEAD the team, even though you have no experiance of going off world like this, you have little or no tested diplomatic skills, you are a pilot, not an infnatryman, and you are a very young colonel. Oh, and we have a perfectly good leader available, but ur a hulking slab of US maleness! Happy?"
Mitchel: "....sure, why not....?"

Priceless!
Ahem. And now on to regularly scheduled programming...

<snip> THe next time I see Vala ordering USAF airmen and NCO waht to do during a base invasion, I will scream!!!!
So, you want a strong, leading female? I agree. but I doubt it, because they can't even get the little details right!!!!!!!!!

I should just add, I still love SG.

, I raged at Vala doing that too. Wasn't she still on probation at that time? She shouldn't even have had a gun, much less leading that team through the corridors.

Was handled much better in that silly 'monster at the cabin' ep when one of the soldiers snarked at her. Deservedly.

I just want to see a professional doing her job well. Not the sidekick, not the girlfriend. Sam was promoted to Colonel and team lead - recognizably because they still had 4 actors - and that was what they had to deal with in S9. Except they didn't. My estimation of TPTB went wayyyy down. I never thought they were on par with JMS (who had his own set of issues) but... .

suse

[flynn1959]

By leading lady I don't mean 'leading the team' she is the show's lead. I don't care who they SAY is the lead role, Carter is. You can TELL.

I'm sorry, and as much as I would love to see a female lead on a show, Carter never was, never will be, the lead on Stargate SG1. It doesn't matter what any fan faction might like to think.

Who THEY SAY was the lead - was. It's that simple.

RDA was the lead and when he left BB took over.

The Stargate ptb are just not up to the task of writing good, strong female characters, not for more than the odd episode anyway. IMO.

[Flyboy]

Who was the face of all the SG1 promotional stuff?

I'm not particularly a Carter fan per se, but you can clearly see after RDA left SG1 that his mantle was picked up by Amanda Tapping. Browder may have been leading man in an official capacity, but in terms of the reality, it was AT. Carter may not have been the team leader, but she was the lead actor.

[flynn1959]

Who was the face of all the SG1 promotional stuff?

I'm not particularly a Carter fan per se, but you can clearly see after RDA left SG1 that his mantle was picked up by Amanda Tapping. Browder may have been leading man in an official capacity, but in terms of the reality, it was AT. Carter may not have been the team leader, but she was the lead actor.

Well I seem to recall seeing an awful lot of BB and MS not just AT. I guess it depends on where you look. I certainly don't remember any over-kill on the Carter/AT stuff.

I just don't think these guys see female characters as lead material. They don't write them as such imo.

[Flyboy]

Well I seem to recall seeing an awful lot of BB and MS not just AT. I guess it depends on where you look. I certainly don't remember any over-kill on the Carter/AT stuff.

I just don't think these guys see female characters as lead material. They don't write them as such imo.

I'm not talking about her being the lead in the sense that she was the 'action hero' even RDA didn't have that in S8. What I meant was that she was the face of the show.

[flynn1959]

I'm not talking about her being the lead in the sense that she was the 'action hero' even RDA didn't have that in S8. What I meant was that she was the face of the show.

And I never saw that at all. Like I said I saw tons of BB, MS and AT etc. I don't recall seeing more of AT/Carter than the others, so by that token they were all the face of Stargate.

[Skydiver]

as to vala ordering the SF's

sometimes 'reality' takes second seat to the practicality of a tv show and the need to use the actors you have.

she was no more authorized than Daniel was to interrogate walter when the gate disappeared (reynolds or castleman, both having already done the 'ranking officer that sometimes handles base security' schtick shoulda done it)

sam never shoulda been autopsying the super soldier in evolution ( i think it was) but teryl wasn't around so she did it

sometimes it makes more sense to use the actor you've already bought and paid for (as in one of the leads that are on set anyway) than to pay a few thousand and cast an extra.

so, in their defense, i will say sometimes the characters ALL are used outside what should be the scope of their jobs because it's cheaper adn more expedient to do so