Female Characters

[Skydiver]

had it been Lt Colonel Samuel Carter, he'd have stayed in command and Cam woulda been Major Mitchell, enthusiastic newbie getting his dream assignment

but the whole 'male lead must be the leader on the show as well' flummoxed them. Just as the oxymoron of 'we need a new fresh and enthusastic guy...oh and by the way, he needs to be experienced enough to lead the team, has to be young, but needs to have enough rank to lead the team.....' and cameron became a mess of contradictions

contradictions that could have been avoided had the network simply not gotten hung up on 'male lead must lead the team'

[Stewart5]

had it been Lt Colonel Samuel Carter, he'd have stayed in command and Cam woulda been Major Mitchell, enthusiastic newbie getting his dream assignment

but the whole 'male lead must be the leader on the show as well' flummoxed them. Just as the oxymoron of 'we need a new fresh and enthusastic guy...oh and by the way, he needs to be experienced enough to lead the team, has to be young, but needs to have enough rank to lead the team.....' and cameron became a mess of contradictions

contradictions that could have been avoided had the network simply not gotten hung up on 'male lead must lead the team'

I may have made this point already, but in no military force would a posting liek that EVER happen. He had just recovered from an injury that almost took his legs, he had little experiance of SG life and the way things were done, has no diplomatic skills and knows nothing outside his own planet. So, what do they do? Put him in charge, and provisionally of a team of nubes too. The only reason he didn't die in the first series he appeared was because he put the team back together.
And Carter was senior!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO matter how heroic he was, he wouldn't just get the command. unless through extremely unsual circumstances, command falls to the next senior officer. It is an extreme breach of protocaol to place a fresh officer in command of someone who is technically senior to them.......

Basically, they didn't know how to deal with AT absense and messed up.....

[Skydiver]

it was

AT's absence for 6 eps
RDA's departure
need for a new male lead
idea that male lead must also lead the team
need for a youthful and 'fresh' face to attract new fans

basically, it was a massive mess in s9 when they tried to do too much with too few characters and seemed to lose their handle on reality, respect and general common sense

In this case, the two female cast members suffered the most, they were the two that got the shortest end of the stick, followed closely by Cameron, whose character was just unsustainable from its creation because they couldn't decide exactly what they wanted him to be so, from week to week, he became whatever the plot needed to make it work

it happened to the girls as well. Vala is a prime example of a MASSIVE missed opportunity. Here was this woman with years/decades of goa'uld knowledge in her head, all her contacts made as a 'pirate'. she's kick butt, conflilcted, slightly mental (in a good way) and could be this rich, rich character.

and how does she end up most of the time?

spending her days hitting on daniel and following him around like a puppy.

I loved her in uninvited. I loved her in line in the sand. she got to talk to someone other than daniel. she got to exert herself. we got to see more to her than 'lovesick girlfriend'

but, most of the time, in my opinion, vala suffered so much from bad writing and an extreme overuse of cliches

[Stewart5]

it was

AT's absence for 6 eps
RDA's departure
need for a new male lead
idea that male lead must also lead the team
need for a youthful and 'fresh' face to attract new fans

basically, it was a massive mess in s9 when they tried to do too much with too few characters and seemed to lose their handle on reality, respect and general common sense

In this case, the two female cast members suffered the most, they were the two that got the shortest end of the stick, followed closely by Cameron, whose character was just unsustainable from its creation because they couldn't decide exactly what they wanted him to be so, from week to week, he became whatever the plot needed to make it work

it happened to the girls as well. Vala is a prime example of a MASSIVE missed opportunity. Here was this woman with years/decades of goa'uld knowledge in her head, all her contacts made as a 'pirate'. she's kick butt, conflilcted, slightly mental (in a good way) and could be this rich, rich character.

and how does she end up most of the time?

spending her days hitting on daniel and following him around like a puppy.

I loved her in uninvited. I loved her in line in the sand. she got to talk to someone other than daniel. she got to exert herself. we got to see more to her than 'lovesick girlfriend'

but, most of the time, in my opinion, vala suffered so much from bad writing and an extreme overuse of cliches

I concur on most counts.

Although I hated the Vala character, i agree she could have been handled a lot better. Though I get the feeling they wanted to do something different from Aeryn......(yet Crichton and Mitchell are rather similar.........)
I just hate the familiarity with authority figures she assumes, adn the way chain of command doesn't exist. Teal'c earned the respect and command of everyone else. Vala (and of course the archetype sci-fi arse kicker Teyla) both seem to have suddenly received commissions........

[Skydiver]

vala was gonna join the show. That much was decided back in s8 with her first appearance. they have said as much in interviews, coop fell in love with the vala character as was going to have her in the show, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

thing is, had vala been allowed to be VALA, ex host and rogue she'd have struck a far different chord than 'Vala, chick that has the hots for Jackson and that is used by the writers to indulge their inner 'thumbing my nose at authority' urges.

vala was a cliche wrapped in a stereotype, and it was something made even more obvious by the fact that they faced the further handicap of her gender.

Vale, hitting on Sam the way Vala hit on Daniel wouldn't have been tolerated. they would have seen the sexual harassment angle and would have toned it down. but, to quote some guys i work with 'it's only harassment if she's ugly'

[bluealien]

Carter? Well, I'm not that big of a fan for Carter than I am with Weir. No, I don't think she was that well written. I mean I'm glad she seems more a part of the team than most female characters I've seen. But man oh man was she so much in the background (at least that's what it came off as to me.)

I mean other than her smartness where she figures out most of the complicated problems...that's about it.......

What do the Sam Carter fans think?

And don't get me started on the whole military thing, please. As far as the SciFi fan is concern. I don't know.. are they mostly male? Anyone has an accurate percentage survey that they've done?

I rarely had a problem with how Sam was written, though I didnt enjoy the Sam/Pete thing, mainly because I found it boring and I'm just not interested in relationships with characters outside the team environment. But Sam always felt like a valuable part of the team and she never seemed shoved into the background like Teyla was in SGA. Sam had a great balance between scientist and soldier, and I thought she handled both very well.

I liked her on SGA as well and I know she got forgotten about in some eps but overall I felt she did a great job, much better than Weir imo... I never ever found Weir to be a believable leader in SGA and Sam really stepped up to the job in Search and Rescue and overall I enjoyed her far more than Weir.

I think Sam is an example of how good a female character can be and sometimes maybe its just how the actress handles that character that makes it appealing or not. I think all of the characters have suffered from bad writing over the years, the women and the men. Teyla pretty much got sidelined on SGA but yet I loved her character, Keller and Weir got more attention, well Weir in the early years did, but yet I never found her a convincing leader. But I enjoyed AT in the role eventhough she had similar writing to Torri..

[Spirit]

I rarely had a problem with how Sam was written, though I didnt enjoy the Sam/Pete thing, mainly because I found it boring and I'm just not interested in relationships with characters outside the team environment. But Sam always felt like a valuable part of the team and she never seemed shoved into the background like Teyla was in SGA. Sam had a great balance between scientist and soldier, and I thought she handled both very well.

I liked her on SGA as well and I know she got forgotten about in some eps but overall I felt she did a great job, much better than Weir imo... I never ever found Weir to be a believable leader in SGA and Sam really stepped up to the job in Search and Rescue and overall I enjoyed her far more than Weir.

I think Sam is an example of how good a female character can be and sometimes maybe its just how the actress handles that character that makes it appealing or not. I think all of the characters have suffered from bad writing over the years, the women and the men. Teyla pretty much got sidelined on SGA but yet I loved her character, Keller and Weir got more attention, well Weir in the early years did, but yet I never found her a convincing leader. But I enjoyed AT in the role eventhough she had similar writing to Torri..

I can't say I didn't like Sam but I wasn't particularly crazy about her either. The way her character was developed gives me this feeling like she is too blended in but nothing really significantly stands out. That's just my impression of it. I'd like to see her character take more charges other than the occasions of defusing complicated scientific problems. She seems "too easy going" IMO. And again, that's nothing against AT but just the way she was written into the storyline didn't quite grasp my heart. And yes bless her for having her own show in Sanctuary.

As for Weir.. Something about her in particular that I find intriguing. Yes, her character wasn't all that interesting. And yet she still stands out to me. She knows what she's doing. She knows what she wants yet she also give others chance to voice their opinion. She's not afraid to talk and occasionally break the rules. Perhaps I just like her acting overall. And her face really stands out too. But I also agree that she did not have much significants to her character on SGA either. I wish that they would have developed her character more.

I think in general we all have our differences in opinion about a certain actress/actor. Maybe it's the acting that we like. Maybe it's the character itself that we like. Or we simply just like how they look. Everything adds to a person's like and dislike. So I'm not gonna continue to compare the two character.

To sum it up I think they both well deserve a more developed character. They're both great actresses.

[Vladius]

I am curious if the majority of the fans are male or female on GW But even then that's only a small portion of SciFi fans.

The majority of the fans on GateWorld, as far as I know, are female. (The most popular threads are Thunk threads. That should tell you something.)

The fans of Stargate, I'm pretty sure, are mostly male.

[suse]

The majority of the fans on GateWorld, as far as I know, are female. (The most popular threads are Thunk threads. That should tell you something.)

The fans of Stargate, I'm pretty sure, are mostly male.

I'd say active fandom seems to draw women. I wouldn't say *mostly* men watch, but I would put it at more 50/50.

suse

[Spirit]

The majority of the fans on GateWorld, as far as I know, are female. (The most popular threads are Thunk threads. That should tell you something.)

The fans of Stargate, I'm pretty sure, are mostly male.

I don't know what Thunk threads tells me but someone claimed that majority of SciFans are male so therefore SciFi is mainly male predominant. That is why I'd like to confirm in actual facts if that's even close to true.

Regardless, I find that distasteful to even have been brought up as a reason for the lack of 'lead' female characters.

[Vladius]

Excuse me? No one brought any reason up as to why there is a lack of 'lead' females.

You asked about Gateworld. As you said, that's not the same as fandom as a whole.

suse

Erm, I actually said that most of the fan base is male. pleasedon'tkillme

It makes sense to have a male "lead" when you need to have Sci fi fans in general relate to them.

[suse]

Erm, I actually said that most of the fan base is male. pleasedon'tkillme

It makes sense to have a male "lead" when you need to have Sci fi fans in general relate to them.

I could argue with most of the base being male, but... never mind.

So you couldn't relate to Janeway 'leading'? It had to be a man?
BTW, I erased that post because what Spirit said, I didn't see someone see here, recently, anyway.

suse

[Spirit]

I could argue with most of the base being male, but... never mind.

So you couldn't relate to Janeway 'leading'? It had to be a man?
BTW, I erased that post because what Spirit said, I didn't see someone see here, recently, anyway.

suse

lol, indeed - that wasn't directly towards u Someone mentioned that it only make sense to be male predominant because most of the fans are male.. I hope you caught that part

I don't really know if there are more male fans or not.. It doesn't matter. There are enough female fans, IMO.. So female characters needs to be developed, hehehe

[Vladius]

I could argue with most of the base being male, but... never mind.

So you couldn't relate to Janeway 'leading'? It had to be a man?
BTW, I erased that post because what Spirit said, I didn't see someone see here, recently, anyway.

suse

I didn't particularly like Star Trek Voyager, but Janeway wasn't the only main character.
Plus, in the Star Trek universe where the military does things extremely unlike the military in real life, you can have a crew of about roughly half women and schedule your captains accordingly.

[Angela V]

My 9 year old son plays Star Trek Voyager Elite Force as a female. He also plays some female base computer games I have Joan of Arc and Tomb Raider. In the case of Voyager, he has chosen to play female as opposed to the male character. He said he likes her better. His favourite Star Trek captain is Katherine Janeway from Voyager. This whole relating thing to the same sex isn't always true. My son likes strong leader types be they female or male. He thinks my silly for liking McKay on Atlantis whereas he likes Sheppard better.