Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Tracy Jane]

I think that Sam and Vala would either work really well together, or try to kill each other before the end of the first episode. It could go either way.

Well, let me dig out my "Team Sam" shirt and cap, get a little popcorn and pull up my chair. Because, if she succeeds, it means Sam gets her own show

[ChillinTheMost]

I like the shiny, new and fun and the boring, non-shiny old characters - or whatever you want to call them. I don't understand why it's always one or the other. Oh, well, I hope season 10 is more to everyone's liking - - if you watch.

[ReganX]

I like the shiny, new and fun and the boring, non-shiny old characters - or whatever you want to call them. I don't understand why it's always one or the other. Oh, well, I hope season 10 is more to everyone's liking - - if you watch.

Last season was very much skewed in favour of the shiny new characters. I didn't see a balance between old and new characters and the prospects of balance for Season Ten don't look great, although the spoilers could give an inaccurate reflection.

If there is a balance between all five characters, then I can certainly put up with one character I hate if there is also plenty of the three I love.

[scarimor]

I finally figured out what the next Stargate spin-off is going to be!

I love it!

[Skydiver]

time will tell if they balance.

what we can do is watch to enjoy the bits that we have been given.

and there's always fic

[ChevronSeven]

I finally figured out what the next Stargate spin-off is going to be!

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...gs/barbies.jpg

The only thing that would make it better would be Janet. *sniff*

Maybe they can find one of the AU Janet's and pick her up.

[ChevronSeven]

Last season was very much skewed in favour of the shiny new characters. I didn't see a balance between old and new characters and the prospects of balance for Season Ten don't look great, although the spoilers could give an inaccurate reflection.

If there is a balance between all five characters, then I can certainly put up with one character I hate if there is also plenty of the three I love.

I completely agree. They started off season 9 on the wrong foot and never bounced back. Jack was virtually forgotten and Sam's existence never fully recovered.

They had tons of avenues to go down to make this an easier transition. But, they took the cheap and easy way out.

[scarimor]

I like the shiny, new and fun and the boring, non-shiny old characters - or whatever you want to call them. I don't understand why it's always one or the other. Oh, well, I hope season 10 is more to everyone's liking - - if you watch.

I am so hoping they fix Cameron, because there's stuff about him I like, and so much I want to like more - especially his relationship (platonic in the show, please!) with Sam. This isn't the thread for me to reiterate where they've frakked his introduction up, but shiny or tarnished, my enjoyment of season 10 is going to depend very much on whether they sort out the group dynamic and fix their Cam-writing. Vala I like anyway, and I dare to hope that those elements of her character which many don't like (and I understand why) will get subdued by default; we'll see. Whatever happens, Sam remains at the centre of my Stargate universe. (uh, behind Janet, of course )

See! --->

[ReganX]

I completely agree. They started off season 9 on the wrong foot and never bounced back. Jack was virtually forgotten and Sam's existence never fully recovered.

They had tons of avenues to go down to make this an easier transition. But, they took the cheap and easy way out.

To the detriment of the show, in my opinion.

[Deejay435]

I'm having a Sam Carter appreciation morning. And I'm shamelessly OK with that. LOL ACTUALLY... I'm rendering out some stuff and so I have about a half hour to kill here, and I figured what better way than to sign on and say something about SAM.

The thing about Carter that I adore in terms of her character for television (and which I just explained to one of my colleagues here), is that she's somehow managed to jump the bar on a character "type" (if you will), that normally ends up either:

* an over-the-top version of "I am woman, hear me roar and get the hell outta my way because I have more ISSUES than you have ideas..." feminist cliche [See "Starbuck" in BSG - sorry BSG fans ]

OR

* an under-the-top scientific genius / total social outcast lacking any social/interpersonal skills [See Dr. Temperance Brennan in BONES - sorry BONES fans ]

But Sam Carter is NEITHER of those extremes. Regardless of how abysmally the last season of SG-1 has played out, I do have to tip my acknowledgement to the writing team for engendering her character to begin with, smoothing out those cliche potentials and coming up (copiously assisted by Amanda) with a character who rings not only believable, but real.

Sam Carter is a (beautiful) woman, a (likely certified) genius, a (stand-up) soldier, and a psychological conundrum who (all things considered) could far more easily have turned into someone's ill-conceived Mary Sue than she might have become what she DID turn into - a guilelessly visceral female role model.

Quite frankly, I honestly admit that I'd never have given much credence to a television writingteam's ability to come up with such a character to BEGIN WITH, nevermind provide nearly a decade of her, in such a strong, well balanced light. Of course, Amanda played no small role in that development, either. She's the lifeforce behind Sam Carter. But there is a lot to be said for dodging the status-quo where the Carter character is concerned, and I think credit is due all around therein.

I'm certainly a tough audience to please when it comes to my "strong" female characters. Because far too often, the role is distorted, overcompensated for, and made glaringly fictional.

Before I 'met' Sam Carter, if anyone had told me they were writing a character who was:

* a genius
* a pilot
* a soldier (and a good one)
* proficient in high level hand-to-hand combat
* a physicist (PhD)
* a mechanical engineer
* an afficionado of motor sports and classic cycles
* drop dead gorgeous

I'd have said... "Oh yeah, that'll come out looking real."

But... Sam Carter DOES. She IS. Somehow, Amanda and the writers have managed to convince even me of the fact that not only can such a character exist in good narrative, she can grow (because lets face it, she started out pretty damn 'special' to begin with). They've convinced me that she's got flaws, that those flaws aren't huge and overstated to the point where they take over her life and make her into an emotionally unbalanced (necessarily loose-canon), but that she (like any other 'normal' person might choose to) deals with her issues on a case by case basis, and many of them emerge to surprise even HER.

I'm still surprised each time I watch an episode that features her character, at how MUCh they packed into a single soul, and yet how little it seems to affect her persona in any cliche sense.

That, to me is the biggest reason that Sam Carter is a great character. Because she raises the bar - without question. Because she's a hero without resorting to insanity or imbalance. Because she makes mistakes, and has to learn from them. Because she doesn't embody a burlesque. And because she tackles each of her fictional challenges from a Human perspective, despite the scientist in her, despite the soldier. Through the Sam Carter character, Amanda and the writers have engendered a personality (albeit a fictional entitity) who embodies both strength and femininity, not to mention the kind of down-to-earth rationale vis-a-vis problem-solving that we might all hope to achieve in ourselves. Perhaps despite all of that, she still comes across as real. I've said it before and I'll say it again:

SAM CARTER IS THE BEST DAMN FEMALE CHARACTER ON TELEVISION TODAY.

In my books at least, that is no small basket of potatoes to lay claim to.


mini(the unashamed Sam Carter fangurl)geek



-

Not allowed to gree you Mini-but this is very well said.

I think, perhaps subconciously, I choose my favorite TV shows based on the strength of the female characters potrayed. I like to have some real reflection of what it means to be a person, and a woman, in my shows. And while most people can never hope to be as bright as Sam, or as kick-butt a soldier-they can be every bit as decent a person.

[ChillinTheMost]

Last season was very much skewed in favour of the shiny new characters. I didn't see a balance between old and new characters and the prospects of balance for Season Ten don't look great, although the spoilers could give an inaccurate reflection.

If there is a balance between all five characters, then I can certainly put up with one character I hate if there is also plenty of the three I love.

I would think if there was a character I absolutely hated, I'd have a hard time watching a show, even if he/she was just one of an ensemble cast. Maybe it's different if it's someone that joined a show you already love. But then, I don't really hate that many things, people or characters and "dislike" and "not crazy about" are easier to handle within a show that you like otherwise.

I also wouldn't think spoilers are an accurate reflection, as you said. I can understand if you view the future hesitantly due to past actions, but I don't think spoilers, ads or interviews are good predictors.

At any rate, I hope the episodes are such that the fans are more united in season 10 - although with the great diversity of fans, that would be an almost impossible task!

[ReganX]

I would think if there was a character I absolutely hated, I'd have a hard time watching a show, even if he/she was just one of an ensemble cast.

I suppose since I feel more strongly in favour of the characters I love than I do against the one I hate, I can tolerate his presence if there isn't too much emphasis on him.

[ChillinTheMost]

I am so hoping they fix Cameron, because there's stuff about him I like, and so much I want to like more - especially his relationship (platonic in the show, please!) with Sam. ...
[/SIZE] See! --->

Well, you know I love Cameron, and I, too, would love to see his relationship with Sam developed more! On the show, I think I would like to see it platonic, but I'd like to read fanfic with a romantic bent between the two in it - and I don't generally read much fanfic.

Although, I maybe wouldn't mind a romantic relationship between Cam and Sam if they handled it like the BlackSG-1 team in Ripple Effect - subtle -- something you have to look for while they were working. But since I don't really believe TPTB would handle it the way I want, and because I know it would divide the fandom even further, I hope the show doesn't go this way - and I don't think they really have any intentions of this, anyway.

But back to Cam/Sam as they are now - I just love the way they are so relaxed and easygoing around each other.

[ChillinTheMost]

I suppose since I feel more strongly in favour of the characters I love than I do against the one I hate, I can tolerate his presence if there isn't too much emphasis on him.

Ahhhhh, I see a glimmer of hope!!!

- ever the optimist, am I.

[ReganX]

Ahhhhh, I see a glimmer of hope!!!

- ever the optimist, am I.

You never know, Cam might rise in my estimation to neutral.