Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[ReganX]

Season 7 has so many Sam episodes. But the poor woman gets whumped so many times! I often wonder how many zat blasts and concussions she can take before she starts losing it! Anyway, I don't think I can pick just one episode...I mean Sam's a great character all the time. She just makes it so difficult!

Poor Sam must have spent half her time in the infirmary.

You're right about there being lots of great Sam episodes in Season Seven - it's so hard to choose.

[Skydiver]

But she gives good dead, doesn't she?

groan!!!!

[Skydiver]

I tried to find The Void - the Sci fi movie Amanda was in but none of my local video shops have it unfortunately. I havent heard to many good things about it but i would still like to see Amanda in it

look on amazon.com

plot wise? thin and predictible. and the cut in nude scenes were obviously and poorly done...but it's fun to see amanda as someone else

[Skydiver]

just a reminder, don't forget to vote for the best sam eps.

i think i have a whole 6 votes thus far

yes, i know it's hard...but don't procrastinate!

[Chelle DB]

But she gives good dead, doesn't she?

ROFLMAO!! Thanks for that - I remember reading that in my Stargate book - Amanda said that:
"I was mostly dead on the X files and apparently I give good dead"
She is so funny - I would love to meet her one day!!

[Chelle DB]

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

Brilliant!! I'd go for that one! Well done!!

[Chelle DB]

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



-

Wow!! That was great MG! Well done and thanks!! I agree that Sam is the best female character on tv and I also believe that Amanda Tapping is an extraordinary actress - I only wish we could see more of her on our screens. She's absolutely fabulous!!

[Chelle DB]

i think desp meas was ok...but i wanted to see fallout from it. not jack in the bed at the end.

my fantasy end? the boys giving sam a ride home or showing up on her doorstep with pizzas and being invited infor dinner

Thank you!! Someone else who thinks the same as I do on this ep. I think it ended far too quickly and really didn't get into the end result of what happened to her in the seven days she was gone. I like your ending but there is a fanfic out there with a great ending where she breaks down after being rescued and the boys take care of her on their return to Colorado Springs - very nicely done!

[Lokii]

Poor Sam must have spent half her time in the infirmary.

You're right about there being lots of great Sam episodes in Season Seven - it's so hard to choose.

It seems to me that season 7 was to see if AT could take the ball and run with it as the lead. I think she did a great job.

But Sam did get rather beat up in this season.

[SG1Poz]

I tried to find The Void - the Sci fi movie Amanda was in but none of my local video shops have it unfortunately. I havent heard to many good things about it but i would still like to see Amanda in it

I found my copy (VHS) at ebay! I thought she had a pretty solid role!



But she gives good dead, doesn't she?


WHAT???? *poz slaps ooober to wake her up and see the error of her words*


I voted for Grace. It was a 99.5% Sam episode and it was the first time I really took AT's acting abilities to heart. She acted out every emotion with finesse and made me think,"Wow!"

[Mandysg1]

It's weird, LA Doyle, because I saw quite a bit of AT's work before I even knew who she was. I was but a wee lass (about 9 or 10) when I saw her in Goosebumps and Flash Forward - and oddly enough, I remember both roles quite clearly, I kid you not.

For anyone who's seen those bit parts, as I've told Ooobs and Kat, I just remember being supremely ticked at her character in Goosebumps for not believing her daughter (creepy, ugly, nasty sponge with a mind of its own - don't ask), and I remember feeling a bit sorry for her character in Flash Forward (major pushover of a Phys Ed coach opposite Jewel Staite and Ben Foster). Little did I know, seven years later...

Like I said, weird that I remember it. I can't remember basic trig, but I can remember a couple of random, Canadian-produced (?) kid shows.

And, er, yeah... AT gives good dead, Ooobs? That statement never fails to disturb me.

It's funny Spaz, I always thought those shows were only shown in Canada
Although I think I remember Due South being shown in the U.S.

I remember reading the Goosebumps books with my nephew, but I've never seen the show.

[Skydiver]

Thank you!! Someone else who thinks the same as I do on this ep. I think it ended far too quickly and really didn't get into the end result of what happened to her in the seven days she was gone. I like your ending but there is a fanfic out there with a great ending where she breaks down after being rescued and the boys take care of her on their return to Colorado Springs - very nicely done!

ooh, fanfic.

remember a title and author?????

im a sucker for DM fic, or any sam h/c fic to be honest

[the dancer of spaz]

It's funny Spaz, I always thought those shows were only shown in Canada
Although I think I remember Due South being shown in the U.S.

Yeah. Due South showed on one of the cable networks in the U.S., I think in the mid-nineties, but I never watched it. Goosebumps was on the Family Channel (when it was independent, I think, before it was sold to Fox/ABC/Fox) and Flash Forward was on The Disney Channel. But those shows evidently got a 10- to 20-ep run or whatever, and then just repeated over and over again.

It's funny how you can kinda look back at series in the nineties, and pretty much figure out which ones were done in Canada - there's a distinct look to them... I think it's the trees. Hey, was Northern Exposure filmed in Canada, too?

[the dancer of spaz]

Amanda and Jewel Staited hey....

Sam/Kaylee?

Sam/Ellia?

[fishyone]

I have to add in my vote here for "Grace" as best Sam episode for season 7. I really like this episode for Sam because it shows her determination and ingenuity. She's all alone, injured, with only her instincts to guide her. Yeah, she sees the others, but they're imaginary. (I also kind of think they didn't necessarily need the scenes at the SGC...not much added to plot there, but that's my own opinion). I love the scene that she has with Jacob (but I'm a sucker for all Sam/Jacob scenes.)

That's kind of a shortened version of why I vote for that episode. Believe me, I can and do go novel length.