Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[the dancer of spaz]

<snip>
Gee, I don't think I've ever been that sarcastic in my life!

The show kinda brings that outta people these days. Don't worry.

[scifi_girl]

It's the Cam Show, don't you know? Everyone else has about two minutes of screentime, so there just wouldn't be enough time to show

aha, so thats where im going wrong im watching the cam show and not stargate sg-1, silly me

[jckfan55]

i'm not buying season 9

Spoiler:

(ESPECIALLY not for the sam-in-leather ep). stagate ended with a beautiful, deep scene with the whole team fishing at jack's cabin.

How AT manages to keep some dignity given some of the outfits they've put her in during the last 2 seasons....

[Coley]

As many of you know, I'm in the middle of exams and the moment, and my German translation exam this morning was interesting to say the least. It was about a German scriptwriter called Wolfgang Kohlhaase, who made films in the DDR. He talked about how the most important thing in filmmaking was that it was about real people, that there was a possibility that these things could be happening on your doorstep. He said that he believed people wanted to see human beings on the screen, people like them who had thoughts and feelings, who talked like them and dealt with the same emotions they dealt with. People don't want to see a two dimensional hero, they want someone they can relate to.

This is what I think TPTB used to do so well with Sam. She wasn't some out-there hero, and she wasn't an underdog either. She was a normal woman (albeit an incredibly intelligent one). She dealt with the same insecurities as us, she grew and developped like a real person.

Though I'm pretty sure this isn't what Kohlhaase meant (he isn't a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction, from what I understand), the character development that he so rightly champions is continually evident in Sam Carter. The thing that worries me somewhat, however, is the lack of this doctrine, this belief in recent writing. Where are these people we can relate to? These feelings we have dealt with? These scenarios that are possibly happening on our front doorstep?

The more big budget space ships and explosions we get, the less we focus on the characters. As Kohlhaase says, special effects only get you so far. Their repercussions are worthless without characters that you care about, that you believe in. Who cares about a big space battle when you don't know the characters that are fighting for survival? What use is a character death if you have no interest in those it will affect.

Kohlhaase says that the most important thing in filmmaking is real people. They want to see people like them on the screen, it's what they need to see. A film has no impact, it will never make them think or contemplate, unless they can get inside and really feel for the people, relate to the people, imagine they are the people.

With the growing number of cardboard cutout characters on SG1 at the moment, this is something the PTB need to seriously consider. When Janet died, we not only felt for Janet, but for the whole team, losing someone so important to them. I look at certain events in season nine and ask myself "Did I really care."

Filmmaking, says Kohlhaase, is not an excercise in theory or artistic effects. It is an excercise in storytelling. The story of real people.

This is a brilliant brilliant post TJ thanks!!! I agree with everything here.

I'm afraid I really don't care about the show anymore. Being deprived of my season 1 to 6 dvd's just now I decided to try to give season 9 another go. The next one in the series I hadn't watched - which I think is after the fourth horseman 2. I just couldn't watch till the end. It was a direct lift of a Startrek TNG episode - an early one at that. Just blatant plagarism. Aspects of other sci fi eps have been incorporated into Stargate before, but never so blatantly. Cam still doesn't hit me as SG1 lead material and I struggle hearing everything he says. Anyway as I'd already seen it a few times before via TNG I just got bored and even Sam appearing on the scene with Cam mid eppi couldn't stop me from turning it off she seems such a cardboard cutout to me compared with her involement in the team in previous seasons. They are not writing Sam as Sam they are writing her very much less than she was. I haven't bothered to put it on since. I've been watching my Frasier dvd's instead.

So to answer a question which was posed - no I won't be buying the season 9 box set, not even if Amanda is featured on one. It is the principle!!!

[L.A. Doyle]

aha, so thats where im going wrong im watching the cam show and not stargate sg-1, silly me

Flip the channel quick! Oh no! The Cam Show IS SG-1! Help! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!

*calms self by looking at pictures of Jack*

Ah, that's better. Jack should come back and tell Cam a thing or two about being a good leader...anyone seen that Spacey's segment...hehe.

To be on topic, all you guys out there that have had Sam Moments...wow, you're amazing. Me? My life is dull, but in a way, that's good.

[Coley]

congrats to everyone with milestone posts!!

[stargate barbie]

OK, I'm gonna make this the least "bashy" as possible when I ask:

Spoiler:

How the heck can anyone - ANYONE - bounty hunter, or not, just up and kidnap both Sam AND Teal'c whenever they choose? How is that possible? Is it on Earth? But that makes no sense. The guy would have a struggle with just Sam, and a struggle with just Teal'c, but together? And then, ya know, once they're in the bind, they have to rely on Cameron?! Cameron, of all people?!

It's still too early to tell, but on the surface, there are already a lot of holes.

sigh.
behold a long and catty rant spawned by my distaste for the latest spoiler on GW's home page.
does anyone else get the feeling that they have been paying attention to what a lot of people have been saying about

Spoiler:

cam and have decided to compensate by having all the characters that we say would never do something like that screw up more, and have cam be the big stereotyped hero and never screw up, hence making even less sense of season 9, and royally screwing up in season 10?

this is the least confident i've been about season 10 yet. if they just have sam and teal'c screwing up and getting into trouble and relying on cam and/or vala to get them out of trouble, then i'm not going to be happy.

instead of just stepping up and saying, yeah alright, we made a mistake, we thought we had a really cool character who was exciting and we were wrong, now back to your regular scheduled stargating, they seem to be just going with, what? cam was great and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. and ya know what, he's gonna be even better in future, because not only are we going to ignore everyone's complaints and issues about him, but we're going to step it up a notch and on top of that, we're going to compromise the believeability of the character who you think got screwed over the most!

we're going to take sam, and say yeah you guys were right, forget this co-leader thing. we're making the new guy the leader. sam clearly is more capable, but we'll just ignore that 'cause we want cam to do it. and also, yeah, sam is usually the one who saves the day and rescues everyone including herself using her massive brain power, but we're just gonna put her in posistions now where she just can't. even if its completely unbelieveable. cam is going to save the day using nothing but his gargantuan ego, and vala will be his sidekick throughout.

yeah, we know you like the original team, but we just decided to suck up to people who wouldn't ordinarily watch this show. also, i never wanted to run sg1, i like the show my way. and i like how star trek wrote female characters.

i'm irked presently. so i'll stop the rant while i still can.

i very much hope i'm wrong and its just that sci fi are the ones releasing spoilers that they think people want to hear. i hope the show going to be different, and that the spoilers don't reflect the truth of the episodes. and i hope that our show runners aren't just listening to the network because they don't want them to cancel their show. it wouldn't be the first time a show was cancelled on one network and picked up on another. its happened to quite a few good shows, and its happened already once in stargates time.

at least if the show does go belly up, amanda tapping should find work easy enough. as far as i'm aware, appart from RDA she's the one with the most success thus far outside of stargate, and with the most publicity for her work too.

[stargate barbie]

Flip the channel quick! Oh no! The Cam Show IS SG-1! Help! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!

*calms self by looking at pictures of Jack*

Ah, that's better. Jack should come back and tell Cam a thing or two about being a good leader...anyone seen that Spacey's segment...hehe.

To be on topic, all you guys out there that have had Sam Moments...wow, you're amazing. Me? My life is dull, but in a way, that's good.

believe me i have never had a sam carter moment. i've had cam moments though!

[Tracy Jane]

Ooooh, just finished reading Sky's mirror, mirror fic that she read earlier! It's kind of heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. And I expect a sequel, Sky, you can't just leave it hanging like that! You know what I mean!

[jckfan55]

Samandans--
Feeling listless? Unable to concentrate? Cranky? Weepy at the drop of a hat?

You could be experiencing SDS--Sam Deprivation Syndrome. With only small doses of Sam available in Season 9, this problem is reportedly endemic in the Kingdom.
Currently no cure is known, but experts say the syndrome can be managed and a support network is helpful. Please share with your fellow afflicted your ways of coping.

[Coley]

Sure, sure ... what grabbed you were the restraints on the chair ...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y11.../JackStuck.jpg

What kept you was Chimera ...

Sorry, but I misread your last sentence up there, mate! I see now that you did cross your "t" and it wasn't the more graphic word I thought! (Coley's gonna kill me!)

Die CG!!

A correct analysis I suspect, but 1speed would never admit it

[the dancer of spaz]

i very much hope i'm wrong and its just that sci fi are the ones releasing spoilers that they think people want to hear. i hope the show going to be different, and that the spoilers don't reflect the truth of the episodes.

See, I just don't think they've ever done that before, have they? And if they haven't released bogus spoilers, I don't see why it would work to their advantage to do so now. I wish that was the case, and we could all be pleasantly surprised come August, but I'm thinking this is it. Everything they've been saying over the past few months has been because of this renewed sense of vigor with Cameron.

Last season, they had five eps with Vala, and they were practically forced to use one of TO3 as her sidekick. Then, once she was gone, they felt free to use Cameron as The Man, and had all of TO3 fall into step behind him in some bizarre form of "leadership."

Now that all five are signed on, the peeps in charge evidently took this as an opportunity to have Vala AND Cameron run the show from here on out.

I don't think it's a coincidence that nearly every ep we've read about in spoiler form features one of the two of them - or both - in a large way. And if that's the way they're going with it, based on the Spacey award results, they probably have no reason to change their tune. I can only imagine how Sci Fi must've taken that as confirmation of their hopes: That the fans indeed love their new characters as much as they do.

They'll most likely take the results from the fan awards over the clear ratings issues of last season. It's all very backwards.

[L.A. Doyle]

sigh.
behold a long and catty rant spawned by my distaste for the latest spoiler on GW's home page.
does anyone else get the feeling that they have been paying attention to what a lot of people have been saying about

Spoiler:

cam and have decided to compensate by having all the characters that we say would never do something like that screw up more, and have cam be the big stereotyped hero and never screw up, hence making even less sense of season 9, and royally screwing up in season 10?

this is the least confident i've been about season 10 yet. if they just have sam and teal'c screwing up and getting into trouble and relying on cam and/or vala to get them out of trouble, then i'm not going to be happy.

instead of just stepping up and saying, yeah alright, we made a mistake, we thought we had a really cool character who was exciting and we were wrong, now back to your regular scheduled stargating, they seem to be just going with, what? cam was great and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. and ya know what, he's gonna be even better in future, because not only are we going to ignore everyone's complaints and issues about him, but we're going to step it up a notch and on top of that, we're going to compromise the believeability of the character who you think got screwed over the most!

we're going to take sam, and say yeah you guys were right, forget this co-leader thing. we're making the new guy the leader. sam clearly is more capable, but we'll just ignore that 'cause we want cam to do it. and also, yeah, sam is usually the one who saves the day and rescues everyone including herself using her massive brain power, but we're just gonna put her in posistions now where she just can't. even if its completely unbelieveable. cam is going to save the day using nothing but his gargantuan ego, and vala will be his sidekick throughout.

yeah, we know you like the original team, but we just decided to suck up to people who wouldn't ordinarily watch this show. also, i never wanted to run sg1, i like the show my way. and i like how star trek wrote female characters.

i'm irked presently. so i'll stop the rant while i still can.

i very much hope i'm wrong and its just that sci fi are the ones releasing spoilers that they think people want to hear. i hope the show going to be different, and that the spoilers don't reflect the truth of the episodes. and i hope that our show runners aren't just listening to the network because they don't want them to cancel their show. it wouldn't be the first time a show was cancelled on one network and picked up on another. its happened to quite a few good shows, and its happened already once in stargates time.

at least if the show does go belly up, amanda tapping should find work easy enough. as far as i'm aware, appart from RDA she's the one with the most success thus far outside of stargate, and with the most publicity for her work too.

It's ok, Stargate Barbie. We are all presently irked. You would think TPTB would be smarter than that. It's beyond comprehension why they would choose to do this to their show. If they even stepped into the forum for one moment, they would see that, for the most part, their most loyal fans are not happy. We can only hope the spoilers aren’t accurately reflecting the future episodes-that they won't be as newbie centered as they sound.

I want to see Sam in her kick-butt mode. Just because it’s so cool! Sam rocks!

[Lizlove]

What is bugging me is like TPTB did all the screwing up on purpose. Because they are bored with it and want to push the fans away. For what? Without fans there is no show.It seems S9 was asked because more and more fans joined the fandom and wanted it to least as long as possible. So now they couldn't really refuse a new season, could they? They're winning a lot of money with it too.

And lets be realistic, we know stargate won't dure eternally so it's like they know it will keep on going til season 10 or 11 and they're rushing to get the characters together for the movie or whatever they are planning. To give the character solid grounds so it seems they are an intire part of the show.

In short, they can't come up for stories for the original cast anymore because they already had 8 years to make them evoluate. So they make up new character, play with them. But are rushing it because they know of their lack of time.

It's like Sam, Teal'c and Daniel are fully written and don't need any addings. Which is entirely wrong!!! There still is a lot to discuss about them, and there's a lot of history to dig in for each of the roles.
For me RDA's leave was the beginning of the end...

So... give us Sam back!!! We need her!

*claps hands if you got til here *

[Strix varia]

It's ok, Stargate Barbie. We are all presently irked. You would think TPTB would be smarter than that. It's beyond comprehension why they would choose to do this to their show. If they even stepped into the forum for one moment, they would see that, for the most part, their most loyal fans are not happy. We can only hope the spoilers aren’t accurately reflecting the future episodes-that they won't be as newbie centered as they sound.

I want to see Sam in her kick-butt mode. Just because it’s so cool! Sam rocks!

While many of us are irked, I don't think it's accurate to say that everyone is. There are a lot of people who like Mitchell and Vala, some of whom are very loyal fans of the show. (Sorry, I just feel obligated to point that out in fairness to other fans.)