Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[stargate barbie]

Maybe if I didn't know what the show *could* be, I'd be satisfied with it as it is now--which IMHO is a fairly run of the mill SciFi show. I liked CB as Aeryn and BB (mostly) as Crichton, so I don't come from an anti-CB/BB/Farscape perspective. But I don't want to see Crichton on Stargate--Cam is too hyper in the Crichton mode. It's not being opposed to some new faces joining the show, it's the disrespect shown for the Big 3 by shunting them aside that gets me. I know Daniel fans were upset by the introduction of Jonas, but I still say if TPTB had followed that example a bit of bringing him *into* the *existing team*, they would have not offended as many long time fans. I'm *appalled* that AT, who has been a crucial part of the success of the show for 8 years, felt she had to "find a way" to fit in.

I KNOW! what on earth is that about!?!

and that's kind of what i'm ranting (excessively!) about. and for that matter, when jonas was brought into the show it was almost like the opposite of cam and vala. a lot of the spoilers for season 6 played down his involvement. and he was written as being a bit green but he never screwed up much and he was very likeable (IMO, i know a lot of people still didn't like him). cam would be likeable if he weren't so in-your-face. the show didn't even really need him to begin with what with the addition of landry (who technically replaced RDA's role on the show), so it really didn't need him coming in and trying to dominate the show. had they tried to make him just fit in rather than take over, i think his role would have been accepted far easier.

at the very least considerably less people would be irked. even had they gone as over the top with cam, yet still had sam and teal'c and daniel be as prominent on the show as they ever were, i would guess that most people who are irked not be, or at least would be considerably less irked.

and getting back to AT's return in season 9 and "fitting in", don't get me started. studio politics, it would seem, haven't changed in the last 40-50 years. they just disguise themselves better.

[Coley]

Maybe if I didn't know what the show *could* be, I'd be satisfied with it as it is now--which IMHO is a fairly run of the mill SciFi show. I liked CB as Aeryn and BB (mostly) as Crichton, so I don't come from an anti-CB/BB/Farscape perspective. But I don't want to see Crichton on Stargate--Cam is too hyper in the Crichton mode. It's not being opposed to some new faces joining the show, it's the disrespect shown for the Big 3 by shunting them aside that gets me. I know Daniel fans were upset by the introduction of Jonas, but I still say if TPTB had followed that example a bit of bringing him *into* the *existing team*, they would have not offended as many long time fans. I'm *appalled* that AT, who has been a crucial part of the success of the show for 8 years, felt she had to "find a way" to fit in.

I'm usually next in the queue for season 9 bashing - but I think Amanda may have meant here that she had to try to find a way to fit into a new dynamic, not that she was feeling pushed out! The other cast members would have had 5 weeks are getting to know each other and settling into a groove. It must have been really odd for Amanda returning to the show when everyone had already gelled. I don't think she was moaning about it.

[stargate barbie]

I'm usually next in the queue for season 9 bashing - but I think Amanda may have meant here that she had to try to find a way to fit into a new dynamic, not that she was feeling pushed out! The other cast members would have had 5 weeks are getting to know each other and settling into a groove. It must have been really odd for Amanda returning to the show when everyone had already gelled. I don't think she was moaning about it.

i don't think she was complaining either. she never does.

[L.A. Doyle]

Looks like Samanda is going to have a wild graduation party soon for you and TJ!! Wonderful news! Any other graduates in our midst?

"Class of 2006", please step forward!

In December I'll be graduating with a degree in Astrophysics! Ok, the Astrophysics part isn't true, but the graduating part is.

[stargate barbie]

unless i failed stuff, i'll have a diploma pretty soon. degree is very very unlikely as i've decided not to move away next year for it. maybe i'll be a big brave girl next year and do it then if they still let me.

[the dancer of spaz]

Maybe if I didn't know what the show *could* be, I'd be satisfied with it as it is now--which IMHO is a fairly run of the mill SciFi show. I liked CB as Aeryn and BB (mostly) as Crichton, so I don't come from an anti-CB/BB/Farscape perspective. But I don't want to see Crichton on Stargate--Cam is too hyper in the Crichton mode. It's not being opposed to some new faces joining the show, it's the disrespect shown for the Big 3 by shunting them aside that gets me. I know Daniel fans were upset by the introduction of Jonas, but I still say if TPTB had followed that example a bit of bringing him *into* the *existing team*, they would have not offended as many long time fans. I'm *appalled* that AT, who has been a crucial part of the success of the show for 8 years, felt she had to "find a way" to fit in.

I agree with everything you said, but this stuck out to me, because it's always been an issue for me. First of all, Jonas' development was independent of the show, and the writers still seemed to take great care with the remaining three chararacters. Jonas didn't overpower the show, he wasn't the main focus. He was one part of a team, and it worked - even if we had to deal with Daniel's absence. S6 was a great example of how to integrate a new character/actor, without taking away from the other characters/actors.

I honestly think that, had certain politics not progressed from within the fandom and within the studio the way that they had, we would not have seen Jonas so clearly dismissed - and, on a more recent note, I don't think we would've seen the exact opposite done with Cameron.

Back to AT's feelings... It's very difficult for me to get over that bit of information, because it's clear that the series morphed pretty drastically. And rather than a place on the team and within the dynamic being saved for her, she had to find her place and make the best with what she'd been left with. It's pretty bad.

I mean, it'd be different if she had decided that she wanted to do other things, and voluntarily left the series to pursue other work. It'd be different if she had been gone for longer than five episodes, and had to find her groove again. It'd be different if she had publicly made demands for more storylines to revolve around her character, and for more screen time and consideration from the producers.

But that wasn't the case at all.

I just think the handling of the character's place (and especially AT's place) could've been done differently. She's worked for this series for a decade of her life, and this is how they thank her?

That massive tangent aside, I think AT can handle herself. She already knows whether or not things are going down the way that we perceive them to be. In the end, I'm sure it'll work out.

(As long as she doesn't completely follow Gillian Anderson's lead, and nearly drop off the face of the planet. )

Ah well. Whatever makes her happy.

[scifi_girl]

well an early congrats for you la doyle. i wont be graduating with a degree in astrophysics either. any type of physics has never been my strongest subject

and congrats to stargate barbie too

[Mandysg1]

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.

Leave it to you TJ, your busy studying getting ready for exams, and still while writing one of your exams you manage to relate it to Stargate
very impressive

[stargate barbie]

OT post:

(As long as she doesn't completely follow Gillian Anderson's lead, and nearly drop off the face of the planet. )

gillian anderson did a film set in ireland called the mighty celt (with robert carlyle), she did some show for the bbc, i think it was called bleak house, and i friend of mine met her in uganda when she was filming something over there last summer. i don't know what that might have been though.

she's done other stuff too. she's still around. and i think she'll start to do bigger stuff too. i just think she's probably enjoying being a little bit low profile for a while. i hope thats it anyway.

and when stargate ends, or when amanda decides she's had enough of it, i'm sure she'll get plenty of work too. she might take some well deserved time for herself first though, but she'll definitley get work if she wants it. she's way too talented not to.

edit: if anyone's interested i checked it out and the thing she was filming in uganda is called "The Last King of Scotland". i found it on imdb.

[ChopinGal]

Mmmmm way back.... Standing up to 2 bullies who had followed me in to the girls toilets after school. I said something like "come on then and I'll deck both of you" despite having a number of karate gradings under my belt I was bricking it - but they backed off - luckily for me I think. A while later they saw me in a karate fighting display and never bothered me again!!

Topping out of a multi pitch HVS climbing route in southern Spain (having climbed by close to a golden eagles nest) and sitting back with my butties and climbing mates admiring the view

Oh on edit - summiting Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies. This makes me smile a bit as I think I must have done this a couple of weeks before Amanda got married - sept '95

and yes CG moving up here to the Western Isles!!

Methinks that I, a humble Yank, shouldst try to interpret some of what our intrepid Royal Accountant has just written so that fellow Samandans on this side of the pond do not get the wrong picture ...

"Topping out of a multi-pitch HVS combing route in Spain" ... this is climbers' jargon for "Holy Crap, I really made it to the top!" The "multi-pitch" occurs if you don't make it to the top but fall flat on your face (see Jester's own experience) and then proceed to "pitch and roll" down the mountain.

It helps to have karate training at this point. You will need it to pound on rocks and yell "Holy Crap, what was I thinking?! I'd never get up that steep slope in a hundred years!" The RA does not have this problem. She is not geologically challenged like the Jester, who by the way, is also topographically challenged. Delicately put, the Jester is carrying more weight on top than the RA.

"Sitting back with my butties and climbing mates admiring the view" ... oh no! Dear Samandans, please ... allow the RA some dignity here. This does not mean that she was sitting on her royal derriere while her voyeuristic companions were sizing her up and winking at each other. No, the proper translation is much more innocent. Perched like a wild bird on a ledge barely the width of anyone's posterior, the RA was eating her lunch and looking at the scenery with her fellow climbers. The mere fact that there was nothing under their feet but air only added to the thrill.

An aside: Jester did not eat butties nor perch on a ledge whilst traipsing about the Canadian Rockies. But she did have a large enough pinnacle on which to twirl. The RA tops out; the Jester twirls.

As to "summiting Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies", unfortunately the RA did this climb years before Jester scaled Mt. Indefatigable nearby. We can only surmise what the two of them on the same mountain at the same time could have accomplished together. This would have been almost as exciting as blowing up a sun. Perhaps, one day in the future ...

Alas, there are no high peaks to conquer in the Land That Time Forgot ... swampy moorlands and sheep and ancient stones. Methinks the Jester will be wise to do her next twirl in a Lewisian meadow and settle for that.

[ChopinGal]

Ahhh Jester I loved reading your Sam Carter moment.

At the time in our lives when most of us will be reaching for our zimmers, when wintergreen needs to be worked right into those joints before we go to bed, when our major expedition would be to the PO to collect our pensions, when decent footwear means a pair of zip up fur lined booties and when the task of cleaning ones teeth is an easy one thanks to a glass of steradent, The Matriarch of the thread is laughing in the face of advanced years and scaling well known trekking peaks in Kananaskis!!

And now Coley is wondering if she can outrun this amazing superfit being!!!

Give me a head start Jest!!! Love Ya!!!!

The Jester is clueless about the "zimmers" - please come to her aid! And, even though the Jester did fall on her face, she was with a retired dentist at that moment and he assured her that she would not lose any of her teeth. This still holds true - no need for the steradent/polident.

"The Matriarch"??!! A dubious title at best but if the zip-up fur-lined booty fits, then I humbly accept.

The Matriarch will not race you, RA, in her booties. Serious trainers needed. Jester is smiling ... she likes the title of "superfit being" (even if she's topographically challenged).

We shall meet again, RA - on the beaches of Lewis or the hills of Wales, at which time these conversations (and challenges) will be revisited.

[Mandysg1]

ah see, this is why i can't write. i don't know anything.

That never stopped me from writing

[stargate barbie]

That never stopped me from writing

yeah we know!


(i'm kidding obviously, don't stop writing or i'll be even more mean than i am now!)

[Mandysg1]

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.

Grab your bucket and start bailing

[Mandysg1]

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.

Hey pretty soon you'll be a professional when it comes to sarcasm and you have s9 to thank for it