Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[ForeverSg1]

i'm not sure we ever do, she doesn't seem to have much in her lab, and it's usually pretty dark.

then again, i could be wrong.
in fact, i probably am.

Yeah, Sam's lab is very small and there is nothing on the walls. I have pictures to prove it, but alas I'm not allowed to share.

[Deejay435]

are you trying to confuse me again? europeans don't make computer systems anyway. we make cheese, beer and cars. and you know it!

And mighty fine beer it is, too.

WAY more important than computer systems.

However, now I'm intrigued. Does the US military use the day/month/year system? Does anyone know definitively?

I feel like such a complete ethnocentric idiot asking this, but how do you note dates in Canada? day/month/year, or month/day/year? If it's the first, it might just be an instance of the production team just marking the dates as they're used to.

[ChevronSeven]

A
However, now I'm intrigued. Does the US military use the day/month/year system? Does anyone know definitively?

The US Military does indeed use the day/month/year system.

[Mandysg1]

And mighty fine beer it is, too.

WAY more important than computer systems.

However, now I'm intrigued. Does the US military use the day/month/year system? Does anyone know definitively?

I feel like such a complete ethnocentric idiot asking this, but how do you note dates in Canada? day/month/year, or month/day/year? If it's the first, it might just be an instance of the production team just marking the dates as they're used to.

Its day/month/year

[Skydiver]

Yeah, Sam's lab is very small and there is nothing on the walls. I have pictures to prove it, but alas I'm not allowed to share.

i have pics of daniel's and jonas' offices....which are the same room as sam's lab. don't know where they are off hand, but yeah, that room is small. maybe 10x8

the two times i've been able to see the set, it was dressed as daniel's or jonas' offices.

oh, when you watch teh s6 eps, look on the shelves. see those beige boxes on the shelves? they're the master copies of the episodes on 3/4 tape. they store them there for the sake of filling the shelf

[stargate barbie]

Not if they wanted to stick to the idea that Mitchell was ten in 1981. He'd have to be at least forty-one or forty-two instead of thirty-four or thirty-five.

does the info they've given us on him thus far in the "reality" they've chosen for him add up?

[astrogeologist]

Sam

According to Entity, Sam was born in 1968 or 1969 which makes her either 38 or 39 years old in 2006. However, Entity states that she was born in December while Ascension suggests that she was born in May. While the month that Sam was born really is not a huge issue, it does alter when she was allowed to join the Air Force Academy.

Air ForceAcademy Requirements state that:

• All candidates must be at least 17, but less than 23 years of age by July 1 of the year they would enter. The age requirement is public law and cannot be waived.

So if Sam were born in May 1968, then she would have been eligible to enter the AirForceAcademy in 1985; however, if she was born in December 1968 then Sam would not have been eligible to join the Air Force Academy until fall of 1986, the same year as the Challenger accident. So Sam could have joined the Academy in 1985 or 1986 and graduated in 1989 or 1990. The evidence is unclear due to the fact that we do not know what month she was truly born.

We also know from CoTG, that Sam clocked more than 100 hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War, which took place between August 2, 1990 and July 31, 1991and has flown an F-16 (CoTG).

Many have speculated whether or not Sam could have obtained her flight training between the time she graduated from the Academy and the time she supposedly flew in the Gulf War.

According to a website I found, all Air Force pilot candidates begin their flying training with introductory flight training (IFT). Civilian flight instructors at fixed base operations around the country conduct this training in aircraft such as the Cessna 152. Students receive 50 hours of instruction and must qualify for their private pilot certificate to successfully complete the program. I’m not positive, but I believe Sam could have obtained this training during her time at the Academy.

The next step in the process is joint specialized undergraduate pilot training, which prepares student pilots for the full spectrum of aircraft and flying missions. This training takes approximately 52 weeks to complete.
In order to have flown an F-16 aircraft in the Gulf War, Sam would have to have completed Phase 3 - Advanced Aircraft Trainingon the T-38 Talon - Fighter / Bomber Track as each type of aircraft requires a different type of training.

Now if Sam did in fact graduate from the Academy in 1989, then it is quite possible for Sam to have received the necessary flight training in order to fly solo during the Gulf War. However, this still does not explain why she does not have her wings as all pilots who complete this training receive their silver wings.

For more information about Undergraduate Pilot Training

Sam later spent two years at the Pentagon working on the Stargate Project before Daniel got the Stargate to work the first time. (CoTG, Secrets). According to CoTG, Daniel got the gate working in 1996; therefore, Sam would have been working at the Pentagon from 1994-1996. After the first Abydos mission, she researched alternative applications for the gate, including time travel (1969), which we can assume was from 1996-1997 before Sam was transferred back to the Stargate project. There is also three years here where we do not know what Sam was doing and during this time it could have been quite possible for Sam to have been working on her PHD; however, I have my own speculations that being a child genius Sam had already obtained her Master's degree before entering the Academy and was working on her PHD during those four years...but I won't go into that right now.

Promotion Min. Time In Service/Grade

Rank 02 TOS 2yrs TIG 2yrs
Rank 03 TOS 4yrs TIG 2yrs
Rank 04 TOS 9-11yrs TIG 3yrs
Rank 05 TOS 15-17yrs TIG 3yrs
Rank 06 TOS 21-23yrs TIG 3yrs

In 1997, Sam was a Captain in the USAF

If Sam graduated from the Academy in June 1989, then the…

· Minimum TIS for First Lieutenant would have been June 1991.
· Minimum TIS for Captain would have been June 1993.

In 1999, she was promoted to the rank of Major.

She must have joined the Air Force no later than 1989, as she had to have been in the AF for at least ten years to make Major, which she was promoted to in 1999. She has also received the AF Longevity Ribbon, which is given for four years of service, with a bronze star, which represents the second awarding -- so she's been in more than eight years, but less than twelve, as of FairGame [1999]).

In 2004, she was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel.
She must have fifteen years TIS in order to be promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel.
According to the promotion information I found, Sam would not be eligible for the rank of Colonel until the year 2010; however, these requirements can often be overlooked by the promotion committee if the candidate is deemed worthy of early promotion and she will have had three years time in grade as of July 2007.
_____________________________________________________________
Mitchell

According to (Collateral Damage) Mitchell was no more than ten years old during the first Space Shuttle Flight in 1981, which would make him 35 years old.

If Mitchell was indeed born in 1971,

· He could not have entered the Academy before 1988.
· He could not have enlisted in the AF until 1988.

If he chose to go the Academy route,
· He would not have graduated until 1992.
· Minimum TIS for First Lieutenant … 1994.
· Minimum TIS for Captain… 1996
· Minimum TIS for Major … 2002.
· Minimum TIS for Lt. Colonel… 2007
· Minimum TIS for Colonel … 2012
Therefore it’s unlikely that Mitchell graduated from the Academy.

If he were already a college graduate, he could have become an officer after enlisting into the AF and going through OTS(OfficerTraining School). He would have enlisted into the AF at the rank of Staff Sergeant and been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after completion of the twelve week training program.

So if Mitchell graduated from high school like most people at the age of 17 or 18 year’s old and it took him four years to complete his Bachelor’s degree, then one would assume that he did not enlist into the USAF until 1993, which would again have made it very unlikely for him to have attained his current rank of Lt. Colonel by the battle over Antarctica in 2003.

He may have went the AFROTC route, but I don't have enough information to determine if he could have advanced through the ranks any quicker by going this route.

Honestly I just don't see how all this adds up, but I according to my little calculations(if they are correct) Sam will be eligible for the rank of Colonel two years before Mitchell.

Wow! Kat, just wow!

[ReganX]

does the info they've given us on him thus far in the "reality" they've chosen for him add up?

Nope, but that's because Mitchell and Season Nine aren't real and because Felger, bless his heart, isn't exactly an expert on the military.

[Mandysg1]

Nope, but that's because Mitchell and Season Nine aren't real and because Felger, bless his heart, isn't exactly an expert on the military.

And he's not too good with numbers either, that's why he gets Chloe to do his taxes

[ReganX]

And he's not too good with numbers either, that's why he gets Chloe to do his taxes

Poor silly Felger. That's probably why he got Mitchell's age mixed up.

Do you think anybody will ever take pity on Felger - and on us - and rescue him from the VR game?

[Agent_Dark]

LOL! EXQUEEZE me? Continuity is continuity. It wouldn't be any different if it were done on OZ. Professionals in the field know what they're doing and (should) know what to look for. Inverting footage for a cheap editing fix is universally laughed at in the industry. Your saying it's a Canadian crew, so that's why they screwed up the US continuity bits is an insult to those professionals in the field who wouldn't let kind of thing go by on their watch. Tiny, invisible stuff, perhaps, but highly visible, easily researchable stuff - not so much. Look, I'm the first person to say, don't sweat the small stuff. But when it comes to the uniform-type designations, etc., those are as important as the uniform itself. One might as well have put the USAF officers in British RAF uniforms and then said: "Ah well, it's a Canadian production....they just don't know any better." They do so!

And that's sloppy production work, regardless when, where or why it was done. People get paid to ensure these sorts of details are accurate. Sloppy research is sloppy reasearch. There are quite a few 'Canadian' production continuity coordinators who would rather roll in doggie doo than make (visible) errors, and I've got friends among them.

I'm sorry if I sound a little touchy, but I hear that too often from the uninformed. "Well, it's a CANADIAN show, what do you expect?" I dunno, I work really hard each day on the post I produce. My stuff is not any cheaper, less authentic, or of less quality than the stuff that comes out of Europe or the USA. And you can bet yer sweet bootie I won't fly an American flag backwards in my final product, either (Unless it's part of an intended joke ). Otherwise, it's just....... slack.

mg

Oh, I'm definately not blaming it on Canadians (/me turns off South Park movie), but surely it's easy to make those kind of mistakes when they do that amount of work. Or maybe its not a joke. Maybe whoever did those dates deliberately put them in the dd/mm/yy format because 'the yanks do it wrong '. But the fact remains that the date was in the format that the Canadians use, not the US, and it is a Canadian produced show...

As for the uniforms, maybe you misunderstood. No doubt an entirely US crew would have made the same mistake. They had no military advisor at all, hence the mistakes on the uniforms. I didn't mean to suggest that it was screwed up because of a Canadian crew..

[astrogeologist]

IIRC, they never said that she was a PILOT, just that she logged time in enemy air space.

thus she coudl have been on a plane, just not flying it. that would account for her lack of wings (not that i know many pilots, but once they pin those puppies on them, they tend to never take them off)

She most definitely flew the ship in Covenant. It would be difficult to believe that she wasn't a pilot before joining SG-1 - because where would there have been time to go through the training during her years on SG-1? (what with saving the world and all). And she didn't just fly - she flew first seat in Covenant.

[Agent_Dark]

The US flag isn't necessarily flying 'backwards'. The flag patch on our soldiers' uniforms are on their right side where it looks like it's backwards, when in actuality, it's portrayed as someone moving forward and the flag in flowing in that direction. If the patch were in the 'correct' position - or as it's shown on television, that would mean that the solider was retreating and our flag is never shown in such a direction. The flags on all airplanes are in that same design.

Oh, I understand that, but this is different. But take a look at the actual scene - Bregman and Hammond are watching the tribute video on the tv. They have shots of various SG teams posing for the camera, as well as Sam reading the eulogy for Janet, all transposed over a US flag flying backwards (ie stars on the right, stripes on the left). So either the people who put that tribute video together either got it wrong or deliberatly flew it backwards.

[astrogeologist]

yeah i agree. it just bugs me a little bit that they see fit to stick ridgedly to one rule and blatantly disregard others out of convienince.

i say just be honest and say, well yeah the AF were against it but we've gone against them before, but we're going with them now because it suits us and where we want the show to go.

or else people are right and that poor AF advisor is locked up somewhere. you would have to wonder though, maybe when they said 'hey, we've got this new character, and he's done this and got this, and here's a few scripts we've got for an idea of what we'll have him doing, and while we're at it, he's the same rank as the leader of the team, but we've written her out for a few episodes in this way so that we can have him be the big hero this year. if anyone questions us we'll just say that they're co-leaders because they have the same rank. but he doesn't have to listen to her if he doesn't want to, cos that'll make him look really cool!'
and then the AF advisors head exploded.

ya know what, that seems like the more likely explanation for where she is these days. thats probably what happened.

ROTFLOL!

[astrogeologist]

I think it was a case of

"We've got this new guy. We want him to be the leader of SG-1."

"What about Sam?"

"What about her?"

"She's already the leader of SG-1."

"Darn, she is, isn't she? Okay we'll have to, I don't know... transfer her or something."

"Why can't we just keep Sam as leader and have the new guy as second in command? It'd make a lot more sense."

"Because." *pause* "Now about the new character. The fans'll love him, he's really great. We need a big hero as our star."

"I don't know about that. People seem to like the characters we have. They mightn't want a new guy coming in and taking over..."

"I know, we'll give him the CMOH. Everyone'll love him if we do that."

"Don't you think that we should talk to the Air Force advisor about this?"

"Nah, I'm sure it's okay."



Since Sam's absence for the first five episodes need not have resulted in a loss of command, I must conclude that the goal was to push Mitchell into place as the leader, hewo and undisputed star, no matter what.

Great post, Regan!