Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[KatG]

I just got a peek at the new TV Zone magazine that features Stargate SG-1, I believe.



Dude, I feel like this interview could go on forever (it's only about four pages long). But let me know if no one has posted these bits before, and I'll post the rest. There are some interesting tidbits about AT and CB.

First I've seen it, so post away to your heart's content.

[Uber]

Awww... I was gonna wait until I actually had the picture in my possession (only Kat and sg-1fanintn had copies, and I don't have a way to upload them online). I didn't know you'd uploaded it already. Ah well.


Anyway, it was funny, because she laughed (like on it? like she was sprawled all over it? I think she was tired... ), and actually said petulantly, "Those b@st@rds!"

Naturally, I laughed in true meek-fangurl fashion and smiled like a raving idiot, while she continued to laugh. Finally, she looked up and asked, "Can I write that?"

I nodded and said, "Sure!" The goofy smile was probably still in place, now that I think about it. Lovely.


Oh, and I've heard/read in the past that AT and others on the set really like South Park (wretched show that it is), which explains why she was able to finish the popular line without missing a beat. I'm glad she was the one who finished the quote, though.

Was it THE laugh? The chipmunk with a machine gun giggle?

[the dancer of spaz]

Was it THE laugh? The chipmunk with a machine gun giggle?

Nah, I think it was more along the lines of, "OMG, I've been 'on' for like 20 hours, and my brain is fried, but somehow this is funny."

[L.A. Doyle]

Spoiler:

They've decided to out-and-out say that Mitchell's the leader. Period. Gah!

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

[Ancient 61]

Ok, I have to share a funny little story with you all involving Amanda, Dancer of Spaz and myself. I had hoped Spaz would have posted about it by now, but seeing as I just came across some more photos I had forgotten I had taken I thought I'd share them with you. Hopefully Spaz won't kick my @$$ when she reads this.

At the beginning of the year when Spaz and I decided we were both going to Shore Leave, I started making buttons to take to the con. After seeing a SG1 cartoon that Tracy Jane had made, I asked her if I could borrow it to make a shirt. Spazzy saw the shirt on my Cafepress.com shop and asked if she could buy one as well, but she asked if I could change the wording on the shirt a bit because she didn't want to offend anyone (especially Amanda). This was the original picture I had on the T-shirt...

Spoiler:

Anyway, during the autograph session Spaz asked Amanda if she would sign her T-shirt. Unfortunately I wasn't there with Spaz so I don't want to mistell the story, but I wanted to share what Amanda wrote on her T-shirt. I nearly died when Spaz showed it to me.

Spoiler:

Hopefully Spaz will post what Amanda actually said when she got the autograph, but if I didn't think Amanda rocked before, I certainly do now.

FANTASTIC

Joanne

[chocdoc]

I just got a peek at the new TV Zone magazine that features Stargate SG-1, I believe.



Dude, I feel like this interview could go on forever (it's only about four pages long). But let me know if no one has posted these bits before, and I'll post the rest. There are some interesting tidbits about AT and CB.

Thanks for this snippet out of this interview.

It hasn't been posted here yet, and it would be great to read it!

[Chelle DB]

I have been a fan of many celebrities through the years, but Amanda is different. My other celebrities were always great looking men, crushes. With Amanda, I respect what she has done for women in the industry. She is genuine with her fans, down to earth, and very talented. I became an Amanda fan, because my little girl looked up to her. Positive female rolemodels are hard to come by. Most of the celebrities that little girls want to imitate are pop sex divas whose personal life is covered by the tabloids. That isn't the kind of role model I want for my daughter. Amanda (and her t.v. character Sam) is intelligent and self assured. My little girl believes she can be whatever she wants to be, and she knows she doesn't have to dress like a pop diva to do it.

Well said gate gal!!

[the dancer of spaz]

A Continuation of the TV Zone article
(It is TV Zone, right KatG? )...

Spoiler:

For the past nine year, Samantha Carter has been the only woman on the Sg-1 team. How does she feel now that Vala has come on board? Certainly not how some people might expect. "From the get-go, Claudia and I decided to make the relationship between Sam and Vala a good one," say Tapping. "It would be too easy to make them b*tchy. Instead, why not make them buddies? They do it with guys all the time, right? The secret handshakes, the special code; it's OK, they're buddies. You never see that with women.

"So Claudia and I are determined that our two characters are going to be buddies. That's what we've been working towards and it's happening. Yes, Sam and Vala have totally opposite ways of doing things, but they can respect one another and what they each have to offer to the team. From Sam's perspective, I think more often than not she looks at this woman, rolls her eyes and says to herself, 'Oh, boy, here we go again.' But she's also starting to find Vala kind of amusing, which is important, otherwise she'd just be annoying to Sam, and that wouldn't be any fun for either of them or me and Claudia, and especially not the audience."

She then goes on about the nature of green screens and effects that aren't there until post-production; the difference between working on S9 and S10, and how she had to find her way differently last year after Olivia; the newbies; and her guest role on Atlantis this year.

Spoiler:

She describes her role in this episode as the "catalyst for bringing McKay and Jeanie back together."

Man, I need to post my fic on this episode before the episode airs...

Her thoughts on the future of Stargate...

"First off, 10 years is a gift, no matter how you slice it," notes Tapping. "The series has new legs and a new energy to it, and with the Ori as a threat we could potentially carry on. Who knows? To be honest, it's all down to the ratings. There are a lot of changes, and if the fans embrace those changes, great. As is always the case, time will tell."

First of all, I have to agree with her assessment on the buddy issues.

I totally understand if someone wants to use the argument that Sam and Vala are just too different to work. However, if you look at the history of the Stargate franchise, the writers have always gone out of their way to showcase two males who are COMPLETE opposites, and develop their friendships - sometimes at the expense of other dynamics. Look at Jack and Daniel, the great duo that started it all. Even back then, at the beginning of the series, knowing that they were going to have this great opposites-attract dynamic between these two characters, TPTB almost opted to have Sam and Janet (actually COMPATIBLE characters) become enemies.

You look at Sheppard and McKay, and their dynamic vastly dominates Atlantis, at the expense of everyone else. Teyla and Liz have yet to have an actual on-screen conversation in nearly two and half years. They barely exchange shared glances. Teyla and Liz can only be utilized if it's in relation to whom they may want to snog (i.e. Shep, Ronon, McKay or Beckett), and the relationships between Shep/Ronon, Shep/Beckett, Ronon/McKay, McKay/Beckett, Beckett/Zelenka, Zelenka/McKay have all been fleshed out throughout the past two seasons 1000x more than Teyla and Elizabeth. It's pathetic.

And then you shift it back to SG-1's season nine, and you see them feebly try to recreate the Jack/Daniel dynamic in Cameron/Daniel. They continue to force feed Cam/Sam, Cam/Teal'c down our throats at every turn as well, yet they choose to cut a Sam/Vala scene in S10 "in the interest of time."

Their priorities are ridiculously skewed. And if AT and CB both had to make a choice to play their characters this way, it says to me that the writers either didn't bother to work on their dynamic at all, or their original plan was to make them enemies, too. Evidently women can only interact with each other if they're at odds somehow.

Either way you look at it, they need some serious work in these areas. I'm all for male-male buddy-buddy relationships, but this outright neglect of the female character dynamics is becoming extremely tiresome.


/not-so-mini rant



EDIT: Oh, and if someone has the scans of these pages online, it'd be great if you posted them.
EDIT2: I took my rant out of spoiler tags, because they're not really spoilers.

[L.A. Doyle]

I'm telling ya, ONE female writer(preferably from this thread) would make a WORLD of difference.

[the dancer of spaz]

I'm telling ya, ONE female writer(preferably from this thread) would make a WORLD of difference.

Baha! I can see the interview now...

One of the EPs: Have you ever watched an episode of Stargate SG-1?

A Female from this Thread: Actually, yes. I've seen them all, in fact.

(All of the EPs and suits share glances)

Suit #1: Well, your resume is impeccable. We just have a question about this one publication you kept listing. Apparently you work with them a lot. Fanfiction.net? Now, is that an online or print publication?

A Female from this Thread: Oh, definitely online. The ones listed as 'zines are print publications.

Suit #1: I see...

[binkpmmc]

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

If and when that scene appears in S10 I will be writing my letter telling them, as Astro says, that they are reprehensible and that they have basically killed the show with their puerile bunk and illogical, implausible, twisted and cowardly swill. I hope that they are inundated with letters if they are not already.

[Mandysg1]

Well, Mitchell's automatic and immediate leadership of SG-1 was a stupid decision on the part of whomever was involved in making it, plain and simple and I'm afraid I'll never see it otherwise. Not only for the character of Carter but for the series in general. There was an opportunity there to take it in a fresh direction given a lot of potential "issues" that might have arisen, especially with Carter leading a team that wasn't just Teal'c and Daniel any longer. There were military storylines and military conflicts to explore - character issues of the internal kind that would have made a profound storytelling opportunity. It could have bolstered the respect that was due all the characters and their journies up to that point. Ben Browder could've done so much with a strong, intelligent character role. He didn't get one. The flippant insertion of an unskilled "newbie" as SG-1's new leader created a construct wherein the entire premise of the series followed suit and became that single stroke of idiocy. In short, it turned SG-1 into a joke. The Mitchell character was introduced from the get-go as (to use RCC's own words): a total screw-up. A NEW LEADER. And a total screw up. Wow. They might as well have all worn clown suits during a great portion of season nine so far as I was concerned. But that, I suppose, is a debate for another time and venue.

I have to say that I've been spending a lot of time on the voting site and yes I think we are doing an amazing job! What I find funny is that in order to get some extra votes we make allies with other categories. I find my self voting for Paris Bennett in Moosak, eventhough there are others I much more prefer. Stepane L somebody n Athletes whom I've never heard of; Monty Pythons Holy Grail in the Mauvies, even thought there are other movies I much more prefer and in the Pets category I regularily vote for RATS!

But even when asked I cannot in all good conscious vote for Stargate as the favourite TV Show! That's what turning this once great show into a farce has done to me Yes Rats rate higher than SG

[Gate gal]

Great post. I would also say, her portrayal of Sam shows boys what a woman can be too. Competent and respected by male colleagues--not just liked for her looks.

Very true! I want my son to respect strong women and fall in love with someone who knows she is his equal in every way.

[Gate gal]

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

We'll rant together! If they do it then they better give a really good excuse (not that we'll accept it of course). I'm fuming already! AAAAAGGGGGGHHH!

[jckfan55]

Okay before I head off to bed how about another quick story from Shore Leave

Amanda said several times over the weekend what a cool job she has and how she gets to do some pretty neat things - like wearing the space suit in Camelot and again in "Fleash and Blood" - they are on loan from NASA for filming and they have a NASA technician that flies up to Vancouver to help them get into the suites for filming. She told the story about how the last ne they used was really to small for her - she is so tall and the suit was made for someone shorter so she said she had to squeeze into the suit. But she was all smiles as she talked about it saying "How cool is it to wear a real space suit"

Great tidbit. Thanks tsax. Cool to hear they're using a NASA tech. Unlike that hapless AF adviser who's still beating on the door of that storage closet they locked him/her in.