Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[chocdoc]

Ok my view of last night's episode. Maybe it was lowered expectations, but I thought it was pretty decent. Some problems of course

Spoiler:

The rescue of Sam was pretty cool, but since when does Mitchell know how to pilot one of those huge ships? Now if *Sam* had done it, I would have believed it. they had to spread things around for a lot of characters, still, I thought they could have given Sam and Teal'c more to do. On a positive note, I didn't hate Vala.

On a superficial note, AT looked great.

Completely agree.

Spoiler:

Mitchell would not know how to pilot this ship. It irritated me that he just pushed the guy aside who actually knows how to pilot the ship. And Emerson was sadly reduced to being ineffective in the show as well. This is all due to making Mitchell look good---he is the hero and we must like him.

Oh well. TPTB now have their chance to write their fantasies about the male lead.

[Gate gal]

Well, I like what I saw and I like what I've read. To me, last night's premiere was great! I still see room for improvement, but I think that it was back to the type of quality t.v. that we have been spoiled to over the years. It was 10 times better than any episode we saw in s9 and (MHO) the best season opener in years. I know some people weren't completely impressed, but nobody has said they hated it. (I really hated last year's premiere.) Bring on season 10! To stay on topic, AT did a great job last night. She made excellent choices in how she presented the material that was written for her (props to the directors as well), and I think we got some classic Sam moments.

[chocdoc]

Yeah, nothing in last night's ep made me want to throw things at the screen. In that respect, it was better than most of season 9's eps, I thought. Ho-hum in parts, good in others. I actually watched the first half of the second showing, something that I never did in season 9. Mitchell was written (and acted) evenly, and the story took advantage of his strengths (finally!).

Spoiler:

I didn't have a problem with him rescuing Sam like that because he is supposed to be a super pilot. OTOH, I think the entire ep might be foreshadowing how the rest of the season will go. Let's see, Sam will be floating around the background making observations like a good scientist; Mitchell will get to save everyone; Teal'c will be everyone's favorite punching bag and subject of torture; and Daniel and Vala will continue with their sparkling dialogue and interaction, with Vala saving him spiritually and physically.

Sound about right? Hard to get past the cynicism I built up after season 9.

I see what you are saying, but

Spoiler:

I don't buy that Mitchell knows enough about these particular ships--or at least I haven't seen any indication of it. But yes, at least it is in the piloting area. Sam will be the good scientist again---she will study the technology and come up with some ideas. Sam, Daniel, and teal'c are all reduced in their characters. TPTB now have new toys to play with, and the three originals must support them.

[kes]

Thanks for letting us know, tsaxlady.

Have a great time at Comic Con! It makes sense they that are just combining the shows, given that some of the SG-1 cast will not be there.

I wonder if anyone will ask the producers about the leadership question. I don't really expect any reasonable answer. After reading Brad Wright's interview, it's seems they don't think it is a big issue, or they don't get why it's a big issue. I would love to know if they even expected the negative reaction to how they have handled it. I think they thought fans would just accept what they gave us---I really think TPTB have never really considered Sam as the leader of SG-1. They did it by default in season 8, and once season 9 was renewed, they thought--oh we better get a male leader in to replace RDA.

Well you guys are making a little to much of it. Yes I dont want to see Sam taking orders or saying its Mitchells choice when something difficult presents itself. And its wierd to have a guy that never went tru the gate be the leader of the flag team no matter how good a pilot he is.Ah damn he should have said something like: "Well Colonel (to Carter) what are your orders?" Or something like that lol Yes it should be Sam leading but she left remember.The wierd thing is having 2 Colonels in one team. Sam should be a full colonel or whatever it is called but promoting her again so soon would be wierd. Specially after she spend so much time,too much, as Major. They probably didnt do it sooner cos then you'd have 2 colonels, even if O'Neill was a full colonel. Technically (sp) Sam should have had her own team. They should have cover this a long time ago. And made it her choice to stay with SG-1 even if she could have her own team.

It would be a cool ep! Sam having to create her own team and stuff. And then having to save SG-1 and realizing she needs to be there. And going up to the General and saying:"Thank you sir but my place is with SG-1." lol

[ReganX]

That's pretty much what I got from it too. Nice to know that they're just basically ignoring everything that we're saying except for "the laziness issue", which of course they don't see, because after all, we just "don't want to accept change".

"You can't/won't accept change" is a great blanket excuse to dismiss any and all complaints about Season Nine.

You miss the team interaction and think that there has been too much focus on Mitchell? Jack is gone! Why can't you accept that Mitchell is the new star now? It's his team.

You'd like them to show more of travelling through the stargate and character interaction and less of shiny spaceships and special effects? Why can't you accept change? This is a new show now... even though it still has the same name.

You don't like Mitchell as a character or think that he shouldn't be leader? Why can't you just accept that RDA is gone and give BB a chance?

Change in itself isn't a problem for me, with TV shows or with anything else. Not liking a particular change no more makes me anti-change than not liking bananas makes me anti-fruit.

Change is a great thing when that change is for the better and, in my opinion, most of the changes in Season Nine have not been for the better.

[kes]

Or just have Mitchell be a Major and after he did so well and saved SG-1 back in Antartic O'Neill still offered him any post, with the entire SG-1 gone, granted him lead. But after Sam came back she'd lead.

[ReganX]

Sam should be a full colonel or whatever it is called but promoting her again so soon would be wierd. Specially after she spend so much time,too much, as Major. They probably didnt do it sooner cos then you'd have 2 colonels, even if O'Neill was a full colonel.

Not necessarily. She'll have covered the two year time in grade to be eligible for promotion by the beginning of Season Ten, but she would probably not have been in the Air Force long enough to meet the minimum twenty years needed to qualify for promotion to full colonel. I don't know if exceptions can be made to the twenty year minimum or not.

Jack would have spent at least eight years as a full colonel before he was promoted to brigadier general but barely one year as a brigadier general before being promoted to major general.

It would be a cool ep! Sam having to create her own team and stuff. And then having to save SG-1 and realizing she needs to be there. And going up to the General and saying:"Thank you sir but my place is with SG-1." lol

I wrote a story where Sam was given command of her own team (SG-28). Her team consists of herself, Daniel, Teal'c and Lieutenant Grogan.

[ReganX]

Or just have Mitchell be a Major and after he did so well and saved SG-1 back in Antartic O'Neill still offered him any post, with the entire SG-1 gone, granted him lead. But after Sam came back she'd lead.

I think that the offer of any post Mitchell wanted was a bad idea. To me, it seems like a mistake to have him given a position on SG-1 because he asked for it.

My suggestion would be to have him as Major Mitchell who, after a year on SG-Pick-A-Number-That-Isn't-1 was transferred to SG-1 because Landry wanted all teams to have at least four members.

If the battle for Antarctica absolutely had to be used, I would recommend ditching the CMOH in favour of an Air Medal and, instead of Mitchell being offered any post of his choice, I would have had Jack visit him in the hospital and tell him to get well soon, because he had a job in mind for him that he knew he'd be interested in. Later, when Jack and Landry are talking, Jack mentions that Major Mitchell showed a lot of potential in the field before he became a pilot and he thinks that he could be a great addition to an SG team.

[Deejay435]

I was pretty mehabout the premier episode-not overhwelmed, not underwhelmed just...whelmed, I guess. Nothing at all special about it, nothing that shouted "Hey! Watch this Season, it's going to be great!" It was okay-but it should have been special. It should have been a bullhorn screaming about a terrific season.

It wasn't.

I didn't learn my lesson from last year, which was "Don't get excited about an episode. Have very low expectations, and it will be great." I was so excited about the premier, I was bouncing around all day yesterday-bugging everyone who came into contact with me, because all I wanted to talk about was last night's episode.

I was a little worried about the team being so fragmented through the episode. But then, thought that it would play out nicely showing the team coming back together. And I did like that aspect of it-

Spoiler:

especially Sam's firm commitment to going with Bray'tac because she knows Daniel is still alive. (Guess she learned not to doubt Daniel's ability to survive in Threads, eh?) I loved her reaction when she realized he was okay. I liked her focus when she was floating in space-worried as she might have been for herself, she was able to assess the Lucien Alliance ship, and give intel to the Oddysey. (And, someone tell me please, what's the Colonel of the Oddysey's name? I thought it was Emerson, but then I thought that was the Helmsman's name. Who is who?)

I liked the little "Is Daniel dead?" bit, a nice little nod to his numerous revivials. And I liked that none of the chracters were willing to believe he was dead.

Vala was toned down considerably, and didn't irk me at all-and I enjoyed Daniel's reactions to her explainations about Adria. And I liked Vala's explaination about the name she gave her. I liked that, and other scenes, that showed that Vala feels torn about her; that she has that maternal instinct to protect her kid, but also sees Adria for what she is, and the danger that she represents. It makes me believe she isn't going to go all Rosemary protecting her perfact baby here. And I WISH I had known the correct pronunciation months ago-I'll never get AY-dria out of my head now.

Adria fell flat to me. Maybe it was just that the storyline is too predictable, or maybe because there were too many little actresses playing her in too few shots, but it just didn't work. But I'm withholding any real opinion of her until the permanent actress (whom I did like in Firefly) takes over the role. It could be good.

Mitchell, on the other hand, annoyed me more than last season. He has run out of any and all chances I was willing to give him, I guess. Or maybe he bothered me more because I expected them to fix him, whereas I had written Vala off as a lost cause. Why on Earth, or off it, was Mitchell piloting the Oddysey when rescuing Sam? I know why he was written as piloting it, so he could be the 'hero'-but seriously why was he piloting it? Are we expected to believe that in the last year he's had time to learn to fly a battlecruiser, in addition to learning the ins and outs of gate travel, ostensibly 'leading' the flagship SG team during the early days of a brand new war, settling into a new team, new assignment, new General, AND spending days or weeks off world? And not just learn the basics of flying it, but become so adept at it that he can manuver it adroitly enough to pick up a tiny little person in the vastness of space? Manuver it better, in fact, than the actual pilot, or the ship's commander, who were standing right there?

Please. And Brad Wright whines that he doesn't receine smart crit? Dude, you get what you give, and that? No way would a smart person buy that for one second.

And speaking of Brad Wright-I wish I hadn't read that interview. It decreased the hope I'd held out for Season 10 far more than the lacklustre premier could have. Now it makes me look at the fragmenting of the team as something they did purposely because it's easier for them that way.

[jckfan55]

If the battle for Antarctica absolutely had to be used, I would recommend ditching the CMOH in favour of an Air Medal and, instead of Mitchell being offered any post of his choice, I would have had Jack visit him in the hospital and tell him to get well soon, because he had a job in mind for him that he knew he'd be interested in. Later, when Jack and Landry are talking, Jack mentions that Major Mitchell showed a lot of potential in the field before he became a pilot and he thinks that he could be a great addition to an SG team.

Silly ReganX, that would have made *sense.*

[kes]

Not necessarily. She'll have covered the two year time in grade to be eligible for promotion by the beginning of Season Ten, but she would probably not have been in the Air Force long enough to meet the minimum twenty years needed to qualify for promotion to full colonel. I don't know if exceptions can be made to the twenty year minimum or not.

Jack would have spent at least eight years as a full colonel before he was promoted to brigadier general but barely one year as a brigadier general before being promoted to major general.



I wrote a story where Sam was given command of her own team (SG-28). Her team consists of herself, Daniel, Teal'c and Lieutenant Grogan.

Wow...way to much info. Forgot this show follows air force rules to the T. lol But why did she spend so much time has a Major? There were no time restrictions right?

[kes]

I think that the offer of any post Mitchell wanted was a bad idea. To me, it seems like a mistake to have him given a position on SG-1 because he asked for it.

My suggestion would be to have him as Major Mitchell who, after a year on SG-Pick-A-Number-That-Isn't-1 was transferred to SG-1 because Landry wanted all teams to have at least four members.

If the battle for Antarctica absolutely had to be used, I would recommend ditching the CMOH in favour of an Air Medal and, instead of Mitchell being offered any post of his choice, I would have had Jack visit him in the hospital and tell him to get well soon, because he had a job in mind for him that he knew he'd be interested in. Later, when Jack and Landry are talking, Jack mentions that Major Mitchell showed a lot of potential in the field before he became a pilot and he thinks that he could be a great addition to an SG team.

Sorry CMOH?
Yeh...him already having field expirience would have been great.

[ReganX]

Wow...way to much info. Forgot this show follows air force rules to the T. lol But why did she spend so much time has a Major? There were no time restrictions right?

I think that she'd have had to have spent at least two, possibly three years as a major before being eligible for promotion again.

Think about it, though - if Sam had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in Season Five or Six, she would have been addressed as Colonel, just like Jack even though he would actually have been a grade higher.

To the casual viewer who wasn't aware that Sam was a lieutenant colonel and Jack a full colonel or wasn't sure about the distinction between the two, it'd look as though they were the same rank, raising the question of who was in charge.

[Skydiver]

Or just have Mitchell be a Major and after he did so well and saved SG-1 back in Antartic O'Neill still offered him any post, with the entire SG-1 gone, granted him lead. But after Sam came back she'd lead.

major mitchell would have worked. and IMHO, it would have 'saved' his character from most if not all of the crit.

a major can have fun adn lark about and be a goof

majors don't quite have to have the leadership competance that a boss does

but by chickening out, falling into the sexist trap of 'male lead must be boss' TPTB have irreperably damaged the character.

and no amount of complaining that we can't take change will alter the fact that the writers have mucked up cam beyond most if not all repair

[ReganX]

Sorry CMOH?
Yeh...him already having field expirience would have been great.

Mitchell was apparently awarded the highest honour the US military can bestow, by a lieutenant colonel instead of by the President or the head of the Air Force, for being one of many pilots who flew in the battle over Antarctica.

For the record, I still say that Mitchell's CMOH is made of chocolate.