Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[the dancer of spaz]

Nice post, Lizlove! Unfortunately, I think they needed to have no resolution about...

Spoiler:

... Jacob's death...

And who doesn't know that by now, fcol?

... because they needed to reset to zero for the new series season as quickly and cleanly as possible. It's why a lot of things seem so disjointed, I think.

[Rottie]

Whooa did someone just mention Amanda?...*drools*

[Lizlove]

Nice post, Lizlove! Unfortunately, I think they needed to have no resolution about...

Spoiler:

... Jacob's death...

And who doesn't know that by now, fcol?

... because they needed to reset to zero for the new series season as quickly and cleanly as possible. It's why a lot of things seem so disjointed, I think.

That's true. But I don't necessaraly ask for a resolution now but the end of S8 ot the beginning of S9 would have been good. Now is too late like everything else
A lot of things were lost in the chaos of adding new characters. It's understandable but if you have doubts or even if you don't take it one step at the time. Maybe TPTB were a bit to self-confident. It's not bad but it led to some disasters concerning the old cast

[dexterav]

Right time for bump

[Lizlove]

Right time for bump

Hmmmmm... original. Change in color is quite cool

[Rachel500]

Actually I disagree on season 9. I used to have some problems watching some of the episodes for the first time, but re-watching almost all of them now (without the last 3, as DVD volume 6 will be released next month) from DVDs, listening to the commentaries and watching all the additional Extras made me like them much , much more. I even can tell that I love season 9 DVDs - that's it.
As for season 10 being the last - BIG NO!!! I'm optimistic here and with better advertising SG-1 by SciFi channel let's hope for ratings improvement and season 11, for which all the actors signed their contracts, btw... So if SciFi channel wants to screw us on this... bad idea.

I have to admit I've been rewatching Season 9 on DVD and while I wouldn't go as far as to say 'I love it', I'm enjoying it more on the second run than I did on the first.

Spoiler:

I think for me I liked Avalon Part I (putting the leadership thing to one side and just watching at face-value) and really enjoyed the fact that both the absent SG1 folk got mentioned and even shown (Sam's video link with Cam, the flashbacks of Sam and Jack visiting Cam in hospital)...so I thought they did this really well. Where it started to slowly go down hill for me was the Vala focus from Avalon Part 2 onto Beachhead. There was too much focus for what was meant to be a temporary character to cover AT's absence and it completely unbalanced the series even taking focus away from the new regular character of Mitchell. I personally wouldn't have tried cramming Sam's return in with Vala's exit in Beachhead which then became Vala's Saving the Galaxy story.

So, although pleased to see Sam back (although we never find out why she transfered back given her presence in Beachhead was supposed to be a one-off to help them with the bomb), I was then disappointed (and still am having rewatched the epis) with the quality of story-telling, 'team' feel and characterisation for all the characters including Sam from EDM right the way through to the end of the Fourth Horseman with Prototype being the best of these. It's like they didn't really know how to write for the new SG1 team dynamic without having Vala.

First time round I think I was so disappointed by the time I got to Collateral Damage that it negatively influenced me for the rest of the run.

On DVD, my impression now is that things did pick up a little in terms of story telling with Collateral Damage (only Teal'c doesn't seem to get used very much). It is actually a good characterisation of Mitchell and of the team all bonding; Sam supporting him through the memory device experience is nice and AT plays it well. Its a shame they didn't use this earlier like after Beachhead.

Ripple Effect is not a great story for me; interesting idea but the whole story needs tightening up, there is a nice team feel but I would rather have just seen Sam spend time with Janet than the whole revival of Martouf. I agree AT does do an outstanding job in giving all AU Sam's a little bit of a different quality.

Stronghold, again, at least they were beginning to utilise Sam's character as Lt Colonel rather than just Doctor Sam Ph.D but again the third act needs tightening for me; I can see what they were trying to achieve with Mitchell rescuing Teal'c (the mirroring of his being saved by his friend; that his do-or-die attitude not necessarily a bad thing) but it misses the mark. And Landry calling Teal'c family jars with me so early in the relationships between the new characters and the old (what is nice is that Sam looks startled). It would be the equivalent of Hammond saying it in Season 1 - nice sentiment but unbelievable.

I still have to watch the rest of Season 9 on DVD but on the first run I did enjoy the Scourge and Arthur's Mantle. I seem to remember thinking Crusade and Camelot feeling like rather long exposition for the final scene in Camelot and there did seem to be a lack of 'team' feel again for both episodes.

I'm still expecting better story-telling and characterisation in S10 but admittedly I'm keeping expectations low...

[ChopinGal]

Nice post, Lizlove! Unfortunately, I think they needed to have no resolution about...

Spoiler:

... Jacob's death...

And who doesn't know that by now, fcol?

... because they needed to reset to zero for the new series season as quickly and cleanly as possible. It's why a lot of things seem so disjointed, I think.

Hey spaz ... you're right, there was a need to "reset to zero". Nicely put.

[Mandysg1]

To the point about Sam having friends, they could have done so much with CB knowing that they really wanted her in the series, they could have written her as the new doctor (Lord knows they've never been able to find an adequate replacement for Janet!) They could have had her as a doctor from one of the allies military, then she could have fit in better, Janet was never a member of SG1, but she was sort of an honorary member. CB's character may not have been as fun this way, but she probably would have been more accepted, and she and Sam could have many good scenes together! (Dam I miss Janet )

[the dancer of spaz]

To the point about Sam having friends, they could have done so much with CB knowing that they really wanted her in the series, they could have written her as the new doctor (Lord knows they've never been able to find an adequate replacement for Janet!) They could have had her as a doctor from one of the allies military, then she could have fit in better, Janet was never a member of SG1, but she was sort of an honorary member. CB's character may not have been as fun this way, but she probably would have been more accepted, and she and Sam could have many good scenes together! (Dam I miss Janet )

I'm about to go off on a mini off-topic tangent, but I totally agree with you. They clearly knew that they were going to incorporate both Farscape veterans as a part of the new!improved!series, and they've made it abundantly clear with their accounts of how long they were trying to get Browder on board.

That said, they were probably able to justify both actors' involvement, because both were going to be playing such markedly different characters - or so they claimed. Black's Vala is definitely the most obvious. I think it's entirely possible that a Dr. Valerie Maldoran would've been considered too close to Aeryn Sun in some way. For some reason, if an actor plays two powerful and/or serious characters in a row, people and writers alike get confused and asume that the actor has imbued the same characterization into both characters.

At any rate, they've taken advantage of Black's talents, and they're now running with it. I'm not gonna lie: Vala made me chuckle a couple of times. A part of that comes from the fact that I've kinda accepted that we're going to see a whole helluvalot more of her than anyone else. Same with Browder.

There are so many things they could've done with both of these actors, because they clearly know what they're doing in front of a camera. But their biggest mistake was casting the actor and THEN creating the character, instead of creating the dynamic character for the actor to play. That was a big mistake that the series is only going to continue to suffer from, imo.

[Farscapefan]

I'm about to go off on a mini off-topic tangent, but I totally agree with you. They clearly knew that they were going to incorporate both Farscape veterans as a part of the new!improved!series, and they've made it abundantly clear with their accounts of how long they were trying to get Browder on board.

I don't know when TPTB started thinking about Ben, but they wanted to get Claudia even when Farscape was still on air offering her various guest parts. Until Vala's part she was busy with everything else and only in the summer of 2004 she was able to accept the part and fly to Vancouver to film "Prometheus Unbound" episode. TPTB is good with incorporating actors from ANY s-f show - Star Trek, Andromeda, Farscape, Firefly... So you're wrong at least in Claudia's case that they wanted her as a part of the "new!improved!series".

[Melora]

ok guys, i need some help

I'm doing the fanfic rec on LJ for this month. and - of course - i'm reccing sam fic.

so can y'all help me out with some fic please?

I've got a couple but i'd like to rec some more. Sam gets so under recc'd as it is that i'd love to have a good half dozen or more fic to rec.

slash, ship or gen, all is good, it just needs to be a GOOD sam fic (and yes, i know that good is relative)

One of the best Sam stories I've read this year is called "Buffalo" by Jennghis Kahn. It's on her lj, but I'm having trouble finding it right now. Here is the link to the copy on her website:

http://www.mind-rot.net/myfanfic/sg1/buffalo.htm

It's a post-Threads story with hints of S/J - but not really written for shippers (in that Jack chooses to stay with Kerry).

[Skydiver]

first, DON'T BUMP
it's against the rules. If you want to bump a thread to page one, actually post something. A picture, a quip, a reason you like sam, whatever. Bumping for the sake of bumping accomplishes nothing

ok, now as me

acknowledging that ratings are statistics and stats can be twisted however you want them to be, skiffy's numbers kinda reflect how i see the show.
season 6 ok, 7 was better (not for me cause i was happy with shanks gone, but many weren't), season 8 was highly anticipated.
then word came that rda was gone and he took some fans with him...and now this newly remodeled show has lost even more and is on a downward spiral. at least as far as premieres go. time will tell if it was just a lull or if it's a trend

I do know, regardless of what's on cable, network tv sucks right now. there is nothing on so they're not getting much competition from that. I think the biggest concern sg1 has right now is eureka, which is doing great thus far. and could be a real concern when it comes to renewal time. it'll all come down to, if eureka's ratings stay, whether scifi wants to try and dominate fridays, thus needing to par it down to 3 shows, or if htey try to expand to antoher night.

what i could see happening is sg1 being moved to wednesdays (or antoher night) and having a atlantis, eureka, bsg lineup on fridays

it'll all come down to money. and i can already see sg1 visibly cutting corners (next time you watch, look at how many times we never really see the gate open or see them ring, or see the pain stick used. lately they've stopped showing the effects and just use lighting tricks and sound effects as a cheap way to show the effects by suggestion. thus saving thousands of sfx dollars)

we've had blatant prop reuse, a dependance on bottle episodes and standing sets rather thanl ocation shooting. they're cutting corners and they're cutting corners big time. And it's starting to become noticible on the show

[Melora]

Prion just posted this report from Comic Con over at the Fandom thread:

http://forum.gateworld.net/showpost....9&postcount=48

It has a link to a report at Solutions. Apparently, someone asked about the ratings and the possibility of a season 11. The SciFi exec on the panel said it was all up to the ratings and Joe Mallozzi said that if everyone registered on GW got 100 other people to watch, then they would be renewed. I have a feeling Joe was joking, but it sounds like they need an average of around 2 million people to watch to be renewed. It's not looking so hopeful right now then.

Back on-topic - at the very least we'll have the rest of season 10 to watch Sam Carter and AT do their stuff. Hopefully, there will be some fantastic moments coming up this year!

[Farscapefan]

Prion just posted this report from Comic Con over at the Fandom thread:

http://forum.gateworld.net/showpost....9&postcount=48

It has a link to a report at Solutions. Apparently, someone asked about the ratings and the possibility of a season 11. The SciFi exec on the panel said it was all up to the ratings and Joe Mallozzi said that if everyone registered on GW got 100 other people to watch, then they would be renewed. I have a feeling Joe was joking, but it sounds like they need an average of around 2 million people to watch to be renewed. It's not looking so hopeful right now then.

Back on-topic - at the very least we'll have the rest of season 10 to watch Sam Carter and AT do their stuff. Hopefully, there will be some fantastic moments coming up this year!

What's more important, they said to WATCH the show, and NOT to TiVO it. It affects the ratings badly.

[starprops]

ok guys, i need some help

I'm doing the fanfic rec on LJ for this month. and - of course - i'm reccing sam fic.

so can y'all help me out with some fic please?

I've got a couple but i'd like to rec some more. Sam gets so under recc'd as it is that i'd love to have a good half dozen or more fic to rec.

slash, ship or gen, all is good, it just needs to be a GOOD sam fic (and yes, i know that good is relative)

For team fics with Sam highlighted - 'Home Away From Home, and 'Hard Choices, Simple Truths by Critterkid - I found them on FanFiction.net... 'A Beautiful Mind' and What Will It Take' by SG1-FanFic...A New Life by Brenna...
Semla by Trouble321...