Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[JanSam]

Even if it wasn't against the regs; don't you think a relationship with her supervisor would have hurt her career and/or the respect she received. Not with those who knew her but what about the paper pushers above her?

[Gatefan1976]

OK, serious answer time

The obsession with 'the regs' is....read them. They're written deliberately vague. They're written to allow commanding officers the leeway to look the other way, or the power to smack offenders down. They're written to give CO's the leeway to deal with each situation as it needs to be dealt with. It's not an absolute.

I don't think it was a question of Hammond "looking the other way", it was more a question of would JACK look the other way? Would SAM look the other way?
I don't think either *character* would have and stayed "true to character" It took the whole Za'tark test before *either* would admit to their feelings, and that situation put the whole base, and more at risk.

I personally considered the endless trotting out of 'the regs' as nothing but anti-shipper's clinging to anything they could find to 'win' and justify their preferred relationship. 'see, yours is against the rules, so mine is right so there!!!!!!!'

What "preferred ship"??

Just like they clung to 'daniel is civilian, he doesn't have to follow the rules.'....well read them, yes he did. The difference was Jack and Sam could get court-martialed and tossed into Leavenworth, Daniel would have lost his clearance and been fired....and if his transgression was bad enough, turned over to the civilian authorities. he wasn't immune to the rules. But fans took one line and ran with it.

Are you talking "Daniel and Vala"??
The Ship that Danny boy tore into in unending before he realised he was being a totally unfair douchebag to Vala?
You mean that one??

But, ultimately, like anything that's quoted, if you dig and read people have cherry picked out the parts they want to rea, the parts that support their personal point of view and ignore the rest. (Just like those folks that choose a bible verse to justify discriminating against others, yet choose to ignore the quotes that they dont' like and that apply to them personally....such as my religion prohibits me from using birth control so it's not my fault that I've just gotten pregnant for the 5th time....but let's gloss over that whole premarital sex thing - real world scenario, my neighbor's child uses her religion as to why she kept getting pregnant but ignored the whole 'honey, ya ain't married you shouldn't be doing the horizontal mambo in the first place'...selectively quoting the rules to justify doing what you want)

No one is immune to cherry picking, the entire notion of the Sam and Jack relationship is cherry picking by shippers because *they* happen to think Sam and Jack "deserve" it somehow.

In my opinion, it was nothing but nastiness and mean spiritedness because people let their intolerance reign and guide their actions, and they were quite often, totally blind to just how hypocritical they are. These were people that demanded equal treatment for themselves, as they blatantly discriminated against others.

Hang on............
WTF???
Who are you talking about now??

For me, given the ham fistedness of this group of writers, I didn't trust them to do anything. These boys let their misogyny reign, massacred female characters into caricatures of what real people are, indulged their inner fanfic writer and lived out their adolescent little fantasies through the characters and generally handled things with the grace of a pregnant cow on ice.

And yet, when people pointed this out on say SGA or SGU, they were just as equally silenced.
I realise you are writing this as "Sky the person", and not "Sky the mod" and I really appreciate that difference. Gods know we have had our "mod run-ins" over time, but it's still a little hypocritical isn't it?

About the only justification that would have come from an on screen resolution would have been knowing all those that were so very mean and cruel to other fans over the years finally getting their comeuppance.

I don't know what to make of that. I could spew oceans, but what would be the point at this stage?

All I can say is that TPTB were capable of writing a fun scifi action series, no more, no less. They had their moments of "stretching", where the story or the delivery of the actors went beyond "just a fun/good story", but on the whole, it was *just* a fun series. I guess the real question is, just how close do you want to examine it?

[Gatefan1976]

I think we all just wanted Sam to be happy both she and Jack deserved it after all the heartbreak (and I don't just mean between them, I mean their whole lives)

I just wanted a good story, if that included the "ship", so be it.

[Gatefan1976]

Yup. I just wish I could have continued enjoying the show. So little Sam in S9. A bit more in S10, but for me the damage had already been done. It was too late.

ETA: I did not expect all Sam all the time. I did expect interaction with teammates.

This is the answer I respect the most, the desire just to enjoy the show you love. My love of the show was predicated on a different basis however. Not better, just, different.

[Chelle DB]

i agree with Sky that the regs were just an excuse. They were a front line team that fought aliens. I think that some kind of concession could have easily have been made. Besides, their relationships still broke the regs if you look at how close the team really was.

Admittedly I was too afraid to bring that up...that the regs didn't need to be a reason for Jack and Sam to be together...but I feared the backlash and want for evidence to prove it - I know it's possible to get around the regs but I don't carry the proof on me. But ditto on Sky's post.

[Chelle DB]

Again, I'm hesitant to say anything without evidence but IIRC, there was talk from the writers that the ship was to be resolved in the next movie that got the greenlight but was never made. So there was intention to have the ship made official but it never happened.
I think Trio got very close and unfortunately timing meant the confirmation hit the cutting floor.
I wonder if they had confirmed the ship a little earlier like in season 9 or 10, if the ratings would have jumped enough to make it to season 12. But then as it turned out, Amanda had her "new baby" to go to - Sanctuary.

[iiradned]

From Amanda

How much do I love my Tesla? @TeslaMotors I'm putting it in the @ContinuumSeries episode I'm directing. The future is electric! Xo

It'll be exactly my one year anniversary with my car @TeslaMotors!! Can't think of a better way to celebrate than a @ContinuumSeries cameo

[Gatefan1976]

Again, I'm hesitant to say anything without evidence but IIRC, there was talk from the writers that the ship was to be resolved in the next movie that got the greenlight but was never made. So there was intention to have the ship made official but it never happened.

That's all but the universal opinion, and if you want to dig, you can find plenty of quotes to back that up. I wouldn't be too hesitant to say it there Chelle.

I think Trio got very close and unfortunately timing meant the confirmation hit the cutting floor.
I wonder if they had confirmed the ship a little earlier like in season 9 or 10, if the ratings would have jumped enough to make it to season 12. But then as it turned out, Amanda had her "new baby" to go to - Sanctuary.

"Conformation" can make, or break a series. If BW/RCC really did not care about SG-1 anymore, they should have just let JM do it.
2 of my fave fun series (Bones and Castle) have confirmed their "ship status" between the mains, and now I wonder how much the shows have lost in the tension the "non-comformation" provides. I gotta admit, I'm less interested in the respective mains these days, and far more interested in the stories being good.

[fems]

Again, I'm hesitant to say anything without evidence but IIRC, there was talk from the writers that the ship was to be resolved in the next movie that got the greenlight but was never made. So there was intention to have the ship made official but it never happened.
I think Trio got very close and unfortunately timing meant the confirmation hit the cutting floor.
I wonder if they had confirmed the ship a little earlier like in season 9 or 10, if the ratings would have jumped enough to make it to season 12. But then as it turned out, Amanda had her "new baby" to go to - Sanctuary.

No need to be hesitant, it has indeed been stated. I believe JM has written about it more than once on his blog (in response to questions about the ship and/or the third movie).

It was something to do with a dinner scene, IIRC. But knowing TPTB I wouldn't be surprised if it was totally unsatisfying (after >15 years), merely implied so the shippers had their 'confirmation' and the non/anti-shippers could remain in denial or just, you know, cut and made into a deleted scene like with all the other shippy semi-confirmation scenes they've made over the years!

That's all but the universal opinion, and if you want to dig, you can find plenty of quotes to back that up. I wouldn't be too hesitant to say it there Chelle.


"Conformation" can make, or break a series. If BW/RCC really did not care about SG-1 anymore, they should have just let JM do it.
2 of my fave fun series (Bones and Castle) have confirmed their "ship status" between the mains, and now I wonder how much the shows have lost in the tension the "non-comformation" provides. I gotta admit, I'm less interested in the respective mains these days, and far more interested in the stories being good.

I've totally gone off Bones since Bones&Booth got together; it's like a totally different show now, not too dissimilar to the differences between old and new SG-1. I've never been really into Castle although I do watch it (it's more for lack of anything else to see and it being somewhat enjoyable) but I have to agree that the show has lost something now that the mains are together.

The above is actually one of the reasons I'm okay with the lack of S/J confirmation. I'm too afraid TPTB will screw it up like they have with many other important events/developments in the show, and I kinda like playing around with the relationship through fanfiction. If there had been confirmation, there's a good chance I wouldn't be as into the ship all these years later...

[Skydiver]

Even if it wasn't against the regs; don't you think a relationship with her supervisor would have hurt her career and/or the respect she received. Not with those who knew her but what about the paper pushers above her?

oh yeah, in this lovely little bias'd world we live in, jack and sam went public, jack would get pats on the back for his 'conquest', while Sam would be forever pegged as 'sleeping her way to the top'.

Now if the roles were reversed, and she the CO and Jack her subordinate, well then she'd be the cougar or amazon, using her power to force the poor guy into a relationship, while he'd be the weaker half hiding behind a woman's skirts.

[Skydiver]

As to movie resolution, I honestly wouldn't have trusted them. Joe and Co seemed to draw inordinate pleasure out of baiting fan groups and there was more than one occasion when Joe teased a 'shippy moment' and then when fans would watch the episode fans' reaction often was 'that's what you consider ship??????'

The writers definition and fans definition seemed to be about 283 miles apart.

[Mandysg1]

From what we saw on SGU, I wouldn't want these guys handling Sam and Jack ship. I mean pilot episode 2 AF people making out in a closet on duty

Needless to say I stopped watching SGU after one episode, not just b/c of that scene but the episode was not SG to me.

[IamDKScully]

It's funny really. To me, it is apparent as early as Season 1, but definitely in Season 2 that there is "something" between Sam and Jack. The writers took advantage of that throughout the series and the actors definitely played to it (despite AT's original protests that there was no ship). The chemistry between RDA and AT onscreen was undeniable. I've never watched a show before or since SG-1 where the actors could convey so much without saying anything in a scene! So, why when it came down to confirming something that they planted in the series did they have such a hard time?

I can understand early on not wanting to "alienate" some of their viewers by confirming this totally obvious attraction, but when we got into Seasons 7 and 8, c'mon, you had your viewership and they weren't going anywhere!

[Skydiver]

I agree. AT and RDA had a good - PROFESSIONAL - relationship, and that chemistry carried over to the characters. Yu can tell when actors get along or when they are being professional in front of the camera. Amanda and Rick got along. Anyone that's met the man knows he has a playful personality, and Amanda has a upbeat and friendly personality and they just meshed.

A lot of the times when Jack snarked off, look at Amanda....cause it's rick adlibbing to see if he can make the others laugh. Amanda gave good camera reactions even when the scene didnt' focus on her, so they used her reaction shots a lot, which supported the characters getting along.

[majorsal]

Even if it wasn't against the regs; don't you think a relationship with her supervisor would have hurt her career and/or the respect she received. Not with those who knew her but what about the paper pushers above her?

the regs didn't even need to be an issue. once jack stopped being her direct chain of commander (the one writing her reviews and so on), it would be alright for them to pursue a relationship.

the shipper in me says that sam's absence at the beginning of season 9 could have been explained that she was on her marriage/honeymoon with jack.

and the sam fan in me still has no probs with that idea (), b/c this thing between her and jack had been building for years and this would have been a realistic end to this arc.