Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[golfbooy]

Originally Posted by ForeverSg1:

Spoiler:

I'm not sure if you were referring to me, but I was in no way condemning the entire episode based on this one scene.

Nah, that wasn't directed at you. I merely thought your post was a good intro/jumping off point from which to start my own. It was, perhaps, a poor choice of words on my part with the whole "condemning" thing.

Originally Posted by ForeverSg1:

Spoiler:

I mean why would anyone wait till the six or seven episodes of a season to explain to the fans what happened to the lead character?

I understand this sentiment completely, really I do. But in all honesty, I don't think TPTB really care if viewers stick around or not. I think they put the decision on us. It's up to us whether or not we like the show enough, like the characters enough to stick around each week. And for all the producers' involvement in online fandom, I'm not so sure they really care what we think. On average, I expect them to always do what they think is necessary and best for Stargate, regardless of how it will be received by this group of fans or that group of fans. Personally, that's how I like things. After all, it's their show. I'm just watching it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm with you on wanting more RDA, on his game, and in bigger and better scenes with all of the characters. I just accept that there's not much TPTB can do to give that to me at this point. JMO.

[trupi]

Yes, it is their show but if people don't watch it, they go to the unemployment line! The point of writing a show is to attract people to watch and the advertizers pay for their commercial to air because we are watching. If we don't watch, the advertizers won't pay to air their commercial at that spot because no one is watching to buy their garbage! Once again , yes it is their show but without us they have lots of words on paper, which doesn't pay their bills!

[Skydiver]

But in all honesty, I don't think TPTB really care if viewers stick around or not.

i don't think they care either. at least not aobut us, the online fans. face it, the only ones that count are the ones with neilson boxes on their sets or who have neilson diaries. the rest of us?

we're nothing to them. this forum is probalby a source of amusement to them. a place to come to settle the 'i bet they won't notice/oh, i bet they will' bets amongst the cast and crew

we're nothing to them. in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they trolled here and mocked and laughed and such. just like i have no doubt that scifi does what they do just to jerk with the fans. i think they like to manipulate us and twist us around.

do i think they're cruel? no. it's just that this is a business to them. nothing more, nothing less.

does joe make comments to inform? or does he make comments just to see how he can get a reaction? The other folks that lurk here, do they do it because they're honestly curious or are we justa source of entertainment to them?

i'm a natural cynic and my nickname is miss negative

[chocdoc]

Kat, you've expressed yourself well and I feel the same way. This should have been the episode to define the character's future arc (since they have decided to keep him on as Homeworld Security Director). None of that happened. It wasn't fair to the character or the fans.

RDA's lackluster reading of his lines leaves me puzzled. Perhaps something was going on in his personal life at the time and it carried over to the screen. Or does he have no say anymore on the script itself?

Useless to dwell (as Jack said at his pond)!

I pray that Amanda gets better words to say and better scenes!

This is so true. I wish RDA had not been in this episode at all. For me it was an embarrassment to the character. That wasn't Jack. I don't know what happened. Did they just have RDA there in episodes 1 and 3 for the ratings?

It did look like RDA was totally bored---and maybe he just is bored with the whole thing! And the script--gee whiz. It could have been so much better between Jack and Daniel. And where is Teal'c in all this! Why not a scene between all three of them! Forget about Mitchell and Jack--it was just a tacked on scene and for what! Give the precious time that Jack has with Daniel AND Teal'c. Do this for the fans of eight years who fell in love with Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c!!

My guess is that they would have to give better lines and scenes to Amanda because she has returned full time, and Sam is back on a regular basis. Now, whether or not her entrance will be done well---who knows. I am like a ping pong ball -- going from yes she'll be written so well as the strong soldier and brilliant scientist who is integral to the story arcs, to I have no idea.

I did like Origin in terms of learning a bit about the Ori -- for me , the potential of the new enemy is there---I wonder what they are capable of and what our eventual team needs to do to defeat them. And I wonder how Sam will react to them.

[ChevronSeven]

I apologize in advance to everyone regarding this rant. Please feel free to just ignore it, but I have watched and rewatched the scenes with RDA over a dozen times now hoping my feelings about it all would change and my distaste for it all just gets worse with each viewing. I'm hoping by vocalizing my disappointment, it may help to make it all go away. If you enjoyed these scenes, I envy you because I never thought I would be this upset by a silly television show.

Spoiler:

I'm not sure if you were referring to me, but I was in no way condemning the entire episode based on this one scene. I was however expressing my utter distaste with these particular scenes. I can understand that RDA, MS, and BB were not together due to scheduling reasons, but we have seen episodes where RDA came in and shot his entire scene against either green screen or with a double. If I remember correctly, a great deal of the episode of Abyss was shot this way. Cliff and RDA were never in the same room together while filming this episode and yet RDA was fantastic in it. The man IS capable of doing a superb job in this type of situation. But in this case, like many people have said, the Jack O'Neill we saw in this episode was only a shell of the man I have come to admire. Why on earth would RDA ask TPTB to keep Jack alive and a part of the SGC if he cared so little about Jack's character than play him with absolutely no life or interest.

I'm sorry, but not only was the script for these scenes pathetic, but I thought RDA's make-up was horrid. They made him look old and washed-out. I have NEVER seen a photo of RDA look this bad and from what I have heard from others he's much better looking in person than on the show. The voice over editing was atrocious. Most of the time, Jack would be speaking while we were looking at Daniel. Neither Jack nor Daniel looked even remotely excited to see one another.

And forgive me for this but Daniel has just told him that the greatest threat they have ever known is coming and Jack looked as if he could really care less. His facial expression, his tone, his words... they were all of a man who has given up and doesn't care anymore.

In my opinion the look on Jack's face was not one of concern or hope or even soothing comfort. To me, it looked more like he was saying 'I'm sorry did you say something... I'm really hungry.'

And that is the part that really bothers me because this is NOT a man who has done his duty and moved on. This is NOT a man who has retired and is now spending his days fishing by a pond. I could have accepted this response from Jack if this had been the case. But no, this is a man who is not only in charge of the SGC, he is now the man in charge of protecting the entire planet. The whole kit-n-kaboodle. He is Homeworld Security. One would think that he would have shown some sort of concern or interest. I know in season eight Jack often looked as if he was out of his element and he was bored at times, but now he looks as if all of the life has been drained out of him. Why on Earth would Jack have taken on this new position if he really didn't care less of what was going on and why was none of this explained to us?

I guess we differ in opinions greatly, because if it's a matter of no Jack or make-me-look-completely-incompetent Jack, I'd rather have had none at all. I wish I could be as optimistic as you seem to be that TPTB will give us some sort of explanation concerning Jack's departure, but honestly I expect to see as much explantion concerning Jack as we were given regarding Cassie after Janet's death. Nothing. Nor do I expect to receive any great detail about what Sam has been doing and why she decided to take the position at Area 51. After tonight's episode, I think we will be lucky at all if we get more than a passing mention about it at all as Sam is rushed into the scene to deal with the problem at hand.

I mean why would anyone wait till the six or seven episodes of a season to explain to the fans what happened to the lead character? I consider myself lucky. I'm read this forum so I've at least had spoilers for the past few months. I knew RDA was leaving the show. Could you imagine what the average fan must have been thinking when they turned on the television to watch the first episode and half the team is gone with little to no explanation?

I appreciate your optimism, I truly wish I could share it, but at this point in time it would definitely take a miracle to change my opinion. Lucky for me, miracles do sometimes happen.

I guess only time will tell.

Kat

Bravo, Kat! I absolutely couldn't say it better myself. I've been struggling since yesterday to define my utter frustration and disappointment with the direction this show isgoing. Thank you for your thoughts. I, too, hope miracles happen this year.

[Simhavaktra]

Admitted aviation geek, here.

The Carter Copter, cool technology demonstrator (well, I think it's cool ) of Carter Aviation Technologies, now has its own Yahoo email list:

http://www.cartercopters.com/mailing_list.html

Now I'm having this mental image of the aeronautical engineers at Carter Aviation trying to figure out just exactly where in the US the new work phone number that their esteemed military consultant gave them actually goes...

"But that area code doesn't exist in the US."

"We never get charged for overseas long distance, though, and we don't have to dial any extra country codes, or anything. So it has to be in the US."

"But where???"

"Do you get the feeling that this area code is just as weird as the fact that nobody at the NORAD switchboard for Cheyenne Mountain knew her by name? Or that she has more decorations on her dress blues every time she comes by?"

"What? You think she's some kind of Air Force secret agent or something?"

"After that whole thing with Coulson's company last year, yeah, I think she is."

"Yeah, right. You just wanna see her on TV again."

"And bettering television is a bad thing?"

.... back to work.

[Skydiver]

Yes, it is their show but if people don't watch it, they go to the unemployment line! The point of writing a show is to attract people to watch and the advertizers pay for their commercial to air because we are watching. If we don't watch, the advertizers won't pay to air their commercial at that spot because no one is watching to buy their garbage! Once again , yes it is their show but without us they have lots of words on paper, which doesn't pay their bills!

but we are just a small percentage of the whole viewership. we're 1/10th or maybe it's 1/100th of it all. and as such, in the grand scheme of things, we're nothing.

unless we ahve a neilson box, we don't contribute to thier ratings, so we don't do much for them.

this is first and foremost a business.

i do recognize that it's hard to work so hard to make something and have it not be well received. it is depressing and disappointing. And there is literally nothing they can do that will please everyone.
but i also think that there are tons of things going on behind the scenes that we never knwo about. they, very likely - and i will stress that this is all just suppostions, i have no knowledge - have to deal with actors who have issues. directors who have quirks. network execs telling them how to do thier job.
a budget that is ever changing, an economy that is uncertain. a staff that is doing twice the work for, i bet, not twice the money. new ownership from sony/nbc that could be effecting things.

so are there mitigating factors? i'm sure.

but i still don't feel that they give a fig about any of us. Some of the folks that have connections and think that htey have friends....i dunno, like i said, i'm a cynic, but i can't help but feel if they didn't serve a purpose, they'll find that friendship doesn't really exist anymore.

[NearlyCircular]

Just checking in from Vancouver. It's almost the end of Gatecon, and I really wish AT had been here, but it's been fun. The numbers are way down from the last few years, from what I understand, and I'm sure that's because the "big" stars aren't here this year. The good thing about that is that it's not crowded at all, and the guests have been easy to access.

I've been such a fan girl, even driving by Bridge Studios. I was tempted to try to sneak in when I saw signs telling where the extras should park, but didn't have enough guts. At the con, I bought a copy of the script for Line of Duty signed by Amanda, and an autographed picture. It's easy to spend a lot of money, but at least it goes to charity.

I've heard that Gatecon is moving to England next year. Sky, as the resident expert on cons, do you suppose that will mean that AT and the rest would be able to attend without violating their Creation contracts? I haven't asked any of the Gatecon folks that, but I suspect it might be a reason to move.

So, I've been reading all your posts about Origin and realize that I need to rush home to watch it on tape. I'll be breaking speed limits in about 4 different states thanks to your recommendations (tongue firmly in cheek) Seriously, I'm glad I read your posts so that I know I didn't miss much. I'll watch it of course, but it sounds like we're just treading water until the real team is together.

NC

[NearlyCircular]

Admitted aviation geek, here.

The Carter Copter, cool technology demonstrator (well, I think it's cool ) of Carter Aviation Technologies, now has its own Yahoo email list:

http://www.cartercopters.com/mailing_list.html

Now I'm having this mental image of the aeronautical engineers at Carter Aviation trying to figure out just exactly where in the US the new work phone number that their esteemed military consultant gave them actually goes...

"But that area code doesn't exist in the US."

"We never get charged for overseas long distance, though, and we don't have to dial any extra country codes, or anything. So it has to be in the US."

"But where???"

"Do you get the feeling that this area code is just as weird as the fact that nobody at the NORAD switchboard for Cheyenne Mountain knew her by name? Or that she has more decorations on her dress blues every time she comes by?"

"What? You think she's some kind of Air Force secret agent or something?"

"After that whole thing with Coulson's company last year, yeah, I think she is."

"Yeah, right. You just wanna see her on TV again."

"And bettering television is a bad thing?"

.... back to work.

I love it! I'd rep you, but apparently I need to spread green cheer elsewhere first.

NC

[gatebee]

I apologize in advance to everyone regarding this rant. Please feel free to just ignore it, but I have watched and rewatched the scenes with RDA over a dozen times now hoping my feelings about it all would change and my distaste for it all just gets worse with each viewing. I'm hoping by vocalizing my disappointment, it may help to make it all go away. If you enjoyed these scenes, I envy you because I never thought I would be this upset by a silly television show.

Spoiler:

I'm not sure if you were referring to me, but I was in no way condemning the entire episode based on this one scene. I was however expressing my utter distaste with these particular scenes. I can understand that RDA, MS, and BB were not together due to scheduling reasons, but we have seen episodes where RDA came in and shot his entire scene against either green screen or with a double. If I remember correctly, a great deal of the episode of Abyss was shot this way. Cliff and RDA were never in the same room together while filming this episode and yet RDA was fantastic in it. The man IS capable of doing a superb job in this type of situation. But in this case, like many people have said, the Jack O'Neill we saw in this episode was only a shell of the man I have come to admire. Why on earth would RDA ask TPTB to keep Jack alive and a part of the SGC if he cared so little about Jack's character than play him with absolutely no life or interest.

I'm sorry, but not only was the script for these scenes pathetic, but I thought RDA's make-up was horrid. They made him look old and washed-out. I have NEVER seen a photo of RDA look this bad and from what I have heard from others he's much better looking in person than on the show. The voice over editing was atrocious. Most of the time, Jack would be speaking while we were looking at Daniel. Neither Jack nor Daniel looked even remotely excited to see one another.

And forgive me for this but Daniel has just told him that the greatest threat they have ever known is coming and Jack looked as if he could really care less. His facial expression, his tone, his words... they were all of a man who has given up and doesn't care anymore.

In my opinion the look on Jack's face was not one of concern or hope or even soothing comfort. To me, it looked more like he was saying 'I'm sorry did you say something... I'm really hungry.'

And that is the part that really bothers me because this is NOT a man who has done his duty and moved on. This is NOT a man who has retired and is now spending his days fishing by a pond. I could have accepted this response from Jack if this had been the case. But no, this is a man who is not only in charge of the SGC, he is now the man in charge of protecting the entire planet. The whole kit-n-kaboodle. He is Homeworld Security. One would think that he would have shown some sort of concern or interest. I know in season eight Jack often looked as if he was out of his element and he was bored at times, but now he looks as if all of the life has been drained out of him. Why on Earth would Jack have taken on this new position if he really didn't care less of what was going on and why was none of this explained to us?

I guess we differ in opinions greatly, because if it's a matter of no Jack or make-me-look-completely-incompetent Jack, I'd rather have had none at all. I wish I could be as optimistic as you seem to be that TPTB will give us some sort of explanation concerning Jack's departure, but honestly I expect to see as much explantion concerning Jack as we were given regarding Cassie after Janet's death. Nothing. Nor do I expect to receive any great detail about what Sam has been doing and why she decided to take the position at Area 51. After tonight's episode, I think we will be lucky at all if we get more than a passing mention about it at all as Sam is rushed into the scene to deal with the problem at hand.

I mean why would anyone wait till the six or seven episodes of a season to explain to the fans what happened to the lead character? I consider myself lucky. I'm read this forum so I've at least had spoilers for the past few months. I knew RDA was leaving the show. Could you imagine what the average fan must have been thinking when they turned on the television to watch the first episode and half the team is gone with little to no explanation?

I appreciate your optimism, I truly wish I could share it, but at this point in time it would definitely take a miracle to change my opinion. Lucky for me, miracles do sometimes happen.

I guess only time will tell.

Kat

I was so disappointed last night that I could not express myself. Thank you for these great words in describing my thoughts about S9 -Origin.

I had mentioned this at s/j thread .... I plan not to watch S9's first showing. Will look into this thread, s/j thread and rda thunk thread. If the feedback is positive, will go watch and tape the later show.

Waiting .... till Sam's return.

[AGateFan]

God!!!! Ori!! Ancients!! Ancestors!! Asgard!! whoever!!!
They've started another thread!!!!!
How many fricken threads to we need bashing on Sam.
I never, ever in my entire Stargate lovin life ever thought there was so much Sam hate out the in world. I thought it was all about Sam Love..... now Im just depressed.

[Agent_Dark]

Haha, listen to all you Season 9 naysayers...
Have some faith, only three (3!!!) episodes until Sam comes back. And I for one am not minding the start so far at all. Next week should be interesting - they've had their 3 parter to introduce the new characters and bad guys. While the jury may still be out on Mitchell (I'm going to see how he plays of Sam first. But first impressions aren't too bad), the Ori sound like they're gonna be allright (for bad guys )

Viva la Sam

[majorsal]

Well thats it for Jack. Sorry RDA didnt want to play the character anymore including in the last few guest appearances.

I can never imagen AT ever playing her character that way. Even if she gets absolutly sick of the show and wants to leave (which I hope is never) I would expect her last scenes to be well acted and emotional on some level for the fans.

i wonder if all of rda's scenes where filmed at the same time? i'm talking about the jack-landry scene in avalon 1, and then the two scenes from origin. maybe rick wasn't feeling well. i'm not sure. all i know is...

((((rda))))


sally

[gatebee]

I know that this is a tv show , a scifi show and a military supported show .... but FCOL when Sam comes back , they have to have some kind on continuity to S8-M2 ending .... hello ...TPTB

[majorsal]

Haha, listen to all you Season 9 naysayers...
Have some faith, only three (3!!!) episodes until Sam comes back. And I for one am not minding the start so far at all. Next week should be interesting - they've had their 3 parter to introduce the new characters and bad guys. While the jury may still be out on Mitchell (I'm going to see how he plays of Sam first. But first impressions aren't too bad), the Ori sound like they're gonna be allright (for bad guys )

Viva la Sam

20 DAYS 'TILL SAM/AMANDA COMES HOME!!!


sally