Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[golfbooy]

Originally Posted by Skydiver:
or, more along my line of thinking, mgm/scifi thinks they need a male lead.

I've been tossing this one around since Ben Browder's addition was first announced way back in December. It just seemed odd that this character would be added to replace Jack. He serves no real purpose on the team, he clearly doesn't deserve command over Carter, and the writers seem to have been caught somewhat off guard as far as his inclusion into stories.

I initially reacted pretty harshly to the news of his addition. My thought was that Skiffy had made season nine specifically contingent upon Ben's addition. He's always been a darling of the network and of the critics, yet has remained fairly unknown to mainstream audiences. He certainly doesn't posess the caliber of fame necessary to pick up the slack left by RDA's departure. And the idea that Stargate could pick up all the Farscape fans with his (and Claudia's) presence on the show always seemed to me like a network point of view rather than a studio one.

Add in the decision to make him a colonel, just like Sam, and all the problems that go along with it, and I just don't see TPTB coming up with this. It creates far more problems for a season already riddled with changes and problems. I think he has a place on SG-1, just as subordinate to Sam. He's so green with regards to the SGC and gate travel itself that his position as leader is downright laughable.

I could be wrong, but it's always smelled a little bit like network interference to me.

And I understand that Ben is in a tough spot. He needs to work. He's offered a steady role on a high profile show. Of course he's going to take it. He's got crazy fans who'll demand he be the star, just like on Farscape. He's got the media constantly asking him how it feels to replace RDA, what it's like to be the "new star" of SG-1, and he's got to join a cast and crew that have been a family for nine years. I feel for the guy.

[binkpmmc]

Chocdoc and golfbooy - good posts. My ability to reply with the Quote seems to be broken at this time but I will post here what I recently posted at the The Writers Must Hate Ben thread as it is directly in line with Chocdoc's and golfbooy's thoughts:

I'm not sure I am wanting MORE Mitchell -- what I really want is to know his purpose - what does he bring to the team that was not already there with Sam, Daniel and Teal'c? So far I have seen absolutely nothing that indicates he brings anything to the team other than another body. He had zero/zippo Gate experience before a few weeks ago, hell before that he had never even SEEN a Stargate, he is not a diplomat (SG1 has one of those anyway), he has no experience with off-world friends or enemies (S,D,T have that experience), he is not a scientist (SG1 has one of those too), he is not a linguist (gee, SG1 has one of those already anyway), he is not an archeologist (yup - got one of those too), he is not an astrophysicist (wow - got one of those already too), he is a "warrior" in the sense of the word, (but gee, SG1 already has THREE (3) of those, in particular Teal'c), he may be a leader, IMO not one deserving to lead THIS particular SG1 as THIS SG1 already has a PROVEN off-world Gate-traveling, alien fighting, leader, (he may have been qualified to come in and form his own SG1 of new people and lead them but sorry, not THIS SG1), so my question has been, is and remains what is his purpose? I know the whole male lead argument and I know the whole if he's not in charge what else can he do argument and that is my point - they did not need a new character but for the silly "need a male lead" attitude. SG1 had everything the team needed, including a competent, experienced, strong leader. Now, to me, it seems they are struggling with what to do with the character. IMO, I also think they will not define who is in command because they must know that if it is Mitchell it will likely alienate a large portion of the loyal, longstanding Stargate fan base so they waffle around as they have been. It will be interesting to see what happens but my guess is that they will keep the "team" separated as much as possible and ignore the issue as much as possible. Just my opinion.

[jckfan55]

Chocdoc and golfbooy - good posts. My ability to reply with the Quote seems to be broken at this time but I will post here what I recently posted at the The Writers Must Hate Ben thread as it is directly in line with Chocdoc's and golfbooy's thoughts:

I'm not sure I am wanting MORE Mitchell -- what I really want is to know his purpose - what does he bring to the team that was not already there with Sam, Daniel and Teal'c? So far I have seen absolutely nothing that indicates he brings anything to the team other than another body. He had zero/zippo Gate experience before a few weeks ago, hell before that he had never even SEEN a Stargate, he is not a diplomat (SG1 has one of those anyway), he has no experience with off-world friends or enemies (S,D,T have that experience), he is not a scientist (SG1 has one of those too), he is not a linguist (gee, SG1 has one of those already anyway), he is not an archeologist (yup - got one of those too), he is not an astrophysicist (wow - got one of those already too), he is a "warrior" in the sense of the word, (but gee, SG1 already has THREE (3) of those, in particular Teal'c), he may be a leader, IMO not one deserving to lead THIS particular SG1 as THIS SG1 already has a PROVEN off-world Gate-traveling, alien fighting, leader, (he may have been qualified to come in and form his own SG1 of new people and lead them but sorry, not THIS SG1), so my question has been, is and remains what is his purpose? I know the whole male lead argument and I know the whole if he's not in charge what else can he do argument and that is my point - they did not need a new character but for the silly "need a male lead" attitude. SG1 had everything the team needed, including a competent, experienced, strong leader. Now, to me, it seems they are struggling with what to do with the character. IMO, I also think they will not define who is in command because they must know that if it is Mitchell it will likely alienate a large portion of the loyal, longstanding Stargate fan base so they waffle around as they have been. It will be interesting to see what happens but my guess is that they will keep the "team" separated as much as possible and ignore the issue as much as possible. Just my opinion.

It's sort of like TPTB put all their energy into getting BB as a "replacement" for RDA and forgot to come up with a character for him to play. We know he was a skilled and brave pilot. What does that have to do with leading an SG team? As a major (I think he was promoted after Lost City) he might have commanded other pilots, but in the backstory we got there was little sense of a command presence and no sense of other skills he might bring to the team. We know he's determined b/c he had to rehab from potentially crippling injuries. But we have yet to see him do much. In short we've been given no reason other than the RL issue of AT's baby & her needing to be out of some episodes to explain why Mitchell should have command. I don't want him to be "the star" but I do want to see him play a useful role. On the upside, it hasn't become the Ben Browder show.

[Dani76]

This is totally off-topic but I wanted to ask everyone to please take a moment to say a prayer for the people located in the southern part of the United States. I'm sure if you live in the United States you have already heard about the hurricane that is about to hit Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Katrina has been categorized a level 5 hurricane and is at present time is ranked the 4th largest Atlantic based hurricane ever.

Perhaps it's the fact that I share the name with this Hurricane, but I find it very disheartening to turn on the television or radio and hear my name be spoken over and over in such a cataclysmic manner.

I know today is Amanda's birthday and I hate to have to bring down the mood on the thread, but I know Amanda, being the warm and caring person that she is, would also want us to keep these people in our prayers.

Kat

I also know that this is off topic, but, thank you Kat for taking the step and posting it here. One great thing about this thread is that people CARE. My thoughts and prayers go out to everybody threatened by this hurricane. Those of us who are fortunate enough not to worry about it personally should be thankful and remember that tomorrow we could be the ones who depend on the help of others.

[majorsal]

Okay I'm going to post this here because I saw the question that Sally asked Joe in his thread. This is an article from TVZone #64 Special - It is part of the article on Amanda Tapping

For Pete's Sake
Sadly, Sam Carter will not be hanging out this season with her now ex-boyfriend, Pete Shanahan (David DeLuise). She ended their romance last year, which Tapping feels was necessary, both for the show and her character.

"I think it was important that we explored Sam's ability to love and be loved and to have a fuly-functional adult relationship," says the actress. "We may have gone too far, though. After a while I began to wonder, 'What does this have to do with SG-1?' As an actress, I loved playing it because it was a joy working with David DeLuise. Story wise, I felt enough already with Sam's unrequited love [for Jack O'Neill] and the question of will she or won't she marry Pete.

"As far as how she ended it with Pete, it seemed a little cagey, and I wasn't very proud of Sam for that. I am proud that she decided to stop stringing Pete along, but she could have been a bit more honest about it. That's OK, though, I play a Human being and Humans have flaws. With matters of the heart, it's hard for Sam to be totally honest, and I believe it's because she truly doesn't understand matters of the heart as much as she may think."

thanks, honey.

it really doesn't answer the question i asked joe, though. i just wanted to know if the explanation scene was originally written and then taken out.


sally

[majorsal]

August 28th... hmmm, i wonder what's important about this date?.....


IT'S OUT QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!!!


sally

[the dancer of spaz]

Wow, I thought Sam seemed more in charge in this ep then she seemed in any ep in Season 8. There was a pretty good scene of her giving orders to the NID and Daniel. But the entire ep I had the feeling she was the most who knew what was going on and the most in command (including Landry) IMHO.

Yeah. I try to look at it objectively, but honestly, out of all of the military personnel in question (i.e. Cameron and Landry) Sam is the most experienced.

The downplay of Cameron's "command" has not gone unnoticed by this fan. I agree with you guys when you say that he's definitely humble. I think a lot of that has to do with Browder, because I'm wondering if any other (male) leads from other scifi/action shows would have taken this same route of humility - whether s/he was directed to do so, or not. There are some emotions and character traits that certain actors simply CAN'T pull off, but Browder seems to do it well.

[Carterslave]

We're getting some especially great Amanda pix today. It's tough to choose, but I think this is my favorite ...

... maybe because of the peace symbol she's wearing. It does my raised-in-the-Sixties heart good.
And BRJ: the video? If at all possible ... make it so. Please!

[majorsal]

1969 has Hippie!Sam! Its a great episode And Matter of Time and 2010 are good episodes for Sam too

i really loved all these eps, except 2010 (and that's only because it was so depressing).

i *really* like their selections for the marathon! i was pretty afraid of what we'd get stuck with, so i am pleasantly surprised by the selection.


sally

[majorsal]

I'm a rather new Stargate fan and not one for posting. However, this episode has so turned me off of the series that I don't know if I will continue to watch, and I'm rather surprised at the blase reaction on this particular forum.

It defies all possible logic for the character of Sam Carter to rejoin SG1 in anything other than the leadership position. For all the vaunted talk of military advisors, this is something that would never, in a million years, happen in the real military. Can anyone imagine an instance where a person is the Captain of a ship, goes away for awhile only to return to the ship as the 1st officer? It's insane. Adding insult to injury, the writers made a big deal about Sam gaining command last season -- now they take it away? There is no character logic to that process, the only logic is that Sci-Fi/the writers of SG1 couldn't write for a female leader. It's not only insulting to the character, it's also insulting to the fans and the actress and the show as a whole.

i have no proof, but i feel the reason for this is because of making things easier on amanda. in all the interviews i've read with amanda recently, she's never brought up that this issue bothers her. i believe that amanda wants to lessen her time on the show (for her baby), and adding in that she was missing for the first five eps, it gives me the impression that it would be too hard to have sam leading sg1 when she wouldn't be in as much of the show. i really don't think this is a slight to 'amanda', even though it doesn't feel real great for sam carter maybe. until i hear otherwise, this is what i'll believe.


sally

[the dancer of spaz]

i really loved all these eps, except 2010 (and that's only because it was so depressing).

I think I know what you're talking about Sally. Still, I thought that the bedroom scene between Sam and Joe was really well done. It was interesting to see Sam fighting and shouting with someone in a domestic setting (Hippie!Sam, Domestic!Sam ), and it was definitely a concept that hadn't been used in Stargate SG-1 before - plus, out of the four members of SG-1, Sam was the only one who bore the immediate and direct consequences of the Aschen's nefarious plot.

[the dancer of spaz]

We're getting some especially great Amanda pix today. It's tough to choose, but I think this is my favorite ...

... maybe because of the peace symbol she's wearing. It does my raised-in-the-Sixties heart good.
And BRJ: the video? If at all possible ... make it so. Please!

Hey! Where are these pics coming from?!

[majorsal]

spoilers for s9's ex deus machina

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/8370/313ym.jpg
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5788/664vr.jpg
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3443/699de.jpg
http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/2387/724tu.jpg
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7202/732ao.jpg
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2903/742mc.jpg
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7742/779cx.jpg

*thank you*! i think sam (amanda) looks great in this great outfit!

(see how more sexy that is than someone walking around half naked?)


sally

[crazedturkey]

I agree!! Wowie!! Isn't it amazing what breastfeeding does for the figure...

WOWZA!! LOL....

*goes off to grumble about Channel 7 and lack of SG-1 in my life right now*

ETA- and in case you haven't noticed!! Jealousy plus!

*goes off grumbling bout how she wishes she could be half as hot as Sam*

[crazedturkey]

I think I know what you're talking about Sally. Still, I thought that the bedroom scene between Sam and Joe was really well done. It was interesting to see Sam fighting and shouting with someone in a domestic setting (Hippie!Sam, Domestic!Sam ), and it was definitely a concept that hadn't been used in Stargate SG-1 before - plus, out of the four members of SG-1, Sam was the only one who bore the immediate and direct consequences of the Aschen's nefarious plot.

Yeah that made me sad too...(especially when you know about AT's history of miscarriages)..Overall I thought the episode was pretty awesome, even if it did make me cry, especially as it was ActionSam/LeaderSam in a way, because the plan was all hers...she had to boot Jack's butt into gear.

Maybe it's goodness is in the fact that you really do feel for poor old Sam's predicament.

*sigh* I just noticed all the catch up I have to do! You go away for one week...