Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[deepspace]

Uber: "Patience is a...uh...something-or-other." I'm not sure exactly what it is, because I was bored with the conversation by that point and my mind wandered off a bit...but patience is SOMETHING...that much I know for sure...

ROFLOL
You is soooooooo funny Mary Beth. I love your humour.

[deepspace]

Unnatural!! - I'll give you unnatural
Oh so you have forgotten already

Unnatural doesn't start with a Q though. User, untidy, under, urban, are all as good as unatural in that they start with U. They don't start with Q's. I was just saying that if a word starts with a Q it generally in followed by a U, and therefore it's kind of habitual (for me at least) to automatically write a U straight after a Q.

Ok, off the pathetic subject of spelling!

[Qasim]

"Romeozulu...this is Julietbravo...Wherefore art thou? Over..."

Julietbravo...this is Romeozulu...I'm climbing to the balcony. The rope is in fire. You don't need those lights to shine on screen ! Repeat, you don't need those lights to....Aaaaaaaaahhhh !!!! *static*

Now the question is who is Romeozulu? *shippers sharpen their knives*

Jack?
Thor?
Cam?
Other?

[deepspace]

*smothers Coley in hugs*
Oh yayness, this morning is turning out to be the best start to a day ! (((((((((Coley))))))))))
I wish you knew how glad I am to see you back.

As the character of Sam Carter has been fleshed out over the years, as we've become more intimate with who she is, has your opinion of her changed? What I mean is, Sam is often lauded for the show's depiction of her as a strong soldier and scientist in earlier seasons. She is often criticized now for the show's depiction of her personal life and self-conflicts. Do you see her in a different light now (e.g. weaker, less successful) because her character has been expanded? Is she no longer the strong solider or scientist to you anymore? Is she now just a woman? And if so, is that a successful or unsuccessful depiction of Sam Carter?

Right, a little late for this response but here goes:-

I for one think Sam was taken in a different direction after seasons 1 to 6. Seasons 1 to 6 we got lots of scientist/soldier Sam. From the brief glimpses into her off base life I saw her as quite shy, reserved, but with the possibility of a wicked sense of humour. By the end of season 6 Sam to me was probably a bit too perfect to be true, but she was a great role model.

Seasons 1 to 6 I see her as courageous compassionate, intelligent, with a kind heart and gentle soul. She is evidently competent in many fields of science. Capable at times of wanton manipulation – especially of Hammond – a slightly dark side of Sam. She showed very strong leadership abilities in many episodes when taking over situations at the base, calm, collected, direct and assuring. Her tenacity on many occasions led to her saving the day –and the world. She has a strong inner child and I loved to see her times with Jacob develop into a loving father/daughter relationship.

Come season 7 suddenly there was a change of emphasis. The emphasis was on the male interpretation of woman. The clothing was evidently more stylish and sexy from the hipster BDU pants and sleeveless tops to the low cut dress in the coffee shop in Chimera into the leathers in season 8 episodes. Now nothing wrong with this per say. But for me it just wasn’t Sam, and whilst people do change over time, I don’t think they change so quickly.

Chimera saw Sam in the coffee shop as the confident flirty type reeling Pete in “hook, line and sinker” This is whilst she still holds a very strong torch for O’Neill – the halo slips – I was disappointed at this as I would have hoped Sam would have more regard for other people’s hearts!!

She is now a little gung Ho as we saw in space race. I never saw Sam as Gung Ho previously.

We also got quite a lot of fallible Sam in season 7 and 8 where mistakes were made.

Whilst she was put in command of SG1 she was never given the opportunity to lead, which meant little or no professional development in seasons 7 and 8 – which in my mind was a huge error as this could have been the balancing development to the personal stuff which was being acted out before my narrowed eyes and furrowed brow.

Now back to the question do I now see her in a different light – weaker, less successful.

Well yes she is a different light, but not necessarily weaker and no less successful, but certainly less perfect. I didn’t mind her making mistakes – we all make mistakes – the question is whether we learn from them or not. Sometimes you can learn so much more from making a mistake than you ever can from countless successes. That aspect of Sam I didn’t mind and Avenger and Gemini are fave episodes of mine. Her head has never gone down, her confidence may be dented, but it hasn’t waned – she’s still in there offering up the theories and solutions. Plus we see her accept her mistakes with pure grace!!


In terms of personal Sam –

I don’t like the overt sexy portrayal as much as the casual don’t need to put myself on parade Carter. That is just me. Sexiness is so much more than clothing. My own opinion is that AT looks far sexier in BDU’s than she does in any low cut top or tight leathers, but I assume Sci Fi doesn’t think its male audience is capable of imagination and looking beyond what one can see - and prefers a blatant display of sexuality. IMO Sam’s shy smile has got to be sexier than a low cut dress????

I would have preferred development of all the team on the lines of get togethers off base – in a relaxed environment. I think we could have learnt more about them all in a few off base scenes than we have in 8 seasons of lets concentrate on 1 team member episodes. We could have seen Carter’s developing sense of humour and her interaction with both Teal'c and Daniel – rather than the focus of her attentions being on O’Neill.

In terms of Pete. I didn’t mind him per se – but was rather shocked to see Sam playing with someone’s heart when she still had such strong feelings for O’Neill. I was a bit peeved at the morning after scene in the bedroom. I don’t think I would be at all happy about a chap fleeing the bed and house just because I couldn’t tell him what I did for a living. I would have hoped Sam would be attracted to someone with a more maturity than that. So this is one area where I think the role model slipped a little.

In my opinion the writers failed to develop “Samantha” - they changed her (off base persona) which proves to me that the regular writers really should stick to the Sci Fi stuff and bring in other writers for back story development. I think they have failed to acknowledge their limitations. They have done an awesome, superb job in seasons 1 to 6. I don’t think we could have asked for better writing for a female Sci Fi lead.

I know she is still kick a$$ Carter. A hero, a leader, a scientist. It is just that we saw too little of this in seasons 7 and 8.

In terms of season 9 I think the writers are possibly between a rock and a hard place, especially when I’m sure they are planning for the show to be around a few more seasons and may not know for sure if AT will want to stay. I also agree with Lida’s recent post that they are working around Amanda having other demands on her time and energy and this must limit what they can and can not write for Carter.

The final word Carter is a Woman always has been. Roll over the men of this world!!

Coley, this is truly one of the greatest posts I've seen in a long time. And I mean that. You bring up some very key points, and I totally agree that what makes Sam is the fact that she is such a well rounded character. Like a faceted gem held in the sunlight, when rotated, a new facet glints.

Uber wrote: I'm one of those people that didn't mind exploring the softer side of Sam...her girly side if you will.

I think though that you make a magnificent point...which I think can be summed up with the word BALANCE.

There's nothing wrong with showing her feminine side as long as there is the business side of her ready to offset the difference. I'm willing to concede that they did not do enough of the business side, and therefore her personal side was overwhelming to some.

I kinda fear that they're going to abruptly swing the pendulum too much and over due the business side of her now...in an attempt to balance what happened the last few seasons.

That would be as big a mistake IMHO as showing only one side of her, either her personal side, or her scientific side or whatever. Two dimensional means two dimensional, regardless of what single issue they stick her with...and Sam is not a two dimensional character. The wise thing to do would be clearly to not focus on the aspect of her personality that she struggled and dealt with last year...but also not completely abandon it.

Samantha Carter is a deeply rich character, full of flaws and strengths and humor and conviction...don't lessen her by cramming her into the science only box or the military only box and ignoring the various aspects that make her such a great character.

And I also love Uber's response to this. And yes, Sam is a deeply rich character. And I'm glad Samanda is finally back to deeply rich discussion of her. Welcome back Coley, and thankyou Mary Beth.

And I almost can't believe that these posts were followed directly by this one:

Qasim wrote: Has anyone ever done a favourite Sam hairstyle poll?

Qas, you can do so much better than this .

[Uber]

Now the question is who is Romeozulu? *shippers sharpen their knives*

Jack?
Thor?
Cam?
Other?

How about...Mary Beth was being intentionally vague so that there would be no knife sharpening on any side....

[deepspace]

Lida: Well, I had a GREAT rant all written in response to Queen Eleta's post, but the system wouldn't post it! ARGH, when is this "quote bug" going to get fixed...is it just me? I'm really tired of losing posts.

ah, so there is a quote bug. I've lost so many posts. I now compose them in Microsoft Word and then copy paste into the post window. A bit of extra work, but not as much as trying to remember how you wrote a post .

[Qasim]

Qas, you can do so much better than this .

Your right (seems you are all a lot more serious than me I will remember that in future - I didnt see what was wrong with it considering you have flag polls and stuff)

Anyway - My question is Which Sam quote inspires you the most? (after all she is very inspirational)

[binkpmmc]

Okay - out of curiousity I went to the Anti-Carter thread, which BTW, has only 26 posts in 5 days, and, you will be happy to know, it seems of those 26 posts maybe 4-5 are about the personal life/pete thing and how bad that was (and it was - tore the character up IMO) and most of the other actual complaints (and there are not many) are about Carter being too smart and looking too young to have had time to be all of the things she is, and do all the things she has, like get the degree in physics, be a pilot and a Lt. Colonel, etc,. It then devolves into a complete discussion of qualifications and time it takes to get an MA or an MBA or whatever. Makes me feel kind of good that the thread didn't garner any real Carter bashing, didn't garner much attention at all and quickly devolved into way OT stuff. The complaints were lame too! (to smart my a$$). (I hope some anti-Carter nut does not read this and go off and bash Carter in that thread just to be spiteful.)

[deepspace]

dancer of spaz: Um, hey guys...

I was just going over the other posts, and I was wondering what you mean by posts with and without "substance?"

I always thought that it was cool that people - "elders" and "newbies," alike - could join in on the fun in the thread, without the fear of always being off-topic. I guess it always seemed that we would stray, but make it back to the main topic eventually...

Sorry, if I've taken part in the random one-liners and fluff!

The oneliners and fluff are great, they give a sense of fun to the thread. But what we need is balance. Balance between serious discussion and fun. We’ve been a little lopsided lately, is all . Samanda has always been great because of its balance of off topic and discussion, I’d just like it to return to that. So DON’T get scared away spaz!

[Uber]

Okay - out of curiousity I went to the Anti-Carter thread, which BTW, has only 26 posts in 5 days, and, you will be happy to know, it seems of those 26 posts maybe 4-5 are about the personal life/pete thing and how bad that was (and it was - tore the character up IMO) and most of the other actual complaints (and there are not many) are about Carter being too smart and looking too young to have had time to be all of the things she is, and do all the things she has, like get the degree in physics, be a pilot and a Lt. Colonel, etc,. It then devolves into a complete discussion of qualifications and time it takes to get an MA or an MBA or whatever. Makes me feel kind of good that the thread didn't garner any real Carter bashing, didn't garner much attention at all and quickly devolved into way OT stuff. The complaints were lame too! (to smart my a$$). (I hope some anti-Carter nut does not read this and go off and bash Carter in that thread just to be spiteful.)

Yeah...I just love it when they say she's too perfect...does everything right, there needs to be a kink in her armor, she needs to make mistakes, yadda yadda...

...and then Gemini rolls around and she does make a huge mistake and she shows she is human...and then she's an incompetent moron who's incapable of leading a bingo match.

Whatever.

[Qasim]

(I hope some anti-Carter nut does not read this and go off and bash Carter in that thread just to be spiteful.)

They probably dont come in here incase they get converted

[Qasim]

then she's an incompetent moron who's incapable of leading a bingo match.

Did someone really say that?

[deepspace]

Uber wrote: Ok so you all may or may not know (or may or may not care) that I am in fact working on what I hope to be the ultimate Amanda Tapping/Samantha Carter website to be launched in November.
So I'm in the planning stages right now...laying the foundation and putting everything in place.
BUT I need your help.
What features, elements would you like to see? Things that would make you want to return and post there daily?
Please give me your thoughts!
Also, if you go there now you'll just see the filler page that will pretty much stay in place until the actual site launches. It looks NOTHING like the future site will look, btw...
...BUT there is also an option to sign up for updates. Please do so if you haven't already! That way I can keep everyone up to date on the progress of Samanda.
http://www.uberamandafan.com
Thanks!


I care very much about the fact that you’re working on a website!
And I'd help if I was at all skilled in any way whatsoever. But even if I can't, I'll try and think of suggestions.

Is the website actually going to be called Samanda? If so, I think that would be really cool.

A section for fanart/photoart is a must. If we don't do that... I can't imagine it.

You've already said you're going to have a forum, so my only suggestion is to maybe have an OT kingdom talk section, for general socialising of Samandans, while there could be a separate section for serious Sam discussion. Then we can have a good mix of the fun, the comic, the humourous, the serious, the brillaint, and the thoughtful.

There could also be a games section? We used to play games of ‘Where’s Sam?’ where people would hide Sam in a picture, like those ‘Where’s Wally’ comic/gamebooks. We also used to play ‘guess the episode’, though that’s maybe a little old now, but we can still do with our ‘caption this’ game.
There could be a monthly Sam crossword for people to solve? (I could try and help with this if I’m not too busy working my arse off preparing for possible uni next year.)
But I think a game section would be fun. Samanda has always been our playground, and while I love serious Sam stuff, a laugh every now and then is priceless.

Um....
What else. Well, there could maybe be a links page, with links to people’s fanfic? I think that’s very important. There’s been a number of lists posted in this thread of Samfic, but they’ve been a little lost. If we had a page that was fixed and constantly referenced to, that’d be good.

Other links could be to astro’s screencap page, sam fan videos like yours, people’s photoart albums like kat’s. Just various links to people’s own webspaces where they put sam stuff.
Maybe also include links (with permission?) of places like the AT fanclub, then maybe we could get your link put on their page in return? Because while having a site is great, if people can’t find it via links from other related sites, you’ll never get exposure to newbies.

If I think of any other suggestions I’ll try and post them, but if you want any help with anything just PM me and I can try my hardest. I really want to support you in this decision you’ve made to make a website for us all. True Samandan dedication that is. We should give Uber a medal. But meanwhile, have some Blue goodness

Oh, and when designing a website, sure I’d love it to be graphically brilliant, but also please remember people on slooooow dialup connections. Gateworld is a labour of love for me to come to, because it is such a huge site, it takes forever for each page to load. Just a thought.

[deepspace]

The birthday list is updated. Please keep the updates coming!

The list is post15463 on page 774.

[SamFan31]

The birthday list is updated. Please keep the updates coming!

The list is post15463 on page 774.

Thanks for the update to the list, Deepspace.

Just a thought - Astro's index located at

http://forum.gateworld.net/showthrea...page=442&pp=20

references your list as "SaGC Birthdays, Thread page 361, post 7204". Since she appears to be busy with RL stuff could you also update post 7204 on page 361? Then the updated list would also be in the Master Index.