Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Melora]

What do you want to bet this will also be her status on SG-1.

That's what I'm worried about, AGate Fan. If she is only going to be in ten episodes of SG-1 (as RL recently implied at a con), I fear that Sam will only play a central role in a handful of those and be in the background for the rest. From what Joe said over at Solutions, it looks like Sam will not play a very integral role on SGA at all - which is good for the SGA fans who don't want their characters to suffer. But what does that mean for Sam? Ten episodes with maybe a couple of minutes of screen time in each?

Then again, Joe is very careful with his words and I would bet he knows exactly which part of the fanbase he was addressing at Solutions. Saying Sam would be appearing in more of a "guest" role in SGA might have been his way of appeasing those fans who don't really like Sam. If the same question was asked over here at GW, he might give a quite different answer.

My hope for Season 10 is waning day by day. But I will still give it a try and wait and see what happens.

[Agent_Dark]

By role similiar to Caldwell, I meant she's only going to be in a few episodes. Not necessarily an antognist, rather a guest spot just like any other guest character. I dont think Caldwell has taken away from any character, on the contrary he's been able to give both Weir and Sheppard some interesting dynamics.

While it might mean she'll miss a few SG1 episodes - well if its episodes that she would have been wallpapered in anyway (and lets face it, how many of us are confident that S10 wont have any of the characters wallpapered at some point? S9, S8 and to a lesser extent S7 all had the wallpapering going on for various characters) then at least we'll get some interesting dynamics for her on Atlantis rather than standing around in the background on SG1.
It's sad that SG1 has lost its team feel, but unless the 2nd half of S9 is able to bring all the characters to the forefront, well...

[Melora]

depends. in many ways, and in a very general way, stargate has/had a love triangle, sam, daniel and jack...with sam and the ship between her and jack being seen as competition or a threat to the friendship - or more - between jack and daniel.

so every scene that was jack/sam is often seen as something that COULD have been jack/daniel.

when you're invested in a particular character/pairing and something threatens it, you don't like that something. remember the reactions to Pete and Laira those of you that were around then? same basic thing

now not every jack/daniel fan feels the same way. many see that friendship and relationships can co-exist...but some don't. and sam is an easy target for those that like the jack/daniel dynamic

I think you are right on the money here. And it is so interesting. Many perceive Sam as a threat to the Jack/Daniel relationship b/c of the J/S ship. Isn't it strange that most shippers don't feel the same way about Daniel? Perhaps b/c they have never perceived Daniel as a real threat to the J/S ship (unlike Pete, Martouf, Laira, etc.).

[Skydiver]

there are some ship fans that do not like daniel, however, to the best of my knowledge, they haven't been deluging tptb with letters demanding that daniel be fired or written out to preserve thier preferred pairing.

for the most part, while many shippers aren't huge fans of daniel, they don't try to get him off the show or out of the way. the same can't be said about some of the anti-ship fans who are also daniel fans

usually, daniel is seen as an accomplice to getting sam and jack together, often with teal'c in playhing match maker

it's not seen as an either/or situation

now, what may have some bearing on it...many shippers obviously see jack as heterosexual. kinda has to be to be paired with sam. and that interpretation of the character fits in with what we've seen on the show. to put it bluntly, jack likes girls.

but if a person is a fan of the jack/daniel dynamic, well if they want them to be more than friends, both jack and daniel need to be bi or homosexual...neither of which have se seen on the show. in fact, both jack and daniel are portrayed as het. (now, just because they've been portrayed as het doesn't mean that they can't be bi - which is what i've always been told when i go ' slash doesn't make sense because the characters are het' - however since we've never seen jack or daniel oogling siler, they've always been portrayed as het) and since theyu've been portrayed as het, daniel can't be competition for sam.

square peg/round hole. daniel's not a threat to sam/jack because jack would never see a man that way.

but if you turn that around, want the jack/daniel dynamic and since jack has always been portrayed as het, then sam is competition in a way because the presumption is always there that jack would go for the girl and they want him to go for the guy

[chocdoc]

That's what I'm worried about, AGate Fan. If she is only going to be in ten episodes of SG-1 (as RL recently implied at a con), I fear that Sam will only play a central role in a handful of those and be in the background for the rest. From what Joe said over at Solutions, it looks like Sam will not play a very integral role on SGA at all - which is good for the SGA fans who don't want their characters to suffer. But what does that mean for Sam? Ten episodes with maybe a couple of minutes of screen time in each?

Then again, Joe is very careful with his words and I would bet he knows exactly which part of the fanbase he was addressing at Solutions. Saying Sam would be appearing in more of a "guest" role in SGA might have been his way of appeasing those fans who don't really like Sam. If the same question was asked over here at GW, he might give a quite different answer.

My hope for Season 10 is waning day by day. But I will still give it a try and wait and see what happens.

The problem is for me is that we really don't know how many episodes Sam will be in each show. We have TL saying this? or a fan reporting that she/he believed TL said this, but would TL know this for sure? Even AT didn't know the exact way it was going to work. If it turns out that Sam is truly split equally between the two shows--I agree with Golfbooy--this does not seem good for the character because she is much less likely to have an important story in season 10. If she is mostly on SG-1, then it may not be a problem.

It seems that Caldwell may be in a total of 8 episodes this season (but just according to IMBD, which could easily be inaccurate). Carter is such a different character than Caldwell too--she's an established strong character for nine years, and Caldwell just came abroad season two of Atlantis!! So how JM could think that just because Atlantis fans aren't too upset over Caldwell, so why be upset over Carter, is beyond me.

[minigeek]

I think it's entirely possible that there were more than two arc-outlines roughed in for the Ori conflict throughout season ten (if there was to be a season ten) and the reason RCC said they didn't know whether/how they were going to use the Sam Carter character was because she would figure differently into each of these. The Atlantis-crossover arc looks like it ended up winning, therefore Carter's going to swing back and forth, and I do agree with AD that if it means she gets stronger front-line stories as a result (even if they're in Atlantis), rather than being a "backup singer" in an SG-1 episode where she ends up with little to do, I'd say the crossover bit would be easier to swallow. And lets face it - it's not the characters that are driving the stories this year, it's the stories that are driving the characters, so the AtlantisAncient crossover / Ori stori would have happened anyway; and someone would have had to fill the gap. If that's the case, Carter's not necessarily a bad choice. Sounds like Daniel might end up there as well once or twice. I think the story itself demands Atlantis-time for the SG-1 character(s), because I think the Ori/Ancient thing is going to merge the two universes for a bit. So they need the characters' involvement, hence the lateral motion for Carter. I think it was going to happen because I think the story-arc was going there anyway. Imagine the story arc was to include Atlantis regardless, and that everyone on SG-1 ended up going to Atlantis for a few crossover eps EXCEPT Carter. How would some of ya'll feel about that? If you look at it this way, you can almost begin to hope that Carter becomes the "gel" which draws the whole story together. It's unfortunate that plot is driving character rather than the other way around (with such long-established, rich characters), but since that's the way it is - might as well see the glass half full, right?

[Skydiver]

think about it this way, what if you heard that, way back at the beginning of this season, that shep was going to be on stargate for 10 eps.

me? i'd wonder if shep was going to be on stargate to fill in for or replace jack.

what if you'd read this back in s8, before rda left, would you worry that shep could be a replacement for jack???

i can understand thier fear, i really can. but i sincerely doubt that sam will be allowed to dominate the show

what i think is happening, sony/mgm/scifi wants claudia on stargate. and they don't care about any of the existing actors. bridge knows that amanda's popular, they know that it's not fair to demote her for no better reason than sony/mgm/scifi (SMS) falling in love for thier shiny new toy, so they're doing thier best to take care of one of thier own.

i would GUESS that, since AT has said she's getting 20 eps, that she'll still be paid as a full time actor, but will be on both shows. i don't think that brad will screw over his atlantis actors and that he will bring sam into the show in a good manner...she'll be there because she fits in with the story, not just put there.

I think SMS is making a huge mistake. the francise is build ON hte actors, not in spite of them. and stargate is no Law and Order, they can't just swap out the actors and keep the show going. there's too much dependance on the characters

[ChopinGal]

... I think the story itself demands Atlantis-time for the SG-1 character(s), because I think the Ori/Ancient thing is going to merge the two universes for a bit. So they need the characters' involvement, hence the lateral motion for Carter. I think it was going to happen because I think the story-arc was going there anyway.... If you look at it this way, you can almost begin to hope that Carter becomes the "gel" which draws the whole story together. It's unfortunate that plot is driving character rather than the other way around (with such long-established, rich characters), but since that's the way it is - might as well see the glass half full, right?

Interesting post ... so does that mean Carter may be gellin' after all?!

[minigeek]

Interesting post ... so does that mean Carter may be gellin' after all?!

I don't know what that means? Help?

[AGateFan]

I don't know what that means? Help?

Im pretty sure its a refrence to a commercial about shoe inserts.

I still cannot see how any of you can see having Carter as a recurring character on both shows is a good thing. Unless you saying its good for AT as she will clearly now have time to do other work.

[Melora]

The problem is for me is that we really don't know how many episodes Sam will be in each show. We have TL saying this? or a fan reporting that she/he believed TL said this, but would TL know this for sure? Even AT didn't know the exact way it was going to work. If it turns out that Sam is truly split equally between the two shows--I agree with Golfbooy--this does not seem good for the character because she is much less likely to have an important story in season 10. If she is mostly on SG-1, then it may not be a problem.

It seems that Caldwell may be in a total of 8 episodes this season (but just according to IMBD, which could easily be inaccurate). Carter is such a different character than Caldwell too--she's an established strong character for nine years, and Caldwell just came abroad season two of Atlantis!! So how JM could think that just because Atlantis fans aren't too upset over Caldwell, so why be upset over Carter, is beyond me.

We don't know for sure how many eps Sam is going to be in SGA. I don't even know if TPTB actually know yet. It was just something a fan inferred from the Q&A with Rachel Luttrell at a recent con. I doubt Rachel Luttrell would know for sure at this point. You might check out the RL appreciation thread to see the con report. I am still hoping that it is not as many as ten eps.

I agree - I don't like the comparison with Caldwell either. For me, he hasn't really added much to the show (even though I really like Mitch Pileggi). It seems he just pops in from time to time to have a couple of scenes (sometimes quite good scenes) with the various SGA characters and then disappears again. He is a very peripheral character. They could do this with Sam as well without wallpapering any of the SGA characters. My problem is that for every episode of SGA she is on as a peripheral character, she will not be on SG-1 as a core member of the team/cast. If she goes over to SGA for a few eps, I will be okay with that and might even enjoy it (one can always hope). But ten will just be too much IMHO. I hope the rumors are wrong.

[chocdoc]

think about it this way, what if you heard that, way back at the beginning of this season, that shep was going to be on stargate for 10 eps.

me? i'd wonder if shep was going to be on stargate to fill in for or replace jack.

what if you'd read this back in s8, before rda left, would you worry that shep could be a replacement for jack???

i can understand thier fear, i really can. but i sincerely doubt that sam will be allowed to dominate the show

what i think is happening, sony/mgm/scifi wants claudia on stargate. and they don't care about any of the existing actors. bridge knows that amanda's popular, they know that it's not fair to demote her for no better reason than sony/mgm/scifi (SMS) falling in love for thier shiny new toy, so they're doing thier best to take care of one of thier own.

i would GUESS that, since AT has said she's getting 20 eps, that she'll still be paid as a full time actor, but will be on both shows. i don't think that brad will screw over his atlantis actors and that he will bring sam into the show in a good manner...she'll be there because she fits in with the story, not just put there.

I think SMS is making a huge mistake. the francise is build ON hte actors, not in spite of them. and stargate is no Law and Order, they can't just swap out the actors and keep the show going. there's too much dependance on the characters

Thanks, Skydiver, for your positive post, and thanks to minigeek as well for your positive post. I hope you guys are right, and AT and Sam are treated well by this move between the two shows.

[chocdoc]

We don't know for sure how many eps Sam is going to be in SGA. I don't even know if TPTB actually know yet. It was just something a fan inferred from the Q&A with Rachel Luttrell at a recent con. I doubt Rachel Luttrell would know for sure at this point. You might check out the RL appreciation thread to see the con report. I am still hoping that it is not as many as ten eps.

I agree - I don't like the comparison with Caldwell either. For me, he hasn't really added much to the show (even though I really like Mitch Pileggi). It seems he just pops in from time to time to have a couple of scenes (sometimes quite good scenes) with the various SGA characters and then disappears again. He is a very peripheral character. They could do this with Sam as well without wallpapering any of the SGA characters. My problem is that for every episode of SGA she is on as a peripheral character, she will not be on SG-1 as a core member of the team/cast. If she goes over to SGA for a few eps, I will be okay with that and might even enjoy it (one can always hope). But ten will just be too much IMHO. I hope the rumors are wrong.

Yes, that is what I hope too. Being reduced on SG-1 in any significant way because of the crossovers would be the problem. Remaining on SG-1 as a main lead as usual and occasionally crossing over--no problem.

[Melora]

If you look at it this way, you can almost begin to hope that Carter becomes the "gel" which draws the whole story together. It's unfortunate that plot is driving character rather than the other way around (with such long-established, rich characters), but since that's the way it is - might as well see the glass half full, right?

I couldn't give you any green but I really like this point of view. I just hope you're right. If you remain optimistic, at least you're fairly happy until TPTB crush all your hopes and dreams . And if you're lucky, things will work out the way you want. If you're a pessimist, you're just miserable the whole time anyway. So I will take your advise and try to remain positive.

[AGateFan]

I couldn't give you any green but I really like this point of view. I just hope you're right. If you remain optimistic, at least you're fairly happy until TPTB crush all your hopes and dreams . And if you're lucky, things will work out the way you want. If you're a pessimist, you're just miserable the whole time anyway. So I will take your advise and try to remain positive.

Hey now, as a pessimist you soften the blow for when they do crush your hopes. But if you are wrong you are pleasantly suprised, which is always a nice feeling.