Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Agent_Dark]

I've got a few thoughts on the Vala thing here

[dmovies]

I think I may be moving into the "watches Atlantis only" category. But I can't totally stop watching SG-1 if Sam is in it.

I don't know if I will be able to watch either show, SG1 or SGA even if Sam is in both. The first half of Season 9 was awful, in very respect. It isn't even good scifi!

[dmovies]

I'm glad Amanda signed her new contract. When I first saw Vala and Sam together I thought: hey, this could be fun, those 2 together.Brad Wright's also an exellent, exellent writer! For the Sam character I think it's an honour that she's in Atlantis 2, whenever that is. I think the Wraith should start to fear us, Tau'ri and their allies, cause we just launched our secret weapon: Sam. And she can kick butt! Military and scientificly wise. I hope McKay keeps his sometimes, idiot sayings of Sam for himself, like, Sam was a dumb blond, and very sexy? Yeah the second part is so true, also for Amanda. But the first? If it wasn't for Sam and SG-1 he'd be sittin' right there with a snack in his head, instead a snack in a special there for designed aquarium (little changed sayin' here, cause I actually like McKay, only not certain things about Sam that look her like a dumb blond). So not true. Sam's blond yeah, but by her smartness and genious is an example for the general society, and Amanda with her hard work and studying lines methods (like what was it, making scheme's of the scientific things Sam had to say, or look up things about the scientific part of the show) is an example of a hard workin' CUTE n BEAUTIFUL Angel, that loves her job and loves her live. Oh yeah she's for me also the Patron Saint of Fun, Love and Hapiness.

I hereby nomibate, Amanda Tapping, to greatest Canadian

We have an election for Greatest Belgian, for Canada I nominate Amanda for it, in the Top 10 here in Belgium, no single woman is in it.

I'm really sorry Amanda signed for season 10 of 'whatever?' I think her character has been insulted, replaced, and considered unnecessary. This can't be good for her career. They're just going to continue to shut her out and eventually get rid of her. I hope I'm wrong, but the simple truth is - she never wanted Sam to be the 'girlfriend' of the lead character. She worked hard to establish Sam Carter as a strong woman, and we thought she did. Unfortunately, TPTB simply used her as the token female and now that RDA is gone, they just can't figure out what to do with the Sam Carter character! We've all been burned-

[SnoggingPicard]

Does anyone else feel like they are writing a show to fit a character (Vala) instead of writing a character to fit a show? I think they had already made up their minds concerning how CB would be used on Stargate. Have you ever seen a GUEST star talked up as much as CB? Regardless of having a baby I think that they were having doubts at the end of season 8 as to "what to do with Carter." It's hard to believe how fast they could ruin a show. RDA ...where are you when we need you!!!

I kind of get this feeling too. TPTB seem to have fallen head over heels in love with the idea of Vala and are willing to change anything about the show in order to accomodate having her around more often. I'm glad that we've gotten the news that Amanda Tapping has been signed as a regular cast member, but I'm holding judgment until we actually see what "regular" means for her. I completely agree with what you are trying to say here. Instead of figuring out the best way of having Vala mesh with the show and the other characters, they seem so dead-set on having their idea of "VALA" come to the screen unchanged that they are willing to change the show itself to make it work. Hmmm...I'm still crossing my fingers that everything works out okay. I'll admit that seeing AT listed as a regular cast mmeber next year did make me feel a little better. Maybe it won't be as bad as we've been worried it will be.

[ann_sgcfan]

I don't know if I will be able to watch either show, SG1 or SGA even if Sam is in both. The first half of Season 9 was awful, in very respect. It isn't even good scifi!

You know, maybe it's the bad day I had at work, but I feel the same way. I don't feel like fighting anymore. That is what I feel like I'm doing. Fighting to keep Sam on the show. Fighting to give leadership to Sam. Fighting to hear where Jack is now. Fighting to have decent team episodes. Fighting to have SG-1 back! Of course I'll give the rest of season 9 a chance. If it continues to go south, then there will not be a s10 for me. I do want to support AT and I enjoy the character, but it all depends on how they write her and if she will be an important member of the team. It could be that I will like it. However, the more times I hear TPTB tell me how great something is going to be I tend to cringe and expect the worse (been burned too many times lately).

I think AT will fight for herself within reason. She will not demand anything nor will she speak badly about any of the characters. I sincerely hope that AT is happy with the direction TPTB are heading with Sam and SG-1. I trust AT and that alone is why I will be tuning in on January 6th for the 2nd half of s9.

[AGateFan]

I won't be surprising anyone when I say I won't be watching season 10. I may watch an ep if it is dedicated to Carter - but that is because I like her character so much.

The show which I love has been dismantled and the show they are creating - well they're 10 a penny. SG1 was a little different being mainly about a small team looking out for each other - and yes a fantastic female character in the cast.

I may start watching Atlantis. I dislike the Vala character for all the reasons stated and think in principal I can't watch. As long as people keep watching they will carry on serving women up like this.

I'm mainly dispointed for Amanda who has worked too hard on the show to be treated like this. Some may say that this is what the business is like, but it is only like this as long as the people within it behave that way.

Now I'm wondering whether to watch the rest of season 9 - the last 2 eps will be dedicated to establishing Vala as a regular character - so I won't be watching those.

Bitter and Indignant of Preston!!!

As I have said before this is no reflection on CB - I just wish they had made a better role for her.

I agree. CB was good as Areyn Sun until they trashed that character with the stupid sprog\too much of a wimpified angsty female that needed to be saved by her superman.... but this is Stargate... or was Stargate. It is not anymore. No longer do we have the heroic team looking out for the best interest of earth. Now we have a group of individual people looking out for their own personal interest. My personal interest has waned. Scifi\Sony will get nothing further from me except contempt. I will start looking for the next Stargate\B5... another one is bound to pop up on some nearly independant network somewhere. It too will be good for a few years before it is swallowed by the sesspool that is corporate TV.

[dreamer]

Her personality maybe to nice and that may be why they are destroying her character. However, they always say you should do what you are asked without too much question. You can voice an opinion but ultimately they are paying you. AT most likely realizes this. She just seems to love doing the show and may soon tire of the politics. The sad fact is I believe they are destroying the show. The posts by the I hate Sam group seem to be mainly the same people. They continue to post the same thing as much as 20 times a day.They really don't have anything new to add and obviously want something besides Sci Fi for entertainment. AT is just a tremendous actress and does an awesome job. Not to slight Claudia Black (the Vala character on the show so far is not my idea of a great character. Her acting is good but she is really just using sex to sell her character.) but, I don't believe for a minute that she would have brought the show to 9 seasons and a 10th future. Sex will not keep the story going for long. It is about traveling through a stargate to some planet that they've never been to before.
I hope that tptb get this soon and are not afraid to make AT a leader or allow her to be the strong character she can be. They really should go back to using her talent to their advantage. We will just have to wait for them to show their ideas and what direction they are taking and hope they do not destroy such a tremendous and exciting show. Stargate is about a team and if you don't feel the team spirit you probably will not keep watching. My opinion anyway.

[minigeek]

I currently have less optimism than usual in the PTB to actually have two strong leading female characters at the same time and to portray them well...

I don't feel like fighting anymore

m really sorry Amanda signed for season 10 of 'whatever?' I think her character has been insulted, replaced, and considered unnecessary. This can't be good for her career.

I think I may be moving into the "watches Atlantis only" category.

Vala full time is the kiss of death for Carter.

I'd feel a lot more copasetic about full-time Vala if I thought that, at least when it comes to Stargate SG(-1)C, TPTB collectively had a handle on the difference between 'very good' and 'hoovering the swamp bottom.'

The show which I love has been dismantled and the show they are creating - well they're 10 a penny. SG1 was a little different being mainly about a small team looking out for each other - and yes a fantastic female character in the cast.

It appears our worst fears have been realized.

Zoiks! I love you guys. You KNOW I love you guys, but ... Holy negativity, Batman!

Does anyone around here hold out any hope whatsoever? Or do we all think it's imminent doom from here on in? If so, then with the utmost respect for differing points of view, is this all we're going to be able to do from now on? Wallow and share "woe-is-SG-1" stories? That's not the SaGC thread!

I just can't fathom that. We need to find some good, potentially positive conjecture to chew on. Doesn't mean it has to all be hearts-and-flowers, crit can surely abound, but for the love of (whomever), we can't possibly turn this little thread into the sludge and gloom fest it's become of late, either. Can we??

If we can't come up with anything remotely hopeful to talk about anymore then I'm thinkin' we might need to change the name of this thread to "Sam WAS a Great Character. Sci-Fi channel sucks. We hate Sony (and RCC too). Pass the prozac..."

.
mini(the depressed)geek

[chocdoc]

Well, I can't say I'm surprised by the news about Claudia Black. I think TPTB have wanted this to happen ever since Prometheus Unbound. My feeling is that it has been planned for quite awhile, given the many things the TPTB have said about CB and about the character of Vala. They are "in love" with Vala--they love writing for her-- it seems way way more so than for Mitchell, and franky even our three beloved originals.

I do wish CB well on the show, and I do think she is a really good actress. She also seems like a really nice person, like BB. I don't care very much for the character of Vala, but certainly it is possible that she can get better.

I am happy about the news about AT as a regular. I know we don't know exactly how she will be split between the shows, but there is some indication that she will still be predominantly on SG-1. I am hoping that they can write Sam well now that AT is there for 20 episodes.

It's funny. I have no idea what I really hope for, except that I want AT to be happy. That is really the bottom line for me, and that Sam is written as she deserves to be written next season. Sometimes I wished that AT was just on SGA full-time because I have come to like that show a bit better than SG-1 (mainly because it has more of the team feel that I miss in SG-1 right now). Yet I don't really want this because I love Sam on SG-1. But I don't know what SG-1 will become, so then I wish she eventually would be on SGA. Then again, maybe because they have to tone down Vala, I could really enjoy Vala and Sam.

One thing for sure for me---Vala has to interact in an interesting fashion with ALL the team members, not just Daniel. It will kill the show if it becomes one-sided. Many fans like myself held out this season because we knew it wouldn't be the Daniel/Vala show forever. It can't be this next season. The potential is there with her interaction with all the characters.

Let's just hope all the actors are happy---and let's hope that they all are treated with respect, that each get moments to shine, and that most of all we see some real caring between the characters. Without that caring, it is just turn into another poor scifi show.

Did I mention that AT will back next year!!!!! That I am very grateful for.


Hey, wonder if she'll do Whistler too?

[ann_sgcfan]

Her personality maybe to nice and that may be why they are destroying her character. However, they always say you should do what you are asked without too much question. You can voice an opinion but ultimately they are paying you. AT most likely realizes this. She just seems to love doing the show and may soon tire of the politics. The sad fact is I believe they are destroying the show. The posts by the I hate Sam group seem to be mainly the same people. They continue to post the same thing as much as 20 times a day.They really don't have anything new to add and obviously want something besides Sci Fi for entertainment. AT is just a tremendous actress and does an awesome job. Not to slight Claudia Black (the Vala character on the show so far is not my idea of a great character. Her acting is good but she is really just using sex to sell her character.) but, I don't believe for a minute that she would have brought the show to 9 seasons and a 10th future. Sex will not keep the story going for long. It is about traveling through a stargate to some planet that they've never been to before.
I hope that tptb get this soon and are not afraid to make AT a leader or allow her to be the strong character she can be. They really should go back to using her talent to their advantage. We will just have to wait for them to show their ideas and what direction they are taking and hope they do not destroy such a tremendous and exciting show. Stargate is about a team and if you don't feel the team spirit you probably will not keep watching. My opinion anyway.

I agree!! Well said! I couldn't give you any green.

[chocdoc]

Zoiks! I love you guys. You KNOW I love you guys, but ... Holy negativity, Batman!

Does anyone around here hold out any hope whatsoever? Or do we all think it's imminent doom from here on in? If so, then with the utmost respect for differing points of view, is this all we're going to be able to do from now on? Wallow and share "woe-is-SG-1" stories? That's not the SaGC thread!

I just can't fathom that. We need to find some good, potentially positive conjecture to chew on. Doesn't mean it has to all be hearts-and-flowers, crit can surely abound, but for the love of (whomever), we can't possibly turn this little thread into the sludge and gloom fest it's become of late, either. Can we??

If we can't come up with anything remotely hopeful to talk about anymore then I'm thinkin' we might need to change the name of this thread to "Sam WAS a Great Character. Sci-Fi channel sucks. We hate Sony (and RCC too). Pass the prozac..."

.
mini(the depressed)geek

Hey, minigeek--just read your post after posting mine. I was a bit optimistic, right?

Agent Dark seems optimistic, and even our own "cynical" Skydiver provided some cautious optimisim, as well as you, of course!

[Agent_Dark]

Zoiks! I love you guys. You KNOW I love you guys, but ... Holy negativity, Batman!

Does anyone around here hold out any hope whatsoever?

I do!
I still believe that all this speculation will ultimately turn out to be wrong and S10 will turn out to be the Stargate we know and love (at least a new version of the Stargate we know and love).


And if not, well I'm just gonna fan wank my way through and Sam and Vala will marry and have lots of babies *nods*

Hey, if other fans can do that....

[Skydiver]

i really don't like the decisions they've made...but i'm also not sillyenough to think that they give a tinker's damn what i like. they fell in love with vala and with recreating farscape last year and have been deliberately moving towards that end ever since.

as long as amanda's happy, i'll deal. i just hope that they are honestly treating her fairly and not abusing her loyalty, because that would be a real and true shame

now all i need to do is emotionally divest myself from this show so i can sit back and watch it die without mourning its passing.

I'll support amanda as long as she's on the show....but the rest of it can go jump in a wormhole

[minigeek]

choc, well articulated. At the end of the day, YES. It's entirely possible that interference from Sony may eventually drive the Stargate franchise/series into the ground. What big network hasn't ruined a great TV show yet? But for the time being I stil have enough vested "like/interest" in the current character set to keep watching. Personally, I think the storytelling this year hasn't been as powerful as previous years. The new characters have some potential (even Vala if you tone her down a bit), it's the writing that seems weird and contrived. But somehow, it's still the SG-1 universe, in some incarnation. It's still Stargate. Still about a gateway of wormholes through the universe. Still about Ancients and Asgard and the occasional snakey-dude. Plus, after so many years, the characters become like "old friends" - you'll follow their adventures pretty much wherever - out of familiarity and an oddly inexplicable sense of loyalty. I was laughing to myself after the last Harry Potter book (because I didn't like it as much as some of the others). The problem is, I'm hooked on the characters already, so I'll read the next book too. And likely the one after that... Somehow, the characters themselves lend the story a little light, even when it's not as strong as it could be. It'd be nice if, instead of spending $$ on cast members next year, they spent some money on new writers instead - and perhaps a new "supervising executive producer", too.

I do wish CB well on the show, and I do think she is a really good actress. She also seems like a really nice person, like BB. I don't care very much for the character of Vala, but certainly it is possible that she can get better.

I am happy about the news about AT as a regular. I know we don't know exactly how she will be split between the shows, but there is some indication that she will still be predominantly on SG-1. I am hoping that they can write Sam well now that AT is there for 20 episodes.

[chocdoc]

i really don't like the decisions they've made...but i'm also not sillyenough to think that they give a tinker's damn what i like. they fell in love with vala and with recreating farscape last year and have been deliberately moving towards that end ever since.

as long as amanda's happy, i'll deal. i just hope that they are honestly treating her fairly and not abusing her loyalty, because that would be a real and true shame

now all i need to do is emotionally divest myself from this show so i can sit back and watch it die without mourning its passing.

I'll support amanda as long as she's on the show....but the rest of it can go jump in a wormhole

Well, that's the problem, isn't it. We don't really know if they are abusing AT's loyalty, and I think she is too professional and nice for us to really know if this is happening or not. So, I just have to hope that they treat her well after all these years. The reason that BB and CB are even on this bloody show is because of the work of RDA, AT, MS, and CJ. I hope TPTB don't forget that.

Me too on supporting Amanda as long as she is on the show.