Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Tracy Jane]

hon, i've spoken english for my whole life and sometimes can't express myself. don't sweat it.

Lol! Tell me about it. Your English is fantastic, and if you start saying it isn't, I'll come over to France myself to prove my point, Lys.

[ChopinGal]

I have a small question for the Farscape fans. Everyone keeps saying that Browder was given the lead role because his name was/is more well known than the three original members of Stargate, but I'm curious why people think this. I don't admit to really know much about Farscape. I've only recently begun to watch the show. However, from what I have read, Farscape was originally aired on Scif, so I'm just curious what the ratings were like when Farscape was actually on the air. From what Amanda said about SG-1 on Stargate: True Science...Stargate SG-1 has been on the air now for nine years and is seen by over 20 million people in 80 different countries on a weekly basis. I'm very interested how this compares/compared to Farscape.

I know Farscape may have been very popular with the critics, but I can honestly say that before BB and CB came to Stargate, I had never even heard of the show or the actors. So how can one really say that Browder is more of a name than say Tapping or Shanks or Judge. We are not talking about RDA here, someone who had a hit television show on one of the top three American television channels which was watched by over 10 million Americans on a weekly basis. I don't really mean to be disrespectful to Browder, but honestly, I don't see how anyone can compare RDA, being the lead on MacGuyver for seven years and Browder being the lead on Farscape for four. Honestly, more people watched RDA in the first season of MacGuyver than all four seasons of Farscape combined.

I'm not knocking Browder being added to the show. The show has always been a four member team( Jack may not have been on SG-1 team in season 8, but the show was written to include him as if he were). So in that respect they needed to add another character/actor to the show, but I really feel as if TPTB have done the other members of the cast a real disservice in not pushing Stargate now as a true ensemble cast. The fact that they are going out of their way to push Browder into a lead role as if it's by his name alone that is actually keeping the show alive is very saddening. As happy as I was to finally get our full opening credits back last night, it was very hard not to notice how much they were pushing Browder/Mitchell in the credit clips.

I don't envy Browder. He's coming into a very hard situation where not only is he a new cast member in a long running show, but he's also been forced into the forefront as the new lead of the show and the team and many fans, like myself, are having a difficult time understanding why he's there. I still don't believe the writers have done a very good job at showing us why Mitchell deserved all the praise he recieved in the first Avalon I.

As for FH2, as far as JM's comments about this being a good Sam episode. If this is considered to be a good Sam episode, I'm a little worried about what we should expect in the rest of the season. Sam was little more than a babysitter in this episode, in my opinion. I know I'm in the minority when I say that I can live with Sam not being the leader of SG-1. I may not like it, but I can deal with it. What really bothers me is the fact that Sam appears to be a member of SG-1 in name alone this season. It's like the writers are doing whatever they possibly can to make sure Sam and Mitchell are not together so they don't have to deal with the leadership issue. Mitchell goes off-world with Teal'c and Sam is with Daniel... or Mitchell goes off world with Daniel and SG-whatever and Sam babysits at the SGC while Teal'c is off doing his Jaffa thing. I'm sorry, but when exactly are we going to see some TEAM interaction? I want my SG-1... not SG-Mitchell, or SG-Daniel, or SG-Sam....

I want SG-1. The team. With Sam as a integral member of said team.

The best part of FH2 for me was the scene where Teal'c tells Gerak that he would rather die with freedom than become a slave again to the Ori, and the briefing room scene with Hammond. You could really see a loss/sadness in Daniel and Sam's eyes when they talked to Hammond. It really made me miss what we used to have with him around. And I agree that the writers missed a wonderful opportunity by not mentioning Jack in that scene. This was a perfect episode to mention him and it be perfectly in context with what was going on.

Oh well. Enough of my ranting for one day. I didn't actually dislike FH2. More than anything, I think after the long hiatus, I was just expecting a bit more.

Excellent post, Kat! Yes, by pushing a new agenda down our throats for S9 but not thinking more carefully how to introduce and integrate the new characters, there has been a lot of disappointment and frustration.

No one, neither actors nor fans, have been served well by S9 so far.

I tuned in last night, so hopeful that we would begin to see some type of cohesion, forward movement, to integrate the team and even the Ancients/Ori plotline (need a scorecard for that one!) but, once again, could only relate to bits and pieces of dialogue and action. You make valid points of the team being split - the separation of the main characters - each off doing their own thing. None of this is working for me.

I wrote ages ago: I want to care about these characters again, old and new. Give me a reason to care! The plague plot fell as flat as the pancake makeup on the Prior's face. As you've stated, Sam was a glorified babysitter to Orlin ... looking angsty and peeking around corners. For goodness sake - she should have been in the field calibrating the device that was going to render the Prior powerless! And poor Cam - how many flip one-liners are they gonna write for this guy? His heart and delivery don't even seem in it anymore.

Frankly, I think the writers are skating around the whole leadership issue and content to let King Kong enter the building without calling attention to his shadow. Holy Hannah, we are adult viewers - let's just look at why Cam will be leader or Sam will be re-instated as leader or both will somehow co-lead. Make a believer of me! Give me some tight, reasonable dialogue about what's going on here. It's like watching a dysfunctional family play out their roles and everyone in the family is in denial!!

Yes, I agree with you, Kat! Teal'c had the most commanding presence last night and I loved his dialogue with Gerak at the Jaffa monument. There was fire in his belly! Go, T!! "I die free" was never delivered better!

Hammond not mentioning Jack - another opportunity missed, one which the fans would have appreciated and which would have further integrated the new season and provided some leverage for S10 without him. S9 hasn't just sprung from the head of a mythical god ... we want context! Eight years of history ... many players, many enemies, many moments the fans hold dear.

If we step back, all of us, and take a look at the present cast ... we have three solid veterans that keep us all coming back: AT, CJ, and MS. And then we have Siler and Walter too who give us some of the flavour from the past. Next, the new kids on the block: BB, CB, BBr, and LD, possibly Gossett. All of these characters can congeal into a wonderful cast *if* they are provided with really intelligent scripts which respect their integration and it's done in such a way that we, the fans, are hooked!

How about ... Cam and Sam and T and Daniel - going on more missions together and sharing some off-time together - remember how we loved when our old gang did something like go to Mallory's for a steak and beer? Who could forget Jack and T knocking on Sam's door with the pizza and Star War tapes?! Maybe we need to see Cam sharing some r&r with the original SG1 and somehow revealing more of himself in that context. Drop the one-liners and pull back the mask and give us something more human. Maybe this will happen by end of S9, possibly even in next week's episode which seems to be Cam heavy.

Bottom line: maybe there are too many cooks in the kitchen (PTB/writers) ... the characters all have potential ... but there has been no unifying principle so far to make me care enough. Just like you, Kat, I miss what made SG1 such a hit in the first place - the team itself!

Something's broke ... does anyone know how to fix it?!

Peace, CG

[Skydiver]

MS has already left once...why focus on him? Sadly for AT, it's still very much a "boy's club" so it seems to me they aren't going to want to focus on her, since she's not the "model" type of woman. You know...the waif thin model's that the media would like us all to think we should be like.

yep. and she also 'inconvenienced' them by taking time for herself to have a baby. she put herself and her life first and that was all the excuse they needed to 'put her in her place'

and as to the boy's club, why else do you think it took her years to be allowed to direct while the boys got to direct or write much sooner? I sincerely doubt it was because they didn't think she could do it, it's because the guys take care of the guys.

True enough. No matter how much fans of AT, MS, CJ or any of the other "originial" cast complain, it will continue to fall on deaf ears for the most part. I'm not saying fans shouldn't complain, it just means that most of SciLie PTB won't listen much.

scili doesn't give a fig about the fans. to them we're stupid mindless souls. they don't respect us or care about fans, or what fans want. they do what they want and just go on thier merry way

[ForeverSg1]

Two guesses as to why you're not seeing the BB/FS fans rushing to the show...
1) The current ratings system is way to frellin' old and doesn't take into account the folks who TAPE shows to watch later or the folks who gather with fellow fans at one place to watch.

2) A lot of Ben fans don't surf the net.

Actually I recently read an article that says that as of Dec 26th, 2005 the Neilsen ratings will now take DVR's into account in their ratings. So it will be interesting to see if the ratings for Stargate change at all this week. The article said there are 9000 Neilsen members and right now 100 DVR's will be accounted for, but this by summer 2006 they will be adding more PVR to account for the 110 million homes that now use DVR's.

[Lys]

Hey Lys, I'm backing out of Shore Leave...

Aah ! You will be missed there Strix.

(((((Strix)))))

Here's the new list :

Shore Leave

Skydiver
minigeek
tsaxlady
dancer of spaz
Dani 76
Lys


GABIT2

Skydiver
minigeek
Dani 76
Tracy Jane

[Kliggins]

Here's my last list, please tell me if there are any changes or additions before I post it on the GABIT thread and the Shore Leave thread.


Shore Leave

Skydiver
minigeek
tsaxlady
dancer of spaz
Strix Varia
Dani 76
Lys


GABIT2

Skydiver
minigeek
Dani 76
Tracy Jane

Um....Lys

ForeverSG1 on Gabit list.

[jckfan55]

and as to the boy's club, why else do you think it took her years to be allowed to direct while the boys got to direct or write much sooner? I sincerely doubt it was because they didn't think she could do it, it's because the guys take care of the guys.

Yeah, maybe she should have been out golfing with the guys.

[Tracy Jane]

Yeah, maybe she should have been out golfing with the guys.

Yeah, what with the boys and their golfing and their ice hockey saturdays, the girlies probably do get left out a bit.

[Lys]

Um....Lys

ForeverSG1 on Gabit list.

Shore Leave

Skydiver
minigeek
tsaxlady
dancer of spaz
Dani 76
Lys


GABIT2

Skydiver
minigeek
Dani 76
Tracy Jane
Forever SG1

Added ! Anyone else ?

[tsaxlady]

*snip*
there is also the fact that the neilson ratings are horribly unreliable. for the most part they are taken from 5000 house holds. that's it, 5000 out of hte whole us (there is some other methods in bigger cities, but those are just for overnights, not the normal ones)

what are the chances that a good portion of those 5000 folks are stargate fans???? or farscape fans???? not many.

often the success or failure of a show has less to do with its popular appeal than it has appealing to that small group of black box owners

Okay Nielson is making changes in their system. There new meter is called the Active/Passive Meter. I'm a Nielson home and have just recently recieved word that I will be getting one of the new meters.

Quote from ACNielson newsletter:
Nielsen's universal metering initiative
Digital television, coupled with seamless functionality between home entertainment devices, has made our task of measuring TV audiences more complex. But the common thread that weaves together every viewing device and every piece of new technology is the presence of audio.

Acoustic encoding is the backbone of our universal metering initiative. To address challenges posed by new advances like digital television, Nielsen is encoding TV programs with audio codes undetectable by the human ear. By identifying programs through these patented audio codes, our Active/Passive (A/P) Meters can determine what was watched and when it was watched — regardless of a program's source or a given television's settings.

There are currently approximately 25,000 metered homes in the US and 1.6 million homes that do paper diaries. The new meter will be better measuring device and I think they will have them in more homes than the current meters.


As for RDA's name being above/before the SG-1 log that is partly because he was also a producer of the show. When the lead actor is also a producer then you usually see their name first.

I'm not surprised to see Ben listed before Amanda in the credits this season. For Amanda's future personally I hope she gets the chance to direct in S10. If she has a few good shows in the directors chair between the S7 episode Resurrection and one or more in S10 then it would open more doors for her in the future. She has said she wants to direct again and if the plan is to have a Sam light episode next season hopefully they will give her the chance to direct again. She did a great job with Resurrection which in my opinion was a weak episode story wise but it came off as a decent episode in lare part because it was well directed. Maybe she will be the next Penny Marshall.

[SunKrux]

But she's Canadian and lives in Canada... not like some other actors who do major commuting. So we'd assume Canada, right?

Five years....is that all we've got? *starts to cry quietly*

As I wasn't sure about where Amanda is from, I did the "generalizing" thing. Do kids in Canada start school at age 5? I don't know. If so, then five years is much better than one.

I love the show just as much as the rest of you, but if it ever stops being fun for the cast/crew I wouldn't want it to continue as their attitude about it not being fun would start to show through. As long as all involved with the show are happy and enjoying getting up at the prebuttcrack of dawn for work, I say, keep going. If not, hang up those hats and move on. Nothing more painful than watching actors who are no longer having fun.

[ForeverSg1]

Here's my last list, please tell me if there are any changes or additions before I post it on the GABIT thread and the Shore Leave thread.


Shore Leave

Skydiver
minigeek
tsaxlady
dancer of spaz
Strix Varia
Dani 76
Lys
ForeverSG1


GABIT2

Skydiver
minigeek
Dani 76
Tracy Jane
ForeverSG1

I've added myself to the above and I'll be at Vancouver 2006 for the Sunday Panel and Brunch/Auction. Wish I had the money to do the full tour thing in Vancouver, but I think I'd rather spend the week in the UK this year rather than an hour in front of the Stargate.

[SunKrux]

yep. and she also 'inconvenienced' them by taking time for herself to have a baby. she put herself and her life first and that was all the excuse they needed to 'put her in her place'

and as to the boy's club, why else do you think it took her years to be allowed to direct while the boys got to direct or write much sooner? I sincerely doubt it was because they didn't think she could do it, it's because the guys take care of the guys.

I just think guys are jealous that we, women can have kids. Sad but true though, the "inconveniencing" the show by having a baby and putting one's life first.

scili doesn't give a fig about the fans. to them we're stupid mindless souls. they don't respect us or care about fans, or what fans want. they do what they want and just go on thier merry way

Preaching to the choir my friend, preaching to the choir.

[jckfan55]

For Amanda's future personally I hope she gets the chance to direct in S10. If she has a few good shows in the directors chair between the S7 episode Resurrection and one or more in S10 then it would open more doors for her in the future. She has said she wants to direct again and if the plan is to have a Sam light episode next season hopefully they will give her the chance to direct again. She did a great job with Resurrection which in my opinion was a weak episode story wise but it came off as a decent episode in lare part because it was well directed. Maybe she will be the next Penny Marshall.

Yes, if they're going to go Sam light, they might as well let her direct. They know she can do it. The baby might not even be much of an issue. After all, she was supposed to direct an episode without Sam in it much to give her a chance to prep & she managed quite well in a pretty Sam heavy episode. And if she wants to direct in the future I'm all for it, but I'd hate to lose her from the screen.

[SunKrux]

Actually I recently read an article that says that as of Dec 26th, 2005 the Neilsen ratings will now take DVR's into account in their ratings. So it will be interesting to see if the ratings for Stargate change at all this week. The article said there are 9000 Neilsen members and right now 100 DVR's will be accounted for, but this by summer 2006 they will be adding more PVR to account for the 110 million homes that now use DVR's.

It's about bloody time! They should have done this when VCR's came into play.

Okay Nielson is making changes in their system. There new meter is called the Active/Passive Meter. I'm a Nielson home and have just recently recieved word that I will be getting one of the new meters.

<snippity do da>

There are currently approximately 25,000 metered homes in the US and 1.6 million homes that do paper diaries. The new meter will be better measuring device and I think they will have them in more homes than the current meters.

Sweet! They need to get more of them in homes that actually ENJOY scifi! Then we'd get more quality scifi shows and they'd all get equal and proper advertising.

As for RDA's name being above/before the SG-1 log that is partly because he was also a producer of the show. When the lead actor is also a producer then you usually see their name first.

Good luck to Amanda getting the chance to direct again. We need more female directors in the world.