Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[NearlyCircular]

Well, Crusade. I actually liked it. It was heavy on narration, of course, but well done. And, big surprise, I liked Vala in it. She was very much toned down, and much more sympathetic here. At the end, I felt curious to see what's going to happen to her. I wonder how the fans who like over-the-top Vala will feel about her in this episode. There were far fewer scenes showing

Spoiler:

MS speaking as Vala than I thought there would be. I guess I assumed they would go back and forth between the 2 more than they did. It worked better this way, I think, to show Vala most of the time.

The episode is an obvious set up for the finale, and the

Spoiler:

potential for problems with the Russians now that they'll have their own ship. But hey, at least they didn't get their stargate back. Nice scene between Landry and the Russian colonel, with Landry calling his bluff.

I loved the scene when

Spoiler:

Teal'c, Sam, and Cam contemplate Vala's question of if a birth without copulation has ever occured before. Teal'c's response, "Darth Vader", and Cam's "King Arthur", followed by Sam's response to that answer, "That's what you were thinking of?" Good stuff!

NC

[Deejay435]

Can't say I'm a fan of tonight's episode. No action, all exposition.

Spoiler:

Welcome to tell, not show.

Vala walks into the men's locker room with her come hither look, searching out Mitchell. Mitchell sees Daniel giving him said come hither look. Vala is speaking through Daniel. Oh how...Danielless this episode is going to be. Sad. Sam gets really excited that her experiment has worked. Go Sam. Vala, Vala, Vala, talk, talk, talk. SG1, sans Daniel, sit around on their butts. Lather, rinse, repeat. Goodness, all Ori villages appear to be identical. Vala, Vala, Vala, talk, talk, talk. SG1, sans Daniel, sit around on their butts. In the very teeny B-plot, the Russians, in the form of the wonderful Chekov (I love that guy!) refuse to sign a new treaty and want their gate back. Chinese rep looks happily smug. Vala, Vala, Vala, talk, talk, talk. SG1, sans Daniel, sit around on their butts. It turns out the Ori have a working supergate and have an invasion force of believers clad in plate armor on the way. Vala, Vala, Vala, talk, talk, talk. SG1, sans Daniel, sit around on their butts. You get the picture. Landry gets hip to Chekov's little plan to force more tech out of the US, since Russia really doesn't want to run and SG program, and really probably don't want to take on the Ori. Landry promises Russia a Daedalus class ship. Vala, Vala, Vala, talk, talk, talk. The link to her is broken. Vala in the Ori galaxy finagles a way into the invasion force.

Did I mention SG1 sitting on their butts for the entire episode????

Here endeth my rant.

[Osiris-RA]

Don't really know what I can say about tonights SG1 ep. Well, Carter and T were there anyway. Gotta admit, I wasn't paying much attention. Narrative based episodes don't really appeal to me. But I think I got the gist of everything. At least I think I did.

Spoiler:

That Alien-Hybrid X-files-ey looking Prior was delivering news of impending doom, correct?

Methinks I got that much...

[Deejay435]

I loved the scene when

Spoiler:

Teal'c, Sam, and Cam contemplate Vala's question of if a birth without copulation has ever occured before. Teal'c's response, "Darth Vader", and Cam's "King Arthur", followed by Sam's response to that answer, "That's what you were thinking of?" Good stuff!

NC

That was all I really liked in the episode. But...wow, I've missed SOMETHING. Since when was

Spoiler:

Darth Vader a virgin birth? Which movie was THAT in?

[stargate barbie]

That was all I really liked in the episode. But...wow, I've missed SOMETHING. Since when was

Spoiler:

Darth Vader a virgin birth? Which movie was THAT in?

phantom menace. "there was no father" or something along those lines.

[SG1Poz]

Well they finally

Spoiler:

toned down Vala. She seemed even human, real tears, showing emotion. All in all it was a bit boring. Vala's story line barely held my interest. It was a very Vala centered episode. On the other hand, did you notice the close ups tonight? We had numerous close ups. I didn't catch who the director was but it was different. I liked them.

I hope the finale/ cliffhanger shows us a little more pizzaz.

I was just over at SciFi.com and noticed that Sam is missing in the flash ad picture of Sg-1 for tonight's episode! I just wrote them, [email protected] to let them know how wrong this is and how hurt Amanda Tapping may be if she see's she omitted from the team shot! Oh they have Vala but no Sam .

[Strix varia]

Well, Crusade. I actually liked it. It was heavy on narration, of course, but well done. And, big surprise, I liked Vala in it. She was very much toned down, and much more sympathetic here. At the end, I felt curious to see what's going to happen to her. I wonder how the fans who like over-the-top Vala will feel about her in this episode. There were far fewer scenes showing

Spoiler:

MS speaking as Vala than I thought there would be. I guess I assumed they would go back and forth between the 2 more than they did. It worked better this way, I think, to show Vala most of the time.

The episode is an obvious set up for the finale, and the

Spoiler:

potential for problems with the Russians now that they'll have their own ship. But hey, at least they didn't get their stargate back. Nice scene between Landry and the Russian colonel, with Landry calling his bluff.

I loved the scene when

Spoiler:

Teal'c, Sam, and Cam contemplate Vala's question of if a birth without copulation has ever occured before. Teal'c's response, "Darth Vader", and Cam's "King Arthur", followed by Sam's response to that answer, "That's what you were thinking of?" Good stuff!

NC

I felt about the same way, NC,

Spoiler:

although I thought the Landry bit was kind of dull. I liked both Mitchell and Vala. Claudia did a good job. If they both continue in this mode, I might actually like season 10. Amanda is being more animated in her expressions these past couple of eps, and I really like that. I hope it means she wasn't feeling as tired as she was at the beginning.

She looks like she's having more fun.

[ForeverSg1]

crusade spoiler

Spoiler:

I was glad that they didn't make Sam come across as nasty to Vala in tonight's episode. I thought Mitchell seemed a bit snotty, but Sam was really nice. She even told Vala she had syrup( oops I mean ice cream ) on her nose.

Just something that crossed my mind and I thought I'd share. Carry on.

[Carterslave]

Deejay435 pretty much captured my feelings. Oceans of 'meh.' Shanks wasted. Sam's and Teal'c's reactions the best thing in the episode, especially Teal'c's "Darth Vader?" The Ori

Spoiler:

are coming

and I'm finding myself hard-pressed to care.

[Forestia]

(anything i should be warned about before i check them out though?)

If it's the US edition, there was a problem that the threads ep. was the shortened ep. used for syndication, as opposed to the ep. that originally aired, however I believe the problem has been fixed. I bought the DVD, but I haven't looked at any of the extras on it yet.

Can't say I'm a fan of tonight's episode. No action, all exposition.

Yeah, you're pretty much on the ball with that. Pretty boring imo.

Spoiler:

Nice scene between Landry and the Russian colonel, with Landry calling his bluff.

I loved the scene when

Spoiler:

Teal'c, Sam, and Cam contemplate Vala's question of if a birth without copulation has ever occured before. Teal'c's response, "Darth Vader", and Cam's "King Arthur", followed by Sam's response to that answer, "That's what you were thinking of?" Good stuff!

NC

I agree, I thought those were the best scenes in the ep. I do have to say, I am interested to see how

Spoiler:

this situation with Vala having an "Ori baby" is going to be handled and what the overall plan may be for Vala,

but I suppose we will cross that bridge when we come to it

crusade spoiler

Spoiler:

I was glad that they didn't make Sam come across as nasty to Vala in tonight's episode. I thought Mitchell seemed a bit snotty, but Sam was really nice. She even told Vala she had syrup on her nose.

Just something that crossed my mind and I thought I'd share. Carry on.

I agree.

Spoiler:

I thought she should come across as being nice to Vala and I'm glad TPTB did not dissapoint me.

[starprops]

That was all I really liked in the episode. But...wow, I've missed SOMETHING. Since when was

Spoiler:

Darth Vader a virgin birth? Which movie was THAT in?

In Phantom Menace, Anakin's mother tells Qui Gon that she didn't get pregnant by any man, that Anakin had no father, she just suddenly realized she was pregnant, not knowing how it had occurred... Qui Gon seemed to think it was some sort of a Jedi "thing"....

[Tracy Jane]

I hope you'll post again when you've finished. I make it a practice not to read WIPs. Too much suspense already in my life, I don't like it in my fanfic.

I understand. I get really frustrated when I get sucked into a WIP and the updates are really slow. Or if the author drops it half way through.

[Agent_Dark]

RE Crusade:

Spoiler:

I liked it. Vala was really great in this ep, and I think Claudia Black did a great job. I didn't mind the lack of 'action' at all, since the story was good in its own right.
I especially loved Sam at the start (I have this wierd Sam/Food thing ) and her excitement at the communication device working. Especially the fact that her first reaction wasn't 'wtf, Vala is back in Daniel's body?!?!?!' but 'woot, the communication device is working!!' (and I definitely don't mean that in a bad way. She's seen so much over the last 9 years that someone communicating through someone elses body is entirely normal to her ) And the 'yay science!' aspect is soooo Sam
And I thought there was some nice Sam and Vala interaction happening. I will look foward to S10 in that regard (and for Sam/Vala potential of course )
Also 'Darth Vader' - I totally love Teal'c for that I'm still convinced that it is Sam who got Teal'c hooked on sci-fi movies (considering it's canon that she's a scifi junky). The image of them vegging out on Sam's couch to watch the latest B-grade scifi movie they rented is hilarious

[chocdoc]

RE Crusade:

Spoiler:

I liked it. Vala was really great in this ep, and I think Claudia Black did a great job. I didn't mind the lack of 'action' at all, since the story was good in its own right.
I especially loved Sam at the start (I have this wierd Sam/Food thing ) and her excitement at the communication device working. Especially the fact that her first reaction wasn't 'wtf, Vala is back in Daniel's body?!?!?!' but 'woot, the communication device is working!!' (and I definitely don't mean that in a bad way. She's seen so much over the last 9 years that someone communicating through someone elses body is entirely normal to her ) And the 'yay science!' aspect is soooo Sam
And I thought there was some nice Sam and Vala interaction happening. I will look foward to S10 in that regard (and for Sam/Vala potential of course )
Also 'Darth Vader' - I totally love Teal'c for that I'm still convinced that it is Sam who got Teal'c hooked on sci-fi movies (considering it's canon that she's a scifi junky). The image of them vegging out on Sam's couch to watch the latest B-grade scifi movie they rented is hilarious

I liked all this moments too.

Spoiler:

Loved the scene where Sam was so excited about the communication device---I love this Sam. As others have said, AT seems to be much less tired in the last handful of episodes (which makes sense), and I am loving her performances.

The toned-down Vala and the reactions of Sam toward Vala give me hope that there will be some good Sam/Vala interaction in season 10. As far as Crusade in general, I thought it was okay---it told the story to lead up to the finale. And I think CB did a really good job with so much exposition.

As Spaz noted above, the description of the finale in regard to Carter sounds really good for next week. "Carter takes matters into her own hands and is thrown into the midst of an apocalyptic war." I'm looking forward to this finale. It could be good.

Not sure why, but the way Sam has been written lately -- so competent and strong, and still has her magical spark when it comes to science -- and the inevitability of Vala being toned down, and the fact that season 10 filming hopefully won't be so hard on AT, I have some hope that season 10 could be okay.

[NearlyCircular]

As Forever and Carson’s Girl have noted, it was good to see RCC didn’t write Sam as being confrontational with Vala. Vala didn’t really deserve it this time. But one scene left me wanting a little more.

Spoiler:

Remember this scene? Sam says she’s surprised the baby survived when Vala went without food and water for three days. Vala says a part of her wished that it hadn't. Cam comes back with the line about being surprised that a part of her wished it had survived, given how it was conceived. Vala says it’s hard to explain. At this point, I almost expected Sam to say something like, I understand, but they cut to another scene. Maybe it's a cliché, women understanding how other women feel, or maybe it's too close to reality, since AT just had Olivia, but I thought it might have been a nice bonding moment.

NC