Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[astrogeologist]

the way to keep a show alive is to give it a WIDE appeal. the way they're goinig, they're narrowing the appeal so much that they're turning off 90% of htier audience. They're making the show into a nitch show jsut when they need to be broadening its appeal to draw in MORE viewers, not telling a good chunk of the audience to bugger off.

VAla IN the show is ok, but vala AS the show is silly and just one more step on the road to cancellation

Well stated,Sky!

[astrogeologist]

<stares at glass and wills it to be half full> ... <turns glass over so it will be half full> <gets soaked>. i sure there's some amazing symbolism in there somewhere.

Love the visual imagery!

[Skydiver]

RDA was why i tuned in, Sam is why i've kept watching.

Sam is why i started writing fic. When i found helio, i read the whole thing (which, 6 years ago wasn't all that tough i will admit)...and there was a near total lack of sam focused fic. so, after reading some, i thought 'dang, i can do this'....and i did

If Sam wasn't on the show, i woulda turned it off years ago. I was attracted toher loyalty, bravery, honesty and her friendship with the boys. they all respected each other, treated each other well and were a group that i'd love tobe a part of.

[astrogeologist]

Gaining new viewers is good, but not if it costs a show the viewers it already has.

I'm sure that there are loads of people who love Vala, but there are also a lot of people who love Sam, Daniel, Jack and Teal'c. Alienating those fans is not the way to get an eleventh season.

I keep thinking of what Felger said in 'Avenger 2.0' - "I mean, it probably took the Ancients a thousand years to build the Gate system, and I wrecked it in a single day."

A lot of hard work and talent went into creating Stargate: SG-1, but some bad decisions and mishandling of opportunities could very well bring it to an inglorious end in the not too distant future.

[Simhavaktra]

This isn't what I expected when they said they had great possibilities in mind for us this season...

And I doubt it'll even be that good. I think the height of the Sam excitement in season 10 will be something like this:

It's technological (fax machines are technology, right?); it involves numbers (if it has a number pad it involves numbers, right?); it involves dialing - and the character did write a dialing progam for something? Didn't she? I think I remember that...

And the fun characters can make fun of her faxing, too - it's all Emmy Material!!!!

[minigeek]

RDA was why i tuned in, Sam is why i've kept watching.

Sam is why i started writing fic. When i found helio, i read the whole thing (which, 6 years ago wasn't all that tough i will admit)...and there was a near total lack of sam focused fic. so, after reading some, i thought 'dang, i can do this'....and i did

If Sam wasn't on the show, i woulda turned it off years ago. I was attracted toher loyalty, bravery, honesty and her friendship with the boys. they all respected each other, treated each other well and were a group that i'd love tobe a part of.

That's so well said. I can't say I tuned in for RDA (I<cough>didn'tlikehisstuffmuchatthetime<cough>), but I can say I got hooked because of the Sam Carter character. She was just so neat to watch, and such a great combination of intelligence, strength and femininity. I hadn't really seen anything like her on television before. Oh, there were other characters that were similar, but Sam Carter had an inner integrity to go along with it all (which likely had a great deal to do with the way AT played/plays her) which ended up being the final draw (so to speak). Were it not for Carter, I'd probably never have given SG-1 more than a few casual (or professional, as the case was as the time) viewings. She really hooked me, and I've been a great big fangurl ever since.

mini(the Carter fangurl)geek

-hey, i didn't even know what fangurl MEANT until last year! lol-

[Deejay435]

you're assuming of course that MS will HAVE screentime unrelated to vala. they may not even realize he's gone. or if they do they can just turn back to mitchell like they did this season. or, i think the interview talked about landry. or they could just have vala jabbing at daniel while he's not there. they did that already, right? or maybe that's where all these lovely sam/vala scenes are. yay, sam. because MS is gone. for 4 episodes. see me exploding with joy?

EDIT: wow, i write slowly.

I have a friend who is a big Daniel fan. She says she likes Vala because then "At least Daniel gets a lot of screentime."

Now, I like Daniel. (Fourth-Jack, Sam, and Teal'c I like more, but I do like Daniel very much.) And because I like him, I hate scenes where he's only there to react and be a foil to another, OTT, character. It's such bad storytelling, imo. And a useless way to involve a character that's so much more important than being straight-man to an unnecessary, OTT character. (And I do think she's unnecessary. I don't think CB brought many fans to the show who wouldn't have been coming anyway, because of BB.) And I really hate that is seems that's all tptb saw him as in Season 9, since he disappeared so much after Beachhead.

But-the on-topic point here, and I do have one, is that as a Sam fan, I just would hate to have Sam's only purpose be as a foil to Vala's schtick. I'd honestly rather no Sam at all, than Sam denegrated by being nothing more than reactor to Vala.

However...I still say that isn't what is going to happen. I am going to be optimistic and believe that recently TPTB have had a wake-up call. Through faltering ratings, and through interaction with fans who are showing them that their beliefs about their shiny-new-season aren't quite grounded in reality. I think they're going to be making attempts at fixing what they broke in Season 9. My hope is that it means more Sam-Daniel-Teal'c and less Vala than the spoilers are indicating.

No matter who Sam is in a scene with, I want her to be there for a purpose, not just so some other character can be "funny". I want her purpose to be moving the plot, or furthering her character development, or, to a lesser extent, helping further another character's development. I want that for Daniel and Teal'c and Mitchell too. (And as long as I'm giving my wish list, I want more Sam-Daniel-Teal'c-Mitchell carrying the episode stuff too. I want the team to be important again.)

[ReganX]

I remember inspace race, sam's 'indeed' to teal'c was just classic. and the gentle teasing that spoke of a great friendship and camraderie

I love the interaction between those two; funny or serious.

[Deejay435]

I used to watch the reruns and still will watch old episodes on Stargate Mondays. Now I can take or leave the repeats--except for the Valagate episodes which I will skip entirely.

You know what's sad about this to me? That the early episodes are the ones where I really liked Cam. I missed the hell out of Sam, (are we allowed to say hell here?) But I enjoyed Cam way back in the beginning. What's sad is how much I hated how Daniel was being used, how little Cam and Teal'c we got, and how much I don't want to re-watch them. But they're the ones where I liked Cam. Sad, I tell you.

[Deejay435]

but he's stil lthe show runner. and we all know he shut AT down in one PARTICULAR ep that he neither directed nor wrote, he was just the executive producer.

really? where in the interview?!?!! sorry, i didn't really....finish it...

What episode? I must have missed this.

[ReganX]

I am going to be optimistic and believe that recently TPTB have had a wake-up call. Through faltering ratings, and through interaction with fans who are showing them that their beliefs about their shiny-new-season aren't quite grounded in reality. I think they're going to be making attempts at fixing what they broke in Season 9. My hope is that it means more Sam-Daniel-Teal'c and less Vala than the spoilers are indicating.

They can certainly take steps to improve things if they recognize the problem, but if they think that Season Nine is perfection in TV series form and that we're all insane, idiots or Philistines not to appreciate it for the wonder that it is, we could be waiting a long time for improvement.

[ParadoxRealities]

yeah. i'm behind. shhh, don't tell anyone.

What do you mean by "lately"? 'cause listening (or reading) his and Andy Mikita or Jim Menard DVD commentaries or reading his new interview for GW it doesn't look like that at all. The proof of of this from RCC's interview is slightly OT, sorry about it - http://forum.gateworld.net/showpost....postcount=4417

aah, that's what you meant. RCC agree to give vala more "fun" screen-time, while he disagrees with AT and takes one more step towards ruining sam. a point which many shippers/sam fans/action fans/team fans/i-hate-sam fans agree on. forgive me if i don't see that quote as evidence. get me all worked up for nothing.

i jsut hope that coop doesnt' think that 'character moments' = potty humor and sexpot characters.

but...but that's what EVERYTHING means, Sky!!!

i too can say stayed tuned in (can't honestly remember what got me originally), for sam. she's a wonderful character and as and AF physics geek, she reminded me of...me, except cooler. i love the character, and loved the team, and i loved the show. i miss that.

Sim: what's that cap from?
Deejay: the second episode...807. no, i will NOT write the name. yes, i AM oversensitive. directed and written by PDL, check the last quote from the bottom and don't be fooled by her eventual agreement.

[astrogeologist]

can anybody make a list for me of THE BEST of Sam's episodes? From all seasons.

Here's a link to a collection of 'Best Carter Episodes' that we did last year
http://home.comcast.net/~1annex/SaGCCollectionforAT.pdf

Page 147 has the results for Seasons 1-8 together.

Starting on page 125, there are comments about various Sam-episode highlights by members of the thread.

It's a PDF file that should have active links if it opens correctly for you in your web-browser.

[ParadoxRealities]

They can certainly take steps to improve things if they recognize the problem, but if they think that Season Nine is perfection in TV series form and that we're all insane, idiots or Philistines not to appreciate it for the wonder that it is, we could be waiting a long time for improvement.

i think they know its not as great as they thought it would be, but they're still in love with it. but the main things (i think) they noticed, were 1) the ori reaction at the con, which RCC, as he stated in the interview, thinks was corrected with Tomin. 2) mitchell. which i think their pretty much ignoring, but are glad that next season is more vala. but hey, maybe they'll unlock the AF correspondent’s closet. from what i've read, admittedly not enough, they seem to like their current team dynamic and screen-time ratios. so i doubt they'll change much. ::gets soaked again:: damn, i gotta learn not to do that!

FH: i'll take that link. can never have too much info, as hard as it is to listen to.

[ReganX]

2) mitchell. which i think their pretty much ignoring, but are glad that next season is more vala.

So their solution to people being unhappy about the established characters being shoved into the background so that we can all ooh and aah over the new "hero" is to trot out another new character to hog the screentime?

Ooookay...

but hey, maybe they'll unlock the AF correspondent’s closet. from what i've read, admittedly not enough, they seem to like their current team dynamic and screen-time ratios. so i doubt they'll change much.

Wonder if they like the dropping ratings.