Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[L.A. Doyle]

The Power of Samanda.

[Gate gal]

Re: Cassie. I would have preferred a line like " You know her, she's putting on a brave front."

Me too! Why didn't they put Cassie in Heroes 2. I think we should have seen Cassie at the Memorial. It didn't feel right without her.

[Skydiver]

While I don't think it'll get QUITE that bad on this show (and if so, pain = no sg for spaz), it is getting there. Very close. Too bad it has to be that way for female certain characters. It's like they have a shorter lifespan or something.

well, to harp on a common topic, if the MEN that write this stuff - and do thier best to keep the entertainment indistry a boy's club - would just stop writing the cliches

what female characters are common???

the ho
the maternal figure
the sex object
the damsel in distress

there are a few shows that avoid that. Judging amy was ok for a while (but did descend into relationship silliness), Elle on Criminal Minds is good, so is Melinda Kanakaredes on CSI: NY, along with Catherine most of the time on csi.

Sam used to be really really good. she was a part of the team that just happened to be a woman. Then they got fixated on the whole relationship stuff and turned her into a cliche. 'i'm so desperate not to be alone that i'll put up with anything'...yeah, every male's fantasy. a hot woman that prefers being a doormat.

consciously or not, male writers are doing what they can to keep women from being seen as an equal to a male.

characters like sam work to break that mold. They are 'proof' that a woman is not a sum of her boyfriends.

but then, inevitably, the boys get tired of all the work that goes into keeping a female from being a cliche and they fall back into old molds.

[Skydiver]

Me too! Why didn't they put Cassie in Heroes 2. I think we should have seen Cassie at the Memorial. It didn't feel right without her.

i wonder if maybe the actress wasn't available.

[Gate gal]

I don't think we have to worry too much about the XF problem on SG-1. AT would probably leave before she would let them turn Sam into a wishy washy character. I know their were some poor decisions made by TPTB over going to deeply into her personal life a few seasons ago, and I think that season 9's lack of real Sam time was partially about trying to repair that damage. Maybe (and this is just a theory, please don't shoot) TPTB took some of the focus off of Sam in order to rebuild the damage already done. S9 was not that good, especially the first 5 episodes, but it did get a little better in the second half. I think we even got some pretty classic Sam in Arthur's Mantel and The Four Horsemen. I believe, even after reading all the spoilers, that Sam will be very prominent in S10. AT's interview on GW implied that.

[Mandysg1]

It's funny because when it first came out Alias was a top rated show, and I think the character of Sydney did break the mold somewhat, although they did play the sex factor up with some of those costumes. And when does the series get cancelled...after the actress gets pregnant It's too bad SG1 didn't get the following shows like Alias did, then who knows there may have been more of an uproar with the massive changes to the show

[sg-1fanintn]

Here it is! If it's that you're searching...

Ok.....pardon me for being "a Demanda from Samanda," but I watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b8YPr9oUtU and

Spoiler:

there was almost nothing about Amanda/Sam in it! A few pictures, yes, including the cute, snarky clip that Uber pulled for us. But nothing ABOUT Amanda or Sam.....and she didn't speak in the promo even once. Neither did CJ, by the way. How come????

Just askin'.....and trying not to be negative!

[Skydiver]

i think for s9 she was very preoccupied with olivia and caring for her. Which is how it should be. family comes first.

however it's very possible that dealing with baby, feeling like the outsider after being told 'we don't know what to do with you' ( a comment that's hard to take anyday, even harder after you've had a baby and are dealing with self-confidence issues) and other circumstances likely made her more along the line of - hey, things aren't perfect, but theyu're ok and i dont' have time to deal with it anyway, i have more important things to handle.

time and s10 will tell

[Skydiver]

It's funny because when it first came out Alias was a top rated show, and I think the character of Sydney did break the mold somewhat, although they did play the sex factor up with some of those costumes. And when does the series get cancelled...after the actress gets pregnant It's too bad SG1 didn't get the following shows like Alias did, then who knows there may have been more of an uproar with the massive changes to the show

i will admit that i never watched alias but it seems to be another show where pregnancy and baby did it no favors.

[sg-1fanintn]

We rock!

http://www.celeeb.com/amanda-tapping/

Yes.....we do.....ROCK!

Nighty-night, Samanda. Gotta go check on the Ship Family before bedtime!

[L.A. Doyle]

i think for s9 she was very preoccupied with olivia and caring for her. Which is how it should be. family comes first.

however it's very possible that dealing with baby, feeling like the outsider after being told 'we don't know what to do with you' ( a comment that's hard to take anyday, even harder after you've had a baby and are dealing with self-confidence issues) and other circumstances likely made her more along the line of - hey, things aren't perfect, but theyu're ok and i dont' have time to deal with it anyway, i have more important things to handle.

time and s10 will tell

TPTB are just lucky she stayed after the crud they pulled. She is a gem, really and truly. She's had a very large part in making that show what it is, and people still care about her character. Bless Amanda, for being the great person she is. (((Amanda)))

[RepliCartertje]

Ok.....pardon me for being "a Demanda from Samanda," but I watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b8YPr9oUtU and

Spoiler:

there was almost nothing about Amanda/Sam in it! A few pictures, yes, including the cute, snarky clip that Uber pulled for us. But nothing ABOUT Amanda or Sam.....and she didn't speak in the promo even once. Neither did CJ, by the way. How come????

Just askin'.....and trying not to be negative!

You know exactly what I was thinking... I am so afraid for season 10... well time will tell us...
Just hope on some good AT acting (like always) and some screentime for Carter

[Skydiver]

TPTB are just lucky she stayed after the crud they pulled. She is a gem, really and truly. She's had a very large part in making that show what it is, and people still care about her character. Bless Amanda, for being the great person she is. (((Amanda)))

yeah, cause how they treated her????

i'd have given serious thought to walking. especially since she's constantly had other offers. I'm thinking she's rather popular in the vancouver area and iwth other show folk.

i sincerely doubt she woulda gone long without work.

and, honstly, it woulda served them right.

AT has class

[the dancer of spaz]

i wonder if maybe the actress wasn't available.

That may have been the case, but they could've found a look alike (though it would've sucked). And if they couldn't do that, they could've written more lines about the poor girl - in that ep and in the eps that followed.

Cassie became this nice little fallback bit of info the writers were able to slide in there to "explain" Sam's absence, but they never elaborated on WHAT was wrong with Cassie. Surely Daniel and Teal'c (and Jack) would've cared as well. I guess, in some weird way, I kinda see how it fits your "maternal figure" theory, Sky. But at the end of the day, that little bit of info wasn't important enough to expand upon.

There are quite a lot of studies to substantiate the use of women in television and film. What you mentioned earlier was the "Mother/Whore" Dichotomy, I think.

And it's quite frankly pathetic that all four of the main SG women fit one of the four you mentioned. Ridiculous, really.

There's an old theory about women from old westerns, where they would have a similar mold of clean/pure/motherly women, and dangerous/sexual/criminal women. As if, ya know, there's no happy medium.

[Skydiver]

That may have been the case, but they could've found a look alike (though it would've sucked). And if they couldn't do that, they could've written more lines about the poor girl - in that ep and in the eps that followed.

Cassie became this nice little fallback bit of info the writers were able to slide in there to "explain" Sam's absence, but they never elaborated on WHAT was wrong with Cassie. Surely Daniel and Teal'c (and Jack) would've cared as well. I guess, in some weird way, I kinda see how it fits your "maternal figure" theory, Sky. But at the end of the day, that little bit of info wasn't important enough to expand upon.

There are quite a lot of studies to substantiate the use of women in television and film. What you mentioned earlier was the "Mother/Whore" Dichotomy, I think.

And it's quite frankly pathetic that all four of the main SG women fit one of the four you mentioned. Ridiculous, really.

There's an old theory about women from old westerns, where they would have a similar mold of clean/pure/motherly women, and dangerous/sexual/criminal women. As if, ya know, there's no happy medium.

cassie was also another example of 'backstory???? who needs backstory. we have ships and bombs and explosions and really cool effects'

In many ways it's like they're deliberately turning thier backs on 8 years of history and plot adn writing it off as too inconvenient to deal with or keep track of

what they don' t get, that backstory is what makes the show so interseting. it weaves a rich tapestry and gives fans something to sink thier imaginations into.