Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[majorsal]

astro, i'll never get over mitchell being given sam's command either. and making mitchell a cocky and unprepared-to-lead character only makes that sting worse.

'no, carter, you can't have command anymore! and here, felger, take sg1 over!'

and since the 'problem' has only gotten worse over time... i'm afraid there's no hope for me ever accepting mitchell in this role. the ptb screwed the pooch.




sally

It *still* boggles my mind that this all ever even happened.

It's been said over and over again, but Mitchell could have been a great new character, BB could have had a substantial leading role, and Carter could have had command. They could have done that. Having Carter in command didn't mean that every episode had to revolve around her character. Nor did Carter in command mean that she would have to be The Hero or the show's Main Lead. She could have been one of the show's main leads. And stories and episodes could have shared the spotlight, and the meaty roles, and the character development, between the main leads.

I'm a staunch Carter fan, but I wasn't expecting her character to take over the SG-1 franchise!

I was expecting her to command the team once RDA moved on.

What Stargate SG-1's PTB have done *is* reprehensible. And it's very, very disgusting that the message that it sends in terms of women and 'their place' is being broadcast and sold to so many different countries.

So what do we do about it? What can we do about it?

I get a bit preachy here, so I'll put the next bit in spoilers

Spoiler:

- Be honest without being nasty. AT has been a wonderful example of such.

- Don't let them snow you with a rationalization or contrived backstory that makes it seem as if Carter somehow deserves what was done - or that she's OK with it. Don't be OK with it, although popping blood vessels in rage isn't recommended either.

- Don't bash others (characters or actors) in frustration.

For my part, I've stopped watching the show. What they've done pisses me off so much that I can't stand the show on the screen for even a few seconds.

I tell my friends and family not to watch the show - and I tell them why. Without nastiness, and without bashing, but I do relate my disgust and disappointment.

I do still read fanfic that have solid Carter roles.
I do still participate in the forums and polls and such.
I do still look for the positive - and AT is definitely one of those positives. The first 5-6 years supply many of the other positives. The folks on this thread supply the rest

Ridiculously, I still had hopes that they would put Carter in command for Season 10. I consider myself a realist, not a pessimist, not an optimist, but a realist. And yet... I was still... *really* hoping that they'd correct things in Season 10.

When I heard about the now-infamous cabin scene with Mitchell and Landry and Mitchell's command of SG-1, I found myself hoping that they'd ultimately cut that scene. They've cut many a scene before. I remember AT alluding to a Fifth-controlled-Carter dream scene with O'Neill - in addition to the ones with Pete. The ones with Jack never surfaced. Did they get cut? Were they ever even filmed? And there has been mention of other scenes that have been cut over the years... scenes that create and provide backstory and explanation, but didn't have firepower and action. So... why couldn't they cut the cabin scene? Well, they could. But they won't. They've decided to out-and-out say that Mitchell's the leader. Period. Gah!

[majorsal]

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

remember when, at the beginning of s9, and the ptb were supposedly not ready with their opening music and scenes for sg1's opening theme? well, i thought that sounded rather fishy... and then they had it ready, and what did we get... the ben browder show.

which is what i think they were going to do from the get-go, but *knew* the fans were freak, so decided to wait until we fell in love with him... i'm falling alright, but love ain't where i'm going.

wow, i'm snarky tonight.





sally

[majorsal]

I am so glad AT and CB have chosen to make Sam and Vala friends. I really can't wait to see these two strong women on screen together. (snip)

i liked reading that too! there's hope yet (in at least one category).





sally

[L.A. Doyle]

remember when, at the beginning of s9, and the ptb were supposedly not ready with their opening music and scenes for sg1's opening theme? well, i thought that sounded rather fishy... and then they had it ready, and what did we get... the ben browder show.

which is what i think they were going to do from the get-go, but *knew* the fans were freak, so decided to wait until we fell in love with him... i'm falling alright, but love ain't where i'm going.

Ick. Why'd they have to plaster him all over the credits? He should have been at the end with the other newbie. He doesn't deserve the title spot. And didn't they use old pics for the other characters? What's with that?

[majorsal]

Oh yeah. I loved some Seven heavy eps but too many of them ticked me off. So I was ticked wuite a bit. Actually stopped watched for over a year. I missed the other characters so much. And all the writers could write was Seven. Gah! And that not even well. voyager was never a well-written show. It had maybe on season's worth of decent shows in all seven years. But I liked the characters. (Except Chakotay. He never "did it" for me.)

Suse
wishing she's been at the Courtyard instead of the main hotel.

my fave voyager ep was the one where janeway got whumped and had to fight some icky creatures on the ship, alone. she was all ripley-like. cool!





sally

[majorsal]

No. She never said she didn't want ship questions asked anymore. Besides, even if she had, it wouldn't change the fact that half of the questions that will be asked of her (probably from now until 2015) will probably be some variation of, "Who's the best kisser?" or "Is ____ a good kisser?"

Side note: What the heck is she gonna say to these questions? "No, seriously, Rick could really use a tic-tac from time to time?" Sheesh.

I have no idea how to paraphrase what she said without her name incurring the wrath of every S/J shipper between here and Venus, so I'll just say how I interpreted what she said.

Keep in mind that this is a minor interpretation.

Of someone who calls herself "spaz."

It could be very far off. It could be somewhat true.

She joked about ship when asked, and she did admit that it gets a bit old. Based on what she said and how she said it last weekend, I'd imagine she totally understands the dynamic between Sam and Jack. But, I mean, come on, the very first question asked of her was literally, "Is so-and-so a good kisser?" I think it was David Hewlett.

It's like it's all she's known as. And considering she's ALWAYS said that she doesn't want to become The Girl for The Lead Guy, I'm guessing it's probably pretty unnerving to be asked such questions at every turn TEN years after she started the character. She was still very funny about all of it at the con, though. She didn't bemoan the suggestion, and she didn't point fingers, scoff or growl. She simply suggested that there's more to the character than the ship.

But, again, that's just an interpretation. A minor one. I have no idea how she really feels, as she didn't go that far.

oh, don't worry, spaz, i'm totally aware of what amanda's views on ship are. i just want to know if/when someone asks her about it at a con, this person won't be made to feel like sh*t because of it (by anyone).





sally

[Chelle DB]

Ok, I have to share a funny little story with you all involving Amanda, Dancer of Spaz and myself. I had hoped Spaz would have posted about it by now, but seeing as I just came across some more photos I had forgotten I had taken I thought I'd share them with you. Hopefully Spaz won't kick my @$$ when she reads this.

At the beginning of the year when Spaz and I decided we were both going to Shore Leave, I started making buttons to take to the con. After seeing a SG1 cartoon that Tracy Jane had made, I asked her if I could borrow it to make a shirt. Spazzy saw the shirt on my Cafepress.com shop and asked if she could buy one as well, but she asked if I could change the wording on the shirt a bit because she didn't want to offend anyone (especially Amanda). This was the original picture I had on the T-shirt...

Spoiler:

Anyway, during the autograph session Spaz asked Amanda if she would sign her T-shirt. Unfortunately I wasn't there with Spaz so I don't want to mistell the story, but I wanted to share what Amanda wrote on her T-shirt. I nearly died when Spaz showed it to me.

Spoiler:

Hopefully Spaz will post what Amanda actually said when she got the autograph, but if I didn't think Amanda rocked before, I certainly do now.

LOL!! She is so way cool!!! Thanks for that!

[Chelle DB]

Ripley! I'll say it again: Ripley!*

Absolutely.

[*Alien]

LOL!!! You're a cracker Scari...thanks for the chuckle!

[Chelle DB]

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

I so agree with you LA...And I like Mitchell....but this should NOT happen! I would be bitterly disappointed if that were to happen.

[Chelle DB]

oh, chelle, don't feel bad! you didn't say anything that most of us weren't wanting to know too. curiosity is not evil, it's what you do with that curiosity that makes the case. (hmm, why am i getting flashes of a certain curious cop? )

sally

Thanks Sal..I don't feel bad...not now anyway!!
Besides..I make a conscious effort to wake up everyday and smile and be happy...live it like it's my last!! Started doing that about 10 months ago...I'm much happier for it. I don't like to hold on to negativity.

[ReganX]

Spoiler:

If they do in fact do that-come right out and say it, no turning back-that's going to upset a lot of people, I think. Now we have this ambiguous thing going on, but if they set it in stone, I think even more people will be angry about it-except teenage boys who think Mitchell's just the coolest thing ever. I don't know. TPTB are probably foolish enough to do this. And for the life of me I cannot understand it. If I see that scene in S10, I will be ranting for a very long time.

Spoiler:

You won't be the only one.

I think you're right that officially handing over sole command to Mitchell will upset people those already ticked off about co-leadership even more, perhaps even enough to make them give up on the show altogether. Even if teenage boys think that Mitchell is the greatest character ever to spring from the pen of a writer, they make up a pretty small segment of the viewer population, they are a group that a lot of networks are trying to win over and I don't see the majority of them having the same resources to buy merchandise as those earning wages have.

I don't see the show continuing to Season Eleven unless Season Ten's ratings are a drastic improvement over Season Nine's.

Stargate: SG-1 has already achieved the two hundredth episode/tenth season mark. That's quite a feather in TPTB's caps. They may decide to cut their losses and concentrate on Atlantis.

[ReganX]

If and when that scene appears in S10 I will be writing my letter telling them, as Astro says, that they are reprehensible and that they have basically killed the show with their puerile bunk and illogical, implausible, twisted and cowardly swill. I hope that they are inundated with letters if they are not already.

The best time for writing letters was probably at the beginning of Season Nine, as soon as Mitchell was given command, but it can't hurt to make our feelings known and they may pay more attention to a snail-mail letter than they would to an e-mail or to an online post.

At any rate, it can hardly make the situation worse. If they're determined to pimp Mitchell as the hewoic leader, or to ignore Air Force regulations regarding promotion and bump him up to full colonel, they'll do it but I plan to let them know what I think of their decisions if they do persist in such folly.

[Chelle DB]

Who is your favorite character (non ship) to see on screen with Sam?

My fav character (non ship) with Sam would have to be Jacob cos I just love that father daughter interaction. But now that they killed him off I like to see Sam and Daniel together...I like the bond they have together...like brother/sister!! Also like Sam/Teal'c...and Sam/Janet (but they killed her too!! ). I hate choosing...it's sooo hard!

[Rachel500]

It *still* boggles my mind that this all ever even happened.

<snip for space>

Spoiler:

Ridiculously, I still had hopes that they would put Carter in command for Season 10. I consider myself a realist, not a pessimist, not an optimist, but a realist. And yet... I was still... *really* hoping that they'd correct things in Season 10.

When I heard about the now-infamous cabin scene with Mitchell and Landry and Mitchell's command of SG-1, I found myself hoping that they'd ultimately cut that scene. They've cut many a scene before. I remember AT alluding to a Fifth-controlled-Carter dream scene with O'Neill - in addition to the ones with Pete. The ones with Jack never surfaced. Did they get cut? Were they ever even filmed? And there has been mention of other scenes that have been cut over the years... scenes that create and provide backstory and explanation, but didn't have firepower and action. So... why couldn't they cut the cabin scene? Well, they could. But they won't. They've decided to out-and-out say that Mitchell's the leader. Period. Gah!

My thoughts on leadership in Season 10...

Spoiler:

I still have strong feelings about the decision that was taken and ideally I would like the outcome of Mitchell/Landry's leadership discussion to be command being returned to Carter to redress the blatant discrimination (and I agree, btw, that giving Carter command doesn't translate to it becoming the Carter show), but I'm also a realist and I don't expect that to happen (I'll be shocked if it does).

So I have moved on and accepted the show's new format. What I hope is that they write both characters better than S9.

So, given the realistic anticipation that Mitchell's leadership of SG1 is unequivocally stated, I am hoping that somewhere in the discussion, Landry makes it clear that Mitchell should be listening to the more experienced members of his team esp Carter who has led Daniel and Teal'c before; that if he was acting as a better leader, they would be more inclined to follow him. And that the conversation then translates into Mitchell acting as a better leader in the stories thereafter. If they have to have a different leader than Carter then I'd prefer he was actually portrayed as a good leader and a worthy successor (which would make more sense of why Daniel, Teal'c and Carter would accept his leadership).

Equally, I'm hoping that Carter is shown as the strong character of old where her intelligence and military eptitude are showcased. That her role in the team is shown as vital and important, and that her contributions are still key to making the team work. For whatever reason this just didn't come across in S9. Given some of the photos and promo interviews in the run up, I'm hopeful this will happen in S10.

[Chelle DB]

Side note: What the heck is she gonna say to these questions? "No, seriously, Rick could really use a tic-tac from time to time?" Sheesh.

Keep in mind that this is a minor interpretation.
Of someone who calls herself "spaz."

It could be very far off. It could be somewhat true.

She simply suggested that there's more to the character than the ship.

But, again, that's just an interpretation. A minor one. I have no idea how she really feels, as she didn't go that far.

Great post Spaz!! Love your little side note...LOL!! Excellent!!
I can totally understand and see her point regarding the ship...there certainly is more to Sam Carter than the ship....and this from a die hard shipper!!!