Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[resurgamlaura]

Slightly OT. I'm just planning my trip to London for next month and was wondering if anyone else was hitting the London Expo on the 26/27 May?

I've considered it, but I work Saturdays and the person I would be going with (I mentioned AT and that sold him!) works Sundays, so it would be a little difficult and not so much fun without my colleague being all happy and fanboy-like

Edit: And we can't take holiday, because we only get four days a year (only contracted for one day a week) and we won't earn any more holiday for another couple of months. And did I mention we're students and we need all we can get?

[jckfan55]

This was one of the episodes where I really liked Mitchell this year too btw. Along the lines of what you're saying,

Spoiler:

the look he gives Vala mirrors Sam's irritated, "Now why on EARTH did you say that???!?"

In fact, both Vala and Mitchell rocked in this episode for me. And to be honest, it worked really well without Daniel...to the point that he would have been superfluous. Teal'c too really shined. His resolve, his strength of character. I loved the interplay with the village leader for instance. Then of course,

Spoiler:

Carter once again proved how valuable she is as she saved the lives of countless people in that village.

So...great episode IMHO.

Sam definitely deserves a medal for that one.

Spoiler:

I'd say at least the Air Force Cross "Awarded to U.S. and Foreign military personnel and civilians who have displayed extraordinary heroism in one of the following situations:

1. While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States,
2. While engaged in military operations involving conflict with a foreign force, or
3. While serving with a friendly nation engaged in armed conflict against a force in which the United States is not a belligerent party." http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/1_...afc_01rvn.html

She saved all those people while grievously wounded. Sure Mitchell did the actual hooking up of the device, but he couldn't have done it without her.

[jckfan55]

showed mom 'line in the sand' --

Spoiler:

mom thought amanda was *wonderful*! mom's smart. and wonderful too.

she also thought mitchell looked at sam in a more than friendshippy way in the infirmary.

it's so WONDERFUL to have sam scenes like this!! (i should be ashamed of being such a samwhumper... i'll be ashamed later, though. yeah, later.)

((()))




sally

Well who *couldn't* be

Spoiler:

a little in love with Sam? But I think they're just friends. They'd never be a good pair, IMHO.

[jckfan55]

You know, Line in the Sand was good but, in my opinion, the season (with one noticable exception which was still fun but not the same standard) gets better. I honestly felt like the back half of season ten was like old times again and I found myself wishing we had had more time to explore Vala and Cam's characters And I mean their real characters rather than their characatures!

You know if we had seen more of the kind of Cam we saw in LiTS

Spoiler:

excepting the lame "keep your hands in the ride" joke

I might have been won over a bit to him in S9. though I still think Sam deserved the command.

[jckfan55]

Slightly OT. I'm just planning my trip to London for next month and was wondering if anyone else was hitting the London Expo on the 26/27 May?

Oh, yes. I go to London regularly. (add: )
Not! jckfan snivels about lack of opportunity to go to any of these cool things. (sniff)

[Tracy Jane]

Oh, yes. I go to London regularly.
Not! jckfan snivels about lack of opportunity to go to any of these cool things. (sniff)

So it's not enough that I get snappiness and sarcasm from the girlfriend now?

I pretty much assumed that people from the other side of the Atlantic weren't going to be coming on such short notice. But that, in case you hadn't noticed, still leaves quite a few Samandans.

[Rachel500]

okay - I write this with some trepidation as I know it has been a long time waiting for a great Sam ep and I agree that Carter did shine in the second half and AT was excellent in this one.

Spoiler:

However, now the bad news, I really cannot get beyond the briefing room debacle. All of those villagers are dead because of landry, vala, and mitchell and yes I have to say it -- Carter and Teal'c. I am appalled at the way the people who write this show have just totally allowed feasibility and canon to go down the drain in favor of giving vala something "cutesy" to do. Her nonsense in the briefing room made me want to vomit and the galling fact that no one, NO ONE, not the so-called co-leaders of this team, not the person who has the most knoweldge about the device, not Teal'c the brilliant warrior who usually knows which end is up - said one da*n word and no one told her to shut-up or not to talk about things of which she knows nothing. If they had objected to vala and then landry ordered them to go anyway I could have accepted that since landry is a buffoon anyway, IMO, but the fact that Sam and Teal'c just stood there with goofy looks on their faces as if to say how dare you and they don't say a word in protest??!!! Since when is vala the leader of this team?

That is the single biggest WTF moment for me in 10 years of Stargate. I know it is a plot-device, I know it is bad writing (which for me just continues in season 10), I know it's a symptom of the puerile ptksg-1 mentality of "let's have vala do something obnoxious and cutesy" (blech!!), I know that tptksg-1 have basically lost their mojo, I know all that. But since when do people like Sam and Teal'c roll-over when a twit like vala talks??? mitchell I get - he's just space but Sam and Teal'c?? I am disgusted.

At least at the end Sam did come up with the way to save the remaining villagers but they never should have been in the position in the first place (at least not with vala having volunteered them for it without nary a protest from the people in charge and the people who know the device).

IMO, it is absolutely unforgivable what they have done to Sam and Teal'c (and Daniel, or should I say "action-jackson") in order to fit vala and mitchell into the show somehow. I guess I can say to myself that this is not the real Sam, Teal'c and Daniel we are seeing since this is actually stargate command we are watching and the real BIG3 have been locked in the closet with the AF advisor. That sometimes just doesn't help though when I see how low they can go.

I also lament how great the eppy could have been if they had had Teal'c with Carter - can you imagine the discussion those two could have had, instead of tripe like "aw gee my grammy says . . ."

God give me strength what a crock o' crap.

Sorry - as good as AT was I cannot get past this and it basically ruins the entire episode for me - I really thought finally there might be an ep I would get into and like and I was fed this nonsense in the first 10 minutes - talk about the wind coming out of your sails. Sorry to be so negative but I need to vent and I also did think AT was fabulous so I am a bit torn about it.

What I remember...

Spoiler:

Was Sam overriding Vala's over-enthusiasm to help with her own realism checks that the device wasn't ready to be tested on a large scale and Sam and Mitchell annoyed with Vala at the end of the briefing about her behaviour. For me, the suggestion is that there were words said afterwards and certainly at the beginning of the mission it's evident that there is still lingering annoyance at Vala.

Frankly, it was clear (in terms of the situation) that Landry was going to order them to test the device anyway regardless of any objection Sam made or anything Vala said either way - and actually Landry doesn't really pay attention to Vala - its simply her swift acquiescence is in line with what he's already decided. Sam didn't roll over and do what Vala wanted; she did what she was ordered.

The villagers died because they wanted to oppose the Ori and a significant number of them lived because the mission was ultimately a success - Sam phased the village out before it was destroyed by the Ori weapon.

I also thought the Sam/Mitchell scenes as she lay injured and dying were strong (fabulous acting by AT), and in character for both of them. Would it have been great to have seen similar Teal'c/Sam scenes? Sure, but then Unending provided that for me. But then I like Mitchell as a character and I appreciate Vala as a character (although I think CB deserves a lot of the credit for providing her with depth rather than the writers at times). I thought both of them worked well within this storyline - I equally loved Vala's scenes with Tomin just as I loved Mitchell's desperation not to lose Sam having just lost Daniel. But then I've really liked S10. Not the same as the classic SG1 by any means but I think they found their rhythm as a new team.

I think if you don't like the new characters and you don't like the direction of the show in S9 and S10, then it isn't going to be easy to like any of the episodes even a strong Sam episode so I appreciate your need to rant, blink...I think you might find Road Not Taken better as this is 98% totally Sam with Vala and Mitchell are hardly in it all.

[SamJackShipLover]

Naturally Sam won the prettiest woman picture contest And I set myself a challenge to make icons with al 50 pics. So I'm here to share the first 10. Hope you like them. Snurching totally allowed (but do not hotlink), just let me know. More to come later this week.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

[scarimor]

So it's not enough that I get snappiness and sarcasm from the girlfriend now?

I believe jckfan55 was merely lamenting, not snapping.

[the dancer of spaz]

So it's not enough that I get snappiness and sarcasm from the girlfriend now?

I pretty much assumed that people from the other side of the Atlantic weren't going to be coming on such short notice. But that, in case you hadn't noticed, still leaves quite a few Samandans.

Hunh. I know I have a sometimes skewed outlook on reality, but I thought jckfan was just kidding.

I say that because I've never known jckfan to be snappy or sarcastic towards other people on this thread. But whatevs.

[Tracy Jane]

Sorry jckfan

[the dancer of spaz]

The latest issue of the official SG magazine came in the mail today, with a couple of articles relating to Amanda.
<snip>

The issue also has an interview with Cliff Simon (Ba’al). Here’s his response to this statement from the writer:

There’s also a great dynamic between Ba’al and Carter.

“Oh yeah, that’s a lot of fun. As an actor, you never want to ‘act’, it needs to come naturally, so you don’t want to be thinking of dialogue when you’re working: it’s got to come out naturally. When Amanda [Tapping] looks at you, she looks right into your eyes, and when you’re speaking, you can see that she is actually listening to you, not just waiting for you to finish while she’s thinking about her next line. We have a great rapport, and that shows in the Ba’al/Carter dynamic, particularly in the two-parter, The Quest. As an actress, Amanda is very giving. You can really trust her.”

Hey NC, thanks for posting this! I like this part, because it continues to reiterate what a lot of Amanda's colleagues have already said about her. And I've always liked the Ba'al/Carter dynamic, so it's cool to see that the actors have found a good beat between their characters.

It looks like the chaos is dying down a bit over the issue with Carter coming over to Atlantis, but I think that it's this reputation that will help blend AT/Carter into the Atlantis cast. The fact that AT's known for not hogging the spotlight, I think, probably went a long way when she came on board.

So, while I'm still a bit concerned about how they're going to implement Carter into the thick of things, I'm confident that AT and the rest of the Atlantis actors will be able to foster a great chemistry between their characters as well.

[ParadoxRealities]

Naturally Sam won the prettiest woman picture contest And I set myself a challenge to make icons with al 50 pics. So I'm here to share the first 10. Hope you like them. Snurching totally allowed (but do not hotlink), just let me know. More to come later this week.

wow, those are good...:drool:...
*ahem* it is my sad duty to inform you that i may have posted a wee bit more that one pic per vote. like maybe six. so i think you could estimate more around 60+.

[kir_fect]

Naturally Sam won the prettiest woman picture contest And I set myself a challenge to make icons with al 50 pics. So I'm here to share the first 10. Hope you like them. Snurching totally allowed (but do not hotlink), just let me know. More to come later this week.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

That is quite a challenge you have given youself! I love them already!

[majorsal]

LOL! So.... Sally's Mom is a....

Spoiler:

Sam/Cam shipper now? ((((Sally's Mom))))

If so tell her she's got lots of good company!

RE: Line in the Sand

Spoiler:

I also liked the village leader - YAY for another strong female leader! As I shared with friends, I wanted to smack that weasel supporting her - they need to send him off to Master Bra'tac's Jaffa Academy....

Spoiler:

it was cool to not only see a *smart* FEMALE leader, but i liked that she was african american too. i don't know, i just thougth it was cool. but that *stupid* cliche' villager... and i'm sorry (not really), but i didn't think the actor did all that good. (((sorry said actor)))

Spoiler:

Loved the Sam/Cam interactions, and no, not necessarily because I enjoy shipping S10 Cam with Sam. (And yes, that would be a Sam who has had a history with Jack. ) Taken at face value those were some powerful moments they let Amanda have and let Ben work off of. YAY! to the writers for finally giving Amanda something meaty to work with.


*grins at Sally and her Mum* But back to Sam/Cam, it was nice. Very nice. Their interactions were very believable, no matter what you believe Cam's backstory with Sam to be before Jack gave Cam his chance at the SGC. Whether he was a more fairly-recently made friend - maybe friended not-so-long before the Antarctic mission or even as a friend of hers from waaaay back (as I'm writing in a S/C fic where Sam's known Cam since Operation Desert Storm).

But that was the wonderful thing about it - with the wonderful acting (the spare dialogue was okay and in character) both actors did, you could feel the compassion and care no matter what level you chose to interpret it on. (Which for me is really good friends, and then that ssssseeekrit ship... )

*sighs* Why couldn't we have had another season of this? Grrrrrrr.....

Spoiler:

first off, mom saw *mitchell* looking at her a shippy way, but not the other way around. mom's still a sam/jack shipper.

but, if jack wasn't the love of sam's life (in my opinion), i'd be able to take a sam/mitchell relay.

and i really *enjoyed* the sam-mitchell friendship. i feel they're going out of their way to make sure we see *just* a friendship. again, my opinion. i think, for me, knowing that they're just friends makes being able to watch them interact worry free. and then i can 'appreciate' it, you know? of course, that doesn't mean that ppl aren't free to interpret things the way they want. (remembers shipping susan and mark in 'ER')




sally