Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[MajorSam]

I think they should take advantage of Amanda's ability to use sign language. She learned it when she was the lead in Children of a Lesser God on stage.


Sally

I agree!!! We talked about that, and she stressed how that role was the hardest she's ever had to do. She had to get permission and acceptance from the deaf community, and they were ALL there to watch the performance, she had some major pressure going on!!!

I would LOVE to see Sam incapacitated in some way, so she HAD to use sign language... Sure army hand signals can say a lot, but sign language can more.

Which get's us back into the whole "woman torture" thing...

Night Terrors[/URL]

NC

OOOH, I've read that!!! it's brilliant, definatley recomended!

LOL I heard her say that too but MajorSam's photo kinda puts it all into perspective. Although ... she did play a prostitute in that show .... Let's say that AT has a wicked sense of humor!

Omigosh, where are we going with all this torture and sex?! We're drifting away from our PG rating!

Is anyone here really THAT young/not at the maturity level to have to stick to PG I mean, where's the fun in that???

LOL... woman, you're scaring me!

Thanks for the warning about the pic, but the piccy was so big that I saw it before I saw the warning...

*tries to get image out of head*

You can kill her, majsam, but BRING HER BACK!


Sally


ps - btw, to make things easier on the whole majorsam/majorsal thinger, everyone can just call me mrs anderson. I mean sally!

*cackles evilly* will she WANT to come back is the question

HAHA, everytime I see taht i think "Mr.Anderson" then get images of Neo, and Trinity. and Trinity DYING. which brings me back to Sam. dying! AAAH, now I can't get it out of MY head!

I think they should take advantage of Amanda's ability to use sign language. She learned it when she was the lead in Children of a Lesser God on stage.


Sally

I agree!!! We talked about that, and she stressed how that role was the hardest she's ever had to do. She had to get permission and acceptance from the deaf community, and they were ALL there to watch the performance, she had some major pressure going on!!!

I would LOVE to see Sam incapacitated in some way, so she HAD to use sign language... Sure army hand signals can say a lot, but sign language can more.

Which get's us back into the whole "woman torture" thing...

Night Terrors[/URL]

NC

OOOH, I've read that!!! it's brilliant, definatley recomended!

LOL I heard her say that too but MajorSam's photo kinda puts it all into perspective. Although ... she did play a prostitute in that show .... Let's say that AT has a wicked sense of humor!

Omigosh, where are we going with all this torture and sex?! We're drifting away from our PG rating!

Is anyone here really THAT young/not at the maturity level to have to stick to PG I mean, where's the fun in that???

[ChopinGal]

"equal opportunity whumpage" YES!

But, I grew up watching a lot of really crappy women as victim stories. You know the ones I mean - running away from bad guys, the "girl" trips and turns/sprains her ankle so that the hero has to bravely turn back into the face of danger just to rescue her. (it's a miracle that a whole generation of women don't trip over their own feet every time they go out - oh wait, some of us do )

Anyway, I love whumpage, if it's written well, meaning not a woman being victimized just so she can be rescued, but so that she can show her strength.

How about a story where Sam has to go back and rescue the guys who are in need of assistance. And maybe gets injured in the process, thus satisfying all of us whumping junkies.

If you like fan fic, here's a link to a Sam story that I really like, called Night Terrors, which has Sam rescuing the guys and Sam whumping as well.

Night Terrors

NC

LOL Oh, Wise Elder, a great post!

And, yes, Night Terrors is one of my favorite fanfics - it is so well done and incorporates the team dynamic around the super-heroics of Sam. The author, Sally Reeve, is now writing copy for the new Stargate SG1 Official Magazine.

[ChopinGal]

... Is anyone here really THAT young/not at the maturity level to have to stick to PG I mean, where's the fun in that???

Point made and taken. I was just jesting (as befits my new Samandan title).

[MajorSam]

Ok, I can't for the life of me find the post that has the snippets from Amanda's thing on Pregnancy from official mag 2, but I remember in it she stated she's taking the time to "relax" and stuff, but I can tell you if she IS relaxing, it's not any kind i've ever heard of...! Even pregnancy can't stop that woman, she's out 24/7 keeping busy, getting things done. It's amazing, she's actually almost never home!

[ChopinGal]

Slightly OT but this thread has touched a bit on women writers and if a woman would write the character of Sam differently. The verdict is out on that because we don't have any data to work from ... so, instead of doing my laundry (which is cascading from my laundry basket), I decided to do some research and identify exactly which episodes had been written/influenced by women.

Here's the scoop.

There are two women writers who were influential in the early seasons: Katharyn Powers and Heather E. Ash.

Katharyn Powers has written: Emancipation , Thor's Hammer, Enigma , Thor's Chariot, Family, Serpent's Song in Seasons 1 and 2, along with teleplays for Brief Candle and Fire and Water ; in Seasons 3 and 4, she writes Pretense and Crossroads; in Seasons 5 and 6, Smoke and Mirrors. Strangely, she really slacks off by the fourth season ... of course, we don't know why this happened. (I have my own theories, but will be on good behavior.)

I have not determined the gender of this writer but a "Terry" Curtis Fox has written: Prisoners, Secrets in Seasons 1 and 2; Rules of Engagement in Seasons 3 and 4. For this discussion I am excluding this writer unless someone knows, for sure, if Terry is a he or she!

Heather E. Ash comes onboard for Seasons 3 and 4 and writes: Foothold , Learning Curve , New Ground, and Beneath the Surface ; in Seasons 5 and 6, we only see one story attributed to her, but an important one, Rite of Passage.

Two other women make important contributions: a story by Victoria C. James is adapted into A Hundred Days in Seasons 3/4. And, Jackie Samuda (who plays Nirrti) co-writes Metamorphosis (Sam whumpage here) for Season 6.

I wanted to put this out here and let you all take a look.

Which of these episodes, do you think, were better served because of a woman driving the lines and plot? Why? Or, possibly, do you think there seems to be no difference at all between the quality and direction of these stories versus the other episodes?

Was Sam's characterization written well? How were the other characters developed or treated? How about secondary characters?

I think we can really have some fun with this and maybe it should go on another thread (eventually), but I am requesting that we let the give-and-take begin here, around how these women wrote for women characters: Sam and Janet primarily. But look for the other females in these stories and what do you think about how they were portrayed?

I'll put my two cents in later ... right now, my laundry is calling! Of course, I have already biased the discussion by inserting throughout. But these episodes did have certain Sam moments in them which were memorable.

[hrh36]

Slightly OT but this Thread has touched a bit on women writers and if a woman would write the character of Sam differently. The verdict is out on that because we don't have any data to work from ... so, instead of doing my laundry (which is cascading from my laundry basket), I decided to do some research and identify exactly which episodes had been written/influenced by women.

Here's the scoop.

There are two women writers who were influential in the early seasons: Katharyn Powers and Heather E. Ash.

Katharyn Powers has written: Emancipation , Thor's Hammer, Enigma , Thor's Chariot, Family, Serpent's Song in Seasons 1 and 2, along with teleplays for Brief Candle and Fire and Water ; in Seasons 3 and 4, she writes Pretense and Crossroads; in Seasons 5 and 6, Smoke and Mirrors. Strangely, she really slacks off by the fourth season ... of course, we don't know why this happened. (I have my own theories, but will be on good behavior.)

I have not determined the gender of this writer but a "Terry" Curtis Fox has written: Prisoners, Secrets in Seasons 1 and 2; Rules of Engagement in Seasons 3 and 4. For this discussion I am excluding this writer unless someone knows, for sure, if Terry is a he or she!

Heather E. Ash comes onboard for Seasons 3 and 4 and writes: Foothold , Learning Curve , New Ground, and Beneath the Surface ; in Seasons 5 and 6, we only see one story attributed to her, but an important one, Rite of Passage.

Two other women make important contributions: a story by Victoria C. James is adapted into A Hundred Days in Seasons 3/4. And, Jackie Samuda (who plays Nirrti) co-writes Metamorphosis (Sam whumpage here) for Season 6.

snip

Wow! Thanks to much for doing all this research. I've been interested in this subject but been too lazy to actually look into it.

My comments don't actually answer your questions re: Sam. I'll do that later.

But first thing that jumps out is that "Hathor" was not written by a woman! Who is that writer because he wrote strong scenes for Sam and Janet? And Sam and Janet together! Not my favorite episode overall - not thrilled with Daniel's rape - but the women are written well.

Second is that the female-penned stories tend to be the romance/family oriented ones, i.e. Family, Secrets, Brief Candle, Beneath the Surface, Rite of Passage, which is a bit of a stereotype that that's all women care about.

Third, I'm thrilled to see the nonromance/family scripts such as the Thor pair, Pretense, Prisoners, which I consider very intelligent episodes to be written by women. Fire and Water is one of my favorites, for storyline and Sam, but it, too, can be considered a romance, "What fate, Ameratu?" indeed!

Fourth, they dropped women authors after S4 for the most part EXCEPT when they wanted a family story, such as Rite of Passage. Samuda was used to finish up Nirrti's arc.

Fifth, not too many people (I don't think, wasn't a fan back then, didn't know the show existed!) were upset with J/S ship in the early seasons. In fact, there were shippers for more pairs than J/S as I understand it. But J/S ship in particular was written in a believable way with both characters (in fact, I think Jack seemed more interested in Sam in those early years) came across well. When it was written by women.

J/S ship since S4 has not fared so well with general fandom because it is not handled well by these male writers. IMO. I emphasize these writers, because there may be male writers who can do it well. But I think these writers have done a disservice to Sam in their writing of ship.

To the point where 90% of Sam discussion these days is all about ship, whichever person she is shipped with, be it Jack, Pete, McKay, . . . or Thor!

Which is why I looooooove this thread so much. I'd say it's 10% Sam and ship versus 90% Sam the person, caring teammate, intelligent scientist, kickbutt soldier. Woohooo! Keep it up Samandans!

I'll comment more on how women write Sam later.

Thanks again for the research.

hrh

[Skydiver]

How about a story where Sam has to go back and rescue the guys who are in need of assistance. And maybe gets injured in the process, thus satisfying all of us whumping junkies.

If you like fan fic, here's a link to a Sam story that I really like, called Night Terrors, which has Sam rescuing the guys and Sam whumping as well.

Night Terrors

NC

i second, third, fourth...whatever the rec for this one. i love this story. good whumpage

One that i need to track down a link for is Soul of a Planet by Momoftoad i believe. equal opportunity whumpage but also a bit of a focus on sam

[Skydiver]

what i really like about foothold is taht sam was just sam. she wasn't the 'girl that saved the day' she was just the person who wasn't effected by the tranqs who got away and went for help

nothing was too over the top or 'super sam'...she just got the job done

[NearlyCircular]

I remember a thread a while back on the topic of whether the writers could write for the women of Stargate. I did a search of the forum and found it here. writing for women of Stargate thread

I need to go back and read through these again, but I seem to recall that it was a pretty good discussion. And probably some of us contributed at the time.

NC

[Skydiver]

just watched moebius

Spoiler:

can i say that nerdy sam is SOOOOOO cute!!!!!!!

she's so eager and ready for something exciting to happen, then so unsure about what to do when it does...and i thought it was telling that she knew before daniel that they'd be jerked around and that they were just being tolerated as long as they had something to offer

she was our sam, just with zero confidence in herself

you know that is one thing about sam, she does have the self-confidence to stand up and say 'we need to do x' and i'm going to tell you in lengthy, excruciating detail WHY we need to do x...and i won't stop talking until you do x

lol

[ChopinGal]

Seeing Sam's reaction to seeing her own image in the crystal reminds me of one of my all-time fave scifi movies - The Abyss. I sooooo wish that Amanda had been in that movie as the lead actress (and Rick as the male lead ). It was a perfect mix of scifi and love story. In fact, it was a great love story. Amanda would have nailed this role and would prob be a movie star now! But then we might not have her as Sam Carter, so...


Sally

Yes, wasn't that the one with Mastroiano actress in the lead - can't think of her first two names and am LOL considering that her last name is quite a handful and I seem to remember that better! I liked that movie too.

Wow - Sam and Jack in that movie would have been fun!

[ChopinGal]

for whatever reasons, they tend to stick with emotional whumpage for the girls. maybe it's because females are more emotive and guys are more physical and maybe there's just some old fashioned gentlemanlyness that says that women shouldn't be treated this way

of course, maybe they're also aware that there's so much violence against women in the real world that no one wants to make a tv show that could be seen as encouraging that?

Right - that's why context is important.

A script about a woman soldier in combat would carry different expectations regarding injuries and physical violence. The fact that, even as I write this, there are hundreds of women in the armed services around the world, and especially in the Middle East, who are putting themselves in harm's way doing their duty would be the reality of what Sam would be experiencing in extreme conditions. Viewing a scene like that and the woman struggling and surviving would show that women are, indeed, capable of defending themselves in overwhelming circumstances. I think it could actually send a positive message to many women who may feel victimized. Just MHO.

CG

[ChopinGal]

Amanda Tapping, Queen of all things Sam and all things cool!


Sally

Hear, hear ... and may she have a long and healthy reign!

[Coley]

Major Sal tried to rep you for your post re women in extreme situations, but need to spread!!!

[MajorSam]

Major Sal tried to rep you for your post re women in extreme situations, but need to spread!!!

I selflessly offer myself to you're "spreading" need!!!!