Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[chocdoc]

i'm frustrated about the lack of sam/amanda promotion too, but i'm going (try) to give the ptb the benefit of the doubt *because* i know how much they care for and admire amanda. so putting that in mind, it gives me the impression that spoilers for her are purposely being held back. why? to irritate the fans? sounds stupid to me, since they 'want' us to come along for the 'new stargate' ride. so.... i'm thinking something good is coming for sam, because i can't think of any logical reason for holding back other than not liking the character/actor (which is so the opposite). like bink said, just say something, anything to explain things, but since they haven't... i'm getting vibes something's coming. and it could be great for sam. i'm going to hold on a bit longer and try to stay positive.

(((samanda)))


here's to sam in season 9!!!


sally

Wise, Majorsal. I'm trying to do that too. I can't imagine that the TPTB would alienate AT---they generally seem to be very supportive of her, so why change now?

Let's hope for some positive information soon.

[majorsal]

spoilers for ALL seasons head

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here's a new topic for us to chew on.

what episodes of the past would you like to have seen been sam's instead?



for me:

message in a bottle (sam stuck on wall, 'nuff said).

bane (mutant sam! ).

legacy (would have been fun to see sam go nutso ).

absolute power (more sam nuttage).

threshold (sam whumpage!)

abyss (sam whumpage - poor sam ).

lifeboat (they sure like to make danny nuts ).

zero hour (see *sam's* moment of truth)


what about you guys?



sally

[chocdoc]

Busy, exhausted, and, I hope, happy. It’s a wonderful thing when someone who wants children, and has been trying, finally has a child, and there’s no end to how pleased I am for, and my congratulations to, Amanda that (and Allan since I’m sure he had something to do with it! ) she (they ) have Olivia. I can understand that Amanda’s probably in that mode where, when one sits down for an instant, sleep takes the opportunity to launch an attack – and a lot of those attacks are successful! Having been there myself (no kids, but I do have a job where 10 hour days are par for the course, and the time/energy commitment only goes up from there) I can empathize with the idea that even a 20 minute interview might be one task too many in Amanda’s day. As Jack might say, I’m good with that. But there’re aspects of the situation that I’m not good with.

I think I need to insert Crankiness / Ranting / and maybe Sarcasm warnings about now/here, so please consider this a warning for the rest of this message….

I gather that as a fan I’m expected to take all the pronouncements of camaraderie and enjoyment and impending great things at face value, and that I’m meant to be impressed by the frequency and amplitude of the ‘Season 9 equals exceptional way-coolness’ vibes pouring out of Bridge, and, maybe I will be bowled over by season 9, but, its publicity isn’t impressing me at this time. Baby Olivia can’t be influencing the amount of time available for everyone else in the production who’s giving interviews / answering questions / compiling promos / writing blogs in quite the same way she’s doubtless impacting her mom’s schedule.

So… why isn’t anyone saying/blogging something to the effect that it’s good (hopefully fantastically good) to have Amanda back on the set? How good her work is? How well she works with/opposite wunderkinder Browder and Black? Why not cut that bit from the Lowdown about “Carter is hot” into the promos to go with the motif of Vala’s Avalon costume? Pop in some shots of her there at the Stargate from her promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, or Janet’s eulogy, to match the shot of Lt. Colonel Mitchell doing the ‘touch the Stargate reverently’ thingee?

I don’t know why none of these simple things are being done, and I freely admit I don’t know why, And yes, all speculation as to why is nothing but speculation. And, I would fully support Amanda Tapping’s own decisions about how to handle her participation in this new season, because it is her life and it should be her decision. I suppose I just don’t like the idea that all this paucity of Sam and Amanda in the midst of this abundance of publicity on Season 9 has reached the level where it’s produced a negative view of the new season, the TPTB, and the future of Stargate for me, and, there’s no apparent relief coming. I lurk around various forums and lists quite politely, and hear nothing at all about what interests me in Stargate. I’m beginning to consider a question on the “Ask JM” thread along the lines of “Mr. Mallozzi, can you tell me if I’m going to be watching Stargate SG-1 anymore, because if the utterly lame spoilers and publicity regarding Sam’s character in The Glory That Will Be Season 9 are indicative that she’s going to be subject to lame writing and plotting, like not giving her command of SG1, or relegating her to the position of the designated emotional-character-whose-ability-to-fax-is-as-noteworthy-as-her-degree-in-physics, or lessening the character’s importance to the Stargate program, or reducing the strength, intelligence, integrity, skill, and drive of the character, or upping her screw-up rating, to make her fit into a new place in the structure of the show, then I’m no longer one of your viewers.” (Don’t worry – I won’t do it, at least not without a re-write. Simha knows she knows sarcasm. )

The publicity for The Glory That Will Be Season 9appears to have been strategized, planned, and, at least in some cases, scripted. TPTB are showing us what they want to show us. Yes, they’re showing us what they want to show us from what they have to work with, and they may not have had anything new of Sam/Amanda to work with early in the new season’s production, but, they do have Sam items they could show us, nonetheless – witness the season 7 Sam clip in the original “meet the new team” promo – Sam video, AT interview video, Sam stills, AT stills, the entire English language with which to put words into people’s mouths and onto computer screens. Nonetheless, we’re not even getting enough Sam / Amanda publicity / promo content to qualify as ‘not much’. After a while at this, one finds oneself wondering if the practically nil state of Season 9 Sam info is deliberate, and one begins to speculate that TPTB are making the best of their Sam-less/AT-less state by trying to raise anticipation, discussion, and interest by saying nothing. Then, when AT has been back to work long enough for at least one of the episodes in which she’ll appear to be ‘in the can’, and still, not even a whiff of a paean to her contributions to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 has been aired in public, one (okay, I ) begin(s) to entertain even more uncomfortable speculation. Is/are Amanda/Sam somehow not seen as contributing to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 (sorry, that’s how all the publicity has led me to think of it )? Is the reason for AT’s absence, pregnancy, seen as being in conflict with the apparent pursuit of the young, male demographic (that demographic being stereotypically seen as holding pregnancy to be deeply uncool, at best, and pregnant women and new mothers as nothing like ‘tasty’ in general) and, hence, Amanda, and Sam, aren’t being mentioned or seen lest the dreadful ‘pregnancy’ or ‘mommy’ words be said? Has someone tumbled to the fact that the thought of women with degrees in science and engineering, especially ones who wield weapons, has been known to make young adult males cross their legs protectively on general principles, no matter how good looking those women are? Have they realized that many young males don’t like women, even women in their fantasy worlds, to be cooler / stronger / fiercer / smarter / just plain more than they are? Do Amanda’s coworkers, whom the fans have been given to understand hold her in high regard and esteem as a person and a professional, actually have not so much as a thought of her or about her in their minds – no one misses her, or her contributions, or even her character? Do they think that no one notices the lack of mention of AT and Sam? Those ideas disturb me, a lot.

After decades of sci-fi, I find I’m so jaded that I consider all uses of the Arthurian mythos in non-Arthurian material to be guilty of cynical cultural exploitation until proven innocent, so I don’t find the idea of Merlin-is-an-Ancient-and-the-Sword-In-The-Stone-shows-up-and-there’s-a-swordfight!!!! even slightly cool, much less view it as conferring heroic legitimacy on the character of Mitchell. I’ve been wondering for years when someone was going to explain why the oh-so-admirable-Ancients created such terrible weapons and left such dangerous devices littering the galaxy, so I’m not even slightly intrigued by the idea that not all the Ancients were good guys, regardless of whether they all glow. I don’t want to watch Manny, Moe, and Not-Jack do the boys will be boys routine with Vala as the scantily dressed woman who’s apparently de rigueur when boys are being action boys – especially sci-fi action boys, I believe, harkening back to the days when one had to put sci-fi novels down front-cover-to-horizontal-surface so as to avoid parental discussions of the attire of the purported heroines’ depicted thereon.

So far, TPTB are doing a nice job of inducing a state of negative anticipation in me regarding The Glory That Will Be Season 9, and they could reverse that with some good news about Sam, heck, any news about Sam.

::shakes head:: It is late, and I apologize both for ranting and spreading depression and sarcasm far and wide. I’ll just go haul my Holter’ed carcass into bed, and join everyone in hoping my mood improves by morning.

Simha

.


Great post, Simha! I like your ranting.

I particularly like your statement, do they think that no one notices the lack of mention of AT or Sam!! What are they thinking!! Are they afraid to tell us about her place on (or off) SG1? Alot of fans are noticing this lack of attention.

[Uber]

I know it is a disappointment that Amanda/Sam may not be as big a part of the show as she has been in the past eight years, but honestly I'm just excited that Amanda has agreed to be a part of the show at all. She's given us 110% of herself for the past eight years and she truly deserves this special gift she's been given. I know Olivia wasn't Amanda's first try to have a baby and I'm sure her hectic work schedule didn't help her situation.

Amanda is at a slight disadvantage to the other cast members in that she couldn't come back the day after her daughter's birth and jump right back into things: new dad's have some really big advantages over new moms in that aspect.

I have to agree with TH, I nursed my daughter for nearly a year and when you aren't nursing you are pumping (at least this was my case ). I was exhausted for the entire first year because my daughter was a really fussy eater and rarely slept longer than 2hrs at a time.

I know everyone is disappointed and frustrated with the lack of information coming out of Vancouver, but more than anything I think that Amanda really needs our patience, understanding and support right now. Her little girl is only a couple of months old, give her a little more time to get used to being a new mom and I'm sure once she's feeling a bit more at ease with the whole situation we will begin to hear more from her.

Kat

She has it...and hopefully with a big showing from Blue Jello week, she'll have concrete evidence of the fan's support...

...and great post on the JM thread btw...we need more people asking these kinds of questions and perhaps they'll get the idea that there's a major fanbase that doesn't want to be ticked off in a month.

...and if the POSTS don't work, the aforementioned Blue Jello week might...

I know why they aren't saying much...to drive us insane and to deliver a large audience...but at the same time, they could tell us SOMETHING...

So frankly folks, I think that TPTB receiving blue jello from all over the world is PRECISELY what they need right now....they NEED to know we want to hear something about her and that we support her...

[astrogeologist]

Busy, exhausted, and, I hope, happy. It’s a wonderful thing when someone who wants children, and has been trying, finally has a child, and there’s no end to how pleased I am for, and my congratulations to, Amanda that (and Allan since I’m sure he had something to do with it! ) she (they ) have Olivia. I can understand that Amanda’s probably in that mode where, when one sits down for an instant, sleep takes the opportunity to launch an attack – and a lot of those attacks are successful! Having been there myself (no kids, but I do have a job where 10 hour days are par for the course, and the time/energy commitment only goes up from there) I can empathize with the idea that even a 20 minute interview might be one task too many in Amanda’s day. As Jack might say, I’m good with that. But there’re aspects of the situation that I’m not good with.

I think I need to insert Crankiness / Ranting / and maybe Sarcasm warnings about now/here, so please consider this a warning for the rest of this message….

I gather that as a fan I’m expected to take all the pronouncements of camaraderie and enjoyment and impending great things at face value, and that I’m meant to be impressed by the frequency and amplitude of the ‘Season 9 equals exceptional way-coolness’ vibes pouring out of Bridge, and, maybe I will be bowled over by season 9, but, its publicity isn’t impressing me at this time. Baby Olivia can’t be influencing the amount of time available for everyone else in the production who’s giving interviews / answering questions / compiling promos / writing blogs in quite the same way she’s doubtless impacting her mom’s schedule.

So… why isn’t anyone saying/blogging something to the effect that it’s good (hopefully fantastically good) to have Amanda back on the set? How good her work is? How well she works with/opposite wunderkinder Browder and Black? Why not cut that bit from the Lowdown about “Carter is hot” into the promos to go with the motif of Vala’s Avalon costume? Pop in some shots of her there at the Stargate from her promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, or Janet’s eulogy, to match the shot of Lt. Colonel Mitchell doing the ‘touch the Stargate reverently’ thingee?

I don’t know why none of these simple things are being done, and I freely admit I don’t know why, And yes, all speculation as to why is nothing but speculation. And, I would fully support Amanda Tapping’s own decisions about how to handle her participation in this new season, because it is her life and it should be her decision. I suppose I just don’t like the idea that all this paucity of Sam and Amanda in the midst of this abundance of publicity on Season 9 has reached the level where it’s produced a negative view of the new season, the TPTB, and the future of Stargate for me, and, there’s no apparent relief coming. I lurk around various forums and lists quite politely, and hear nothing at all about what interests me in Stargate. I’m beginning to consider a question on the “Ask JM” thread along the lines of “Mr. Mallozzi, can you tell me if I’m going to be watching Stargate SG-1 anymore, because if the utterly lame spoilers and publicity regarding Sam’s character in The Glory That Will Be Season 9 are indicative that she’s going to be subject to lame writing and plotting, like not giving her command of SG1, or relegating her to the position of the designated emotional-character-whose-ability-to-fax-is-as-noteworthy-as-her-degree-in-physics, or lessening the character’s importance to the Stargate program, or reducing the strength, intelligence, integrity, skill, and drive of the character, or upping her screw-up rating, to make her fit into a new place in the structure of the show, then I’m no longer one of your viewers.” (Don’t worry – I won’t do it, at least not without a re-write. Simha knows she knows sarcasm. )

The publicity for The Glory That Will Be Season 9appears to have been strategized, planned, and, at least in some cases, scripted. TPTB are showing us what they want to show us. Yes, they’re showing us what they want to show us from what they have to work with, and they may not have had anything new of Sam/Amanda to work with early in the new season’s production, but, they do have Sam items they could show us, nonetheless – witness the season 7 Sam clip in the original “meet the new team” promo – Sam video, AT interview video, Sam stills, AT stills, the entire English language with which to put words into people’s mouths and onto computer screens. Nonetheless, we’re not even getting enough Sam / Amanda publicity / promo content to qualify as ‘not much’. After a while at this, one finds oneself wondering if the practically nil state of Season 9 Sam info is deliberate, and one begins to speculate that TPTB are making the best of their Sam-less/AT-less state by trying to raise anticipation, discussion, and interest by saying nothing. Then, when AT has been back to work long enough for at least one of the episodes in which she’ll appear to be ‘in the can’, and still, not even a whiff of a paean to her contributions to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 has been aired in public, one (okay, I ) begin(s) to entertain even more uncomfortable speculation. Is/are Amanda/Sam somehow not seen as contributing to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 (sorry, that’s how all the publicity has led me to think of it )? Is the reason for AT’s absence, pregnancy, seen as being in conflict with the apparent pursuit of the young, male demographic (that demographic being stereotypically seen as holding pregnancy to be deeply uncool, at best, and pregnant women and new mothers as nothing like ‘tasty’ in general) and, hence, Amanda, and Sam, aren’t being mentioned or seen lest the dreadful ‘pregnancy’ or ‘mommy’ words be said? Has someone tumbled to the fact that the thought of women with degrees in science and engineering, especially ones who wield weapons, has been known to make young adult males cross their legs protectively on general principles, no matter how good looking those women are? Have they realized that many young males don’t like women, even women in their fantasy worlds, to be cooler / stronger / fiercer / smarter / just plain more than they are? Do Amanda’s coworkers, whom the fans have been given to understand hold her in high regard and esteem as a person and a professional, actually have not so much as a thought of her or about her in their minds – no one misses her, or her contributions, or even her character? Do they think that no one notices the lack of mention of AT and Sam? Those ideas disturb me, a lot.

After decades of sci-fi, I find I’m so jaded that I consider all uses of the Arthurian mythos in non-Arthurian material to be guilty of cynical cultural exploitation until proven innocent, so I don’t find the idea of Merlin-is-an-Ancient-and-the-Sword-In-The-Stone-shows-up-and-there’s-a-swordfight!!!! even slightly cool, much less view it as conferring heroic legitimacy on the character of Mitchell. I’ve been wondering for years when someone was going to explain why the oh-so-admirable-Ancients created such terrible weapons and left such dangerous devices littering the galaxy, so I’m not even slightly intrigued by the idea that not all the Ancients were good guys, regardless of whether they all glow. I don’t want to watch Manny, Moe, and Not-Jack do the boys will be boys routine with Vala as the scantily dressed woman who’s apparently de rigueur when boys are being action boys – especially sci-fi action boys, I believe, harkening back to the days when one had to put sci-fi novels down front-cover-to-horizontal-surface so as to avoid parental discussions of the attire of the purported heroines’ depicted thereon.

So far, TPTB are doing a nice job of inducing a state of negative anticipation in me regarding The Glory That Will Be Season 9, and they could reverse that with some good news about Sam, heck, any news about Sam.

::shakes head:: It is late, and I apologize both for ranting and spreading depression and sarcasm far and wide. I’ll just go haul my Holter’ed carcass into bed, and join everyone in hoping my mood improves by morning.

Simha

Wow... this was a very well-written rant, Simha! I loved so much of it that I didn't even wait until getting to the end to send you some rep! Love your way with words... do you write? If you have written any Samfic, please, please send me a link... if you haven't... please, please do (begging here)... you'd write some great stories for Sam!

To everyone who's posted their observations, trepidation, fears - and hopes for AT and Sam - I send you all hugs of commiseration.

A part of me thinks that AT has been deliberately avoiding all types of press and media coverage since that interview with Hewlett (the guy who plays McKay) Why? I think she'll tell us one day... I just hope that she's happy and that she's going to be proud of the character of Sam Carter in Season 9.

If the show puts Carter under Mitchell's command, while at the same time making Mitchell 'the new Jack male lead'... I simply can't fathom of an explanation that will make it palatable (or excusable).

One facet of Stargate has been the growth and development of the characters... including promotions... To put Sam back into the role of the woman saying 'Yes, Sir' to the male team leader again... that would simply *suck*. It's all well and good to go back to the team-exploration type of episodes of the first couple of seasons... great in fact... but it would be entirely improper to try and reset the team so that it's Teal'c and Daniel with Sam as 2IC to the strong male lead.

To be honest, I hadn't actually even thought of such a possibility until reading another thread last week... The idea is just ludicrous.

[astrogeologist]

spoilers for ALL seasons head

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here's a new topic for us to chew on.

what episodes of the past would you like to have seen been sam's instead?



for me:

message in a bottle (sam stuck on wall, 'nuff said).

bane (mutant sam! ).

legacy (would have been fun to see sam go nutso ).

absolute power (more sam nuttage).

threshold (sam whumpage!)

abyss (sam whumpage - poor sam ).

lifeboat (they sure like to make danny nuts ).

zero hour (see *sam's* moment of truth)


what about you guys?



sally

Great topic, Sally!

I'd have changed

Ascension - so that they took Sam seriously... would have definitely have taken the 'Jack's gotta pee' scene out

Desperate Measures - Sam would have either been more injured - or she would have gotten herself out... I hated the Jack saves the 'damsel in distress' scene when the henchmen were going to poison her (that scene looked like it was straight from an old silent movie with Sam as the damsel tied to the railroad tracks and Jack was the heroic knight on the white horse). Also would have ended that episode with Jack *not* getting shot - that the ending scenes wouldn't have been about Jack- instead, the ending scenes would have been about Sam dealing with what had been done to her.

Avenger 2.0 - Sam saves Felger and herself and Jack doesn't sail in to the rescue.

Death Knell - Sam takes out the SuperSoldier at the end ... with the special gun that Jack brings is fine...

Foresaken - Sam doesn't get cold-cocked and trussed up - have Jack or Teal'c get cold-cocked and trussed up - and let Sam save the guys!

Paradise Lost - I'd have had Sam get stuck offworld with Maybourne! Would have loved to have seen more of Snarky Sam dealing with Maybourne like she did when she called him an idiot every day of the week like she did in Foothold. Would also have liked to have seen Jack (and Daniel and Teal'c) dealing with Sam being gone for a month (we'd already seen Sam build a particle accelerator to cope with Jack's absence in 100 days)... and the Jack's short scenes in Grace were too short - and Sam was only missing for four days.

Reckoning - Sam takes on Replicarter - this was *so* needed for Sam's character!

Lost City - All four of our four main heroes 'go Ancient'! Wouldn't it have been cool to have seen them conversing with each other in Latin/Ancient - and no one else can understand them? All four of our main heroes operate the Ancient technology in Antarctica and take out Anubis and his spacefleet. All four of them crawl into the 'dormata' cryogenic chambers - now THAT would have been a great season ender (and even a series ender, because that's what it was supposed to originally be)

Oh.... just pick an episode and rewrite the ending so that the guys are in trouble (tied up with tape across their mouths - like they do to women all the time in shows)... and the show ends with Sam being heroic and saving them - and the ending scene is Sam untying the guys!

Harumph!

[Agent_Dark]

I know alot of ppl are slightly upset about the fact that we've had no spoilers for Sam in season9 yet, and thats understandable - I am too
But I think we need to cut the PTB a little slack here. I mean AT's just got back from maternity leave. And I have a feeling the reason we're not seeing any spoilers about Sam in these episode leaks (eg Prototype) is because the original draft was written when AT was still on maternity leave. The writers probably wern't sure what AT was going to be able to commit to, so the original drafts mighn't have included her as much. But I'm sure they'll go thru numerous re-writes and we will see alot of Sam

And we have heard from RCC that AT is back on the set, and doing well, so thats good news. So I daresay that the writers have had a talk to AT now, and are going back and writing her in. I hardly think we can expect the spoilers to be released the day after they go into the script...

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that if we keep thinking negative thoughts, then we're not going to make ourselves happy. And I like being happy, so I think happy thoughts Like how Sam kicked arse in Foothold, and saved the day in Failsafe and beat the snot outta the Mongol guy in Emancipation
My motto? Don't worry, Be Happy *doo doo dee da*

[tara3583]

Wow... this was a very well-written rant, Simha! I loved so much of it that I didn't even wait until getting to the end to send you some rep! Love your way with words... do you write? If you have written any Samfic, please, please send me a link... if you haven't... please, please do (begging here)... you'd write some great stories for Sam!

To everyone who's posted their observations, trepidation, fears - and hopes for AT and Sam - I send you all hugs of commiseration.

A part of me thinks that AT has been deliberately avoiding all types of press and media coverage since that interview with Hewlett (the guy who plays McKay) Why? I think she'll tell us one day... I just hope that she's happy and that she's going to be proud of the character of Sam Carter in Season 9.

If the show puts Carter under Mitchell's command, while at the same time making Mitchell 'the new Jack male lead'... I simply can't fathom of an explanation that will make it palatable (or excusable).

One facet of Stargate has been the growth and development of the characters... including promotions... To put Sam back into the role of the woman saying 'Yes, Sir' to the male team leader again... that would simply *suck*. It's all well and good to go back to the team-exploration type of episodes of the first couple of seasons... great in fact... but it would be entirely improper to try and reset the team so that it's Teal'c and Daniel with Sam as 2IC to the strong male lead.

To be honest, I hadn't actually even thought of such a possibility until reading another thread last week... The idea is just ludicrous.

Has'nt Amanda herself said in a past inteview that she want's to see Sam lead her team and have to deal with the fall out of those orders that maybe don't sit well with her.
All these spoilers that are coming out are to be honest as a fan making me feel like i really
don't care about this show any more and tptb really should sit up and take notice because i always thought the idea of publicity was to bring in the public for your product and imho that is not happining!
There is far to many people noticing the nearly
total lack of Sam and even interviews just given have failed to mention Amanda which to be
honest has for the first time left a very bad taste in my mouth of those inerviewed and that is very bad imho PR!
I'm sorry if this is worded strongly but i can't for the life of me understand what is going on at the studio, it all just makes me feel that they have upset Amanda in some way and she is just working out her contract and then call it a day.

So COME ON YOU PTB SAY SOMTHING ABOUT SAM AND MAKE ME EAT MY WORDS. PLEASE!!!!

[astrogeologist]

Don't forget that you can vote once a day for AT for Best Actress

http://www.syfyportal.com/

[1speed4Sam]

MajorSal signed up too, lol, hopefully she'll figure out what it's for soon enough!

Thanks everyone for your congrats (Chopin.... beautiful! *Sniff* just beautiful! *choke* Now look what you've done, I've gone and got all teary eyed! )

I think that Samandan Medal is a brilliant suggestion!

By Orange, which part do you mean? Something like this, perhaps?

Yeah, something like that. Maybe a touch darker, make it a bit punchier?

Then of course, we need some suitably artistic Samandan to come up with a design for the actual medal itself...

1s4S

[1speed4Sam]

Busy, exhausted, and, I hope, happy. It’s a wonderful thing when someone who wants children, and has been trying, finally has a child, and there’s no end to how pleased I am for, and my congratulations to, Amanda that (and Allan since I’m sure he had something to do with it! ) she (they ) have Olivia. I can understand that Amanda’s probably in that mode where, when one sits down for an instant, sleep takes the opportunity to launch an attack – and a lot of those attacks are successful! Having been there myself (no kids, but I do have a job where 10 hour days are par for the course, and the time/energy commitment only goes up from there) I can empathize with the idea that even a 20 minute interview might be one task too many in Amanda’s day. As Jack might say, I’m good with that. But there’re aspects of the situation that I’m not good with.

I think I need to insert Crankiness / Ranting / and maybe Sarcasm warnings about now/here, so please consider this a warning for the rest of this message….

I gather that as a fan I’m expected to take all the pronouncements of camaraderie and enjoyment and impending great things at face value, and that I’m meant to be impressed by the frequency and amplitude of the ‘Season 9 equals exceptional way-coolness’ vibes pouring out of Bridge, and, maybe I will be bowled over by season 9, but, its publicity isn’t impressing me at this time. Baby Olivia can’t be influencing the amount of time available for everyone else in the production who’s giving interviews / answering questions / compiling promos / writing blogs in quite the same way she’s doubtless impacting her mom’s schedule.

So… why isn’t anyone saying/blogging something to the effect that it’s good (hopefully fantastically good) to have Amanda back on the set? How good her work is? How well she works with/opposite wunderkinder Browder and Black? Why not cut that bit from the Lowdown about “Carter is hot” into the promos to go with the motif of Vala’s Avalon costume? Pop in some shots of her there at the Stargate from her promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, or Janet’s eulogy, to match the shot of Lt. Colonel Mitchell doing the ‘touch the Stargate reverently’ thingee?

I don’t know why none of these simple things are being done, and I freely admit I don’t know why, And yes, all speculation as to why is nothing but speculation. And, I would fully support Amanda Tapping’s own decisions about how to handle her participation in this new season, because it is her life and it should be her decision. I suppose I just don’t like the idea that all this paucity of Sam and Amanda in the midst of this abundance of publicity on Season 9 has reached the level where it’s produced a negative view of the new season, the TPTB, and the future of Stargate for me, and, there’s no apparent relief coming. I lurk around various forums and lists quite politely, and hear nothing at all about what interests me in Stargate. I’m beginning to consider a question on the “Ask JM” thread along the lines of “Mr. Mallozzi, can you tell me if I’m going to be watching Stargate SG-1 anymore, because if the utterly lame spoilers and publicity regarding Sam’s character in The Glory That Will Be Season 9 are indicative that she’s going to be subject to lame writing and plotting, like not giving her command of SG1, or relegating her to the position of the designated emotional-character-whose-ability-to-fax-is-as-noteworthy-as-her-degree-in-physics, or lessening the character’s importance to the Stargate program, or reducing the strength, intelligence, integrity, skill, and drive of the character, or upping her screw-up rating, to make her fit into a new place in the structure of the show, then I’m no longer one of your viewers.” (Don’t worry – I won’t do it, at least not without a re-write. Simha knows she knows sarcasm. )

The publicity for The Glory That Will Be Season 9appears to have been strategized, planned, and, at least in some cases, scripted. TPTB are showing us what they want to show us. Yes, they’re showing us what they want to show us from what they have to work with, and they may not have had anything new of Sam/Amanda to work with early in the new season’s production, but, they do have Sam items they could show us, nonetheless – witness the season 7 Sam clip in the original “meet the new team” promo – Sam video, AT interview video, Sam stills, AT stills, the entire English language with which to put words into people’s mouths and onto computer screens. Nonetheless, we’re not even getting enough Sam / Amanda publicity / promo content to qualify as ‘not much’. After a while at this, one finds oneself wondering if the practically nil state of Season 9 Sam info is deliberate, and one begins to speculate that TPTB are making the best of their Sam-less/AT-less state by trying to raise anticipation, discussion, and interest by saying nothing. Then, when AT has been back to work long enough for at least one of the episodes in which she’ll appear to be ‘in the can’, and still, not even a whiff of a paean to her contributions to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 has been aired in public, one (okay, I ) begin(s) to entertain even more uncomfortable speculation. Is/are Amanda/Sam somehow not seen as contributing to The Glory That Will Be Season 9 (sorry, that’s how all the publicity has led me to think of it )? Is the reason for AT’s absence, pregnancy, seen as being in conflict with the apparent pursuit of the young, male demographic (that demographic being stereotypically seen as holding pregnancy to be deeply uncool, at best, and pregnant women and new mothers as nothing like ‘tasty’ in general) and, hence, Amanda, and Sam, aren’t being mentioned or seen lest the dreadful ‘pregnancy’ or ‘mommy’ words be said? Has someone tumbled to the fact that the thought of women with degrees in science and engineering, especially ones who wield weapons, has been known to make young adult males cross their legs protectively on general principles, no matter how good looking those women are? Have they realized that many young males don’t like women, even women in their fantasy worlds, to be cooler / stronger / fiercer / smarter / just plain more than they are? Do Amanda’s coworkers, whom the fans have been given to understand hold her in high regard and esteem as a person and a professional, actually have not so much as a thought of her or about her in their minds – no one misses her, or her contributions, or even her character? Do they think that no one notices the lack of mention of AT and Sam? Those ideas disturb me, a lot.

After decades of sci-fi, I find I’m so jaded that I consider all uses of the Arthurian mythos in non-Arthurian material to be guilty of cynical cultural exploitation until proven innocent, so I don’t find the idea of Merlin-is-an-Ancient-and-the-Sword-In-The-Stone-shows-up-and-there’s-a-swordfight!!!! even slightly cool, much less view it as conferring heroic legitimacy on the character of Mitchell. I’ve been wondering for years when someone was going to explain why the oh-so-admirable-Ancients created such terrible weapons and left such dangerous devices littering the galaxy, so I’m not even slightly intrigued by the idea that not all the Ancients were good guys, regardless of whether they all glow. I don’t want to watch Manny, Moe, and Not-Jack do the boys will be boys routine with Vala as the scantily dressed woman who’s apparently de rigueur when boys are being action boys – especially sci-fi action boys, I believe, harkening back to the days when one had to put sci-fi novels down front-cover-to-horizontal-surface so as to avoid parental discussions of the attire of the purported heroines’ depicted thereon.

So far, TPTB are doing a nice job of inducing a state of negative anticipation in me regarding The Glory That Will Be Season 9, and they could reverse that with some good news about Sam, heck, any news about Sam.

::shakes head:: It is late, and I apologize both for ranting and spreading depression and sarcasm far and wide. I’ll just go haul my Holter’ed carcass into bed, and join everyone in hoping my mood improves by morning.

Simha

And breathe...

What a tremendous post!!! Being very much the New Boy round here (first viewing of TEW tomorrow ), I'll admit I'm not feeling the deep angst over S9 that everybody else in Samanda apparently is. That said, the impression I've gained so far of AT (both as an actress and a person) and the impact she has on people is making me start to wonder at what point through the seasons I'll become terminally exasperated with TPTB and what they are doing (or not doing) with / to her.

And speaking as a (relatively) normal red-blooded male, I really do hope that I've misunderstood a lot of what I've read on here, and don't find that a show which has struck me on first acquaintance as a classy, intelligent, and *grown-up* production is suddenly transformed into a lowest common denominator, cheap and nasty T'n'A (pardon my language ) sci-fi comic for the X-Box Generation (with apologies to our younger Samandans).

But at least I'll know where to turn if / when that moment comes...

1s4S

[Skydiver]

Is she a part of the team at some point or not?

apparantly not from all thespoilers i've read. Now TEAM seems to be comprised solely of the three stooges

Skydiver---why would TPTB actually deliberately and purposefully exclude AT/Sam from the show? I thought they admired and valued her? Clearly she has proven over and over again that she is an excellent actress.

the cynic in me puts forth the complete and total ignoring of amanda and sam by the others. How many interviews have we been fed??? A dozen or so. How many of the other cast members have even MENTIONED Amanda/Sam....ONE, and then only when Rob was directly asked.

I've been to cons and seen MS and CJ and DSD fall all over themselves to pimp themselves and never, ever mention RDA or AT unless directly asked, and even then the question is answered in the tone of 'oh, right, here you go, now let's get back to what's important'

Anyone who's been paying attention has to know that Sam and Amanda are well liked parts of the show....yet nothing is being done to acknowledge that fact.

If its not MS, Ben or Beau, it's not important

And as to Sam's level of participation in Prototype, that's set for after the summer break and won't be taped for months, so it's a bit odd if they're thinking that she won't want to be a part of something that goes before the cameras this fall

[Skydiver]

anyone have dirty dancing on tape/dvd?

remember the scene at the end 'no body puts baby in the corner'

what about taking that and 'no body puts sam in the corner'

[ForeverSg1]

anyone have dirty dancing on tape/dvd?

remember the scene at the end 'no body puts baby in the corner'

what about taking that and 'no body puts sam in the corner'

Laugh I think you and I were thinking along the same lines Sky!!

Let me see if I can find something regarding Dirty Dancing.

Kat

[1speed4Sam]

Kat, I don't know if you've only just changed it, or I simply hadn't noticed before, but I love your sig pic. If only it weren't (apparently) true...

1s4S