Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Strix varia]

Oh, gosh, I see what you mean about the forum being messed up. No wonder my head hurts.

[1speed4Sam]

Dear Citizens of Samanda…


Alas, the day has come! I am off for a summer full of adventure, trials, tribulations, challenges, fun, excitement, and learning! My flight leaves tonite at 2100 hours. I get back home on August 21st. On the 22nd, my theatre intensive with Tom McBeath starts. I am sure after these insane 2 months I shall have a seemingly INFINITE number of stories and tales with which to amaze you. WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!

Until then, however… ((((((((((((((Samanda))))))))))))))) I am going to miss you all TERRIBLY. I hope you all have GREAT summers, but don’t do TOOO much partying while you’re Pres is gone!

I hope all citizens residing in the UK, as well as their friends and families are all ok after the tragedy yesterday!!! ((((((((((((((UK)))))))))))))

Regarding that matter… I hereby announce, that in my stead, I temporarily promote Vice President MajorSal, to the role of Samandan President!!!! I am entrusting my kingdom to you… treat it well!!

Hic Comitas Regit!!!!

Signing off, see you in two months…

MajorSam

MajorSam,

Good luck to you, and God speed!!!

Think of us - we'll be thinking of you.

Hic Comitas Regit!!!


1speed

[Strix varia]

Thank you all for bearing with me today. I've been in a horrible mood and should not have posted. Unfortunately, I did, and not just here.

I don't know when I'll be back. RL just keeps dealing me blows and I've reached the point I'm not handling them well. The meds are wrecking havoc with my system and I've receive other bad news. Not going to bore you with any of it. This place should be fun and I'm not fun right now.

Atteria, sorry to hear about your bad news. But I hope you don't let horrible moods stop you from participating in the thread. We're all friends here, right?

Hugs,
Strix

[Strix varia]

If I start experiencing temporal entropic cascade failure because of this, I am gonna get really miffed.

LOL!!!

[1speed4Sam]

I loved this post on the thread talking about the forum problems:

[QUOTE Madeleine_W ]
Also, some people are posting in the future. Goodness knows how. But if you're replying to anything, please quote it in case it the conversation gets jumbled out of order.

[QUOTE Seshat]
Apparently I happen to be one of those who is currently co-existing in two separate time dimensions, as my "New Posts" list is showing post times of approximately 5 hours beyond my own clock. And yes, I have already taken Darren's good advice and re-set my system clock's options. So my Subscriptions List times are correct, whereas new posts are happening in some future reality.

If I start experiencing temporal entropic cascade failure because of this, I am gonna get really miffed.

And "Gamekeeper" was about getting stuck in high tech hairdryers which caused you to relive your past in front of people stuck in hair nets...

So the fact I've got very little hair (on my head, anyway) probably explains why I didn't get it!!!

Phew, thought I was just being spectacularly thick!!!

1speed

[ForeverSg1]

I just thought I'd post a note apologizing for my rant earlier that started the Sam/Beach Head decussion. I know it's not really worthwhile to sit here and stew over such things but sometimes I just can't help myself. I often wish I had a little red phone like Hammond does, that went straight to TPTB so when I read little bits of info like this I could jump on my phone and calmly ask "What in *edited due to excessive use of four letter words* are you people thinking???"


It's ok though, I've vented a bit by spending a few hours sitting in my garden ripping weeds out of the ground. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm a bit wacko, but other than that I'm fine. I'm calm, I'm trying to think positive, I'm just waiting for the next spoiler to come out and toss me over the edge again. hehe.


I really thank all of you for your positive comments. I really, really, REALLY hope you all are correct in our assumptions and that I am proven once again to be wrong. I would humbly apologize to the powers that be for all the negative thoughts I've had recently if they do infact bring Sam back in a positive light.

I hope you are all having a great evening despite the issues gateworld has been having and once again thank you all for being such wonderfully understanding people.

Hugs
Kat

[chocdoc]

When I say I want Sam to be competent, I don't mean that I want her to be perfect. From my Oxford pocket dictionary: "Competent - Having the ability or authority to do what is required; adequate." To my mind, there's a big difference between competence and perfection.

But I guess we do have a difference of opinion on whether or not Sam is portrayed realistically or not. I think TPTB have created a wonderful character that *is* believable given the context of the show, where the other characters are equally larger than life. (And if they decide they have to bring one character down to the level of "completely realistic," I sure hope they'll bring all of them down at the same time.) There are some pretty amazingly competent women out there in the world, and I have to wonder if these extreme critics (not meaning you, Atteria) have ever read read the biographies of some of our female astronauts if they don't think that women can be brilliant, beautiful, and perform with competence in high stress situations.

What I don't want to see is a great character brought down because a contingent of fans view her as "too perfect" or because they want to promote other characters. If the TPTB want to promote Cam and Vala, I'm really fine with that. I do think I'm going to like both of their characters. I just don't want them to make a fool of Sam so Vala can steal the spotlight... I don't want that anymore than I'd want them to make a fool of Daniel, Teal'c, or Jack to make Sam look like a hero.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that I want Sam to be the competent officer and scientist they have already shown she can be. I don't want TPTB to "dumbassify" her in order to prove she can make mistakes. I don't want them to have her making incompetent decisions just to show she isn't perfect. They've already shown, repeatedly, that she is quite capable of screwing up both at work and in her private life. But the complaints about her perfection persist, and I don't want TPTB to keep setting her up for failure until they've dragged her so far down that she loses all respect just to prove she's human to her critics.

It's one thing to have her make competent decisions or follow orders that ultimately back-fire through no fault of her own. Or even play up the conflict between emotional decisions and rational decisions and the impact that following one over the other might have (ala Gemini). It's a good way to show her humanity. But it's another matter to set her up for failure for failure's sake. It is possible to write stories that don't do that, and I think they've done a good job of it in the past. Hopefully, Lys will be right in that they don't make Sam look like an idiot in Beach Head.

I hope I don't sound too *****y (and I'm not trying to attack anyone)... But I am fighting a serious headache, and I was pretty annoyed when I read the Beach Head spoilers. I'm sure I'll be more optimistic in the morning.

Hugs,
Strix

Hey, Strix varia, this is a great post, even with a serious headache! Hope you feel better soon.

I think if the writers try to write Sam to please the fans, it would be practically impossible, because she is to me the one character where a number of different groups want to see Carter written in very opposing ways. Some want to see her as more of the scientist, some want to see her as the SG-1 leader, some want to see her as making mistakes because she is too supersam, some want to see her as someone who needs to be more competent, some want to see her as showing more emotion and not be so cold, while others want to see less of her emotions, some want to see her with Jack, some want to never see her with Jack, some want to see her with others besides Jack, some want to see her as the hot chick, others want to see her as the competent role model (and hot chick!), etc...

Of course, the writers should listen to no other fanbase but Samanda for how to write Carter!!

It's kind of fascinating really that Sam is pulled in so many directions. I can't say that the other characters face this at all. Why is this?


One great thing about the Beach Head spoilers---the "full-time return of actress Amanda Tapping"!

Just got my TV Guide in the store----it is really cool that she made it on the cover! It's been quite a year so far for her. Let's hope when we actually SEE the first 10 episodes, we can be pleased that they wrote Carter well. It is difficult to tell what is going on with the spoilers at this point. And I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a bit nervous and touchy about it all---even down to how the opening credits are going to go! (Ah, yes, I must remind myself,it is just a TV show, but it's MY TV show!!)

[binkpmmc]

Hi all - here is my take on Beach Head (and I have this take on it because I cannot even fathom that, after the backlash and criticism heaped on the Carter character over the past 2 years by people other than the standard danny-ranter/sam-bashers, that TPTB would be ignorant, arrogant, conceited, stupid, etc., enough to continue on with the same inane track they had been taking for Carter since mid-season 7 which was, IMO, to screw up the character by having her act out of character, etc.)

Carter has "developed a potent weapon", I find this to be excellent news as this means she has been very busy at Area 51 (if you believe Cooper as to where she actually was) doing important research and development of the weapon and she is in the miltary and she has kept her roots in the military. She is obviously needed to, once again, save a world from death and destruction and Landry is smart enough to know Carter is the one that can save the day since, from the sound of the spoilers, it seems the others are still so "shaken" from their previous encounter with the oreos that they cannot seem to handle this new problem that has been thrust upon them.

It is Landry who "springs into action" (can't wait to see Bridges springing) to get Carter back as he is "convinced" that the weapon Carter has developed will "wipe out" the oreos so HE decides on it's use. Any failure falls squarely at Landry's feet - NOT Carter's (of course the danny-ranter/sam-bashers will disagree and will make any excuse in the book to blame Carter but who listens to them but themselves anyway?)

My take on the "mixed emotions" stuff is that Carter has very big misgivings about the use of the weapon, she will state to Landry in no uncertain terms that she does not think it will work or that it is not ready to go or words to that effect - any way they word it is fine with me as it is ultimatley landry who orders the firing of the weapon. We will see the Carter we saw in the ep (the name of which I cannot recall at this moment) where that ship was destroying the planet and they were going to destroy the ship and Carter had misgivings about building and using that weapon but Jack ordered her to, so she did it, and also in the another ep (I cannot recall the name of right now either - my mind is going I fear) where she let General Bauer know he was wrong but he was too arrogant to listen and HIS plan tanked. Perhaps TPTB are setting up the same dynamic between Landry and Carter at first and then when she IS proven right and Landry's plan fails he sees the error of his decision and his ways (and realizes his arrogance in moving forward) he apologizes to Carter for not listening to her and bestows the respect on her that she deserves. How does that sound? That's MY story and I'm sticking to it.

BTW - this Gerak character sounds like a jerk from these spoilers and the EDM spoilers (he is definitley sounding like an arrogant SOB).

[ShimmeringStar]

LOL! The forum’s shuffling of posts today made this thread & some others quite an interesting read! But I’m happy it’s still up so we can all get our GW/SG fix to tide us over the next day while Darren & Co. do the upgrade….

Lots of interesting discussion on Sam’s ‘perfectness’ and everyone’s thoughts on the episode spoilers and their impact on Sam’s character. I don’t want Sam to be perfect either. None of us are. None of the characters are. And if they were, man would the show be soooooooo boring. So to show her mistakes, to show her questioning aspects of her life where we can actually see it in the episode, to show her being *human*… I don’t have a problem with either.

My concern is when is starts to seem like she becomes a catch all --- like how it was mentioned earlier about Vala saving the day after Sam was the one who made a mistake. Well, why not one of the guys being the one in error? Why not that newest guy on the team? It just concerns me that it becomes too easy for them to make her character the one they’re going to dump the negative stuff on, and not in a character building way – just a ‘you’re the convenient character here so here – so you get to do this.’

I read the GW interview w/BW & RC and it was interesting to hear how they talked up Jason Momoa’s character and compared him to Rachel Luttrell’s Teyla. RC: “Not that there's anything wrong with her being tough and a fighter and cool, but Jason -- all you have to do is cut to him in the scene and it adds a whole different level of intimidation.” I reread it a couple times and though I understand why they’re saying things like that I kept thinking, but you know, y’all could make T a force to be reckoned with, even if she is a woman physically smaller that RD in stature. All you gots to do it write it.

Same with Sam. All they got to do is write it. Sometimes I wonder if TPTB realize what a wonderful character Sam is?

[1speed4Sam]

One quick thought before I sign off for the night.

Where's ChopinGal?

I hope everything's OK. If ever we needed our Jester, it's now...

1speed

[the dancer of spaz]

I loved this post on the thread talking about the forum problems:

[QUOTE Madeleine_W ]
Also, some people are posting in the future. Goodness knows how. But if you're replying to anything, please quote it in case it the conversation gets jumbled out of order.

[QUOTE Seshat]
Apparently I happen to be one of those who is currently co-existing in two separate time dimensions, as my "New Posts" list is showing post times of approximately 5 hours beyond my own clock. And yes, I have already taken Darren's good advice and re-set my system clock's options. So my Subscriptions List times are correct, whereas new posts are happening in some future reality.

If I start experiencing temporal entropic cascade failure because of this, I am gonna get really miffed.

And "Gamekeeper" was about getting stuck in high tech hairdryers which caused you to relive your past in front of people stuck in hair nets...

Those quotes are freaking hilarious! Who's the one who said "If I start experiencing temporal cascade failure..."? Haha! Good times. It's good to know people can be witty even when it's chaotic.

[golfbooy]

OK, I'll put my own two sense in again.

Spoiler:

I'm not really seeing the Beach Head info the same way as some others. I don't understand how Sam's new weapon failing to work on the Ori is a failure for her character. How does a plan not working make a person an utter failure? Near as I can tell, there's not much that would work against the Ori. Further, it seems apparent that Earth hasn't had much luck at all in fighting them up until this point. Just because Sam doesn't show up and immediately save the day does not make her a failure. If anything, this episode seems to make her a self-sacrificing hero. From the limited info we have Sam puts aside the girl who is a near daughter to her, the personal life she has long been in conflict over, and reservations she has about rejoining the SGC/SG-1 all on the chance that she might be able to make a difference. Sure, things may not go as planned. They might not work at all. But that in no way detracts from the act itself.

And I don't understand why Beach Head gets pegged as "the episode in which Carter returns" and nothing else. I don't see it as Carter's episode. The fact that others (even Vala) play a key part in it doesn't bother me. I don't see it as stealing AT's spotlight and I don't see it as an insult to the character of Sam. In fact, I feel just the opposite. I'd hate it if Beach Head was nothing more than Sam's return. That of course needs to take place, but if the entire plot of the show and all the characters in it was usurped by just that one event I suspect many fans would find it a rather dull episode.

And finally, yes, there are fans out there who will never be satisfied by whatever decisions the writers make regarding Carter. She's either too perfect or too fallible, too involved or too uninvolved in episodes, too overexposed or too underappreciated. Stargate is so big these days that there's just no way to make everyone happy. Viewpoints on not just Sam, but nearly every facet of SG-1, vary from vainglorious contempt to self-aggrandizing worship. Personally, I just wish more people would make up their own minds about everything and rely far less on what fellow fans, posters, or critics have to say about the show. Other people's judgements are, generally speaking, no more worthy than your own.

Oh, and remember that while reading what the windbag who made this post had to say.

[the dancer of spaz]

Oh, holy crap. This forum... Just when I thought that everything was fixed... Crap, crap. Where is everyone?

I'm confused. I think I need a map... and some sort of GPS device.

[Strix varia]

Jen Gafeller has now finished her wonderful story, Code of Honor:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2393781/1/

I can't rant enough about how much I loved this story. Competent Carter at her best!

[NearlyCircular]

I'm just afraid that the forum's stuck in a Moebius loop and when we hit the time listed on those errant posts, everything we've posted in the last few hours will disappear.

NC