Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Uber]

spoilers for s9's avalon




hi, sybil. i mean bink!

Spoiler:

yes, i caught the COMMANDER of r&d!

as i said in the official thread for rating avalon... here are my thoughts:


* i *really* liked mitchell. the flashback made me connect with him. i felt sorry for him with his sincere regret of not being able to work with sg1.

* i liked landry.

* i didn't see vala again, because the moment she came through the stargate, i fast forwarded through the rest of the ep. i just can't make myself watch this type of character/humor.

* i loved the scene where mitchell tries to convince sam to return. i like how he was actually scared of screwing up without 'sam' there to fix it all. that said a lot about his respect for sam.

* i'm glad sam and mitchell are already friends.

* i'm glad it was sam that gave mitchell his medal.

now, i missed a lot of this ep by fast forwarding, so this is where i'm going to need everyone's help. i need a concise and brief summary of the events so that i'll know what's going on when sam returns. i'm going to need this with all the eps until beachhead. i don't think i need dialog, just the basic facts so i'll know who's who and what's what. please help. i'll even save the text to refer to if i get lost in beach head.

i'm not sorry i missed so much, though, because my heart isn't in it. i might have started off watching stargate because of my love for scifi, but sometime along the way, it focused to sam and sam/jack mainly. and now that jack's gone and s/j ship being scarse, all i've got is sam. and five eps without so much of my fave elements... my heart's not in it. BUT, sam WILL RETURN, and then things will be better.

sally

Okay...this is from MEMORY so please forgive me if I screw it all up...

AVALON SPOILERS

Spoiler:

So Cam has command of SG-1. Goodie. Problem is the reason he requested SG-1 was to work with and learn from the best...Sam, Daniel and Teal'c. And try as he might, Sam's not interested in coming back (she said she has her reasons), Teal'c's dealing with Jaffa stuff and promises to get him a list of good candidates for the team when he gets a chance. Meanwhile, Daniel's psyched about going to Atlantis via the Daedalus.

One cute line from Cam when Teal'c asks where the rest of the team, he said right now SG-1 is SG-ME. That was cute. Plus a little earlier with Daniel, he said he wasn't interested in joining 2 letters a dash and a number...

Okay anyway so things really suck for poor Cam. And while he's trying to put together a new team (from a really SAD group of candidates I might add), in comes Vala through the Stargate (she's searched by SG-12 before being allowed to go to Earth and she's ONLY allowed because Daniel said it'd be okay). Vala jokes about where HER Daniel is...next scene is in the briefing room.

So Daniel, who's in the midst of preparing to ship out and Cam are there in the briefing room with Vala and Landry. Daniel's wanting to look at a tablet she...um...acquired that's written in ancient and talks about a treasure...and apparently, this treasure is located on earth...thus she needs Daniel et al's help to find it. The tablet is written in code and Vala knows how to decipher it, but not translate it.

So while Daniel and Vala later on are discussing the material she brought with the tablet, she snapped a special Goa'uld bracelet around his wrist and hers...making it so that they could not be too far apart from each other...that way she'd be ASSURED of getting her share of the loot from this treasure. Only problem is that if they are separated, they both get seriously ill...which sends them both to the infirmary.

Daniel wakes up to find Teal'c standing at his bedside. The Daedalus left and Daniel's stuck on earth...and what's worse, stuck HAVING to be near Vala. So since he's there, he decides to do some research on the tablet and finds a name that rings several bells...a name that's also listed among those who left Atlantis and came to earth...a name that translated into English is pronounced...Merlin. Therefore, Daniel deduces that Merlin is actually an Ancient...not necessarily Ascended though but a higher level of human. Cam's all psyched thinking THIS will definitely get Sam to reconsider, but the others tell him that she can't come.

Another meeting in the briefing room...and Daniel convinces Landry to let them use Prometheus's sensors to find the location hinted at on the tablet. The Prometheus's scanners detect the cavern and they learn that something's preventing them from using the beam technology to get there. So they use the rings.

When they get down there (they being Cam, Daniel, Teal'c and Vala) they see a sword in a stone and Daniel corrects Cam who said it must be Excalibur...(a common misconception). Cam tries to remove the sword with no avail. Then a hologram appears (Merlin) telling them that someone who is like pure of heart or something to that affect can proceed.

They split into teams...Daniel and Vala on one team and Cam and Teal'c on the other. Amusingly, the teams consist of people who don't like each other... Daniel is thoroughly irritated by Vala and Teal'c clearly doesn't like Cam (his enthusiasm seems to really irk him). One funny line between Cam and Teal'c...there is ZERO rapport between these two and at one point Cam says something like "I just love the rapport were building between us."

So each team finds a separate room and in both rooms torches along the floor light up as they enter. Cam's all excited and Teal'c...isn't. When they go in a big stone door slides down locking them in. So Cam and Teal'c are in one room and Vala and Daniel are in another. At the center of each room is a test...a puzzle. After Teal'c tells him he doesn't recognize the writing, Cam starts fiddling around with the tiles on his puzzle and the ceiling starts to slide down. Teal'c, who's Mr. Snark here, says something like..."are you not happy to be here anymore, Colonel Mitchell?"

In the other room, the puzzle's different. There are two pots...one silver and one gold. Daniel translates the text in front of them both. One of the bowls has the phrase "the treasure is in here" and Daniel prevents Vala from opening the lid on that bowl. Temporarily.

She can't stand not doing anything and removes the first lid. But there's nothing in the bowl and she's upset that the note lied to her...(she hates lies). Daniel warns her, but she took the lid off the other bowl (with another message in front of it but I don't remember what it was) saying, "We're trapped down here, how could things possibly get worse?" A few moments later, THEIR ceiling starts to slide down too. Vala then says, "I knew that was a mistake the moment I said it...the moment" LOL

And there's your cliffhanger... both teams are

Spoiler:

about to be crushed by the ceilings in their respective rooms

.

I liked it...wish there had been more Sam and Jack...but DELIGHTED that there was any Sam at all since I wasn't expecting any. Plus I didn't really see too many people talk about the added Lost City scene

Spoiler:

with Sam talking to Cam and then a follow up scene with her breathing a sigh of relief when Cam takes out the Alkesh because "that was close..."

WHEW! That was a mouthful. Wait...I didn't actually speak. So I guess it'd be more accurate to say "All that typing was a real workout for my fingers..."

[Charlie]

You guys have just made my day! I'm sitting here with a goofy happy grin at the thought seeing Sam in the season opener - YAY!!!! I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for it to air here in Australia.
Btw, completely off topic, i met these two really cool canadians while I was at work today and we were having this awesome conversation. Turns out they live in Vancouver about twenty minutes away from the Bridge Studios, are big Stargate fans and have met AT! Isn't it a small world!

[tsaxlady]

I arrived back at the hotel about an hour ago from todays Con events - I have only briefly read over a few post tonight/morning - But I just wanted to stop in for a quick post and say It was so AWESOME watching the season 9 priemer at Comic Con on a big screen, without comercial and with over 1,000 other fans. It was like watching Stargate at a movie theatre. They showed SG1 took a 15 min break showed Atlantis took another 15 min break and then showed Battlestar Galactica. There were SciFi and Sony executives in the back of the room taking in the fans reactions to each episode. Well I'm off to bed I have to get up in 4 hours so we can arrive early for the Stargate Panel tomorrow and get good seats. I'll post pictures and a brief report when I get home tomorrow night - very very late.

[ShimmeringStar]

Sure...and that's a fairly big clue that she outranks him...

Plus another obvious tell is the fact that he expected to serve on SG-1 UNDER Sam.

If he outranked her, why would he expect to serve under her? Wouldn't he have expected to take the reigns of the team and lead it? I mean, he wouldn't expect to serve UNDER someone he outranked, right???

SO...unless TPTB are REALLY screwing with our minds, Sam outranks Cam...and therefore WILL take back SG-1 when she returns...otherwise, she'd be under the command of someone she outranks.

I'm sticking with that until I read/see/hear otherwise...

I agree! And that’s why it’s funny based on the spoilers that are available for most of the rest of the season - that TPTB think that the new bad guys will be such a dire enough threat that Sam needs to be yanked from the command she’s now in (and from her quick comment in the ep last night, apparently feels she really needs to be in). I mean saving the world was never just SG1’s sole responsibility, all those other teams were also out there saving the world right along with SG1 all those years having just as many death-defying moments.

I don’t know, I guess I'm just a wee bit concerned with what's going to happen to Sam. I soooooo hope they develop a better backstory for her (and some on Jack’s reasons for accepting another position that he'd never have seemed a likely candidate for...); T & D's we’ll be able to see on-screen all this season… I just have this little feeling that even though AT will do her usual stupendous job in pulling off any dialogue and reasoning that the writers give her, that it might just not ring true to her character. And that's what I hope I'm proven wrong on.

[ChopinGal]

A few things are clear...he wanted to serve UNDER Carter and with Daniel and Teal'c. Second, he had never really met Daniel prior to Avalon (he kinda saw him in the same set of flashbacks he saw Sam). Third, Cam addressed Sam as Sam...so there's some familiarity. How do they know each other? Is it just from Lost City? Or do they have a good backstory???

Hmmm. Time will tell.

I'm not in love with Cam yet...the pacing for Avalon was a lot slower than I thought it'd be. But I came into it with low expectations...and got what I was expecting.

Yay to the Sam scenes though...

Thing's will pick up when she gets back.

Pretty much in agreement with above, but, wasn't Cam's flashback of Daniel his memory of Danny Boy visiting him in the hospital and thanking him for saving them?

To all who received frenetic emails last night ... LOL ... okay, okay, you can ignore me ... my bad!

But, seriously, didn't even one of you entertain the following thought ...

Spoiler:

... Jack was selling his property but he was also selling Sam's motorcycle 'cause she and he kinda were living together?! Come on, "the motorcycle" line just made me try to remember whenever we heard about Jack having a bike ... and I could only think of Sam's interest in cycles. Now, bless my shippy heart ... if he, indeed, was selling his own property and it was a motorcycle ... at least he and his former 2IC could have been hanging out on those winding mountain roads, riding side by side!

The episode fell flat in many spots ... I thought they were trying a bit too hard to force the issue of Cam as new kid on the block ... and, come on, that Hollywood cliffhanger has been done so many times ... at least Sam didn't have to experience it!

Maybe we should get some t-shirts made ... I survived Episode One!

[Agent_Dark]

Well, just watched it then (thanks to the wonders of the Internet... )

Spoiler:

It wasn't too bad at all . Obviously the lack of Sam was a dissapointment But the scenes that she was in were good.
I felt that some of the acting actually felt a bit wooden at times, specially from Browder and Judge... But they both seemed to pick up towards the end. Might have been intentional to show Teal'c and Mitchell not entirely comfortable perhaps? Claudia Black as Vala was *much* better than she was in PU. I didn't mind the Daniel/Vala interaction and though some of it seemed a bit cheesy, there were funnies to be had
Landry wasn't too bad either, tho some of his dialouge seemed abit odd lol.

As far as the story went, I didn't mind it one bit. It certainly seemed like an SG-1 episode of old

It definately wasn't crap imo. As good as Old Skool SG-1? Not sure, I'll have to see how the next few episodes pan out. But it's looking good in my books

[Agent_Dark]

Spoiler:

Oh, and I'm not sure if anyone answered bink's question - Carter is quite clearly wearing Silver Maple Leafs when she's presenting Mitchell with his MoH

[ForeverSg1]

Here's a few screencaps from last night's episode of Avalon if anyone is interested.

Avalon1

Avalon2

Zero Hour And I'd say Amanda was VERY pregnant in the above picture if you compare it to Zero Hour.

Avalon3

Avalon4

Avalon5

Avalon6

[Lida]

Transcript for scenes showing Sam or where Sam is mentioned:

Spoiler:

Flashback to Lost City's fight over Antarctica...
Clip of Sam looking up and out of the cargo ship's window.

Sam: Prometheus
Hammond: SG-1, this is Hammond...do you read?
Sam: Yes sir, it's good to see you.


General Landry's office:

Landry: Here you go son ... Landry lifts up a basket full of personel files... get started.

Cameron: Sir?

Landry: You heard the disconnected voice of the little sergeant with psychic powers. Those are personel files...start picking your team.

Mitchell: General, I'm here to join SG-1.
Landry: Colonel, you're here to lead SG-1.

Michell looks shocked by what Landry has just said.

Mitchell: Uh, what about Lt. Colonel Carter.

Landry: She's taken control of Stargate's R&D out of Area 51.

Mitchell: Since when?

Landry: Last week.

Mitchell: ...and Daniel Jackson?

Landry: Dr. Jackson put in for reassignment. Teal'c left the program over a month ago. I'm surprised General O'Neill didn't tell ya.

Mitchell: No. Mitchell looks really upset by this news.

Landry: That's Jack for ya. Ya know, I looked for the key to that desk for a week before I finally got him to admit he never had one. The man never opened a drawer the whole time he was here.

Mitchell: I'm sorry...sir...the reason I requested this post. Why...why I worked so hard.

Landry: Expresses himself poorly... when faced with unexpected challenge. Your sheet says you have outstanding leadership skills. Take the files Colonel. ::hands files to Mitchell:: Choose your team, before I start to question the accuracy of that claim.

Mitchell: Yes sir.

Another flashback:
Mitchell's plan has been shot and going down.

Co-Pilot: We've lost the turbine.
Sam's voice over intercom: Heads up blue leader, this is Carter, we have another bandit incoming.
Mitchell: I see it, Major.
Mitchell locks on target.
Mitchell: Fox two. Enemy is destroyed.
Clip of Sam from Lost City.
Sam:Well that was close.


Sam and Cameron chatting via videocamera.
Sam: Hi Cameron

Cameron: Hey Sam, it's good to see you.

Sam: Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. We have been up to our ears double checking the new hyper drive and then the uplink was jammed with the long range plotting program being transmitted by the Asguard...uh no need to bore you. How you been? You look good.

Cameron: Good...listen Sam...come back and join SG-1.

Sam: I've heard you've been given command. Congratulations.

Cameron: I'm not kidding. You can keep an eye on R&D in your spare time just like you always have. Besides, Dr. Lee is pouting because you got the post over him.

Sam: Really?

Cameron: Naw, I made that up.

Sam( small grin ): I have my reasons for wanting this job.

Cameron: I have my reasons for wanting this job. One of them was working with *You* and please ... do not say... that's nice.

Sam: We'll still work together.

Cameron: It won't be the same. What if the world needs saving?

Sam: (smirking) Well if the world needs saving I will be there to do what I can.

Cameron( looks very worried ) What if the world needs saving because I screwed up because you weren't here in the first place.

:: Sam now looks concerned as Cameron looks around a bit ::

Cameron: How about we pretend I didn't say that.


Flashback to Cameron recovering in the hospital.

Camera looks as if Cameron is opening his eyes and seeing different people.

Through Cameron's eyes looking at Sam.

She's dressed in her dress blues and has several other AF officers with her.

Sam: The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States of America. On behalf of the president...

Maybe I'm just the odd ball out here, but I liked this episode a lot more than I had thought I would. Vala didn't get on my nerves nearly as much as in PU. Landry was different from both Hammond and Jack, but seemed ok from what I saw. And I actually felt a bit sorry for Mitchell. He really seemed very disappointed that Sam, Daniel and Teal'c weren't a part of the team anymore and shocked that he had been put into the lead position and I really liked his conversation with Sam. He seemed to really like and respect her. I'm definitely looking forward to episode six to see how the team reacts as a unit and where the writers take the new season.

My only suggestion is that you don't give up on the show just yet. I have to admit I was thoroughly shocked seeing Cameron actually chat with Sam, even if it was via video conferencing. Maybe TPTB will shock us some more with the return of Sam, odder things have happened.

I was all set to love the new show. The only things good about it were Sam's short appearances (didn't expect that) and Ben Browder. He was great! Beau Bridges was good as the irascible general, but the character of Vala was way over the top. Sex and humor are just fine, but the writers made her "clownish" and I think Claudia Black deserves more. As for the other members of the cast? MS, next to BB, looked pathetic (flame away) and CJ just looked bored. Maybe that was the way it was written , but I was VERY disappointed.

To me, it was a small screen version of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, with The Temple of Doom thrown in. They even used "puzzles", as in the Last Crusade, remember the 3 riddles Indie had to figure out, before he could get to the Holy Grail? And the cave with the slowly descending roof? Pure Indie.

Sorry, but I was VERY disappointed. I expected much more from all the hype tptb were "spreading" around.

Guess I'm more than disappointed, I'm angry. I LOVE SG-1. And after last night's show, I have grave doubts as to it's longetivity. I'm not giving up on the show, I have been a fan too long, to leave after one poor episode, after all, they have have bad epi's in the past. Let's just say my worry quotient is very high.

Guess I'm the odd ball here...after reading other posts, I thought the character of Vala was embarrassing. Glad you all enjoyed her, including the "I'm pregnant" line and the "let's make babies".

Where's Sam when you really need her?

[NearlyCircular]

Well, Über summed it up pretty well, but I also laughed out loud at the part when

Spoiler:

Vala looked at Cam and Daniel standing together and made a comment about a limited gene pool on the planet. The two of them then turned and stared at each other in reaction.

TPTB certainly like to spoof the fandom, don’t they?

I didn’t mind Vala as much here as in PU, either. After watching PU a second time last week (yes, I forced myself to), I realized that it wasn’t Vala that I objected to so much as the physical “comedy” between her and Daniel. And there wasn’t any of that in Avalon. Vala is who she is, a rogue who will do anything necessary to achieve her goals. I can see why the writers say that they love writing the character and why CB is having fun playing her. It will be interesting to see if there’s much interaction between Vala and Sam in Beach Head.

I’ll repeat something I’ve said before here; I like to be surprised in the show, which is why I don’t complain too much when TPTB don’t release all the spoilers. I loved the fact that Sam was in the show when we didn’t expect it. It just made my night.

And now, I’m going to go get the new Harry Potter book and read all day.

NC

[ForeverSg1]

I was all set to love the new show. The only things good about it were Sam's short appearances (didn't expect that) and Ben Browder. He was great! Beau Bridges was good as the irascible general, but the character of Vala was way over the top. Sex and humor are just fine, but the writers made her "clownish" and I think Claudia Black deserves more. As for the other members of the cast? MS, next to BB, looked pathetic (flame away) and CJ just looked bored. Maybe that was the way it was written , but I was VERY disappointed.

To me, it was a small screen version of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, with The Temple of Doom thrown in. They even used "puzzles", as in the Last Crusade, remember the 3 riddles Indie had to figure out, before he could get to the Holy Grail? And the cave with the slowly descending roof? Pure Indie.

Sorry, but I was VERY disappointed. I expected much more from all the hype tptb were "spreading" around.

Guess I'm more than disappointed, I'm angry. I LOVE SG-1. And after last night's show, I have grave doubts as to it's longetivity. I'm not giving up on the show, I have been a fan too long, to leave after one poor episode, after all, they have have bad epi's in the past. Let's just say my worry quotient is very high.

Guess I'm the odd ball here...after reading other posts, I thought the character of Vala was embarrassing. Glad you all enjoyed her, including the "I'm pregnant" line and the "let's make babies".

Where's Sam when you really need her?

I suppose I have to agree with NCs post. It's not so much the character of Vala that I disliked in Prometheus Unbound, it was the sexual aspect of the episode. I didn't like the way they tried to use sex and violence in a comedic way. Perhaps I take things too seriously, but I do not like seeing someone get the snot beat out of them and then seeing someone kiss it to make it better or act like they like the person in the same breathe. To me this is too much like a physically abusive relationship and I see no humour in that at all. I guess you have to live through something like that or see someone else do it to understand the implications. It just reeked in my opinion.

As for Vala's behavior last night, well I had been expecting much worse so I guess that's part of the reason I didn't mind her as much. And to be honest, I've known many women who acted just like Vala: manipulative, coquettish, sexually suggestive. They use their bodies and their sex to obtain whatever they want. Vala isn't something rare or even different in behavior, she's just typically not the type of woman most of us would enjoy spending our time with. So although I could find humor in some of the things she did, I'm still hoping the writers do CB a bit of justice and start showing some real depth to this character instead of using her for a laugh.

[Strix varia]

My thoughts on the new episode:

Spoiler:

I was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which Sam was present.

I didnt' like Cam as well as I expected. As others have pointed out, it seemed like his performance was inconsistent... extremely reserved at times, overly enthusiastic at others, then jumping up and down after Tea'c shot the door. I think I could still grow to like him, but I'm reserving judgement right now.

Is anyone else annoyed as heck that Cam, who, admittedly saved SG-1 (and therefore contributed to saving the world) was given the Congressional Medal of Honor whereas NOBODY on the original team has ever been given similiar honors (to our knowledge)? I mean, give me a break! Sam and Jack have been wounded in combat how many times? (I don't see Sam wearing any purple hearts). They've saved the damn planet how many times? They've sacrificed life and limb how often? And CAM gets the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in one battle?????? Sorry, but I almost came unglued at that part. I'm still miffed, in fact, just thinking about it.

I liked Vala a lot. Several of her lines made me laugh. And they didn't get into the physical slapstick/sex/violence routine that annoyed me in PU. CB played Vala perfectly and consistently... I thought it was a excellent performance, and I totally believed her character. (Though I still wish they'd dressed her in something other than black leather.) When Landry asked her how old she was, and she didn't answer, my thought was, I bet she's a lot older than Landry's daughter... Vala was, after all, host to a goa'uld for a while. She could be VERY old indeed.

I was not anticipating liking Landry because I've never cared much for Beau, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think he'll be an interesting character, and I wonder what he'll do to Carter to find her kryptonite. And what is Carter's kryptonite, anyway? Jack?

Anyone else think they're setting up Walter to be the next Radar O'Reilly? Or has that been there all along, and I just missed it? On edit: and gosh, I just remembered that Radar's first name was Walter, too.

The storyline was... eh... nothing to get worked up over, I thought. Entertaining, but lacking any "wow" elements. So far. All in all, I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to next week.

[ann_sgcfan]

Spoiler:

... Jack was selling his property but he was also selling Sam's motorcycle 'cause she and he kinda were living together?! Come on, "the motorcycle" line just made me try to remember whenever we heard about Jack having a bike ... and I could only think of Sam's interest in cycles. Now, bless my shippy heart ... if he, indeed, was selling his own property and it was a motorcycle ... at least he and his former 2IC could have been hanging out on those winding mountain roads, riding side by side!

I was thinking the same thing

Spoiler:

Why would JAck be selling a motorcycle? He never once mentioned he had one! Sam's love for motorcyces would not have gone unnoticed by Jack. He would have made some comments about owning one before now.... I'm a shipper too so the imagination came up with so many hopeful reasons. Also if he was scheduled to leave for Washington (which they still haven't said what he is doing.) Wouldn't he have sold at least his cars already! Why does he even need to sale his truck or bike (or Sam's bike) he can drive to Washington! Is he really in Washington? THey didn't say did they?

It's a good sign that Sam was the one giving the medal to Mitchell! I am hopeful that TPTB don't mess this up! They have set it up for Mitchell to learn from SGC but they don't always follow through which is why I will wait until Sam returns before I make my final judgment on Mitchell. The possibility is there but it's in the hand of TPTB to actually follow through on the story they have set up, instead of taking a right turn and making a whole new back story in a later episode. I still wish Mitchell wasn't trying to be a young O'Neill. I was pleasantly surprised with how many time AT appeared ..kuddos to TPTB for having her in the episode!

[ann_sgcfan]

My thoughts on the new episode:

Spoiler:

I was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which Sam was present.

I didnt' like Cam as well as I expected. As others have pointed out, it seemed like his performance was inconsistent... extremely reserved at times, overly enthusiastic at others, then jumping up and down after Tea'c shot the door. I think I could still grow to like him, but I'm reserving judgement right now.

Is anyone else annoyed as heck that Cam, who, admittedly saved SG-1 (and therefore contributed to saving the world) was given the Congressional Medal of Honor whereas NOBODY on the original team has ever been given similiar honors (to our knowledge)? I mean, give me a break! Sam and Jack have been wounded in combat how many times? (I don't see Sam wearing any purple hearts). They've saved the damn planet how many times? They've sacrificed life and limb how often? And CAM gets the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in one battle?????? Sorry, but I almost came unglued at that part. I'm still miffed, in fact, just thinking about it.

I liked Vala a lot. Several of her lines made me laugh. And they didn't get into the physical slapstick/sex/violence routine that annoyed me in PU. CB played Vala perfectly and consistently... I thought it was a excellent performance, and I totally believed her character. (Though I still wish they'd dressed her in something other than black leather.) When Landry asked her how old she was, and she didn't answer, my thought was, I bet she's a lot older than Landry's daughter... Vala was, after all, host to a goa'uld for a while. She could be VERY old indeed.

I was not anticipating liking Landry because I've never cared much for Beau, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think he'll be an interesting character, and I wonder what he'll do to Carter to find her kryptonite. And what is Carter's kryptonite, anyway? Jack?

Anyone else think they're setting up Walter to be the next Radar O'Reilly? Or has that been there all along, and I just missed it? On edit: and gosh, I just remembered that Radar's first name was Walter, too.

The storyline was... eh... nothing to get worked up over, I thought. Entertaining, but lacking any "wow" elements. So far. All in all, I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to next week.

Spoiler:

I was upset too with the fact that Mitchell received the Congressional Medal of Honor and no one on SG-1 has that we know of, or that I can remember. What about General Hammond ... he was flying the Prometheus into Anubis' ship to protect SG-1. He was only stopped when JAck activated the weapon. He was willing to die along with the entire crew where is his medal? What about SG-1!! They were fighting the drones while Jack who had risked his own life by downloading the ancient knowledge again. JAck knew there was no way he would survive unless they contacted Thor who wasn't responding to their calls! I'm not saying that Mitchell's actions weren't heroic it was, but so were so many others including SG-1 who has risked their lives many many times. How many times has Sam saved not only Earth, but other planets as well!! Do I need to count them ...

Walter also reminded me of Walter O'Reilly on M*A*S*H! That was too funny!!

[jckfan55]

Ok *my* thoughts on the premiere:

Spoiler:

I loved how Sam did appear in the episode and that Mitchell had wanted to join *her* team. BB was pretty good and I think I'll like him. I wouldn't have a problem with Mitchell getting the Medal of Honor if SG1 also got it. He did save SG1, enabling them to save the planet. Seems like he was in rehab for a long time after the crash & joining SG1 was his motivation to recover. I bet we'll get dribs and drabs of this back story over the episodes.
Vala had some fun moments, but a little of her goes a looong way. I don't know how she'll work out over 5 more episodes.
I hope we get a little more seriousness in the next episodes.

Sounds like Sam will come back when "the world needs saving" and I bet she thinks it will just be for one mission, but then decides to stay. My thinking is she'll find her new post too bureaucratic.
Oh, and the new credits stink. Blink and you miss the team. I could barely get my eyes focused on them before they were gone. (And I hadn't been dipping into the Royal liquor cabinet. ) We need to see them walk up the ramp and through the gate at the very least, IMO.