Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[majorsal]

Very interesting. It sounds like they must be doing something like

Spoiler:

joint command; otherwise somebody would be unhappy.

spoilers for s9

Spoiler:

i think you're right, strix. how else would everyone be happy in this? i just hope it's in character for sam. i mean, if she's alright 'not' being commander, i want a logical reason why she'd not feel slighted. if it's because of her r&d duties, or for personal reasons (cassie, jack, getting over losing jacob and canceling her relay with pete), or a combo of all, i want it *really* shown that it's sam's decision to do this. it's the only way i'll feel good for sam, you know?

you know, there could be something completely different going on here to. i remember some months ago some ptb at a con said that something was going to blow us away (can't remember exact wording). i can't remember specifics, but it gave me the impression of thinking one thing was going on, but we'd end up surprised by what's 'really' going on... hmmm.

sally

[tsaxlady]

Okay I have added lots of pictures from Comic Con on my MSN space so go check them out and enjoy. There are pictures from both the SG1 and Atlantis panel. Plus a special set of AT and CJ playing around with each other.

Tsaxlady's space

[majorsal]

Okay I have added lots of pictures from Comic Con on my MSN space so go check them out and enjoy. There are pictures from both the SG1 and Atlantis panel. Plus a special set of AT and CJ playing around with each other.

Tsaxlady's space

thank you AGAIN, tsax!

here's my fave pic of amanda --

http://storage.msn.com/x1pUr2osLO3XW...ELpDJwVni6xlM7


it looks like amanda's contemplating things... (i'm sure it's how she's going to set up rda and myself... that's very sweet of her to do that... *sigh* that woman)


sally

[Simhavaktra]

Wow.

I am soooo very far behind the curve that the road looks straight from here, when it comes to the average Samandan posting rate!

Wow. Just wow.

I suppose I’m going to be junior snake in training forever at the rate I’m going.

I also suppose I ought to warn you all that this looks to be (part 1 of - the system says the post is too big! LOL!) the giant conglomeration of all sorts of things post that Simha is writing because she’s trying to avoid her SOX database

So, with that warning made…

Congratulations to all on milestone posts made, flags, armorial bearings, virtual statues and plaques made. You’re my typin’ and photoshoppin’ heroes!

my friend and i were talking, and i think since we're all big kids here, we can actually broach this topic here without it descending into WWIII

Without opening a theological debate, how do you think sam feels about religion? What religion or type of religion is she?

My opinion, i think that, when her mother was alive, sam went to church every sunday. I'm thinking a christian religion, largely because she doesn't strike me as Jewish and some version of christianity is rather common in the US.

I do think, however, that after her mom died, they didn't go to church anymore. Part of it could be that jacob maybe wasn't quite a church goer. another part is the typical 'taking your grief out on your religion' issues

I don't think that sam is very religious now. religious in worshipping a diety. I think that her 'religion' is science.
science can be proved and understood and proved whereas something faith based is harder for her to grasp.

“Mark” is obviously a Biblical name. “Jacob” is Biblical, but Old Testament, and “Samantha" is a Hebrew name – meaning something like “listens to god”/”heeds the lord”, if I remember correctly– which I might not. (Samantha also a fairly good approximation of the pronunciation of an ancient Egyptian term that would translate as ‘the union’ or ‘the joining’. One wonders if it means the same thing in Goa’uld, and what did Jolinar think if it did, and would the Gou’uld 5K years ago take it that the tall, pale, exotic woman had been **named** to be a host. ::brief pause to deal with the inherent ick of that thought:: ::another pause to contemplate the possibility that Egeria was around Ancient Egypt back then:: ::third pause to contemplate Jack’s possible reaction to Sam hosting – especially willingly – a Tokra queen… ack! ye gods – I’m on the brink of conceiving a fic – run for your lives!!! :: one hopes that when Daniel mentioned the Egyptian thing to Sam, Jack wasn’t around to hear and heckle for days and days and days…. )

If it weren’t that Mark is quite a popular name, and, thanks to “Bewitched”, though I bet Sam’s named for “The Philadelphia Story”, Samantha isn’t considered an odd or Jewish name anymore, I’d say that, at one time, at least, on the basis of the names alone, somebody in the family was religious, and probably Christian (2 out of 3 names). I wonder what Sam’s mother’s name was? But, I concur, at least after her mother’s death, I doubt Sam darkened a church doorway on any kind of regular basis. And the service academies don’t have mandatory attendance at chapel anymore, do they? Not that that guarantees any kind of religious belief in the attendees, anyway. ::recalls great aunt’s surprisingly wild tales of how to get out of chapel at college back in the early 1900’s – who would’ve suspected nice girls in long dresses of climbing out of church bathroom windows in that day and age???? ::

I’d guess that Sam would be nominally Christian at this point. She seemed to know something about the bible, as if she’d had some sort background in that religion, and most people seem to drift into inactivity in their childhood religion when they lose the urge/impetus/habit of participating, rather than embracing a new religion.

[Astronomical aside: while I was typing the beginning of this message (soooo slow, simha!) the commentator/newsreader on MSNBC informed us that terra was then 94 million miles from sol, the farthest distance from the sun in its yearly orbit, which is known as the aphelion – which she pronounced “up pill eon”. Lucky, she’s not the science correspondent, isn’t it? I can just see Sam rolling her eyes now. }

I think that Sam probably knows that saying that goes something like “the effects of any highly advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic for those who are primitive and/or ignorant of the technology” and having dealt with the Goa’uld, would probably agree with tacking on a corollary along the lines of “if the technology is sufficiently advanced, the possessors of said technology may be perceived as, or choose to represent themselves as, Gods to the ignorant, a state which the ignorant would have no immediate means of disputing, much less, disproving.” Having seen the Goa’uld pull that routine, Sam is probably pretty jaded by, and leery of, any (at least part-time) corporeal being that shows up and demands worship as a god. And, having seen Daniel do his on again, off again, on again, life thing, several times, and having been dead herself, I doubt her concept of the “after life” fits any of the world’s major religions. (Maybe Ancient Egyptian religion with all the trials the dead had to go through, the powerful beings whose protection the dead must solicit and obtain, and all the specialized knowledge/passwords the dead had to display, would actually seem more likely after her last eight years in the Stargate program – it’d bear a resemblance to the life she’s lead after her ‘death’!) I can just see Sam and Daniel probably coming close to making Jack’s head explode discussing just how to define ‘gods’ and ‘higher beings’ in light of the Goa’uld and Anubis and the Ascended sometime after “Threads”, with Teal’c asking intelligent and pertinent questions, and nobody paying attention to all the faces Jack would make. I can also see Jack locking them all out of the cabin until they agree to drop the subject – and Sam and Daniel continuing the discussion at the top of their lungs so he has to hear it anyway…

I think that Sam believes in science, because she understands the science she does – she understands the background, the history, the proposed structure of the universe, and the hypotheses derived from it and related to it and the theories derived from the hypotheses. She knows and understands the equations that support the observable phenomena and the theories, the experiments that can be designed and performed and analyzed to test the proposals and the theories and the equations, and the zone where things start to display that disturbing paucity of data that indicates the edge of knowledge and understanding. Like the good INTJ she is she knows what she knows, with science, and what she doesn’t know, and because she knows and she knows the limit of her knowledge, she can trust that knowledge and her science. It’s comfortable for her, something she can work with and use with a sense of security and authority that probably does approach “religious experience” / transcendence / magical for her when she makes a breakthrough, saves the planet , feels the pieces come together and coalesce into a new, more perfect, and deeply, inherently, meaningful whole.

I finished the card/note to go with the SaGC Collection when I mail it. UberSG-1Fan and ForeverSG-1 both graciously agreed to let me use their wonderful Sam Carter banners for the front of the card and I printed it on glossy photo paper. Inside the card I put an abbreviated version of the Foreward that is inside the Collection. I also included the thread URL as the 'return address'.

If you'd like to see what the card looks like, click here

Astrog, this is an incredible, brilliant and awesome work. You’ve lavished time, care and extraordinary effort on it, and the results are fantastic indeed. It more than measures up to profession publishing standards, and it exceeds expectations! Amanda will be startled and delighted. Kudos to the SaGC thread for producing such truly worthy material and awe and praise to Astrogeologist for giving that material such an elegant and exquisite presentation. You break the (blue jello) mold! Congratulations!

Can I nominate Astrog to the post of Publisher to the Queen???

[Uber]

Here's another admittedly low res picture of Amanda from the convention (screen capped from a video clip)...she's totally cracking up here...

I made kind of a psychedelic icon of that picture too if anyone's interested...

...use it as the background of an icon and come up with a funny caption for it...and let me know what you do!

[Simhavaktra]

And it’s Simha's giant, conglomeration post, part deux!

This just in! Healthy-living interview with Amanda ... the woman does it all!! Now she's into painting besides guitar playing ... and so happy and balanced it seems.

http://www.terrawellington.com/Column2005/062205.htm

This is a fine interview – issues of rank aside.

How in heaven’s name does Amanda find time for everything in her life?

One can only dream, AD. One can only dream. Only this time, I would want to see Geek!Daniel, Geek!Sam and Geek!Cameron (I keep having these lovely visions of him with nerdy glasses on a la Daniel... *sigh*)...

Oh man, oh man... Then I will have surely died and gone to Stargate heaven.

Dancer, Lys – Geek!Gate is a hoot! (I think somebody does need to tell Danny not to stand there sticking his chest out like that though - he looks too much like a beauty pageant contestant in the 'showing myself off in this little bikini' pose in the bathing suit competition!) I especially like the pussycat-esque shape of Sam’s glasses. I think she needs a pair of sunglasses shaped like that to wear around on Earth just so the viewers can hear the guys squawk about them.

let's play a game. let's pretend that we've been writing stargate since the beginning. how would 'we' have written sam in all these years?

now since we're all different in tastes and ideas, this will be interesting to see what each one of us would have done. and since we're all kind to one another here, it'll be enjoyable too.

i would have made more of a deal of sam having jolinar's memories. that would be an aspect i would have continued from the get-go after 'in the line of duty'. not make her super human, just use those skill and memories more often.

(in complete seriousness), i would have brought sam and jack together in season 4, sometime after their zaytarc testing admissions. then, through the seasons , i would have had them get married. sam would have already had her second child by now.

i would have retired jack 'from sg1' way before now, with sam taking command.

i can so *see* all of this happening, with sam coming off as a competent and accomplished scientist and soldier. all the unease and uncertainty in her private life wouldn't have been.

i can see many of the eps that have happened happening again, with only maybe a small tweak here and there.

i know some of you would cringe at my super shippiness in this, but as the writer, i would have 'balanced' the many aspects of sam's life. many of us balance both without drowning out the other.

i'm interested in hearing what others would have done with sam through the years.


sally

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!


I have to agree about Sam and her Tok’ra legacy. It’s a huge, largely unexplored, aspect of her psyche. Why does it apparently bother her so much that she can use goa’uld technology? What’s she thinking inside that overactive brain of hers? I’d have explored that more, maybe placed her in a situation where she has to use some goa’uld device to save the rest of the team, but finds herself a victim of… naquadah block – like writer’s block? – and has to work through it, probably under fire, at a cost of personal pain, revelation and soul searching, succeeding, and spectacularly, but only at a cost to herself. And, if I’d been writing it, at a cost to her relationships with the rest of SG-1, that would take time and effort, on the guys’ parts, to mend. I would also have had General Hammond insisting and ordering her to work with the ribbon device and the hand device to become proficient with them. It would have given her character opportunities to go on missions and perform duties she would never have gotten otherwise, and I have to admit to a fondness for the idea of the guys of SG-1 dealing with the fact that their astrophysicist is not only brilliant and an excellent soldier and explosives operative, even though she doesn’t like doing it, when she’s in her zone, she’s fiercer and tougher than all of them rolled together, and even the Marines are a little in awe of her for it. Not that she isn’t that fierce and that tough already, because I think she is, but I think it would have been interesting to see the guys reminded of that a bit more often, and to see Carter’s disgust and dismay if anyone tried to turn her into just a weapon, especially if she’d been enjoying running around kicking butt and blowing things up with the Marines.

I’d also have written Carter as having more to do with the Tokra, and greater interest and input into Earth’s alliance with them because she just can’t not.

I wouldn’t have let the Carter character devolve into the place where the show puts its negative issues on display. Let ‘em share out the heavy lifting in the fouling up and personal concerns departments. Jack can worry about never having a personal life, a spouse, and a family – maybe even pine after Dr. Fraiser, for example. Daniel can screw a translation and endanger the world. Teal’c can bellow at civilians and display a lack of professionalism. They’re all human, or near enough, so they would all have been written as possessing fortés to go with the foibles they’d have been given if I’d been writing them.

I’d have let Sam talk about science and military things, and display her enthusiasm for them without any eye-rolling or ‘those looks’. She’s a brilliant scientist, and I sometimes think that all that means to a lamentable majority of viewers is that she’ll spout technobabble and save the day in some usually bizarre and spectacular way. I would have written eps where the Stargate program has to figure out how to hide the fact that their physicist extraordinaire is actually nowhere on the planet when a very real and famous physicist comes looking for her, with the President’s permission, to discuss something like a possible experimental proof of the theory of everything. (Hey, finding a way to use or manipulate all 11 theorized dimensions of reality might provide a means of defense or attack against the Ascended. ) Or what happens when the book that their physicist wrote that they’d never imagined anyone would actually read wins some very prestigious award – that they don’t dare let her accept without endangering the secrecy of the program. I’d like to have seen them explain that they never thought the book would go anywhere and they just can’t let her accept the Nobel because then, well, there’ll be questions, and interviews and background, and news coverage and all that and they just can’t have all that! And Carter standing there looking at them like they’ve sprouted extra heads in front of her, and saying “I can’t accept a Nobel that I fairly won because you don’t think I can keep my mouth shut about the Stargate during the ensuing interviews? Do you have any idea how insulting that sounds from this end, sirs?”

In the same light, I’d have shown Sam to have more close friendships with the enlisted personnel and technicians who maintain the base systems and staff the labs. Somehow, I’ve always suspected that Sam and Siler are buds, and I’d like to have seen that, that she’s respected, liked, and popular with them because she respects them and what they do, and she likes them too.

I’d have let Sam ride her motorcycles, drive fast, and fly planes – maybe have her be a highly regarded amateur racer (I’d prefer an air racer – Unlimited class who maybe takes off every year for the Reno races, and comes back with a trophy, or a few – but I’m not picky on that subject ) – whose avocation(s) rate(s) mention and display on a fairly regular basis. And I’d have written her pulling off things that left the guys’ jaws dangling a lot more regularly. Carter is cool, but sometimes it seems that only Carter remembers that.

Now, here's the transcript of Amanda's interview on the special tonight. In the first part, she's holding her Saturn award and standing in front of the gate. In the second part, she's talking about Sam this year.

"Wow, thank you so much. I am totally thrilled to have won the Saturn award. Um, all I can say is thank goodness that Buffy is finally off the air. I was getting a bit of a Susan Lucci vibe. But I’m totally thrilled to have won this. And it looks like the Stargate, so it makes it extra cool.

This year will be about her professional career. I think it was important to show this woman struggling with trying to create a life for herself as well as doing the best she can in her career, cause she’s been so career-driven. And I think it was important to show that yes, she does want a life. But I think if we focus too much on that we take away from the strength of the character which is that she’s this incredible scientist and soldier. And that she’s passionate about what she does. And she’s good at what she does.

It’s time to up the body count. She needs to be carrying her gun a bit more. (giggling)"


She had some other short bits in the show, as well, including the "race" with David to see who could read the description of a black hole the fastest. David won easily, but I for one, couldn't make out the words for most of it.

NC

Thank you, NearlyCircular for posting that! Thank you, thank you! I gave up on the SciFiFriday hype hour right after the “race” the first time it was on, and didn’t even make it that far again on Friday night. Atlantis doesn’t’ do much for me, and I can’t get into Galactica, and the smidgeons of Amanda just weren’t enough to leaven the rest of the thing into palatability for me. It’s good to know our noble queen got an interview at all, the way the show was bouncing back and forth for repeated bits with fashionably, or revealingly, or costume clad, actors-being-designated-as-drool-inducers-or-coolness-incarnate, and her in her fatigues and shot from the shoulders up. I’d been worried that she’d be too, er, something, or, ah, not enough something else to rate an individual interview in a special that was about 2 shows and took 1.5 hours last year and was about 3 shows in 2 hour this year. Suffice it to say, sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

And I am very much with Amanda on the idea that they need to get back to Sam the incredible scientist and soldier – and the P90. I think she needs to invent depleted uranium ammo or something for the P90 at the very least, while she’s at Area 51, and then, of course, try it out.

[binkpmmc]

Okay I have added lots of pictures from Comic Con on my MSN space so go check them out and enjoy. There are pictures from both the SG1 and Atlantis panel. Plus a special set of AT and CJ playing around with each other.

Tsaxlady's space

Thanks very much, Tsaxlady. Who is that adorable man with the dark hair on ATs left in the photos?

[Uber]

Okay...thanks to my friend and yours ForeverSG1, I was able to get these clips of Sam in Avalon. I edited them a smidge just to clip off the extra non-Sam stuff and to make them significantly smaller file sizes...

Sam talking to Cam over video phone:
http://www.powerpromoz.com/stargate/...v_sam_call.mpg

Flashback of Sam awarding Cam Congressional Medal of Honor:
http://www.powerpromoz.com/stargate/...av_sam_moh.mpg

Let's all give a big "WHO LOVES YA BABY" to KAT!!!!! Woohoo!!!

Oh and here's something else to consider when seeing those clips...

How many here had any inkling of an idea that Amanda would be making an appearance in Avalon? Hmmm? Let's see a show of hands....

The correct answer is of course...NONE of us knew. There were ZERO spoilers or teasers letting us know this little tidbit....

With that in mind, who knows what else might be in store for Sam fans, Jack fans or Sam/Jack shippers this season?

I'm just sayin'...

[Simhavaktra]

Apologies in advance, this whole thing is probably spoilerish (why do I have this mental image of a purely decorative version of the rear-wing thingies they put on sports cars? ) if not actually spoilers, so I’ll commence the formatting now (and now I have this mental image of Niirti punching something on her hand device, and the entire post becomes invisible ) :

Spoiler:

I was delighted to see Sam! And she’s off in Nevada, in command of the R&D operation at Area 51! Excellent career move! And she’s working on something that has hyperdrive (probably the Daedalus)! Very cool! And she was apparently wearing her silver oak leaves when she presented the Medal of Honor to Mitchell, so hopefully she does rank him. Cooler still! (Up until I saw this ep, I had nothing against Mitchell as a character, but I couldn’t understand how TPTB apparently couldn’t see the inherent insult in bringing Sam back to a unit formerly under her command as second to a man with nearly a decade less off-world experience than her. After seeing this ep, that went from ‘inherent insult’ to ‘dire insult’, but that’s just me, and I’m digressing. )

I also found it interesting that Walter said that Mitchell had lead the Antarctic defense / been injured “2 years ago”. If it took as long for this new season to start after last season ended in STR (Stargate Temporal Reality) I would have made that 14 months, not 24. So… would this mean that there’re 10 months of Carter in command of SG-1 lurking out there to be explored in fan fic???? ::exceedingly hopeful expression:: I figure it ought to mean that the mandatory 2 years waiting period required between promotions to Lieutenant Colonel and full bird Colonel has either expired now, or will have expired by the time Beachhead rolls around, for one Samantha Carter.

Other than that, I have to say – I was pretty disappointed in the premier episode.

• Was it just my persistent ear infection, or did Mitchell’s rio/pitter tell him that the left thruster was damaged, while the right engine nacelle was smoking?

• Congressional Medal of Honor???? Comparing to Greg Boyington, it’s certainly a possibility, but… it sure makes Mitchell a Mitchell Sue. I mean, he can’t tell anybody how he won it, any more than Jack and Sam can tell anyone the truth behind their medals for blowing up Apophis’ and Klorel’s Ha’tak, and after everything that SG-1 has done to save the planet, many, many times over, with no mention of them getting the Medal of Honor, it seems excessive, somehow, without at least an explanation of the thinking behind the award.

• Mitchell’s greener than spring grass in the world of the SGC, isn’t he? His appointment to command SG-1 came off as forced and contrived – does the man have any experience at all in land operations/combat to recommend him to the position? has he even been through the training that SGC recruits get? The System Lords may have been broken as a threat, but, in a universe that presents dangers as varied as abandoned Ancient technology, addictive light, alien cake, invisible Retou, quantum mirrors, sentient electricity, and za’tarc mind control, is it really a defensible command decision to let a complete novice lead a team, much less his own hand-picked team (or was that just a ploy to get a permanent set of people likely to merit being yelled at? ), when there are experienced officers available? Just because the experienced officers aren’t the ones that he wants is no reason to let him loose without benefit of experience.

• Why would Daniel tell Mitchell that Mitchell deserved to command SG-1? I just can’t figure that one out.

• Why were all the folks who’d applied to be part of the new SG-1 so unsuitable? Were the good people happy where they were? Too smart to want to be led by a complete novice? Protesting something about how SG-1 was disbanded, or how it was being reconstituted? And, if so, what? Or was Landry just setting up Mitchell with a bad batch to see what he’d do? And do I want to watch a general who cheerily goes about understanding his personnel in such an underhanded manner, if that’s what happened?

• The news that SG-1 had been disbanded simply begged for immediate explanation (why? at whose orders? why then?) that never came, especially when that fact is being told to a man who thought he was going to join the team - much less when it’s being told to an audience who’s tuned in to see SG-1!

• I couldn’t see in this ep why Jack cherry-picked Landry to run the SGC. The man likes to yell at people and his current command doesn’t give him much of a chance? He’s never liked Marines? He likes to immediately attempt to intimidate newly transferred officers? He complains about how the guy that got him his job managed his desk keys? (Duh, Hank – Jack O’Neill didn’t need keys to the desk. When he wanted the desk drawers unlocked, he just called Sam to his office and had her pick the locks. ) Landry’s not the strategist Jack is, not even apparently being able to look ahead one move in a game of chess, he pontificates when he doesn’t need to, makes disparaging remarks about subordinates to senior officers behind the backs of the subordinates, he strikes me as perfectly convinced of his own high value and competence – without a lot of evidence for either, and he makes fairly weird personnel decisions. To me, Landry came off as almost a caricature of a general: the kind of character one could expect to see in a movie where he would exist purely to be given his comeuppance later by the hero of the story. I guess he’s supposed to be good at something, since he has those two stars, but what it might be wasn’t apparent to me in this ep. General Hammond, where are you?????

• Just where was Mitchell hiding his outstanding leadership skills in this ep? According to his file, he has them, but he didn’t show them anywhere, as far as I could tell. The scene where he gives orders to the squadron before the fight over Antarctica was quite pedestrian – no outstanding leadership there. In Glastonbury I wanted to remind him that you’re wondering around an underground structure built by another race, Mitchell – could you at least tell your folks to be careful, watch where they’re going and not get lost, be suspicious of any apparent Ancient technology like holographic answering machine messages and self-igniting braziers, and not touch things until they have a chance to study them? Oh, and you might want to keep your source of Arthurian Lore and Scholarship, Daniel, and your unknown quantity, Vala, with you where you can use the knowledge of the one and keep an eye on the other, especially after you’ve seen active Ancient technology in this cavern, which probably will clue your unknown quantity that there’s something down there worth stealing, and, if she decides to steal anything, she may just take Dr. Jackson with her because of those matching bracelets they’re wearing. Of course, this is the guy who apparently never thought that memorizing how to get back to the Stargate on an alien planet might be something that all Gate team members might want to do automatically, and that a leader should be concerned about, because getting your people home is and should always be an important part of any mission, so maybe all that would be too much. (No, that wasn’t funny or endearing to me, if that was the intention of the writers – it made Mitchell look pretty ridiculous to me, and making snide remarks about Vala’s leather bustier on one hand and then ogling the Jaffa blonde in the suede miniskirt and inviting her to join SG-1 on the other made him look more than a touch hypocritical) And Mitchell went and divided his forces in an environment whose threats he had no sure knowledge of, no means of estimating nor assessing without personally investigating them, and no certainty that anything of value existed to be found and justify the risks he was taking, and asking others to take. I hope that those who dissed Sam for splitting hers on an apparently straightforward recon of a secret base on a planet abandoned by the Goa’uld, that had already been MALPed and on which the SGC had intel in Zero Hour, take appropriate notice, and dispense a dissing to Mitchell in this analogous situation, too. In fact, I’d like to know why a total novice got to go out on his first mission without another team with him, when an experienced officer like Lieutenant Colonel Carter had another team sent with her on hers.

• How old and tired a plot device is Arthur/Merlin/the Knights of the Round Table/the Holy Grail? Much less the descending ceiling / room that gets smaller trap? Maybe they’re meant to be classic touches, and I just read too much, and/or watch too much television, but Merlin the Ancient gets no more than a roll of the eyes and a sarcastic mutter of “yeah, of course he is – and if it fit the plot, he’d be the first human host for a Goa’uld, too wouldn’t he?” from me.

• What happened to Daniel’s and Teal’c’s intelligence and off-world experience? Wouldn’t Daniel have reported self-igniting braziers, obvious technologies, to Jack – or Sam (“Uh, Sam, come in? I know we’re out here looking for Merlin, or, rather stuff that Merlin might’ve left here, but, I just walked past these round, metal braziers on the floor of this room in the caverns and hey all went pop and fires started in them by themselves. Real fires, unlike that hologram of Gandalf the Grey that we turned on by the Sword in the Stone. There’s a whole ring of them around the inside of the room, and a rectangular stone pedestal with metal objects on it in the middle of the room. I, uh, think this is something you should see. You want to come look at this?”) – when searching for Ancient stuff? Wouldn’t Teal’c have recommended caution in the face of unknown alien technology (“O’Neill – these fire pots have been here for more than a thousand years, yet they come alive at our approach through no means visible to us. This place is not the mere cavern, it appears. I believe additional vigilance is warranted.”)?

• Would the production like to explain how Myrddin/Merlin got from ~8K BC (which was, I think, when the Ancients came back to Earth from Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy) to ~AD 450 (when the historical Arthur lived, if he ever lived) without achieving a case of death-by-advanced-age in the process? Another dormata, as in Merlin’s esplumeoir/glass coffin? A suspension chamber à la Elizabeth Weir the first? A time machine? Ancients had a very interesting life span? Something? Anything?

I hope that Mitchell becomes more real to me as a character, because he’s just not giving me what I consider watchable depth after one episode – which Sam, Jack, and Daniel did (Teal’c took 2 eps for me, so I’m not giving up on Mitchell quite yet ) . General Landry I don’t like at all – I’m hoping he didn’t get to be a leader because everyone kept shoving him to the front in every operation he was in, in hopes that the enemy would get him first. I sure wouldn’t want to serve under his command, or work for him in any capacity, and I’m wondering if that’s why Sam went to Area 51.

[Simhavaktra]

Very interesting. It sounds like they must be doing something like

Spoiler:

joint command; otherwise somebody would be unhappy.

Maybe they'll have

Spoiler:

Sam retain her command in Area 51, and of SG-1, with Cam taking over whenever she's in Nevada or busy with Area 51 biz, so they'll spend about equal time commanding in the field. I'm just worried from the spoilers that Cam would get all the cool, do-neat-things-and-be-heroic command moments, and Sam will get all the slogging through the mud and jungle, negotiating with the boring and ethnocentric natives, signing the reports, standing by and keeping an eye on the subordinates in trouble, and arguing the points the brass doesn't want to hear command moments.

[Cassie]

Okay I have added lots of pictures from Comic Con on my MSN space so go check them out and enjoy. There are pictures from both the SG1 and Atlantis panel. Plus a special set of AT and CJ playing around with each other.

Tsaxlady's space

Great pictures Tsaxlady Thanks!!!! A smiling Amanda I swear she has perfect teeth



Btw everyone found a link to some more Amanda photos not sure if there old or not but here's the link enjoy.....
http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryList...&nbc1=1&VwMd=i

[majorsal]

Oh and here's something else to consider when seeing those clips...

How many here had any inkling of an idea that Amanda would be making an appearance in Avalon? Hmmm? Let's see a show of hands....

The correct answer is of course...NONE of us knew. There were ZERO spoilers or teasers letting us know this little tidbit....

With that in mind, who knows what else might be in store for Sam fans, Jack fans or Sam/Jack shippers this season?

I'm just sayin'...

i'm glad you brought that up, Über. (i tried that special Ü out just for YOU )

i totally agree with you!

but...

i was thinking about the fact of how much we've BEGGED for spoilers on sam, and how we were told NOTHING about sam being in avalon...

i'm of two minds on this. yes, we've been told to watch to find things out, but...

i would have rather went into this with excitement of what i knew i was going to see, not anxious on what i 'might' see. why couldn't someone have told us sam was going to be in avalon? if it wasn't for the east coasters seeing it a few hours before me, i wouldn't have known sam showed up in the ep. and look what i would have missed! this total 'watch and find out' stuff is not the best way of juicing ppl up with excitement (to me).

surprise is one thing, but when you're trying to entice long time viewers who are already have serious withdrawl issues associated with their fave characters or established show flavor... just seems almost like anti promotion to me.


oh, btw ------ HERE'S POST # 3800!


sally

[Uber]

i'm glad you brought that up, Über. (i tried that special Ü out just for YOU )

i totally agree with you!

but...

i was thinking about the fact of how much we've BEGGED for spoilers on sam, and how we were told NOTHING about sam being in avalon...

i'm of two minds on this. yes, we've been told to watch to find things out, but...

i would have rather went into this with excitement of what i knew i was going to see, not anxious on what i 'might' see. why couldn't someone have told us sam was going to be in avalon? if it wasn't for the east coasters seeing it a few hours before me, i wouldn't have known sam showed up in the ep. and look what i would have missed! this total 'watch and find out' stuff is not the best way of juicing ppl up with excitement (to me).

surprise is one thing, but when you're trying to entice long time viewers who are already have serious withdrawl issues associated with their fave characters or established show flavor... just seems almost like anti promotion to me.


oh, btw ------ HERE'S POST # 3800!


sally

...and here's post 11800 on Samanda...

Can I post pictures from Avalon of Sam which are supposedly flashbacks from Lost City? Even though they're new?

Because they're similar to Lost City pics but not quite...is that close enough???

CALLING ALL MODS!!!

[Uber]

Well since it's supposedly from Lost City (even though we kinda know it's NOT) and very similar to the original Lost City scene, I'm going to go ahead and post these screencaps I just made for your viewing pleasure:

Sam's line...Avalon Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Sam had told Mitchell about an Alkesh that was incoming...Cam took it out and Sam saw Cam fly by the cargo ship afterwards.

Sam: Well, that was close.

With that in mind, here are the pictures to go with that one line of dialogue:

[Agent_Dark]

Oak, not maple.

Doh! I knew MajorSam was corrupting me somehow....