Jack O'Neill/ Sam Carter - Part of a team, not a ship

[Madeleine]

Thanks and no worries.

[Girl Clone]

After looking through the other threads, I'm thinking this is the best place to ask....

I'm new to SG-1 - having started watching it only a month or so ago. I've watched all of the first 3 seasons with delight and enjoyment. The team dynamics! The friendship! It's all good.

And now I'm part way through season 4 and I get smacked in the face by the seemingly out of nowhere but not terribly subtle Sam/Jack relationship. And I'm really just not buying it.

So, my question, does it get better? I'm guessing that it's still annoyingly there, even 3 or 4 seasons later, but is it handled any better?

ETA: After reading the last few pages of this thread, I'm guessing not I'm hoping the show's still worth watching though.

[Easter Lily]

If memory serves, the ship issue doesn't really surface to any great extent until Season 7 and of course, Season 8. There are subtle suggestions now and again which can be disregarded at will.

[Frostfox]

After looking through the other threads, I'm thinking this is the best place to ask....

I'm new to SG-1 - having started watching it only a month or so ago. I've watched all of the first 3 seasons with delight and enjoyment. The team dynamics! The friendship! It's all good.

And now I'm part way through season 4 and I get smacked in the face by the seemingly out of nowhere but not terribly subtle Sam/Jack relationship. And I'm really just not buying it.

So, my question, does it get better? I'm guessing that it's still annoyingly there, even 3 or 4 seasons later, but is it handled any better?

ETA: After reading the last few pages of this thread, I'm guessing not I'm hoping the show's still worth watching though.

I've only been watching for just over a year, bless the cheap boxed sets for that.

As EasterLilly says, it goes underground again but never goes away.
You get good at ignoring it. Or you stop watching. Simple choice really.

Since they couldn't really do anything with the plot thread (against US Airforce regulations regarding fraternization) I would have prefered them to keep it subtle so that the shippers could have enjoyed their side of the pond and I could continue to enjoy mine.
But then I'm a slasher and we've never needed anyones permission (or badly handled canon with little chemistry - you want chemistry? Look at the Spacemonkey hug!) to do what we do, we aren't going to stop now.

Anyway, it's all a bit academic now

Spoiler:

RDA has retired

FF, off to read fanfic which is much more satisfying than some of the stuff on screen.

[jckfan55]

I'm heartened by the word from J. M. that "ship" will not be a feature of Season 9.

[Frostfox]

I'm heartened by the word from J. M. that "ship" will not be a feature of Season 9.

Gosh, me too.

And, sorry as I am that we are loosing our wonderful Jack, I'm hoping Sam will come out from under his shadow and stop being part of the Sam'nJack unit and become the seasoned Airforce officer/scientist again.
Whatever happened to Amanda's request, when the show started, for the writers to treat Sam as just 'one of the boys' and for them to trust her to bring the female side of her character out?

FF

[ShadowMaat]

Ah, but did he mean S/J ship? Or did he mean any ship at all? Because from what I've been reading, it sounds like there will be a fair bit of sexual innuendo- at least in the eps Vala is in- and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a continuing trend.

Likewise is the issue of who's going to be in charge of the team when Sam gets back. Personally, I can see them creating a Dave-and-Maddie sort of cranky chemistry between Sam and... er.... Browder's character. They're bickering, yes, but underneath it all is something more. Dunno about the rest of you, but I don't want to trade one leaky ship for another.

There's also the fact that Joe is notorious for his misdirection and I wouldn't put it past him to say there's no ship when, in fact, there will be lots of subtext, double-entendres and open-ended references which are not overtly shippy, but which will still be about as obvious as a brick to the side of the head.

Why start trusting what TPTB say now?

[Easter Lily]

^ I suppose it's a case of one ship at a time...
I'll be glad to see the last of the S/J ship but it's no guarantee that there won't be any suggestion of off-screen goings on BUT as long as I don't have to see Sam and Jack looking wet around each other, I can live with it.
For ship to really work on this show, the female characters need to be written a lot more convincingly. So far I haven't been very convinced...

[astronomicalchick]

^ I suppose it's a case of one ship at a time...
I'll be glad to see the last of the S/J ship but it's no guarantee that there won't be any suggestion of off-screen goings on BUT as long as I don't have to see Sam and Jack looking wet around each other, I can live with it.
For ship to really work on this show, the female characters need to be written a lot more convincingly. So far I haven't been very convinced...

I agree EL, in fact I'd be even stronger about it, and say that female characters are done a real disservice on SG-1 and to a certain extent SGA. The way Sam was written all during the Pete debacle was a real example, the way Rachel Luttrell is pictured in scantily clad clothes, Vala was extremely annoying the time I saw her, was basically some sort of sex-mad caricature. In fact, female characters are written so badly I wonder why I'm still watching!

[ShadowMaat]

I agree EL, in fact I'd be even stronger about it, and say that female characters are done a real disservice on SG-1 and to a certain extent SGA. The way Sam was written all during the Pete debacle was a real example, the way Rachel Luttrell is pictured in scantily clad clothes, Vala was extremely annoying the time I saw her, was basically some sort of sex-mad caricature. In fact, female characters are written so badly I wonder why I'm still watching!

Yes, well, you know that women are only REALLY good for one thing- and it ain't armed combat. And of course, women aren't really COMPLETE without a man and it's the goal of every woman to find a man. *retches*

At least, TPTB certainly seem to think along those lines. Sam was once a pretty good character, now she's just reduced to her mammary glands, her reproductive organs and her overflowing tear ducts. Give me a freakin' break.

But that's probably a subject best left for another thread.

Point is, ship is bad enough, IMO, but ship which mutilates and emasculates the characters is even worse, and that's precisely what TPTB have done with Sam and Jack.

[Cory Holmes]

Personally, I can see them creating a Dave-and-Maddie sort of cranky chemistry between Sam and... er.... Browder's character. They're bickering, yes, but underneath it all is something more.

See, she already has that with McKay, so why bother putting more in?

[NightGloom]

Likewise is the issue of who's going to be in charge of the team when Sam gets back. Personally, I can see them creating a Dave-and-Maddie sort of cranky chemistry between Sam and... er.... Browder's character. They're bickering, yes, but underneath it all is something more. Dunno about the rest of you, but I don't want to trade one leaky ship for another.

Ha! I wanna see them try that... just attempt to have a ship between them! The J/S shippers would be up in arms! There would be a major revolt and conspiracy theories polluting forums! Life! Liberty! Jack & Sam! *guillotine blade falls*....


Just read A Tale of Two Cities (again) I'm sure you can't tell

[Ali888]

And now I'm part way through season 4 and I get smacked in the face by the seemingly out of nowhere but not terribly subtle Sam/Jack relationship. And I'm really just not buying it.

So, my question, does it get better? I'm guessing that it's still annoyingly there, even 3 or 4 seasons later, but is it handled any better?

The only consistant thing about the J/S ship is that it's remarkably inconsistant. We get hit over the head with it in parts of S4, the second half of S7 and the second half of S8. The rest of the time, it simply doesn't exist. Not at all. In fact, there are times when it's obvious that Jack and Sam don't care about each other at all.

I don't see any sign of genuine attraction between them, so the episodes where the characters are spouting lines about how much they care about each other make absolutely no sense to me.

As far as I know, both Jack and Sam are going to continue to be Airforce officers in the same chain of command in S9 so they will still be unable to have any sort of romantic relationship. And

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with Jack/RDA not being around except in a couple of episodes, there can't be any of the UST that some people see on screen. So I'm hopeful that the ship will have sunk. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Ali P

[keshou]

See, she already has that with McKay, so why bother putting more in?

Totally agree. Sam has such good chemistry with McKay (imo, of course), I'd go that direction. With them being on different shows it wouldn't be lurking in every episode but could add a little spice to the mix.

Oh, but wait - this is the anti sam/Jack ship thread. Hmmm.....my feelings are really ambivalent at this point. The main thing I wanted (by the end of S8) was for the silly thing to be resolved. It had stretched on waaaaaay too long and made both characters less interesting in my eyes.

I don't care if they're together or not. As long as its off-screen. Which seems likely since RDA is basically not in season 9. So I'm not spending much time worrying about it.

Oh, it's good to be a non-shipper.

[ShadowMaat]

See, she already has that with McKay, so why bother putting more in?

Because Rodney is too good a match for her and he isn't studly enough? At least not by popular definition. He also isn't the star of SG-1, so it doesn't do TPTB any good.

Pardon my bitterness.