S10: Critique & Contemplation

[suse]

I doubt very much that something like that came from Amanda herself. You will rarely, if ever, hear her say or read in an interview that she has anything negative to say about anything. If she said anything at all about it, she said it was a positive change for her and she was looking forward to it.

The closest thing to negative I heard her say was at Shore Leave. They were filming S10 and she said she reminded Coop that these character have known each other for yyears and it would be good it they could acknowledge that. She wasn't nasty at all though.

[Skydiver]

she's smart enough not to piddle in the sandbox she plays in.

[gateraid]

she's smart enough not to piddle in the sandbox she plays in.

Lolz. AT has always struck me as being acutely aware of what to say to fans, without compromising herself. Hmmm, that'd be ideal in a lead actor, no?

To me, while the past references were a great idea (if we're sticking to s10), the ones they stuck in the s10 premiere were a bit of a fail for me. Daniel bringing up Sha're and Carter talking about opening the first wormhole to Abydos only reinforced how much the show had changed, at least from my perspective. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Every show needs to evolve over time, else nobody would keep watching.

I thought s10 was actually an improvement over s9. I literally burned my copy of the s9 box set (Daniel Jackson's face had this warped 'aaaaargh' thing going on as it was engulfed in flame), but s9 was really just a season of exposition. S10 had the benefit of them trying to wrap everything up quicker than intended, so wasn't as slow overall.

I think some of the problems with s9/10 started earlier, with the return of Shanks/Jackson. The character that returned was not the same one that left, IMO. That's understandable, but on some level, it must've placed the idea in the writers minds that the characters were a little malleable, to the point that they could throw someone a gun and give them a few comic lines to make them 'cool'.

[Skydiver]

some of the 'extra exposition' such as Jacob 'i used to be an air force general after all' and other such lines were, i believe, put in at the suggesion of skiffy....since the show theoretically had new fans that may not know 8+ years of history, then it was suggested to spoon feed them some info to bring them up to speed.

wasn't as bad as the writers doing things like moving Jack's cabin in minnestoa to silver springs colorado to facilitate a story....i can handle fill in exposition, but deliberately flouting long established canon???

[Mandysg1]

But Sky, you forgot, the cabin was still in Minnesota, they just used Sam's naquadah enhanced car engines to get there faster

[ReganX]

wasn't as bad as the writers doing things like moving Jack's cabin in minnestoa to silver springs colorado to facilitate a story....i can handle fill in exposition, but deliberately flouting long established canon???

That was stupid because it didn't need to be Jack's cabin. What's wrong with Landry renting a cabin for the weekend if he thinks that he has nothing better to do than order SG-1 to hang out with him?

[Skydiver]

Exactly. The ONLY, to my mind any anyway, reason to make it Jack's cabin was to not have to go out and scout for another location. They likely just picked up the phone and dealt with the known quantity of people they've dealt with before.

[fems]

Considering "Jack's" cabin has been in several different shows I wouldn't be surprised if it was the only cabin available for filming in Vancouver.

[Skydiver]

Log cabin maybe. But I'm sure there are a multitude of homes in Vancouver that look like they are in the woods.

or they could have dressed it a bit different, had sam or daniel say 'it looks like gen o'neill's cabin' 'yeah well his dad built that from a kit, i'm sure there are hundreds of cabins around that look like his' and it'd have all been explained.

It became apparent from the moment they put it in Minnesota that the writers regretted it being so far away from colorado, but what bugged me was the 'frak canon, it's more convenient this way' attitude....and then how fans were mocked for noticing and calling TPTB on it.

Unfortunately, coop & co viewed 8+ years of history to be a burden.

[ReganX]

or they could have dressed it a bit different, had sam or daniel say 'it looks like gen o'neill's cabin' 'yeah well his dad built that from a kit, i'm sure there are hundreds of cabins around that look like his' and it'd have all been explained.

Even without having it mentioned, it's easy to believe that two cabins could be very similar to one another. I wouldn't have questioned if if Landry rented a cabin and it looked like Jack's.

[gateraid]

some of the 'extra exposition' such as Jacob 'i used to be an air force general after all' and other such lines were, i believe, put in at the suggesion of skiffy....since the show theoretically had new fans that may not know 8+ years of history, then it was suggested to spoon feed them some info to bring them up to speed.

I think if I hadn't seen the earlier seasons, I'd be unlikely to realise he'd been a two-star without him actually saying it.

wasn't as bad as the writers doing things like moving Jack's cabin in minnestoa to silver springs colorado to facilitate a story....i can handle fill in exposition, but deliberately flouting long established canon???

Again, even though I would consider myself to be a big fan of the show, I didn't know the cabin had been moved until I read about it on GW. I was more concerned with the apparent lack of full Colonel's in that ep and an obvious chain of command at the SGC

But Sky, you forgot, the cabin was still in Minnesota, they just used Sam's naquadah enhanced car engines to get there faster

That was stupid because it didn't need to be Jack's cabin. What's wrong with Landry renting a cabin for the weekend if he thinks that he has nothing better to do than order SG-1 to hang out with him?

Exactly. The ONLY, to my mind any anyway, reason to make it Jack's cabin was to not have to go out and scout for another location. They likely just picked up the phone and dealt with the known quantity of people they've dealt with before.

I think there was a two fold reason for it - what you've mentioned above, and that it would be an easy way to get an O'Neill reference in (hey, my buddy Jack loaned me his cabin for the weekend) without actually having RDA present or doing a super fake one sided phone call

[fems]

They could have just pretended the ride over took longer than it did now and have the backup beamed over or something (since there always seemed to a be ship around whenever SG-1 was in trouble anyway) instead of driving all the way to Minnesota and change the license plates on the sheriff's car. It's not like they were actually in Colorado so those had to come from somewhere too, why not make them Minnesota?

[fems]

Wuh? This bit is interesting. Is anyone on the record saying tptb wanted carter to wear skimpier outfits and were foiled by Tapping? It's the first time I've heard something like that and I'd find it hard to believe. Especially in early days of SG-1, I wouldn't think she had that much pull with them.

I know early season 4 they had a bit of a phase with the fan service. (hello anise) but the commentaries for those episodes on the dvd seem to indicate they realised this was a mistake.

Someone on the Sam Carter/AT thread happened to link to a recent interview of AT and it was mentioned again so I figured I'd let you know.

Tapping put her career on the line when she faced the sexualization of her SG-1 character at her very first wardrobe fitting. “Actually getting the part and realizing that I was going to be able to play this kick-ass, strong, incredibly smart, female character and going down for my first wardrobe fitting and being handed a push up bra and a low cut tank top? I looked at the [costume designer] and said, what is this?! I was, very surprisingly, non-confrontational considering the characters I have played and this shocked me. I am an Air Force Captain, I carry a gun and I am an astrophysicist. Why would I wear a push up bra? Why, that just flies in the face of everything this character stands for!” Tapping told the Costume Designer, “I can’t do this. If they want this, then they cast the wrong girl. That was scary.” The producers backed off immediately. She ended up wearing the same black t-shirt, military uniforms and army boots her male cast members wore. She even carried the same gun. “It took a little while for the powersthat-be to warm up to the idea but, a couple of weeks in to shooting the pilot, one of the directors came up to me and said...you were right.”

[Crazedwraith]

Ohh. Awesome. I'm glad AT had some gumption, not just because she was right about that issue but because well its prove she cares and is not just in it for the paycheck or something.

[ReganX]

Good for AT. It's also nice that the directors acknowledged that she was right.