S10: Critique & Contemplation

[Rogue]

I've had a problem with Sam's judgement regarding Pete since "Chimera" and not just because I'm a SJ shipper. He shouldn't have been more than an episode fling especially after the crap he pulled on her after their night together or after following her to the stake out or running the background check on her... My respect for Sam dropped a lot somewhere mid S7 and it's been dropping ever since...

IMO, RCC made a mess out of the whole S/J thing. He needs to stay way from those types of storylines. Sam was in a no win situation. No matter how it turned out, someone was going to get hurt and she was the cause.

[Skydiver]

pete is what happens when immature males try to write the actions of a mature female

[Mandysg1]

pete is what happens when immature males try to write the actions of a mature female

Yea, poor Pete never stood a chance.

[Nikki]

I agree the whole Sam/Pete thing did turn into a mess. The idea was a good one, "let Sam try and move on from Jack to realise that she couldn't" but the way TPTB wrote and played it was a disaster. In character Sam would have dumped Pete's ass faster than Teal'c can say 'Indeed' once she found out about him running a background check on her, following her and insulting her father...without her father actually having to tell her to. A prime example of this was in 'Affinity', regarding Sam's acceptance of Pete's proposal at the end...in the middle of a rescue mission FCOL...

"In 'Affinity' there's a scene that after first reading it I got on the phone to [executive producer] Rob Cooper and said, 'My character would never say that.' As the actress playing Sam and as somebody who probably has the most invested in her personally, I had some real issues with this scene. Rob, however, came up with a very compelling argument in favor of the scene because it furthers Sam's relationship with Pete in a big way. We wound up doing it as written and I told Rob, 'The fans are going to hate me.' He said, 'No they won't,' and I was like, 'Oh yes they will.' I'm praying they don't. In the end I understood what Rob meant. The scene is certainly going to stir up more conflict for Sam in future episodes."
("Carter" actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with TV Zone magazine [Special #58])

Amanda Tapping could also see that RCC and whole Pete storyline were going to destroy her character but thats RCC for ya...

But I still love Sam and of course Amanda...a great actress playing an excellent character, what more could you want?

We know Sam Carter well enough by now to know when some things are written OOC and this, unfortunately, was one of them.

[AGateFan]

Speaking of send-offs, you know what irks me is that RCC knows how to meaningfully send off a character - case in point Jacob in "Threads"...

I did not think that send off was good and do not watch that ep. The Daniel parts were good but the Carter\Pete\Jacob\Jack\Jacks girlfriend parts were just painful. And not painful in a "omg Jacobs dieing" kind of way. Painful in the contrived script with dialogue that makes all the characters look bad kind of way. Pete was embarrassing around Jacob. Carter was embarrassing around Jack and Pete. Jack was embarrassing around Carter and his girlfriend.

Not to mention the whole Selmac too old to live thing was anti-cannon and came out of the blue just as much as Asgard suicide did. I mean don’t you think Selmec may have mentioned the "I only have a few years to give you" thing when first taking Jacob as a host. (oh and how good is the fact checking of cannon when they cant even get how long Jacob has been a tokra right, for goodness sake. How freaking simple is that...if you care that is....clearly RCC did not)

What makes it particularly annoying was it was done to further ship (which I don’t even like) and THEN they don’t even follow up on that whole thing they setup. Not that I think they should have, but why kill one of the great guest characters for, well nothing.

Of course by killing Jacob he was at least spared the embarrassing character assassination that Bratec got in S9-S10. Can someone tell me what gives Mitchell the right to even speak to Bratec let alone in condescending terms? If someone needs to talk Bratec down (and his character was never so stupid as to require it before) it should have been Teal'c or at the very least Carter, Daniel or a guest staring O’Neill....you know, someone he actually knows and respects.

Oh and if you are going to off Thor you may want to save one of RDA's guest appearances for THAT too.

Oh and if you are going to have a final episode of Stargate SG-1, it would be nice to actually have the STARGATE be used in the episode.

Oops, this appears to have turned into a general rant.
The list of reasons I despise S9-S10 (and to a lesser extent RCC's watered down S7-S8 [thank god someone still had veto power]) can go on for quite some time, so I will stop now.

[scifithinker]

I don't' blame sam for Pete any more than i blame vala for her actions.

the actors didn't do it, in fact, we have examples of the actors opposing stuff written for their characters. the writers and show runner made decisions that messed up both characters.

if anyone bears blame, it's the writers that wrote the words and a show runner that didn't edit them

Then again, how many words were written and filmed that didn't make the final cut?

[Vaniel4evah!]

I agree the whole Sam/Pete thing did turn into a mess. The idea was a good one, "let Sam try and move on from Jack to realise that she couldn't" but the way TPTB wrote and played it was a disaster. In character Sam would have dumped Pete's ass faster than Teal'c can say 'Indeed' once she found out about him running a background check on her, following her and insulting her father...without her father actually having to tell her to. A prime example of this was in 'Affinity', regarding Sam's acceptance of Pete's proposal at the end...in the middle of a rescue mission FCOL....

I had no problem with Pete running the background check; Sam did lie to him and I can't blame him for being careful.

However, there were two big red flags with Pete from the get go.

1. He was already planning their future after only knowing each other for two weeks.

2. The bad break up with his ex-wife. She waited until he was out of town to end the marriage. Sure, she may have been a psycho biatch, or she could have been afraid of him. I would have done my own background check on him to find out what really happened.

As for Season 10, there was too much emphasis on Mitchell.

[Vaniel4evah!]

I don't know I really did like the Farscape bit in the middle of 200 right
down to a little appearance by Moya and Chianna... That was funny.

Well at least made me laugh

They should have skipped over that idiotic Wormhole Extreme in the future bit and put in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer parody with Jack as a brooding Angel, Vala as Cordelia, Mitchell as the bumbling Xander and Daniel polishing his glasses while muttering "the Earth is doomed".

[ReganX]

As for Season 10, there was too much emphasis on Mitchell.

Compared with Season Nine, I would say that there was a dramatic reduction in emphasis on Mitchell.

There wasn't enough emphasis on Sam, Teal'c or Vala without Daniel.

[Coco Pops]

They should have skipped over that idiotic Wormhole Extreme in the future bit and put in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer parody with Jack as a brooding Angel, Vala as Cordelia, Mitchell as the bumbling Xander and Daniel polishing his glasses while muttering "the Earth is doomed".

But wasn't that whole "Wormhole Extreme" the show that producer
guy had to begin with the first time after he had his first encounter
with the SGC?

I vaugely remember that, but I could be wrong.

[Nikki]

They should have skipped over that idiotic Wormhole Extreme in the future bit and put in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer parody with Jack as a brooding Angel, Vala as Cordelia, Mitchell as the bumbling Xander and Daniel polishing his glasses while muttering "the Earth is doomed".

yeh, I can see it now...the Buffy/Angel angst translated into Sam/Jack angst...Xander/Mitchell generally being useless and taking unnecessary risks...Cordelia/Vala flirting with the enemy and making superficial hilarious comments and Giles/Daniel with his musty books.

[Rogue]

I did not think that send off was good and do not watch that ep. The Daniel parts were good but the Carter\Pete\Jacob\Jack\Jacks girlfriend parts were just painful. And not painful in a "omg Jacobs dieing" kind of way. Painful in the contrived script with dialogue that makes all the characters look bad kind of way. Pete was embarrassing around Jacob. Carter was embarrassing around Jack and Pete. Jack was embarrassing around Carter and his girlfriend.

Not to mention the whole Selmac too old to live thing was anti-cannon and came out of the blue just as much as Asgard suicide did. I mean don’t you think Selmec may have mentioned the "I only have a few years to give you" thing when first taking Jacob as a host. (oh and how good is the fact checking of cannon when they cant even get how long Jacob has been a tokra right, for goodness sake. How freaking simple is that...if you care that is....clearly RCC did not)

What makes it particularly annoying was it was done to further ship (which I don’t even like) and THEN they don’t even follow up on that whole thing they setup. Not that I think they should have, but why kill one of the great guest characters for, well nothing.

Of course by killing Jacob he was at least spared the embarrassing character assassination that Bratec got in S9-S10. Can someone tell me what gives Mitchell the right to even speak to Bratec let alone in condescending terms? If someone needs to talk Bratec down (and his character was never so stupid as to require it before) it should have been Teal'c or at the very least Carter, Daniel or a guest staring O’Neill....you know, someone he actually knows and respects.

Oh and if you are going to off Thor you may want to save one of RDA's guest appearances for THAT too.

Oh and if you are going to have a final episode of Stargate SG-1, it would be nice to actually have the STARGATE be used in the episode.

Oops, this appears to have turned into a general rant.
The list of reasons I despise S9-S10 (and to a lesser extent RCC's watered down S7-S8 [thank god someone still had veto power]) can go on for quite some time, so I will stop now.

Oh I totally agree with you about Threads. I find it painful to watch and I wanted S/J together.

[Vaniel4evah!]

Compared with Season Nine, I would say that there was a dramatic reduction in emphasis on Mitchell.

There wasn't enough emphasis on Sam, Teal'c or Vala without Daniel.

AFAIK, any emphasis on Mitchell is too much. I detested him from the get go when he nearly got himself and Teal'c crushed to death because he fiddled around with an alien artifact like a little kid.

[ReganX]

AFAIK, any emphasis on Mitchell is too much. I detested him from the get go when he nearly got himself and Teal'c crushed to death because he fiddled around with an alien artifact like a little kid.

He didn't lose you when he was badgering Sam, Daniel and Teal'c to drop everything and come back because he wanted to work with them, like a five year old who didn't get his own way?

[Vaniel4evah!]

He didn't lose you when he was badgering Sam, Daniel and Teal'c to drop everything and come back because he wanted to work with them, like a five year old who didn't get his own way?

I missed the first 10 minutes of that ep, so I didn't see that particular scene. Ugh! I still don't know why Mitchell was allowed on the premier team, let alone made it's leader. I'm no fan of Sam, but even I think that it was grossly unfair to have an inexperienced dolt put in command of the team she'd 2II'c for 8 years.