Samantha "Sam" Carter

[mstaken]

I'm so eager to hear others' thoughts on Sam. What do you perceive as her greatest strengths and weaknesses? Does she HAVE any consistent weaknesses? ;)

I liked Sam, but I think that's due primarily to how much I like Amanda Tapping. (Though, on a pitifully shallow note, I think AT looks much better with darker hair.) And it's always nice to see an unabashedly smart science whiz who happens to be female. But while I found Sam likable, she just wasn't all that rich and interesting a character for me. It kind of feels like the writers were so intent on writing Sam as a strong, admirable female character that they shied away from giving her any real edges or flaws. 

I'd really love to see her as more layered and richly defined than I do, though, so I'm looking forward to hearing from other posters! Oh, and feel free to chime in on the far more important issue: which of Sam's hairstyles did you like best, and which ones made you cringe? ;) 

[stillshimpy]

Amanda Tapping tends to rock any hair color, I think, but she did look exceptionally beautiful on Sanctuary with darker hair, didn't she? 

Fun trivia note for you Mstaken, did you know AT's husband was in the episode Changeling in season six?  He played one of the firemen and it's sort of hilarious because he's so gorgeous he stands out even as an extra.  It was a case of "Wait, who the heck is that? Her husband?  Wow, so their poor, unfortunate kid must be fully hideous...in some opposite universe."  In all seriousness, their child got smacked with the great genes and beauty stick, I'm sure. 

Anyway, when I originally watched the series, for about the first four seasons, Sam drove me up a tree and then I just kept getting exposed to interviews and pieces with Amanda Tapping and she is perhaps the most likable human on Earth.  I then started to like Sam.  I liked Amanda Tapping so much, I started to retroactively like Sam.  On Stargate Atlantis, David Hewlett plays the "smarter than everyone, can do anything" scientist and I personally found him so abrasive, I barely have an adequate vocabulary to describe just how annoying I found his character to be. 

Amanda Tapping saved Sam from that fate.  Sure, she's Super Sam, but AT had the wisdom to play her as being ever-so-slightly awkward in a nice way and kind.  I think that's what made the difference.  Sam was smarter than everyone around her but she was also sweet, a little geeky and funny.  

The character could have been a disaster and sort of started out that way in the first part of the pilot (lines about parts and dolls spring to mind), but AT just pointed out "Look, women don't talk that way" and here's the part that gets lost to history: TPTB listened and took her input on that.  That was long, long before Mallozzi was on the scene.  

Sam's black widow curse could get a little eye-roll-inducing, but she was a lot of fun as a character.  Now, the exception is always going to be the poorly executed Pete arc.  That wasn't a good arc, in my opinion.  Some times the writing did the character few favors, but AT almost always was able to bail the character's dignity out, just by possessing her own.  

Does she HAVE any consistent weaknesses? ;)

I think so, she's ever-so-slightly socially awkward throughout the run of the show, as befits someone who is about ten times smarter than anyone she encounters.  Now, they turned that up to "Whoa, absurd level awkwardness" with both Daniel and Sam in Moebius, but it was pretty consistently there.  It just wasn't played like Rodney's social misfit tendencies, in which he was often fully obnoxious.  Sam was just a little geeky.  

Other than that, arguably the stuff with Jack became a consistent flaw.  Long after RDA was playing it as if Jack just was over whatever he had felt, AT played it as still carrying a torch.  Not to her great detriment, but that can also be seen as a weakness.  

Edited April 8, 2014 by stillshimpy

[solotrek]

Other than that, arguably the stuff with Jack became a consistent flaw.  Long after RDA was playing it as if Jack just was over whatever he had felt, AT played it as still carrying a torch.  Not to her great detriment, but that can also be seen as a weakness.

I don't think RDA ever really played Jack as over it.  I think they went out of their way to make it as awkward as possible, especially with the Pete stuff. There were just episodes where both AT and RDA played it as nothing, but when they had to bring it, they both did. Of course there were times where RDA played Jack as over everything because it seemed like he was beyond done with the show.

But while I found Sam likable, she just wasn't all that rich and interesting a character for me. It kind of feels like the writers were so intent on writing Sam as a strong, admirable female character that they shied away from giving her any real edges or flaws.

I think they wrote Sam like that because they needed that sort of person to balance the team, SG1 realistically worked because they had 4 distinct people. We had to believe that there was a reason for these 4 people to be this team for 7*years and why Jack wanted her on the team (the Jack/Sam thing didn't really start until S3 when Jack was on Edora). She was a healthy mix of Daniel and Jack. That being said, I think they did give Sam a few "flaws". There were times where she did realize the amount of pressure that was on her and how Jack would always fall back to depending on her to make the right discovery, so they gave her a modicum of self doubt.

*Jonas = Daniel 2.0

I think so, she's ever-so-slightly socially awkward throughout the run of the show, as befits someone who is about ten times smarter than anyone she encounters.  Now, they turned that up to "Whoa, absurd level awkwardness" with both Daniel and Sam in Moebius, but it was pretty consistently there.  It just wasn't played like Rodney's social misfit tendencies, in which he was often fully obnoxious.  Sam was just a little geeky.

Whole heartedly agree here. Sam is geeky and kind of awkward but all in all someone you'd want to be friends with. Unless you're a guy. Then you'll die.

Season 1 Sam is full of flaws and issues. Thank stars and heavens they took her character in another direction.

[mstaken]

he's ever-so-slightly socially awkward throughout the run of the show, as befits someone who is about ten times smarter than anyone she encounters.  Now, they turned that up to "Whoa, absurd level awkwardness" with both Daniel and Sam in Moebius, but it was pretty consistently there.  It just wasn't played like Rodney's social misfit tendencies, in which he was often fully obnoxious.  Sam was just a little geeky.

Heh---yeah, this makes her more relatable and lovable to me as well, though sometimes I wasn't quite sure how much of the subtle social awkwardness was written a deliberate facet of her character and how much was my just fanwanking it because I totally wanted it to be there :) And, yeah, if conveyed by a different actress, Sam could have been an insufferable Mary Sue. Thank heaven (well, and the casting directors) for giving us the eminently likable Amanda Tapping. 

What stands out for you guys as some of your favorite Sam scenes/episodes of the series? 

Edited April 8, 2014 by mstaken

[solotrek]

What stands out for you guys as some of your favorite Sam scenes/episodes of the series?

Emancipation.

Just kidding. Death Knell is pretty great because it's Sam being chased by some crazy super soldier and she basically finds a way to keep herself alive until the very end. Punching Ba'al in the face was a pretty good scene.

[theredhead77]

What stands out for you guys as some of your favorite Sam scenes/episodes of the series?

 

Beyond punching Ba'al and Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week; why couldn't you have taken a day off?! my favorite Sam moments are any time she is being a strong, capable person who happens to have reproductive organs on the inside (I couldn't resist).

I love Sam's adult-daughter interactions with Jacob. The delicate balance of their working relationship and their dad-is-still-my-dad, except when he's Selmak relationship always struck as true to life.

[kehf]

Sam is one of my all-time favorite characters.  I loved so much about her.  From the fact that she wore a regular uniform with boots, to her terrible grow-out hair in season 3-4 to her competence and fearlessness-- she and Princess Leia are my go-to competent women characters in media science fiction.  My absolute favorite thing about Stargate SG-1 was the relationship between her and Jack and the fact that they both decided that what they were doing was more important than their feelings.  I was crushed on an emotional level (Sam/Jack shipper here) but thrilled on a meta level that the the writers and actors made the characters into adults with choices in season 4.  For all of Stargate's lovely cheesy space opera science fiction the fact that Jack and Sam acted like professionals in that situation impressed me the most.

[Locutus]

Watching "State of the Union" on CNN right now and there is a political commentator named Jennifer Granholm......spitting image of Samantha Carter!

[blueray]

I've always liked Sam (not as much as Daniel) but I liked how she was a kick ass female character. She does have some flaws, she can be social awkward (this is shown really well in Heroe's pt 1) and does get nervous when she can't solve something.

[Idiotboy]

Here is the most exciting moment of my life, as a very nervous Idiotboy meets Amanda Tapping at ComicCon 2006. Few celebrities live up to expectations in person and fewer still exceed them. Amanda Tapping is that select last group. When I told her I hadn't felt so nervous since I was 18 she took my hand in both of hers and said, "You don't have to be nervous." (THUD!) She then broke out this dazzling smile, which warms my heart to this day.

[RoseofSharon]

Oh! Such a pretty picture!