interview Stargate SG-1
AMANDA TAPPING
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
She's one sassy soldier!
Also interviewed: Michael Shanks, Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Don S Davis, Teryl Rothery, Gary Jones, Peter Williams, Richard Hudolin...
Over three years ago, Stargate SG-1’s astrophysicist and Air Force Major Samantha (Sam) Carter was transferred from her post at the US Pentagon to work on the Stargate project. At the time, her immediate superior, Colonel Jack O’Neill, was less than thrilled with his new charge. “I like women,” he told Carter. “I’ve just got a little problem with scientists.”
However, any doubts O’Neill may have had about Carter soon vanished. He found her to be not only a loyal and resourceful soldier but also a close and trusted friend. Believe it or not, it took some time for Sam Carter’s alter ego, Amanda Tapping, to get used to her, too.
“To be honest, I’m so much happier with the character now,” says the actress. “I didn’t necessarily like her in the beginning. I just found her to be so didactic and single-minded. The writers also kept drawing attention to the fact that Sam’s a woman, but, thank God, we’ve moved beyond that and just made her part of the team. They’ve allowed her emotional beats without it being a girl thing and more of a sense of humor as well. Of course, it’s not as much as I’d like, but then again Stargate isn’t a show where you get to do a lot of belly-laughs,” jokes Tapping. “We are having more fun, though, without a doubt.
“I just hope, now that that the show has been picked up for a fifth season, they don’t let Sam or any of the others stagnate. We need to keep exploring new facets of these people otherwise they’ll become boring. As an actor you have to look for these things yourself and pick moments in scenes that make you think, ‘Oh, this is interesting’. Even if it’s just a facial movement, it could help you reveal another side of your character.
Getting Into Sam’s Head
“Something I would love to see the writers do more of is get inside Sam Carter’s head so we can find out what she’s feeling about a situation. Right from the start I’ve been the show’s technobabble speaker. I think when they realized that I could get my tongue around all those scientific terms and string together a complete sentence they said, ‘That’s our woman. She can say all that technical jargon.’ So I get to spout off a lot of exposition, which carries the scene forward and clarifies certain things but for an actor it can sometimes get boring.
“Daniel Jackson [Michael Shanks] is quite a passionate and emotional individual. Teal’c [Christopher Judge] is Teal’c. I mean, I think he’s a fabulous character and you always know what he’s thinking even if it’s just in the twitch of his eye. As for Jack [Richard Dean Anderson], he gets to be this Everyman who comes out with all these witty remarks. Meanwhile, Sam is always there with the facts and figures. Every once in a while it would be nice to see the flip side of the things she talks about. For example, how does she actually feel about that black hole?” laughs Tapping. “Do you know what I mean? So besides just explaining what’s going in a scene I’d like her to have more of an emotional stake in it, too.”
Steven Eramo
D63-814
987-0 15
4845-877
1295.1
MISSION BRIEFING
DOCUMENT
1295.1
DATE ACQUIRED 07-26
S R SUB-RUV TVR-1244
SAMANTHA CARTER
1295.1.01 Major
Samantha Carter, USAF
Samantha Carter is a theoretical astro-physicist She studied gate technology 2
years before the Abydos mission and transferred from the Pentagon, during which
time she had studied nano-technology for a year, to join the second Stargate
mission as a Captain. She is later promoted to Major.
1295.1.02
Background
Carter had wanted to be an astronaut since childhood, but her plans were
interrupted after the Challenger disaster. She clocked over 100 hrs in enemy
airspace during the Gulf War, has flown an F-16. Her mother died when she was a
teenager. Carter’s father, Jacob, was supposed to pick her mother up, but
when he was late, she took a cab and was in an accident. Carter’s brother,
Mark, blamed Jacob, leading to their estrangement for many years. When Carter
encountered the Tok’ra, she was able to find a way for her dying father to
survive cancer. Jacob is now a liaison between the Tok’ra and SGC. Jacob
Carter and Hammond served together during the Cold War..
1295.1.03 Special Points During a mission to Nasya, Captain Carter was taken over by a Goa’uld, Jolinar of Malkshur, one of the Tok’ra These are a rebel Goa’uld group opposed to the bloodthirsty ways of others of their race. Jolinar dies, but the presence of the Goa’uld has altered Carter. She now has the following special abilities:
* The partial ability to use Goa’uld technology, such as the ribbon and healing devices
* The ability to sense naquadah, the substance from which Stargates are composed
* The ability to detect the presence of a Goa’uld symbiote in a host, or a Jaffa
* The ability to sense the presence of a Reetou
David Neal
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