Why Do TPTB Hate Sam Carter?

Why do the Powers That Be Hate Sam Carter?

By Julia Justina

Let me start by saying loudly and clearly that Sam Carter and Amanda Tapping are two separate entities. Amanda Tapping is a real person, an actor, and by all accounts a lovely human being.

Major Samantha Carter PhD. USAF is a fictional character, the product of the writers, producers and directors (The Powers That Be) of Stargate-SG1. From earlier seasons we already know that Sam is a brilliant scientist and a career Air Force officer.

Season 7, is the season of Sam Carter, her turn in the spotlight. The issue I want to address is whether that attention has been helpful or damaging to Sam’s character, what we have been shown about her in season 7.

In the season opener, Fallen, we see Sam briefing the SGC on the mission to trap Anubis. During the briefing, she is constantly heckled by her commanding officer, Jack O’Neill. The implication to the other personnel of the SGC, surely, is that Sam is not highly regarded by her immediate superior.

In Fragile Balance, in the commissary she attempts to joke with Jack about his predicament, calling him ‘kinda cute’ and is curtly reminded to call him ‘Sir’. This happens in front of Teal’c, their team-mate, a public rebuke and another example of Jack’s low regard for her.

Later in the episode, Sam attempts another briefing, this time of pilots who will be flying the X302. They are unhappy about being briefed by Sam, and in spite of being a superior officer, she is unable to control the situation. When a teenaged Jack walks in and demands respect from the assembled group, they suddenly sit up straight and start paying attention. What are we to take from this scene? The only possible interpretation is that a teenage boy is better able to control a room full of junior officers than Major Carter.

Enemy Mine was a Daniel Jackson episode, Sam was only in one scene. But that scene is interesting. Jack is in the infirmary talking with Daniel (who incidentally, we see teasing Jack in a way that Sam is not allowed to). When Sam comes in, Jack asks how her ‘science project’ is coming along. A ‘science project’ is something that school children do. It is another example of Jack talking down to his second in command. Then as soon as Daniel leaves, Jack lies down (on his injured arm!) with his back to Sam, ignoring her totally. I have to say here, that I found Jack’s attitude to Sam in Fallen, Fragile Balance and Enemy Mine incredibly disrespectful and even unprofessional. It’s almost as if he is trying to see how far he can push her, before she calls him on his behaviour. But Sam seems to see nothing wrong with being repeatedly denigrated by her boss.

Space Race was a Sam episode. It also has plot holes the size of the Stargate, but that is another subject. We see Sam manipulate General Hammond into allowing her to take part in a race. Her motive seems to be that she is a dare-devil speed junkie, an aspect of her character that has escaped our notice for the previous six years. After she has bullied and manoeuvred her way into the race and onto the space ship owned by Warrick, she is content to take a secondary role. It is a recurring theme of Sam episodes in season 7; Sam is pushed forward, but is never allowed to be seen in a command role. Here she is the side-kick to Warrick, and Jack, Daniel and Teal’c worry about her, another theme that recurs throughout the season. Whenever Sam is out of sight of the other members of her team, they are worried about her. Is she a child, who is not to be trusted out of the sight of the grown-ups? Space Race shows us a Sam Carter who manipulates other people, including her superior officer, to indulge her new-found speed-freakery, with no concern for anything other than her own wishes.

Avenger 2.0 is my contender for the title of worst episode of the season. It is also an episode that does serious damage to the character of Sam Carter the scientist. Inept scientist Jay Felgar is about to be sacked from the SGC because he has never succeeded in any of his projects. Sam talks General Hammond into giving him another chance, telling the General that she will supervise Felgar personally to ensure that everything will go well. Felgar comes up with the idea of a computer virus to infect the Stargate system. Of course it goes horribly wrong. Teams are stranded off-world as the entire system shuts down. At this point Sam has to go and grovel to the General. She has just shown herself as completely unable to judge the ability of a fellow scientist. A successful leader in any sphere of life has to be able to judge the ability of their subordinates. Sam put her credibility on the line when she begged a second chance for Felgar. We the audience knew he would fail. Sam was set up by the writers to also fail. Later in the episode, Sam and Felgar are at the point of being killed by Jaffa, when Jack and Teal’c appear in the nick of time to save them. The start of another recurring theme in season 7, Sam who is supposed to be a professional soldier, has to be rescued by the big strong men.

Another nice touch in Avenger 2.0 is the scene when Felgar has fled from the SGC and Sam goes to find him. She is supposedly concerned that several SGC teams, including the rest of SG1, are in hazardous situations and time is very tight. But still she finds time to get changed into civilian clothing, even though Colorado Springs is home to several Air Force bases and the sight of air force personnel in uniform is probably common, and even put on pretty dangly earrings. Presumably, she felt it was important to dress up for Felgar, as she knew he was infatuated with her.

The scene at the end of Avenger 2.0 where we see Felgar’s wet dream about Sam getting into a cat fight over him with his assistant Chloe, is too awful to discuss. It would have been embarrassingly clichéd 40 years ago. It is unbelievable that anyone would even consider such a scene in the 21st Century. It is perhaps, worth asking if the scene tells us something about the way TPTB perceive their female characters.

Birthright was a Teal’c episode. It is worth mentioning the scene where Sam is talking to the Jaffa woman Mala. Mala makes some remark about Jack and Sam. Sam denies that there is ‘anything like that’ happening. Unfortunately, we find out later on, that Sam was being a bit economical with the truth. The only reason we see this exchange is to show us that Sam is less than honest.

In Evolution, Sam devises a cunning plan to capture a super soldier using a tranquilliser. But the plan fails miserably. Again Sam the scientist is not doing so well. It is also interesting that in the scene where SG1 (minus Daniel) and the other SG team are being held prisoner, Sam is relegated to the role of first-aider. It would seem logical that all team members would have basic first aid training, and that the injured man would probably prefer to be treated by his team mates. Or did TPTB think that as there was a woman in the shot, of course she should be the ministering angel?

In the second part of Evolution, there is a very strange scene that has become contentious among fans. Jack has been ordered go to rescue Daniel and Dr. Lee from kidnappers who have threatened to kill them. Before setting out, he visits Sam who is working in semi-darkness in her lab. He tells her he is off to find Daniel, Sam looks down and says ‘Good’. How are we to interpret this scene (especially given the dim lighting and shippy music)? Do we see Sam as a caring friend concerned about Daniel being in danger? On the surface, perhaps. But Sam’s body language, looking down as she speaks as if to hide the fact that she is lying, (and the audio commentary on the DVD that tells us the scene is all about the love in Sam’s eyes as she looks at Jack) tell us something else. TPTB are showing us a Sam who is unhappy because the man she is obsessing about is leaving her side. She doesn’t care that he is going into danger. She is not thinking about her friend who we, the viewer, know is being tortured and starved and who is under a sentence of death. She is sulking like a child because Jack is going away from her for a short time. All this scene does is make Sam look childish, spoilt, and heartless.

Sam now goes off on a mission with her father Jacob, Teal’c and Brae’tac. A chance, you would think, for this professional soldier to show her leadership. Actually, though we are told that Sam is in command, she never gives an order or initiates a course of action. Jacob takes control from the start. The writers seem to find it impossible to write Sam as a commander. The high point of this, is when a Jaffa has her at gun point, he does not shoot her, but chooses to slap her face. She falls to the floor, which allows a nice little scene with her father fussing over her. Later on she wears a tasteful sling. It’s a shame it’s on the opposite arm to the one she landed on. Sam is shown as unable to take command, as well as a poor soldier who fires her gun during a covert operation, announcing the team’s presence. In addition, she is in need of comfort from the men in her life.

The next episode Grace, is very much a Sam-centric episode. So what do we learn about Sam? Do we get some insight into her feelings about being a woman in the USAF? Or into the conflict between her work on SG1 and her desire as a scientist to spend time in her lab writing that book on Wormhole Physics?

We start with a scene were Sam walks through the corridors of the Prometheus with Colonel Ronson. It’s a strange scene. If you look away from the picture and listen to the dialogue, the impression is of a little girl sweet talking her indulgent Daddy into buying her an ice cream. Not exactly the way one would expect a career woman to talk to a superior, nor the way that most senior officers would expect to interact with a junior officer. Again, TPTB are showing us an immature, childish Sam, not the independent character we saw in earlier seasons.

Later on, Sam tells a hallucination of Jack that she would throw a way her career and resign in a moment for the chance to date him. This is weird for so many reasons. We have had six and a half years of Sam as a career woman. We have seen Sam deny more than once that there is any inappropriate relationship going on. We have repeatedly, in season 7, seen Jack treat Sam with disdain. Suddenly, out of the blue, we find that she has been lying for years. That she has been nursing inappropriate feelings, knowing that they break at least the spirit of the USAF regulations. Regulations that as a career officer, she has sworn to uphold. Even stranger, this supposedly intelligent woman seems never to have considered the logical course for her to take. If she chose to transfer off SG1 to another post within the SGC, on to another team for example, then she would be free to ask Jack out on a date without breaching regulations, but this doesn’t seem to have ever occurred to her.

Grace paints Sam as dishonest and immature. She has broken the regulations for years, lied to her friends, has failed to figure out a way to have her career and the chance to date Jack, and seems happy to overlook the treatment from Jack that verges on the abusive and be begging for more. Possibly Sam sees herself as Juliet, a star-crossed lover. Has nobody ever pointed out to her that Juliet was fourteen? To see a woman who has to be in her early forties behaving like a love-struck fourteen year old is not romantic. It’s ridiculous.

In Grace, Sam at least is seen to realise that her obsession with Jack is one sided and decides to move on. Finally, what looks like some positive character development for her.

In Chimera we see Sam start to move on. She is dating a policeman friend of her brother. It does, however, seem a little strange that she jokes with him about leaving a trail of dead boyfriends behind her. It’s a little unfeeling about these men, one of whom she was even engaged to, to treat them as a joke. Also, it is really a good idea to make a joke like that to a policeman?

It is obvious that Pete has fallen hard for Sam. He talks about his background and asks about her job. Here again, we get to meet a strangely unprofessional Major Carter. All Sam needs to say is “I can’t tell you anything about my job. It’s classified.” That’s it, one simple sentence that anyone can understand. But Sam is unable to say that. Instead, she blathers on about it being dangerous for her to tell him anything. Why? It helps to fill in a plot hole, but it makes Sam look like an idiot. Later on, when Pete has been injured she promises to tell him everything. Either she is lying to him, and intends to give him a cover story later on, or she is promising to tell him all about the Stargate program, even if it means breaking the law. Again, we see TPTB showing us an emotional, unreliable, unprofessional character.

Of course, the obvious question about Chimera is what has Sam Carter's love affair with a Denver policeman to do with the Stargate?

The next episode, Death Knell, shows us Sam working at the Alpha site. When the site is attacked she is forced to run for her life pursued by a supersoldier. Unfortunately, Sam, who is supposed to be a professional soldier manages to misplace her gun, her radio and her vest. She also abandons her injured father in her haste. I know that he a Tok’ra, but it still seems callous. Luckily for Sam, the supersoldier, who has no trouble hitting a UAV on the wing, is unable to hit her when he catches her out in the open. Sam manages to hot-wire a missile from the UAV to bury the supersoldier. Then, when he digs his way out, Jack and Teal’c arrive in the nick of time to rescue her, again. As she has been running around the planet all day, she needs to rest and receive a hug from big strong Jack.

So much time in this episode is spent allowing everyone to worry about Sam, that anyone would think her colleagues doubt Sam’s ability to look after herself! The worrying also throws into sharp contrast Sam’s previous lack of concern about her team mates. Even when she has been rescued she is too busy getting hugged to ask about her father. Again, we are being shown an unprofessional, selfish character who has no interest in anyone else’s wellbeing.

Heroes Part 1 shows us Sam being reduced to a quivering, babbling wreck when someone points a film camera at her. This for a woman who should be used to being filmed, we know that debriefings are routinely videoed at the SGC. Again, she is being shown as silly and immature and unable to behave professionally when under the slightest pressure.

Heroes Part 2 is a low point for Sam in Season 7. In the middle of a gun battle, we see her desert her position and run across the battle field, in clear view of the enemy and then stand frozen because the man she is still obsessing about is hit. This action should have resulted in a Court Martial. But nobody mentions it; perhaps that is how they expect Sam to behave.

Later Sam dismisses the feelings of Janet’s daughter Cassie with an offhand comment ‘She’s a tough kid!’, and then she bursts into tears and has to be hugged, again, by Jack. So eighteen year old Cassie, who has just lost her adopted mother, having previously lost her whole family, is a tough kid, but Major Carter, who is more than twice her age, needs to be comforted by the big strong man. It is also clear in this scene that Sam is more upset about Jack being slightly injured, than about the death of her close friend. Jack mentions Janet, Sam doesn’t.

In Heroes, TPTB showed us a Sam who, as a soldier, is a danger to her colleagues, as a friend, is more interested in obsessing about Jack, as someone who is, presumably, still seeing Pete while obsessing about Jack, and who is completely unsympathetic about Cassie and her feelings.

In Inauguration we learn that Sam’s behaviour when Jack was missing the previous year ( Paradise Lost ), was sufficiently unprofessional for a civilian to mention it in his report.

In Lost City Part 1 we see Sam going to Jack’s house. It is clear that she has something she wants to get off her chest. Twice Jack stops her talking about personal matters. Then Daniel and Teal’c arrive, it is obvious that Sam will not talk in front of her colleagues In Lost City Part 2, when Jack resigns and insists that Sam take command of the mission her first thought is to return to the subject. She starts by commenting about being interrupted by Daniel and Teal’c, but again Jack cuts her off.

Let’s look at this. Jack has been affected by alien technology, he will shortly lose the ability to communicate. His mind might well be permanently affected and he may even die. Sam has something she is determined to say to him. What could it be? Could she want to apologise for her poor behaviour over the last few months? If so, she could do that in front of Daniel and Teal’c, they too have been affected, if she is to apologise to Jack she should do the same to them. Could she intend to talk about the time she has worked for Jack, perhaps thank him for the times he has helped her and stood up for her? In that case she could certainly speak in front of Daniel and Teal’c.

On the other hand, if she wants to declare her feelings for him, then she would want to keep that very quiet. She knows that by stating her feelings she would also be declaring that she has been breaking the regulations. Of course, she would also be putting Jack in a difficult position. He is also an officer in the USAF, and once he is aware of her feelings, his duty would be to report her for breaking the regulations. It would also reflect badly on him, that his 2IC has been lusting after him for years and either he has known and chosen to ignore it, or he has been blind to her feelings. If Sam speaks out, and she certainly seems determined to do it, then Jack’s last few days will be spent writing a report that will end both their careers. Either that, or he has to lie and deceive, as she has been doing, to keep her little secret. Again, we see a Sam who is unconcerned about the effect that her behaviour has on other people. She wants to declare her love; she isn’t worried about the effect of her declaration on Jack and SG1. But Sam isn’t totally blind to the consquences, she wants to burden Jack with her feelings but is not prepared to stand up and take any consequences on herself. She is behaving like a child, not an adult. An adult might have considered that Jack had enough to deal with already and not tried to add to his burden.

Time and again in Season 7, TPTB have shown us Sam behaving like spoilt brat, not an adult. They have shown us a dishonourable soldier who is a danger to the people she works with and doesn’t care about anyone but herself. They have also shown us a woman who is dating a man who adores her, while she is still obsessing about Jack. Talk about having your cake and eating it!

I have to admit that Sam has never been my favourite character, but in the earlier seasons I enjoyed seeing a strong female character who did her job as one of the team without being typecast as ‘the girl’. I watch Stargate with my children and used to consider Sam a good role model for my daughter, who is now fourteen. After watching Grace, I felt I had to point out to her that Sam was now an example of how a professional woman should not behave in the workplace. Season 7 has reduced Sam from a good role model to a bad example.

So why do TPTB hate Sam so much that they have reduced this strong, independent woman, professional soldier, and brilliant scientist to a Barbie doll?

I don’t think they do. I think that Sam is their favourite character. They give her most of the lines and most of the screen time. In Chimera, her love affair is the main story. It gets more air time and more attention (including the opening and closing shots) than the story of Osiris trying to find the location of the Lost City. But which story is more central to Stargate? They even give Sam lines that would make more sense coming from one of the other characters. In Revisions, for example, she seems to have taken over Daniel’s role as first contact specialist.

But TPTB are just unable to write a strong woman. They seem the whole time to be telling us that Sam is wonderful, but writing her like a cliché of a 1950’s housewife. It would be unfeminine for her to take command on a mission and issue orders to the men. As a woman, of course, she must obsess about the hero, to the point where she is willing to throw away her career for him. As a woman, she is unable to take control of her life and transfer to another team; she has to spend years yearning after a man who is uninterested in her. As a woman, of course, she can’t concentrate on a battle when ‘her man’ is injured. As a woman, she is flattered that Felgar, the comedy geek, is obsessed with her, so she has to dress up for him, never mind that her friends are in danger. As a woman, she needs to be rescued, comforted, and hugged.

You have to feel sorry for Sam, TPTB are her friends and her biggest fans. With friends and fans like these, who needs enemies?

Posted by Dana Jeanne at June 24, 2004 07:05 PM