Amanda Tapping's thoughts on the writing of Sam from the pilot to the end of Season Five

"I think that as a woman, no matter what you do for a living, essentially you are still a caring, feeling human being so to constantly play the all powerful one-dimensional female would be so boring." Amanda Tapping, Starburst, April 1999

"You don't really do television to please yourself,' she opines, 'you do it to gain an audience and once you get that audience you have to stay loyal to them, to treat them with respect. We didn't want our scripts to be in any way condescending."  Amanda Tapping, Starlog, May 2000 

"Sam and Jack were never meant to be together. Not just from a military point of view, but for all sorts of reasons. He would drive her crazy for starters! I love the way the writers brought the situation to the fore in D&C and had the courage to let them admit their love for each other, acknowledge that it was never to be and then let them get on with the rest of their lives" Amanda Tapping, Stargate Guide, 2002

It's typical TV hokum with special effects. But, notes Tapping, the producers allowed her character to be "average-looking, like I am."

''Some of the show's 'higher-ups,'" she learned, "wanted to go the babe-alicious route and find someone who was the tall blonde (Tapping is 5-foot-8 1/2) with the beautiful long hair and the great figure. I'm pleased they didn't. I've never considered myself a bodacious, ravishing woman."

After auditioning in Toronto, Tapping wowed MGM personnel in Los Angeles with her off-hand sense of humour, says co-executive producer Brad Wright, who calls her terrific.

"I had nothing to lose," she says about bantering through auditions. "It was important to be true to myself and with the character. She could be played a number of ways. But it was really important to me that she have a sense of humour."

Tapping's character is unmarried, tough and determined - a relief, she says, because "I was afraid they would give me stories where I would cry."   The show's writers, including Wright, are giving her emotional scenes that show her character's need for and her ability to love.   The Toronto Star: November 30, 1997

Will there be any new directions on the show's second season? "In terms of outside of the group, I don't know where the show is going," says Tapping. "But they are going to explore a little more of our pasts, to show what's happened to us that's brought us to this happy place."   No Nookie On Stargate SG-1, Tuesday, December 2, 1997

Amanda: The thing for me with this character is she's a cross between Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, she's the perfect hybrid of these two men. She's got a military base, she's a captain in the Air Force, fought in the Gulf War--

Amanda: So she skirts this line, which for me creates great conflict to play, because it's, you know, do I go the scientific route or do I stick with military protocol, and so she gets to play opposite both men and has strengths with each of them.  Stargate SG-1 DVD no.9, interview 1997

"I loved the character," she explains. "She's a fully realized human being, without having to state anything. The mistake, if you will, that I think we made at the beginning of the series was making her too much of a hard-nosed feminist trying to prove herself in a man's world. I just think that's a really tired argument. Being a woman, I certainly understand the gender war, but I think pulling the old sexual organ argument out of the bag was not the way to go."

It was important to Tapping that Carter not only be more than the window dressing in an otherwise all-male company, but have sense of humor. She credits executive producers Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright with "catching on to my sense of humor fairly quickly," adding that the rapid lightening up of her character paved the way to better-working relationships with her co-stars both on screen and off. "Outside of shooting, we're all really good friends. We care about and respect each other. The chemistry we have as friends lends itself to the chemistry we share on screen, and I think it behooves them to play on that. I told the writers, 'Please don't write girlie dialogue for Captain Carter. Don't make her a bitchy woman. She can be a fun, great person.'"

To Tapping's delight, the writers listened. Now, instead of constantly facing off against Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) in a predictable contest of wills, Carter has quietly assumed her place in the Stargate squadron, stepping into her authority without the need for any Wonder Woman breast beating. "Sam's an interesting entity, because she's not part of the original cast [of movie characters], like Jack and Daniel [played on TV by Michael Shanks]," Tapping explains. "Nor is she this fascinating alien character like Teal'c with all these incredible possibilities. She sits firmly in the middle. She's a difficult character to write in that she's part military, part scientist. So, I think what they're slowly doing is making her more of a fully realized person and playing up her strengths."

In a roundabout way, joining the Stargate SG-1 cast gave Tapping the opportunity to merge her love of science with acting. As a theoretical astrophysicist, Carter's expertise is "studying the universe," asserts Tapping. "So anything we explore, she will have a theory about, or she will have studied it, or she will know what part of the galaxy we're going to. Also, she understands the physics behind the Stargate. She couldn't have opened the gate, except that she didn't understand the language, which is where Daniel comes in. He doesn't understand physically how it works, whereas Sam does."

Part of Tapping's work on Stargate SG-1 is to deliver what she calls "scientific flatulence," the inevitable technobabble about the physics behind the Stargate. "I actually understand a lot of what I say," she explains. "It's really important to me that I do, because there's a certain amount of credibility at stake. There's a level of comfort with the dialogue that wouldn't be there if I didn't understand the words I was saying."

Tapping makes special mention of "Singularity", an episode "involving a little girl that I become very attached to. That was an important show in terms of showing Carter's ability to love, and her need to be loved. It shows a great deal of her compassion, her struggle with being a strong, military woman, this detachment she's supposed to have [contrasted with] her attachment to this little girl. It was nice to play all the sides of that coin. Carter is a very smart woman, but she's also quite impulsive in that she's ruled by her heart. She'll go against orders because she truly feels it's the right thing to do. I like that about her."

Then there's "Solitudes," which is significant in Tapping's estimation because it allowed her to express the full range of her character's attributes. In the episode, Carter and O'Neill are stranded on an icy planet and, when O'Neill is severely injured, it's left to Carter to find the Stargate and return them safely home. "That one runs the gamut for her," Tapping explains. "It shows her determination to try and find a way out, and it shows her physical strength in that she has to dig her way out of this glacier. And it allows her to be a scientist in that she must find a way to get the gate working. I'm very proud of that episode."

As Carter is characterized as married to her job, are there plans in the works to give her some kind of personal life? "I hope so," Tapping laughs. "'Cause right now, she's a very singular woman. It's important to me that Carter have a love interest. It's important that we see something of her life, because we know a lot about everyone else's life [on the show] outside of Stargate."

"Right now, I don't think Carter really has a super-objective. That's something we're going to be developing. What drives her at this point is a fierce loyalty and determination - loyalty to the team and an incredible determination to discover something new." Starlog: April, 1998

As the only female member of the squad, Carter is called upon to justify her position on the team (despite being called in because of her knowledge of astrophysics), something the actress initially felt uncomfortable with.   "The only thing in the Pilot that for lack of better terminology, bothered me was that Carter felt she had to make excuses for being the only woman on the team," Tapping explains. "She felt she had to prove herself, so she dragged up the old feminist arguments and stood on her soapbox, which I guess was a necessary evil in terms of introducing all the characters because it was a pilot and you have to let everyone know who everyone is. But now, through the progression of the series, she doesn't make excuses any more. She's just a member of the team -she's a fully realized, integral part of the team. I like it that she doesn't keep standing up going, 'Hold on! I'm a woman and I can do that too!" XPose: August, 1998

"Sam is very strong, smart and singular character in that she's very focused on what she does. She's highly dedicated to her job and to the team, so, consequently, she has no life beyond Stargate, which is not dissimilar to me at times," jokes the actress. "I think the beauty of what has happened with the character over the last two seasons is that the writers have really opened her up and made her warmer and more accessible. I told them that it was important to me that she have a sense of humour and they've started to develop that side of her personality more. "I also feel that my character has changed simply by virtue of the fact that the relationships among the show's four major characters have grown. Because of this our [Stargate] team has become more cohesive and I think Sam's a better person for it. I'm constantly striving to keep her interesting not only to the audience but to myself as well."

"I didn't like my character that much in the first episode," she says. "I didn't dislike her but I thought that her feminist diatribe was a little tiresome and I didn't want her to be angry all the time. All I could see was this, 'I'm out to prove myself,' woman. I wanted her to be a well-rounded individual who is accessible and warm and someone who, especially young girls, could look up to and think, 'Yes, I can relate to this person.' Sam has become just that but she still has a ways to go. I think she needs to have a bit more of a personal life and maybe that will come in time, but right now she's growing and becoming more fun."

There's a 'family atmosphere' to the show. "General Hammond is very much like a great uncle to Sam because her father is very close to the general, but overall he's the father figure of the show," Tapping explains. "Daniel and Sam are more like brother and sister than any of the other characters. Jack is like - and I know this is going to sound really weird - the older cousin that Sam really admires and maybe has a small crush on, but I won't dwell on that. I don't want the viewers to think, 'Oh, they're sleeping together,' or anything like that because that's not going to happen, at least not that I know of anyway. I'm not writing the scripts, so who knows?" she chuckles.
"The relationship between Teal'c and Sam is really interesting but I don't think the writers have really explored it enough and it's something that I've talked about with them. Teal'c is like family to Sam and she would do anything for him. I think you'll see a lot more of their friendship in the next [third] season."

"One of my favourite first season episodes is Solitudes in which Jack and Sam are stuck on a glacier. Sam demonstrates her intense loyalty to Jack and uses her smarts, ingenuity and physical strength but yet is also very vulnerable, so she gets to be strong and scared at the same time. That was great fun to play.

"In the second season I enjoyed doing In the Line of Duty. Something quite extraordinary happens to my character and she's possessed by a Goa'uld, so we see how Sam deals with that. In Secrets we meet Sam's dad, who's been an important influence in her life." Imaginative stories, high quality effects and a talented cast of regular performers and guest-stars have all helped Stargate SG-1 become a success story. Tapping is ecstatic about the attention the series continues to get and flattered by the positive response her character has received from the viewers.

"I've been extremely lucky in that even though I'm tall and blonde I've really stayed away from bimbo, sexpot stereotypical roles which are fading, thank God. I've always for the most part played intelligent women or those with a mission who are still sexy. If I can continue to do that into my forties, by which time hopefully attitudes about women and age will have changed completely, then I'll be quite content," she says.  TV Zone, January 1999

What sense of humour does exist in the brainy soldier is thanks to Tapping's efforts. From the start, the actress has tried to infuse her own sensibilities into a character who had a most inauspicious beginning. "I liked the idea of the character," she explains, "so when I auditioned, I gave her a sense of humour where there really wasn't one written. I don't know what the process was when they were thinking about casting, but that might have helped me get the part."

It may have indeed, as Tapping's input is evident. "Carter finds O'Neill really funny. I would like to see more of that. I would like to see more of her just reacting like a normal human being would, when they hear something off the cuff, and sort of non sequitur-ish." Case in point, during a serious moment in the episode "Solitudes," Carter is bedding down beside a half-frozen O'Neill, when she looks up at him suddenly. "It's my sidearm,' he says weakly. "I swear." Laughing, Carter allows herself a small respite from an awkward and tense situation.

Make no mistake, Tapping is extremely grateful for the chance to play Carter. "[For the writers] to create a believable, intelligent woman who knows so much about astrophysics is amazing. But also they've allowed me some really nice emotional beats. I think probably the biggest challenge is actually being on a series, trying to keep this character fresh and interesting every day."

The third season (segments airing on Showtime before their later syndicated run) contains plenty of pivotal episodes for the Major. In "Point of View"," Tapping plays two Carters. "We're confronted with the alternate reality Carter," she explains. "What would have happened if she hadn't gone into the military? Who would she have fallen in love with? It was a really interesting thing to flesh out, but it also made Sam aware of the possibilities as well. Everything that they give me opens her up more."

Season three not only includes Carter's promotion to Major, but a deep exploration into her relationship with her father. "I love that they've written this Jacob character, and I love playing it with [actor] Carmen Argenziano. That has only helped her open up, made her warmer."

"They don't allow characters to stagnate," she notes. "They really want to keep drawing new stuff out of them. And they're allowing our voices to be heard as actors, in terms of where we think they would go and what we think they would do."

Though she is not proprietary about Carter, Tapping takes the responsibility of playing the adventurous scientist quite seriously and quietly regards her as a role model.

Carter is very good at what she does. An accomplished scientist, a competent and loyal soldier, she's cool under fire, possesses leadership ability and inspires confidence among her fellow SG-1 team members. Most importantly, there's never mention of her being a woman or any different than the others. She is simply one-fourth of a very successful team.

"They started out differently in the pilot," Tapping comments. "But now they're allowing her just to be a part of this team, an integral part of the team, without having to prove anything simply because she's a woman. That's the best we can ever hope for - is just to be, without having to prove it. It's not necessarily something that's a reality in society today, but I think it's getting better."  SciFi TV #8, 1999

While Amanda is more than happy with the development of her character, she does feel that there's room for growth. "What I like more about Sam is her loyalty. I think her loyalty is her defining quality, that it carries her through any situation no matter what, her fierce loyalty to the team and to the project. I think that's what makes her so compelling. And that she'll stand up for what she believes in, no matter what. I like that they give her that. We have fights with our Air Force advisors, who say she wouldn't be that insubordinate but you know what? If we're talking about life and death here, this character would. To the point of, okay courtmartial me. So I like that about her. And the fact that she's a scientist as well as a soldier., and there are times when she has to be the soldier that goes against the other stuff, and that's what makes her interesting. That's the fine line you have to walk with her. If she was just military or just a scientist it would be different, but she has to walk the line and it keeps her on her toes."

"But I'd allow her more moments of warmth. Although I'm not sure that in certain situations it would work. Sometimes she has to be singular and dedicated. I'd like more humour. The writers are allowing more warmth, but I think we could go even further. It doesn't just have to be O'Neill coming out with one of his funny, sarcastic comments. It should be that we respond to those more, that we come up with some, too. And that's happening, there's moments where there are jokes. And I'd like to see more of a friendship develop with Teal'c. I've said this before, I'd like to explore that relationship more. I'd like to see a more personal arc with Samantha, particularly because I feel that she's so singular and so determined and so loyal and all those things that make her a really wonderful character but also make her a one-track kind of character." Frontier, 1999

We actually have the most fun with the four of us together, like 1969, which was quite a silly episode really, but so much fun. We really enjoy episodes like that, where we all get to play together."

On "Nemesis" and Michael Shanks' emergency appendectomy: "Basically, all they did to rewrite it was to give me Michael's lines."  Xpose, April 2000

Her perseverance worked; Amanda's belief in the character paid off and when she met up with the producers at the end of the first season she naturally asked them what plans they had for her character. 'To their credit they said, "we didn't expect you to do this with Carter. You've expanded her beyond what we thought she was going to be so now we've got this challenge."'

Amanda believes that the show's success is due to the camaraderie between the central characters. 'I think what you see is this phenomenal chemistry between the SG-1 team.

Amanda's also well aware of the fan interest in her onscreen relationship with Colonel O'Neill. 'In the third season I kiss Richard Dean Anderson. They're trying to play up the sexual tension between our two characters and Richard and I enjoy it immensely because we know it's not going anywhere between Sam and Jack. It can't because it will destroy the cohesiveness of the team. But, we get to play it out in alternative realities, so it's still a lot of fun.'

'You don't really do television to please yourself,' she opines, 'you do it to gain an audience and once you get that audience you have to stay loyal to them, to treat them with respect. We didn't want our scripts to be in any way condescending."  Starlog, May 2000

I didn't like her so much at the beginning. They were trying to do this sort of 'hard-assed feminist', standing up on her soapbox with this raging diatribe about 'I'm a woman, and I'm as good as you!' I found that argument really boring. So I said to the producers after the pilot, 'Please, you know, women don't talk like this. I don't know any that talk like this. Can we just make her an intricate part of the team without red flagging that she's a woman?'

Seems the producers did the decent thing for once. They listened. 'Now they've opened that relationship with her, they've given her a softer edge, showed her compassion towards children, showed her ability to love and be loved and also, the relationship with her father... all of that has helped to open this character up and make her more accessible, more warm. It was important to me - because she's the main woman on the show - that she'd be real, believable, multi-faceted, that she'd be fallible and make mistakes. Not only is she a strong military person, a very smart scientist, she's also a human being and has all the emotional levels. They've allowed her that, they've opened her up more, writing these great character relationships for her. So I like her a lot better now than I did at the beginning."  SFX, May 2000

Amanda: "There’s great chemistry between them which is wonderful to play, but I think we’ve pushed the envelope too far. The idea of male and female leads falling in love is so tired and over-used and our show has the potential to be far more intelligent than that. Teryl and I are proud to play strong, capable, emotional, fallible, fully realised human beings and when I’m reduced to just pining for Jack, I’m not happy."  Sky One, 2000

On the subject of love, there have been hints that it's on the cards for Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill, played by Richard Dean Anderson. At the mere mention of their characters' attraction, Tapping pulls a face that's half despair, half "I'm chewing a lemon". It would appear that she isn't a fan of the concept...

"I disagree with it entirely," she declares, almost angrily. "I think that it's enough that we know there's an attraction, a megnetism, a certain chemistry between these two characters; I think that to push the envelope further is a big mistake, a) based on their military rank; b) based on this incredible dynamic of the team; c) I don't wanna become 'Jack's girl'. I think Carter is so much more than that. I also feel that it's really tired, to have the male and female lead of the show to fall in love. I just think that we have the potential to be so much more intelligent than that."

So what did she make of an episode Window of Opportunity, in which O'Neill and Carter actually get to kiss? "When I first read that, I went, 'Oh, jeez!', but then they put in a bunch of other stuff that he and Teal'c did that took away from that. Initially it was just that moment, but then they came up with the golf through the Stargate and the pottery and riding the bike through the SGC, so thankfully they took away from that being the only thing O'Neill would do." Apparently worried that she's sounding a little harsh, Tapping adds, "Certainly, kissing him is no hardship!" She puts on a gruff British accent and leans in to record her words for posterity on the dictophone. "He's a good snog!"

Tapping may regard her character very seriously, but she does call the long speeches of extrapolation Carter spouts "scientific flatulence". She also desperately wants her to have more fun. "Yes! I think that as the series has progressed they've warmed the character up and they've given her some moments of real humanity. I'd like to see her laugh more, lighten up. She's actually become a much more likeable character, at least for me personally."  SFX, Feb 2001

Aping states"This is just a general 'thank you' to acknowledge all the fans, all they've done for the show and the blessings they bestow on us. Nothing they do is taken for granted by any of us."  Cult Times, June 2001

Re Sam and Jack: "They should *never* be together. Sure, there's the potential for us to fall in love and definitely we're attracted to each other, and...and that's fine but we also need to temper it with the fact that it's not going anywhere. We had sort of a three-episode arc where you actually see that they admit that there's deeper feelings for each other. We leave it at okay we admit it, we finally said it out loud, I love you, you love me, or I would die for you, you would die for me. And not just because we’re you know in the military. This is as far as it goes."  DVD interview, 2001

So I talked to the writers about it and said: "Firstly women don't talk like this and secondly why can't she just be a member of SG-1 without constantly raising the flag that clearly points out that she is a woman. She's an integral member of the team. She loves the people that that she works with and would die for them and that is something that I really like about her. I really admire her incredible loyalty.

And now, at long last she is starting to warm up a bit and have some fun.

NS: How far will that fun go do you think? Do you think that Carter and O'Neill will, or should, ever get it together?

AT: They should never be together. Sure there is the potential for them to fall in love and they are definitely attracted to each other and that's fine. But they also need to temper it with the fact that it's not going anywhere.

We had sort of a three episode arc where you actually get to see them admit that they have deep feelings for each other. And we leave it with the two of them admitting it. We finally hear them admit out loud that they love each other. They practically say: "I love you, you love me. I would die for you, you would die for me." And this is not just because they are in the military. But it is made clear that this is as far as it goes - as far as it can go.

NS: Your character has a pretty heavy background in the sciences. Do you actually understand half of what your character says?

AT: I actually studied as much as I possibly could for the role and when I found out I had got the role I only had two weeks to prepare. I hired a personal trainer to make sure I got the physical aspect of the character right.  SciFi Online, 2001

Amanda: No.  This is a great question because I have had issue with the fact that Sam has become the techno-speaker and the exposition girl and the one who's always explaining what's happening as if you guys don't know. Like you need someone to tell you.  And also being a  speaker of all the science. So I talked to the writers and said "Enough". It could drain this
character. Not drain her, that's not fair, but I was angry so I said drain.  We've one aspect of this character and we need to broaden her up again.  So hopefully yes, the military will come back into it more.

Second part of the question about Joe saying that mine was the hardest character to write, I disagree entirely. And so what I said to them was something that I said at the beginning of season one to the writers which was "If you have trouble writing for me because I'm a woman, write for me as if I'm a man. And hopefully I will bring an inherent femininity even in [suffrage?] to my gender. So hopefully something a little more.  <jokes> Some *pink* khakis or something. Let's not try to write The Woman. Write the Human Being and I'll bring my womanliness, such as it is. I'll bring *my* femininity to the character but don't write 'Women' and  I think that's to be honest the only reason he has such a hard time with the character. But he's not here to defend himself so I don't know [indistinct] so hopefully he'll go back to, you know, the Sam of season three.  Amanda Tapping, SG-4 Con, Feb 2002

“Certainly there are times when you reach a level of frustration where you know there’s so much more potential for your character, but it’s not happening,” she admits. “But, you have to remember that it is an ensemble show; there are four main characters, so you can’t always expect to be the ‘A’ story line.” However, the actress sympathises with Shanks’ worries about being sidelined: she sometimes feels the same way herself.

“There are times when you feel creatively frustrated, and I guess that I’m feeling it a bit at the moment,” she admits. “This year has been very mixed. In this season, we’ve had a lot of emotional episodes for Carter, and some great stories. But, there’s also been a lot of techno-babble that I’ve had to speak, and if that’s all this character is going to be next year...

With Carter’s fellow scientist Daniel gone, that’s got to be a danger, and series writer Joseph Malozzi concurs with Amanda’s view on the subject, even commenting that Sam Carter is the hardest character to write for because of all the lines of technical exposition that she needs to spout. But surely these are just lines in a script, and they only need to be learnt for delivery? “I absolutely understand all the technical dialogue,” she counters, explaining how hard it is to make it sound natural. “I take it home, study it, and break it down into layman’s terms. Then, I draw pictures and learn it thoroughly so that I could explain it to anybody. That way, when we re filming those scenes, saying the full technical terms is not a problem. At the time I’m saying the lines, it all makes perfect sense to me.”

Technical dialogue notwithstanding, Amanda is not sure whether she’d have wanted to return for another year after this one. “I think that all really depends on how they write her next year,” she offers. “I love this character; she’s an amazing character to play. It’s an amazing show to work on, but if it becomes too lazy or formulaic, then you almost feel like you’re cheating the audience that’s been so loyal to you. The fact that this is probably the last year of the show will mean that hopefully they’ll pull out all the stops and make it a fabulous finale season.

And, finally, there’s that delicate subject of the Jack/Sam romance that’s bubbled beneath the surface for five years, and which was particularly evident in such episodes as Divide and Conquer, Window of Opportunity and entity. Is it likely that we’ll be getting some official closure to this ‘Will they, Won’t they?’ romance? “I’m looking forward to seeing what will actually happen,” Amanda says. “I’d have a problem if the show was still ongoing and something happened between them that messed up the relationship between the characters; I don’t want anything to affect the dynamic of the team and their military ranks.” There speaks the career officer, or rather an actress who knows where her character’s first duty lies.

But she still has a romantic streak... “I don’t have a problem if, at the very end, they tie it up somehow. If it happened before the end then I think it would be unfair to the team or to the programme. Also, I don’t want to become ‘Jack’s girl’, because Sam Carter has so much potential to be more intelligent than that.” But if presented with a blank piece of paper for that final scene, Amanda has a clear vision. “I could see them sitting on a dock, fishing together. Nothing is implied, we just let the audience decide where they think it goes after that.” Starburst, March 2002

Amanda: I think that in the first season and a half she was a very linear character and then they [the show’s writers and producers] opened her up emotionally and gave her more depth and more warmth and more humour. Then I think in the last season a lot of that has sort of gone away. Now, she’s like the techno babble speaker and very exposition-based. They’ve given me some great episodes this season, no doubt. There’s certainly been some wonderful emotional moments this season, but I would like to see her open up again. I would like to see more of the soldier come out. I would really like to see her develop a healthy relationship with someone, someone who doesn’t die.

The ‘dead boyfriend syndrome’ is obviously a source of frustration for you...

Amanda: It is a great source of frustration and embarrassment, I have to say. It’s embarrassing being the black widow of the show. I’d also like to see more humour. Christopher and I have talked ad nauseum to the producers about developing the relationship between Teal’c and Sam. We’d actually played some moments in the second to last episode [Meridian] that ended up being cut out due to time constraints. I was so disappointed because there were just some really lovely moments which showed how desperately these characters care about each other and how much they loved each other. They snipped them out and I thought, “There was your opportunity to show character development through relationships.”

I sound like I’m just so down on the Stargate producers: “you let Michael go! There’s no love in Sam’s life!” [But] if this is the last season, let’s show that they’re friends at least, let’s have a conversation for crying out loud!

It seems you have ambitions to write and direct episodes of Stargate. You’ve famously mentioned your idea for a planet run by women.

Amanda: I want to direct an episode! I actually asked at the beginning of season three, at the same time as Michael did [Shanks went on to direct Double Jeopardy] and for whatever reason [mimes her lack of penis with her wiggling finger]...I can’t say that. I’d be so fired...! I’m sure that my lack of penis had nothing to do with it. For whatever reason, I wasn’t allowed to and that’s a source of frustration to me, to be honest. I actually think that the depth of understanding that we all have for the show now is very strong. The dynamic, the relationship that I have with the crew and the fact that I spend a lot of time sitting behind the monitors watching the process, means that I have learned a great deal about it over the course of five years. I think I’d be pretty good [director] for a first-timer. That’s not to say that I’d be a great director, but I don’t think I’d be that bad!

Does this have anything to do with your desire to write an episode about a female-run matriarchal planet?

Amanda: Yep, perhaps there was a little bit of it in that! I have a hidden agenda. Yes!

What’s your reaction to the growth of Stargate fandom?

Amanda: Oh my God, it’s amazing. I have to honestly say, after all this time, I’m still blown away by the generosity of the fans, by their encyclopaedic knowledge of the show, by the amount of thought they put into questions they ask or comments they make on the internet...It’s overwhelming, it really is. No matter how tired you are or how sick, you walk onto that stage [at a convention] and you get so much more than you have to give from the fans.

So apart from writing, directing, getting a boyfriend who doesn’t die, having Michael Shanks back and visiting a matriarchal planet, what other ambitions would you have for the last season of Stargate?

Amanda: I’d like to go fishing with Jack. Once and for all. Gosh, I don’t know. I would like to see – this is gonna sound really heady – the consequence to Carter personally of war, of killing and what that does when this character lays her head on her pillow at night. What goes through her mind? I know that soldiers go through this. You have to question things. We’ve killed so many Jaffa, what if one of them was another Teal’c? That sort of thing. It’s too esoteric for an episode, I think, to actually write that as a sci-fi action-adventure episode [laughs]...But in my little perfect, bizarre world I’d love to explore what that means.

And if the movie happens, you’ll be there?

Amanda: If they ask me. From your lips to God’s ears!"  Dreamwatch, May 2002

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