SGA S4 dread

[wordplay]

This slightly spoilery interview with Joe Flanigan is everything that makes me nervous about SGA Season Four.

Conversation that ensued after I read that article to Marc.

Marc: Yeah, I heard that somebody stood up at the SGA panel at Dragon*Con and asked if there was anything they could do to kill off the character of Sam Carter. And got boo'ed down.

Me: Well, of course. The girls want to be her, the fanboys want to nail her; the boys love her, I guess.

Marc: I guess, but why?

Me: Wait, you don't like her either?

Marc: No, she's a horrible character! She's supposed to be hot and she's not; she's supposed to be brilliant and she's not. She's like a cardboard cutout.

Me: *blink blink* I have never loved you more than I do right now.

ETA: Because I couldn't stop complaining about Carter

Me: Part of it is that, I mean - have you ever noticed that when you're talking to someone, even on the phone, you can get a sense of their intelligence? It's not even how articulate they are, it's something else, and I have no idea how to define or talk about this, but it's really real - I know it's a thing.

Marc: Right, I know what you mean.

Me: And so SGA has to convince you that all of these people are incredibly intelligent - you have to believe that these are the best and the brightest. And Hewlett? I totally buy that he's really smart - it feels real.

Marc: Absolutely. I don't know what it is, either, but I buy it. Carter?

Me: Yeah, not so much. Unfortunate, isn't it?


So what IS that thing, that thing when 30 seconds into a conversation you can get some sense of how valuable you're going to find their ideas? And why can't Amanda Tapping fake it? And is this really part of the problem, or am I just making things up?

Comments

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I don't watch SGA, but I couldn't stand her on SG:1, either. >.< Boo.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad, because by all accounts Amanda Tapping is a lovely woman, and I get that they have to abide contractually and blah blah blah, but I just never could stand her, and to have her come into my show to REPLACE Weir just throws off so many things - it screws up Rodney's arc, it screws with the power dynamics of Atlantis, and that's besides the whole issue of how, hey, her character totally bugs me!

[morganmuffle]

Every time I nearly convince myself that one person, even Carter, can't destroy the balance of SGA I read something like that interview and panic all over again :-S

I actually didn't mind her character back when I did watch SG1 but even if I loved her that doesn't mean I'd want her messing up the team!

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I think it can be faked; I believed absolutely in Dana Scully's fierce intelligence; Gillian Anderson, I'm sure, is a very nice person. But I don't have a big negative reaction to Amanda Tapping. Hewlett, at least, is able to draw on a lot of popular portrayals of genius men. Tapping may have had difficulty figuring out role models.

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to read posts like this because most of the time thinking about SGA S4 makes me crazy. I really like Amanda Tapping and wish she could write her part -- I bet it would be great. But the producers and writers keep turning into a girl, and worse than that, into a super girl, and that makes me crazy. Why can't they have a smart competent woman in charge? Like Weir, only as her character should have been. Dammit.

I read that interview with JF with one eye closed because it almost physically hurt.

Oh god, I really am going crazy.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That's seriously depressing indeed.