Samantha Carter - Conceptual History

Conceptual History

During the casting process of Stargate SG-1, the producers were looking for an actress who could portray a strong woman whom the audience would accept as a soldier. The character should have had combat training and have been in wars, but should also be a brilliant scientist and a beautiful woman. Amanda Tapping at first assumed that the show would put more emphasis on intellect, but found that it was an action-adventure scifi show where the characters often got physical. Tapping described Carter as a cross between Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, and the conflict of her character whether to go the scientific route or with military protocol.

Amanda Tapping was part of the Stargate SG-1 main cast for all of the show's ten seasons. She did not appear in season 6's "Disclosure" or season 7's "Inauguration" except in clips from previous episodes and was completely absent from season 8's "Prometheus Unbound" and the season nine episodes "Avalon (Part 2)", "Origin", "The Ties That Bind" and "The Powers That Be" due to Tapping's maternity leave (she appeared briefly in "Avalon (Part 1)" to explain her absence); and season ten's "Bad Guys".

While Amanda Tapping was part of the main cast of Stargate SG-1, she made several cameo appearances in the first three seasons of Stargate Atlantis. Amanda Tapping became a member of the Atlantis main cast for 14 episodes of Season 4. She did not appear in "Travelers", "Missing", "Miller's Crossing", "This Mortal Coil", "Spoils of War" and "Harmony".

Tapping sat down with Robert C. Cooper at the beginning of season 7 to discuss Carter's struggle with her demons and her life choices in regards to work and family. The events of "Grace" are left open for interpretation, both for the audience and the actors. Grace could be Sam's child within, her hopes and dreams for having a child, the child Sam left behind when she started her career as an astrophysicist, or Carter's potential future with a family. "Chimera" is an offshoot of what happened in "Grace", and the writers were trying to "dispel the black widow curse that Carter has, and also to open her up for more experiences and to flesh her out just a little bit more as a human being". Tapping felt out of her element doing these two episodes, as the flirty side of the character had not really been explored in the show until then. Also, Pete Shanahan does not die, which confuses Carter. According to Tapping, Carter is oblivious what lengths Shanahan is going (stalking, background checks) to find out more about her classified life, although the character is finally free to talk about her life at the end of episode.

Several fans refused to watch the episode "Chimera" because Carter was getting involved with someone other than who they wanted her to be involved with. Tapping received letters of fans who said that Carter's integrity "is completely out the window, and, 'What the hell thinking.'" According to Tapping, Carter "harbors great depth of feeling for Colonel O'Neill, but because nothing can ever happen ... He's the one who let her go. He says, 'I'm a safe bet. You know you can't have me so you're just protecting your heart by, you know, hanging your hat on someone you can't have. So, let me go,' is essentially what's said at the end of "Grace"". Tapping said,

"The whole episode is her sort of rethinking her life and rethinking her choices, and I don't think that she's lost integrity. I don't think that her feelings for O'Neill are any less. I think she's just placed them in a different box, if you will. It was weird, I have to say, for her to hand her heart over to somebody else. But it's baby steps for her, and this is all new for her. And I think it's ultimately O'Neill who says, 'You have to move on.' And it's her father, too, who says, you know, 'Don't give up your chance of love. You know, I would live my whole life over again even knowing that your mother's gonna die, I would do all that again.' So it's her opening up her heart as opposed to actually – it's been closed this whole time because she's, you know, been protecting it with thoughts of O'Neill, who she knows she can't have, so it opens her up.

Working around Richard Dean Anderson's reduced schedule was a challenge for Tapping. Nevertheless, Tapping, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge knew going into season 7 that this allowed for their characters to be fleshed out a bit more and to have a bit more screen time. She did not think the dynamics or the chemistry of the team had suffered.

Unlike O'Neill and Jackson, Carter did not appear in the series premiere of Atlantis. This was probably to do with the legalities of her being a character specifically created for Stargate SG-1. Tapping considered the elevator scene with Cassandra in season 1's "Singularity" to be one of the scenes to best fully capture Carter.