Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stephan
Speaker 1: Never told you a protection of iHeartRadio. And welcome to
Speaker 1: another sub sub sub segment of fictional women around the world.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Samantha.
Speaker 2: I've missed y'all.
Speaker 1: Ah, well you've come back for one. That's You're You're
Speaker 1: just gonna have a great time of me talking at you.
Speaker 1: But the character's name is Samantha. That was not a purpose,
Speaker 1: but it is true.
Speaker 2: We're all the best.
Speaker 1: She went by sam which I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: later because I think they did that on purpose to
Speaker 1: make her more masculine. But anyway, Yes, today we are
Speaker 1: talking about Samantha Carter from the show Stargate SG one,
Speaker 1: although she was in all of the other shows as well.
Speaker 1: So a brief history about me with this show and Samantha.
Speaker 1: You actually got to witness some of this before I
Speaker 1: think you knew what was going on. I had a huge,
Speaker 1: huge crush on the character Daniel Jackson from that show, huge,
Speaker 1: and he was at He was one of two characters
Speaker 1: I'd had a crush on that was at Dragon Con.
Speaker 1: I think the first year you came. Oh and I
Speaker 1: was dressed at disco Luke, and remember I was like,
Speaker 1: I made eye contact. And then the other guy I
Speaker 1: had a crush on, who is Chris from Charmed, was
Speaker 1: there and I made eye contact with him as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had no idea who you were talking about,
Speaker 3: and I just nodded a lot, yes, but you were there.
Speaker 2: That was I was present for the actor.
Speaker 1: Played Daniel Jackson was there and I did my best
Speaker 1: to keep my cool and my disco Luke outfit. I
Speaker 1: when I was looking this up, I rewatched this show
Speaker 1: I think seven or eight years ago, so I'm not
Speaker 1: like the freshest and the most up to date. I
Speaker 1: really need to go back because apparently there's an implication
Speaker 1: that this character is gay, like maybe being manipulatively gay
Speaker 1: or as an insult. I don't know, but I need
Speaker 1: to go back watch it, I know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm gonna say I know nothing about the show,
Speaker 3: Like I can't even tell you who was in it.
Speaker 2: So I know, I know, Like I know so little.
Speaker 1: Did you see the movie?
Speaker 2: I didn't know there was a movie. That's how little
Speaker 2: I know. Okay, okay, I'm it on this journey with me.
Speaker 1: So this show was on Showtime when I was growing
Speaker 1: up but it would replay on in my where I
Speaker 1: was Fox five at three AM, and I would come.
Speaker 1: I would sneak down the stairs because my TV didn't
Speaker 1: get any reception, and I would put it on mute
Speaker 1: but with subtitles, and I would just watch it. And
Speaker 1: I did this for years of my life. And I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure my parents knew what I was doing, but
Speaker 1: in my mind they had no idea.
Speaker 2: We're so sneaky.
Speaker 1: I was so sneaky, and I just do this. This
Speaker 1: was like what I did. That's how I watched it.
Speaker 1: I still quote this show all of the time and
Speaker 1: almost no one realizes it.
Speaker 2: I love it. I would never know, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I've tried to be subtle about this story
Speaker 1: because the details would give away too much. But one
Speaker 1: of the quotes is I learned like the first ten
Speaker 1: decimal points of Pie from this, and because of this,
Speaker 1: I have been able to discern certain things in video
Speaker 1: games and otherwise because I just know those furst I
Speaker 1: know Pie out to ten digits because of Stargate want.
Speaker 1: I can forgive, but I could never forget. Quote as
Speaker 1: the Sioux used to say, today is a good day
Speaker 1: to die quote and then I've recently had this conversation
Speaker 1: with some friends of mine. There's a whole episode where
Speaker 1: they go through like the scientific process of what denotes
Speaker 1: a living being? Is it fear? Is it the knowledge
Speaker 1: of fear?
Speaker 2: Is it? Anyway?
Speaker 1: Also, my mom once walked in at the worst part.
Speaker 1: There is a part in the movie. There's there's several movies.
Speaker 1: I'll break this down in a second, but there's a
Speaker 1: part in like the Stargate SG one movie that kicked
Speaker 1: off this whole thing where Share who's Daniel's like love,
Speaker 1: is naked and is getting implanted with a worm called
Speaker 1: the ku Old. And they were like the top enemies
Speaker 1: of of well, oh no, they were for a long
Speaker 1: time year as the top enemies. But my mom walked
Speaker 1: in on this part, probably one of the reasons I
Speaker 1: was watching at three am without telling them. Yes, But anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, today we are talking about Samantha Carter played
Speaker 1: by Amanda Tapping, who was first introduced in Stargate SG one,
Speaker 1: which is a sci fi military television show that ran
Speaker 1: from nineteen ninety seven to two thousand and seven in
Speaker 1: various forms and on various networks. There are ten seasons
Speaker 1: and over two hundred episodes. It is part of a
Speaker 1: much larger Stargate universe kickstarted by the nineteen ninety four
Speaker 1: film that asked the question what if aliens really did
Speaker 1: build the Pyramids? And then they find this gate that
Speaker 1: opens wormholes so that they can travel all over the
Speaker 1: Stargate if you will. It's got a lot of Egyptian
Speaker 1: God references, the ideas that God's like hath the or
Speaker 1: were actually aliens possessing humans, although not always humans. There's
Speaker 1: Greek and Norse mythology gray aliens. I only just put
Speaker 1: this together researching this episode. They're called the Assgar oh gosh. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the gray aliens are kind of like Norse mythology. The
Speaker 1: legend of King Arthur becomes a big thing. It's also
Speaker 1: planning on the idea of Area fifty one or any
Speaker 1: other secret to military installations that are investigating aliens. It's
Speaker 1: similar to Star Trek in the X Files or even
Speaker 1: Supernatural in terms of genre bending. There's a time travel episode.
Speaker 1: There's a separate Groundhog Day episode. There's a mental illness
Speaker 1: episode that I still think about.
Speaker 2: So okay.
Speaker 1: The movie, which by the way, has like James Vader
Speaker 1: and Kurt Russell, who are not in the show at all.
Speaker 2: They recast them.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, so is may ruin.
Speaker 1: This Richard dan Anderson. Yes, okay, so he didn't know
Speaker 1: when Kurt Russell's character recall.
Speaker 2: They recasted him, how dare they?
Speaker 1: But they have as a like fun not O'Neill. His
Speaker 1: last name is O'Neill in the movie with Kurt Russell,
Speaker 1: it's one L. In the show with Richard dan Anderson,
Speaker 1: two l's gotcha?
Speaker 2: Yes, nicely played. Thanks, well, I didn't have anything know it,
Speaker 2: but so.
Speaker 1: Yes. Samantha Carter, this character was not in the movie.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen ninety four movie, she was in all
Speaker 1: subsequent Stargates. She won movies, including the first one that
Speaker 1: kind of launched the series. But they discover aliens and
Speaker 1: the Stargate, and of course the US government is freaked out,
Speaker 1: and they also kind of want to know what the
Speaker 1: galaxy has to offer, so they put together these elite
Speaker 1: teams to travel the galaxy, and Samantha Carter is one
Speaker 1: of the people. They were like, let's get her on
Speaker 1: the team. She is a pilot, she's an astrophysicist, an engineer,
Speaker 1: and a colonel later general. I think She's held a
Speaker 1: lot of ranks. Who is recruited for the primary team
Speaker 1: SG one. She is the quote skeptic, the scientist for
Speaker 1: their crew. She was the second in command for this
Speaker 1: team for almost a decade, and she did serve as
Speaker 1: the first in command for a year. Her longtime commanding
Speaker 1: officer and will they are won't they romance? Although I'll
Speaker 1: talk about this more later. I think it's more of
Speaker 1: a like no, probably not. Jack O'Neill said that her
Speaker 1: brain was a national resource. Her father was an Air
Speaker 1: Force major general who had a major influence on her
Speaker 1: life in a lot of ways. In one episode, she
Speaker 1: laments that her father wishes that she had been a boy.
Speaker 1: Her mother died when she was young, and she had
Speaker 1: long blamed her father because he was supposed to pick
Speaker 1: her up and then didn't, and her mom died in
Speaker 1: the taxi that she had to take instead, But she
Speaker 1: eventually forgave him by the time the show starts. She's
Speaker 1: been working in the Stargate program for years and has
Speaker 1: been key in developing the science behind the dialing system
Speaker 1: as they call it of the Stargate. Basically have to
Speaker 1: put like seven constellations in and then it will be
Speaker 1: like whoomp, and it will take you somewhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thanks. At first, it was believed the gate could only
Speaker 1: go to one planet, but she was the one that
Speaker 1: realized it could go two hundreds of worlds, if not more,
Speaker 1: and travel they did. I have to condense or this
Speaker 1: episode will never end, but she bonded with her team.
Speaker 1: She went to mini worlds. She's semi adopted an alien
Speaker 1: girl named Cassandra with her friend doctor Fraser. Her father
Speaker 1: was consensually possessed by a rogue alien of their enemies,
Speaker 1: the aforementioned goa would which, by the way, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: like worms that crawl inside you. She was temporarily possessed.
Speaker 1: She fell in love with a quote ascended being oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this is a whole thing I can't go into.
Speaker 1: She successfully advocated for replacement for a beloved then dead,
Speaker 1: also whole thing team member. She had a replicator version
Speaker 1: of herself, created by a replicator who was in love
Speaker 1: with her.
Speaker 2: Her father died.
Speaker 1: She helped develop a cure for a disease that was
Speaker 1: devastating an alien species. Maybe has a relationship with Jack O'Neil.
Speaker 1: After much ust unresolved sexual tension visited alternate realities, alternate
Speaker 1: timelines which alter realities, and alternate timelines are different, to
Speaker 1: be clear in this show, not the same thing, obviously, yes, obviously.
Speaker 1: In her off time, she likes to work on her motorcycle,
Speaker 1: do like engineering, tinkering, play chess with Cassandra, and eventually
Speaker 1: go fishing, which is sort of a Jack keeps asking
Speaker 1: her to go fishing and she keeps saying no, but eventually,
Speaker 1: after her father dies, she says yes, okay. So themes
Speaker 1: she was one of a slew of third wave feminist
Speaker 1: characters from this decade, though she was particularly very male coded.
Speaker 1: As I said, she was military, a scientist. She has
Speaker 1: short hair. She goes by Sam, which is typically associated
Speaker 1: with men, or at the very least gender neutral at
Speaker 1: the same time, though in later season she helped raise
Speaker 1: a child with her good friend doctor Fraser. Doctor Janet Fraser,
Speaker 1: her male rival once referred to Ors referred to her
Speaker 1: as a quote dumb blonde. So she does base obstacles
Speaker 1: like that. That's certainly in the movie, which she comes
Speaker 1: out swinging like I know you're all men, but I've
Speaker 1: been here and done this. So, by the way, she
Speaker 1: eventually developed a somewhat begrudging mutual respect with this enemy.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she goes on to sort of become or
Speaker 1: share the role that I would liken too, Black Widow
Speaker 1: in the MCU of keeping the team together. Like she's
Speaker 1: a very strong character and she's very headstrong, but she is.
Speaker 1: She does sort of become the person, even though it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem that way at first. It's trying to keep
Speaker 1: this team together, which I always think is interesting that
Speaker 1: kind of falls to the woman. But she is sort
Speaker 1: of the mediator between the civilian world, which Daniel Jackson represents,
Speaker 1: in the military world, which Jack O'Neil represents. She's definitely
Speaker 1: an example of women working theirs off, Like she's all
Speaker 1: of these things I just listed to get even somewhat
Speaker 1: footing with their lesser male colleagues. And yeah, one of
Speaker 1: the very first interactions you see of her in the
Speaker 1: show is basically her going over her resume and saying,
Speaker 1: have you done that? Do we need to arm wrestle?
Speaker 1: But even so, she does have these doubts about herself.
Speaker 1: Something else, just to touch on shows like these, again,
Speaker 1: I haven't gone back and watched it, but I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of shows like these where you're traveling
Speaker 1: to other planets, that there is often an element of
Speaker 1: like white saviorism. Not every episode or even often perhaps,
Speaker 1: but there are definitely some cringier episodes, and there is
Speaker 1: one where Samantha Is in particular was used as sort
Speaker 1: of like a white lady showing off the society to
Speaker 1: their error of their ways, which has not aged well.
Speaker 1: So to make note of that, the romance Okay, so
Speaker 1: most of her romantic interests died. She is jokingly referred
Speaker 1: to as the Black Widow Curse. Funnily enough, the actor
Speaker 1: who played Sam's father said he wanted her to end
Speaker 1: up with Daniel since they both were intellectual types, but
Speaker 1: also because Daniel died and came back all the time,
Speaker 1: to the point his fandom nickname was the Wonder that
Speaker 1: is Daniel, so that he would cancel out her Black
Speaker 1: Widow Curse, which I did not know. It makes sense.
Speaker 1: I like it this first, I've heard of it, and
Speaker 1: I was a huge fan, so go ahead. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: her relationship with Jack O'Neill, who is her superior, was
Speaker 1: I guess her most enduring. I wouldn't even say romance,
Speaker 1: because their feelings for each other were revealed during a crisis,
Speaker 1: but they both agreed not to pursue a relationship due
Speaker 1: to their working relationship, and in a lot of the
Speaker 1: alternate realities they were engaged or married, and in the
Speaker 1: time Loop episode, Jack kissed her. Of course, she does
Speaker 1: not remember this Time Loop Jack does yes, often invite
Speaker 1: her to things that she turns down, including fishing. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of hints towards their romantic relationship in
Speaker 1: later seasons, especially when Richard Dean Anderson retired and wasn't
Speaker 1: there anymore, and they were like, oh, maybe they're together,
Speaker 1: but it was never explicitly confirmed. The writers resisted a romance.
Speaker 1: In fact, here's a quote from sci Fi Wire. Not
Speaker 1: every male female duo has to be romantic. SG one
Speaker 1: writer Heather e ash recalled in a recent interview with
Speaker 1: a companion, it's a trope. I'm quite done with. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of bummed that Skullly and Molder. You know that
Speaker 1: they made them succumb to Yes, they're going to be
Speaker 1: romantically involved because they work together, because they're men and women.
Speaker 1: We didn't really want to go there. It's a trope.
Speaker 1: It's kind of sexist. Let's just call it out. It's
Speaker 1: really sexist in very very male gaze and that weird
Speaker 1: thought that men and women can only be around each
Speaker 1: other in a sexual way. I know Amanda didn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with it, and she was very much like,
Speaker 1: thank god, there's a woman on set, a woman who
Speaker 1: appreciates science, because I was a huge science geek. Ash
Speaker 1: explained when we put the kiss in my episode, it
Speaker 1: wasn't to kind of have them go, oh, they're now
Speaker 1: going to be together. It was more like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: going to kiss, and it's like kissing my brother, you know,
Speaker 1: like back to the future. And Amanda Tapping was really
Speaker 1: influential in how the character was depicted. For instance, she
Speaker 1: was key in pushing for her friendship with doctor Frazier,
Speaker 1: one of the few other women on the show in
Speaker 1: the beginning, as opposed to an adversarial relationship. As other
Speaker 1: women were introduced who were not outright villains, she was
Speaker 1: friendling with them too and work collaboratively with them. And
Speaker 1: that's honestly, one of my favorite relationships in the show
Speaker 1: is Samantha and doctor Frazier. Janet I definitely really did
Speaker 1: not put Jack and Samantha together when I watched it.
Speaker 1: It's true that I'm often sort of oblivious to these things.
Speaker 2: But no, it just wasn't a big thing. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also yeah, more queer representation, because why is
Speaker 1: it like it's only when a woman enters the largely
Speaker 1: male picture that we're like, it's romance. Then let's think
Speaker 1: about this, correct And here's a quote I wanted to include.
Speaker 1: So after being proposed to by her another on again,
Speaker 1: off again guy, I guess I'll say. She says, I mean,
Speaker 1: they make you afraid of being alone, but at the
Speaker 1: same time tell you not to settle for anything less
Speaker 1: than the perfect romantic ideal, like that actually exists anywhere
Speaker 1: in the real world. I mean, either way, you can't win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they did work out. Influence. She was definitely a very
Speaker 1: influential character. I will say when she first was introduced,
Speaker 1: she wasn't very fleshed out, and then she grew from there.
Speaker 1: She became a fan favorite. She is a character that
Speaker 1: comes up a lot when women are writing about characters
Speaker 1: that did influence them. She has appeared in episodes of
Speaker 1: Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, which puts her at the
Speaker 1: top of appearances of any Stargate character. In this universe.
Speaker 1: She is one of only eight characters and the only
Speaker 1: woman to appear in all three Stargate series. I literally
Speaker 1: found a whole paper on her, and it's called the
Speaker 1: Feminist Utopia, and Stargate is she won. A part of
Speaker 1: their argument. Again, if you're like the least interested in
Speaker 1: stuff like this, go read it. But a part of
Speaker 1: their argument was that the numbers of women working in
Speaker 1: this organization far outstripped the actual real world numbers that
Speaker 1: you would see. Here's a quote from the article. The
Speaker 1: show critiques the contemporary conditions of the present day which
Speaker 1: constrain women and, in the scientific context, limit the boundaries
Speaker 1: and knowledge by rewarding egotistical behavior rather than generating a
Speaker 1: collective and supportive culture of inquiry. Stargate SG one repeatedly
Speaker 1: presents heteronormative domesticity and as alien to Carter's aspirations. The
Speaker 1: absurd hostility and ineptitude of men's scientists is also frequently
Speaker 1: thrown into sharp relief, decentering patriarchal claims to scientific process
Speaker 1: and opening them to critical analysis. I'm telling you, this
Speaker 1: was an intense paper, and I recommend it. I recommend it.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear from any listeners if you
Speaker 1: have any thoughts about this. This was a fun look back.
Speaker 1: This was such a big part of my my life
Speaker 1: for a while, but it was nice. It was nice
Speaker 1: to reflect. But yeah, listeners, if you have any thoughts
Speaker 1: or any suggestions for this segment, please let us know.
Speaker 1: You can email us at Stephanie and mom Steph at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: mom Stuff Podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at Steffane
Speaker 1: Never Told You. Also fund us on YouTube, and we
Speaker 1: have a tea public store and a book you can
Speaker 1: get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always too,
Speaker 1: our super producer Christina, our executive producer, my Aunt, our
Speaker 1: contructor Joey.
Speaker 2: Thank you, They see
Speaker 1: You for listening Stuff on Never Told You to book
Speaker 1: Should I Heart Radio For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: You can check out their Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to favorite show.