From SciFi Wire, 1 July 2004
Amanda Tapping, who pays Maj. Samantha Carter in SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming eighth season may complicate her character’s personal life. Carter’s on-again, off-again beau, Denver police Detective Pete Shanahan, played by David DeLuise, will play a larger role in early episodes.
But Tapping said not to expect Carter’s personal life to overshadow her ongoing mission to help save Earth from the Goa’uld. “I don’t want it to become about Carter’s personal life getting in the way of what she does, because the thing that makes me so proud of this character and something that we’ve worked on for eight years is that she’s so professional and so smart and so on top of her game and so competent,” Tapping said in an interview during a break in filming on the show’s Vancouver, B.C., set. “The dynamics between the four of them is so important, and the loyalty to the team and to the program and to exploration and to science. I mean, I don’t want her to become too much the other way. But now I have a life, and I have a boyfriend, and I’m happy. I don’t want it to be about that, you know what I mean? That’s an interesting part of her that, like I said, opens her up. But I don’t want her to become that girl. I’ve also always said that I don’t think that Carter should ever be qualified… by whether or not [she’s] with somebody.”
Tapping added that Carter will continue to be an integral part of SG-1, particularly once Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) finds himself going on fewer “away missions.” “It means that Daniel [Michael Shanks] and Carter and Teal’c [Christopher Judge] go off alone a lot,” she said. “We actually never go off alone: We always have another SG team with us. But we don’t have Rick. So that’s a different dynamic. It’s great fun for Michael and Christopher and [me], because, a) we really enjoy each other, and b) [we] have such fun playing off each other. But it’s different. It is very different. What I find, though, [is that,] because Rick’s days are limited, when he’s here, he’s here. And the scenes between the four of us are so great, because we fall into that old pattern. And they’re funny scenes, and you see how tight these four people are. But it is odd. The first time we go through the gate without him, it’s like missing your arm.” Stargate SG-1 returns with a two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT July 9.