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Regarding Stargate Atlantis and Amanda Tapping

I love Stargate Atlantis, and I love Amanda Tapping/Sam Carter. But I'm not sure these two great tastes are going to taste great together.

Of course, all change is a risk, and not changing is to invite death,but...

My primary concern is that when Sam Carter takes Elizabeth Weir's place running Atlantis next season, her new context won't suit her.

Carter is great with Jackson, O'Neill and Teal'c around her. (She and Valla hardly speak to each other, so it's hard to judge that dynamic.) Her technobabble balances wonderfully with Jackson's "softer" sciences and unexpected Ancient knowledge.

She and O'Neill have UST going for them, as well as mutual respect that's only enhanced by the way O'Neill plays dumb. Carter's unerring calculations allow him to trust her "with all that," while he concentrates on the mission strategy. This even works off-mission when he's being the general.

Carter and Teal'c don't have many lines together, but the actors have worked out a silent ballet of compatibility. Watch them move to a similar rhythm together on missions or when they're securing a room.

So next season we're going to pop Carter out of SG-1 and put her with John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagen and Ronon Dex.

Weir's triumphs in dealing with her A-Team are that she never interferes when things are already working and that she's never presented as a deus ex machina. She and Sheppard have had some clashes, but for the most part her attention is on the daily functioning of the community of Atlantis. She's also forged the few alliances (including the always-interesting Atlantis-Genii interactions) that Earth's troupe has been able to manage.

But Weir's best value is that she is always the voice of reason, even when that reason is kind of a downer. She's the one who knew McKay was over his head in "Trinity," who wouldn't keep sending people to die to get the bug eggs in "Conversion," who keeps Caldwell from taking over the military every time he shows up.

What sort of identity is Carter going to make for herself in Weir's place? We can say for certain she's going to be neither the community administrator nor the peaceful negotiator that Weir has been, nor can she remain the Carter of SG-1.

Her biggest, most obvious problem is McKay. Carter and McKay are each other's opposite numbers, the resident geniuses of their respective shows. McKay's first three appearances with Carter on SG-1 were primarily geared towards making him a jerk to highlight how wonderful Carter is. This hasn't changed much with McKay's latest appearances on SG-1. He gets to be smarter and more correct than before, but Carter still pretty much treats him like a pain in the ass.

This will have to change. Martin Gero and the other writers are going to have to figure out some brand new way for Carter and McKay to interact that still jibes with "You're a jerk" and "You're so hot." I'm not sure we're going to have any fun with listening to the two of them techno-talk, especially since McKay's current partner in science is Zelenka, and Dr. Z is a huge asset to the show.

If all three of them are on screen at the same time, it's really going to be a case of "too many cooks" (i.e. giving one person's dialogue to three people for no reason):

McKay: We'll need to override the mainframe to configure the circuits.
Carter: The singular polarity of the power distribution system will reject any attempts to alter the programming.
Zelenka: That's assuming we can access the systems without overloading the interface.

Who's going to be in charge of the science labs? Will Carter keep getting between McKay and his minions? That could make for some interesting scripts, but (and this is the real worry) every time Carter and McKay have been onscreen together in the past, Carter has come out ahead. McKay is one of (if not) the most entertaining character on Stargate Atlantis. Carter's arrival cannot diminish him, or the show will suffer.

As for Colonel Sheppard, Carter's interaction with him presents a number of challenges, not the least of which is in not sounding just like Carter and O'Neill. Sheppard is admirably different from O'Neill, but there is the "opposite number" thing again. Having Carter there will throw a spotlight on the similarity between the characters. Something new will have to be introduced, or we're going to be back at SG-1 around season three.

I'm concerned that Carter and Ronon will be a repeat of Carter and Teal'c as well. I'm not seeing what these two characters are going to connect over, I have to admit.

Things may be better with Teyla. There are a lot of places the relationship can go, considering how much they have in common without overlapping strengths. They've had no previous interaction, so their relationship can be crafted to suit SGA from the beginning. Just for instance, Teyla could serve as a sort of mentor to Carter, teaching her about leading a group of people as a community and about being a negotiator. Carter in turn may give Teyla the sort of equality she's enjoyed with Weir.

Apart from character interaction, I'm also concerned about putting a scientist in charge of a fictional expedition. As we learned with Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager, exposition is hard to manage when the person in charge is also the person who knows the most. Carter doesn't tend to talk to herself, so letting the audience know what's going on may mean too many mission briefings in that cramped conference room.

In the end, I'm not going to be so foolish as to predict disaster for the show. The Stargate writers are some of the best in the business, so I'm tentatively confident Carter will be a good thing. But getting there will be a bumpy road!