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There was considerable discussion in the comments section of the Sam Carter edition regarding Sam's actual age. If you're interested in reading the details that lead to the final conclusion (the screencap from Entity doesn't work, but Sam is still younger than Daniel), this link will take you directly to the new analysis.
And thanks, Codger. :)
And thanks, Codger. :)
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I suspect the bottom line is that the writers didn't think too clearly when they created Sam's stats. That doesn't surprise me for some reason. :) So she has too much accomplished at too young an age, yes - but then again, that's probably par for the course for the SGC. No one there will ever be accused of being normal!
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See, one of the biggest beefs I have with her being born in the latter half of the 60s is that I think they'd've run her through grad school right after the academy so as not to risk losing their 'treasure' to some university who'd offer her a full ride instead of whatever grunt work the military put her to instead of grad school.
Oh.
Damn.
I just thought of something.
Remember, she'd had her sights set on NASA? She *had* to have gone to flight school. And I'd be willing to bet that her dad eased her way even if he didn't tell her about it. Flight school's 54 weeks, I think.
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One thing, though: I'd be willing to bet that her dad eased her way even if he didn't tell her about it.
If that's an implication that Sam got an easy ride in any shape or form, I'm going to disagree with you. Very strongly. No woman claws their way through the military because it's easy - and that's talking about today. Fifteen to twenty years ago was exponentially worse.
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Though I still want to know how she avoided a Board of Inquiry (or whatever it's called in the AF) after First Commandment.
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But it comes back to how long she's in rank. And she couldn't be born in the early sixties and only become a major in 1999. She'd have been drummed out of the service. Even giving a few months here or there because of canon timeline v. "our" timeline, they've been staying close enough to real life that it can't be much different (and certainly not make her birthdate older than Daniel's).
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Not necessarily. There's pretty much two ways to become an astronaut - either the pilot track or the science track.
You either need to have so many hours flying military-type air craft (you, I think, can sorta get this not in the military, but it's pretty much impossible) and that'll qualify you for the Commander or Pilot type positions. And most astronauts in this track come from the Navy, rather than the Air Force. (also, it helps to have science or engineering leanings)
If you go the science route you pretty much need a PhD (technically only a masters) and to be, well, awesome. That'll put you in more a Mission Specialist position. In this case, it helps a lot to have some flying background.
So, yes, Sam was set on NASA, but she didn't necessarily need flight school to get there. In fact, she probably would be better off playing to her strengths as a scientist to try to to go the Mission Specialist route (where I think she'd be happier anyway) but having Air Force experience wouldn't hurt and I have firm personal canon that she knows how to fly (private license, glider training, something) but that doesn't mean the Air Force trained her to fly jets.
And, well, if she wanted flight school, I see no reason she couldn't have gotten in without Jacob's help, but that's neither here nor there. Given what we see in eps about the F-302 I don't think she's a trained Air Force jet pilot.
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Really? I got the impression from those that she *had* been trained as an Air Force jet pilot (when being the question).
As for astronauts, IIRC, most, if not all, of the military personnel are also pilots, even if they're in there as mission specialists. Is it required? I don't recall. But consider the person who wants to be an astronaut. What are the odds that they'd NOT get pilot training if they could?
Ultimately, TPTB screwed up because we've got a paradox. One the one hand, due to when she got her promotion to major, we can only backtrack so far. But then there's her time in the Gulf and the time it would take for her to have her training and education and her previous postings (that we know of) which all adds up to longer than the time we've been led to believe she was in the Air Force. The simplest explanation for the obvious discrepancy is that she was in grade longer than she should have been for some reason.
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I just assume since we never (unless I'm forgetting something) see her actually fly an F-302 (she sits second seat with Jack - more the navigator/instrument role while Jack flies) and since she does not have pilot's bars on her dress uniform, she isn't trained to that level. I firmly believe she has some form of flight crew training and knows how to fly (private pilot's license or somesuch) and I think there's a good chance she had some pilot training - but likely only basics (not specializing to fighter jets or something).
It's true, most military personnel who become astronauts are pilots - but that makes sense if you look at the possible tracks. I'm pretty sure it's not all, but I could be wrong (and being pilots could meant very different things - you can be a pilot with jet fighter school, etc). I agree Sam would try to get pilot training but that doesn't mean she did necessarily.
See, though, Codger has shown that the timeline can work - perhaps would take luck and skill to make it happen, but everyone on SG-1 is stretched just to the other side of believability - it's part of what makes them all awesome. Only the best for the flagship team of the SGC and all.
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As to the missing bars on her uniform. Props again. Don't trust 'em, they lie. Just look at Jack's stars when he was dealing with Prior!Daniel.
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It's possible she lucked out with the right school and the right advisor and enough tenacity and brilliance to pull it off - but I do have trouble believing anything less than 4 years in grad school (and 4 is stretching).
See, props can be funky, yes (Jack's stars) but...if you look for patterns, it works. Sam's uniform never (I believe) has pilot's wings. I'm comfortable considering a consistent prop to be canon evidence.
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And yeah, I could see her managing in four years. I have zero trouble with her brilliance, just trouble seeing that even a woman as brilliant as she is could go through too rapidly. Just the fact that she DID it, is pretty amazing. Most women end up getting run out of the field. The stats are very depressing.
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Writers may not have a say in the props, but the writers of Stargate are also the producers, and they DO have say in the final product of the show. Some to a higher degree than others, I'll definitely grant you, but I don't dismiss a prop out of hand because it's all part and parcel of the final product.
The Shroud uniform stars was a blooper for sure, but there's been bloopers in dialogue too (see how many years Jacob's had a symbiote or calling Jack's homemade ZPM "Asgard technology"). I don't necessarily dismiss any/all props as canon just because it's not "stated out loud" in the show.
As for Sam having issues as a woman and getting her doctorate in the early 90s as opposed to the 1960s? I do agree it stretches credulity. But
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Yes, props do get messed up on occasion. And yes, the writers tend to leave vague phrases like "backdrop of schematics for honking big ship" in the scripts. But some things have been readily uniform (pardon the pun) year after year; and just as I accept the prop of Daniel's glasses, I accept other things, too.
YMMV, and apparently does. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. :)
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Assuming that flight school in Sam's time was like it was in 2001/2002, she was trained as a fighter pilot while in flight school. My cousin went through more recently and all of the pilots were trained in both types of aircraft before being assigned into either "fighter" or "bomber" tracks for their career.
I agree that they're trying to shove too many major accomplishments into too short a time period. They do it for all of the characters except Teal'c and I find it quite annoying. I think, though, it's a common problem with television.
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So, it's possible that Sam was tracked into bombers but she would have been trained to do both. Assuming they hadn't changed it up in the time between when Sam would have been there and the time my cousin was.
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