About Us

The Sam and Jack Multimedia Awards... say what? Well, we suppose it's possible some people have no idea who this Sam and Jack are, let alone why there should be awards named after them. Sad, but possible. 


Let us enlighten you!

"I take it you're Colonel O'Neill. 
Captain Samantha Carter
reporting, Sir."

Samantha 'Sam' Carter and Jack O'Neill (with two ls) are characters from a wonderful science fiction show called Stargate: SG-1*. We were first introduced to them in the show's pilot, Children of the Gods, which aired on the twenty-seventh of July in 1997. That's right, in the previous century! Don't worry, though; the show lasted for ten seasons and had two direct-to-DVD movies called Ark of Truth (March 2008) and Continuum (July 2008). Two spin-off shows were also created, Stargate: Atlantis (2004-2009) and Stargate: Universe (2009-2011). So, it's not entirely last century...



Sam started out as a green captain with a chip on her shoulder the size of Texas and a rather cringe-worthy speech about reproductive organs, who got assigned to Colonel Jack O'Neill's team to go through the stargate - an alien device creating an open wormhole to another stargate on a different planet. Jack seems somewhat amused when meeting the tall blonde for the first time despite her climbing onto her feminist soapbox, right up until the moment he realizes she's an astrophysicist too! Sam, of course, thinks he's being a misogynistic bastard like a few she has undoubtedly met throughout her career in the United States Air Force - it's still a boys' club, after all. But it's just the scientist bit he has a problem with, he claims. 

"Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman.
I like women. I just have a little problem with scientists."

Still, he seems pleasantly surprised when Sam expands on her military qualifications and offers to arm-wrestle him. Unfortunately, Jack doesn't get the chance to take her up on the offer because the annoying Major Samuels decided that's the right time to get back to business. Granted, the reason they were there was because a group of aliens had invaded Earth (through the stargate), killed a couple of airmen and abducted another airwoman...



Anyway, Captain-Doctor Carter quickly proves herself to Colonel O'Neill and

Sam in action

the rest of the "boys" (Major Charles Kawalsky and Major Louis Ferrretti) on their team when they head to the alien planet Abydos, where they assume the aliens came from and where Colonel O'Neill and his men left Doctor Daniel Jackson on their first mission through the 'gate a year ago*. They soon realize the stargate can go other places and when Doctor Jackson's alien wife (of human descent) gets kidnapped by the same aliens after a firefight, he returns to Earth with the team. Ferretti was badly injured but managed to see the stargate address the aliens used to 'dial out' (i.e. leave through the 'gate to another planet) and tells the others as soon as he comes to. The others go on a rescue mission only to get captured by Apophis, the alien who claims he's a god, and his army of Jaffa. We later learn the Jaffa are an alien race (with mostly human physiology) bred to serve the gods, called Goa'uld, and they are basically slaves because they physically depend on the Goa'uld to survive.

"I have nowhere to go."

Of course, there wouldn't be a show if the main characters didn't escape from this medieval prison! Jack's impassioned plea convinces one of the Jaffa to switch sides and he kills the other guards to save the lives of the prisoners! The Jaffa's name is Teal'c and he is convinced he just gave up his whole life for these strangers and dejectedly stands among the rubble when everyone else escapes through a destroyed outer wall. But Jack convinces him to come along and off they go.

"For this you can stay at my place.
Let's go!"

They weren't able to save Daniel's wife (or her brother who was also kidnapped) who was turned into a host for these Goa'uld; apparently, the actual Goa'uld are nothing more than screeching little snake-like parasites that can infest a human body and take over. But together they all go home and take all the freed prisoners with them to help them on their way. Jack insists on Teal'c joining his team, Daniel wants to keep searching for his wife (and a way to free her) and Sam gets assigned as Jack's second-in-command (2IC): SG-1 is formed.


Okay, so now you may think we've steered a little off course because, well, weren't we talking about the Sam and Jack Multimedia Awards and not the SG-1 Awards?! Yes and no. You see, what makes this relationship (ship) so appealing is that there is an undeniable attraction and, eventually, lots of "feelings" between Sam and Jack but there's this little thing called a policy against fraternization (aka 'frat regs') in the United States Air Force: that means - you guessed it - they aren't allowed to fraternize. Some people might say that's a ridiculous rule because you can't dictate how someone else is supposed to feel. 

SG-1 is formed

However, these 'frat regs' exist to prevent preferential/unfair treatment and considering Sam, Jack, Daniel and Teal'c (and all the other awesome SG-teams at StarGate Command) save the planet on a semi-regular basis that's pretty important. Who'd want to go out into a hostile situation knowing their leader might let them die to save the life of a woman he likes? And SG-1 is a tight team; they're all good friends, in spite of their many differences and disagreements. They have to be, because if you have a bunch of Jaffa shooting at you, you'd like to be able to rely on your teammates covering your six!

Jack taking an opportunity when
there are no consequences; yet he
still resigns first...

So, with the fate of the planet depending on their actions, their friends (and the SGC) relying on them and having to lead by example due to their ranks, Sam and Jack can't act on their attraction/feelings. More importantly though, they respect each other, the Air Force, their careers, and positions too much to risk it all for a quick roll in the hay. Slowly but surely their attraction grows into something more and over the years we see their 'relationship' evolve, just like the characters themselves - Jack goes from a smart-ass, sarcastic but totally loyal colonel to a three-star general in command of everything Stargate/alien-related; Sam climbs the ranks to full bird with the command of an alien city called Atlantis (yep, that Atlantis), followed by becoming commander of one of Earth's finest spaceships.



This ship is encompassing and has attraction, respect, sacrifice, love, angst, romance, love 'rivals' (oh come on, we all knew they weren't a serious threat), character development, honor, restraint, patience, abiding, humor, mutual admiration, chemistry...

Jack: "So, nice command."
Sam: "We did manage to make it out alive, Sir."
Jack: "There's that. Lunch?"

One major pain in the mikta, however, is that we shippers never got an on-screen resolution! However, it does raise the question of whether this ship would still be as popular today (long after the show stopped) if there had been a resolution... 



Anyway, that is the ship we all love!

The "Grace" kiss

Now, as for the Awards... Well, we organized them to show our appreciation to all the shippers who make fanfiction, fanart and/or fanvids and to keep the ship alive. Hopefully the Awards will draw attention from our quieter/lurking shippers too. We know awards have a way of wanting people to dive in, especially the ones who enjoy the fan works and can only let the creators know via reviews/comments... so we hope the Awards can fire up the community again and get everyone involved!



Check out the Committee page to learn more about the organization behind the Awards and keep an eye on the blog in general for more interesting updates!


And don't forget to check out our website, www.samandjackawards.com, to place your nominations!


* The show is based on the movie Stargate (1994) with Kurt Russel playing Colonel Jack O'Neil (one l and, according to SG-1's O'Neill, lacking a sense of humor) but quite a few changes were made in the adaption. In the show Jack O'Neill is played by Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping is the actress behind the character of Samantha Carter.