Vala Mal Doran

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

"Prometheus Unbound" introduces Vala as a seductive and mischievous human with a Goa'uld background from an unnamed planet. She became an involuntary host to a Goa'uld named Qetesh in her adult life, but the Tok'ra were able to remove the symbiote. At the time of Vala's first encounter with SG-1 team member Daniel Jackson in the season 8 episode "Prometheus Unbound", she has become a thief and a con artist. She attempts to steal the Earth ship Prometheus for her own purposes, but when Daniel evades her sexual advances and thwarts her plans, she escapes. In the season 9 opener "Avalon", Vala seeks out Daniel at Stargate Command. Needing his linguistic skills, she uses a Kor mak bracelet to bind them together for a treasure hunt on Earth. The discovery of an Ancient communication device transports Vala's and Daniel's minds to a village in a distant galaxy where the local villagers kill Vala in a trial by fire, but a Prior, a servant of a race named the Ori, resurrects her.

In Their Own Story

In season 9, Vala and Daniel set off the arc of the show's new villain race, the Ori. After giving birth to the Ori's new leader in season 10, Vala joins the SG-1 team to stop the enemy, eventually becoming a permanent member of both SG-1 and Stargate Command. Season 10 opens with Vala giving birth to a female. The Ori call the rapidly growing child Orici, but Vala gives her the name Adria after her stepmother. Attempts to turn the child away from the Ori remain unsuccessful. Having escaped the Ori, Vala is allowed sanctuary at Stargate Command and joins SG-1 on several missions, during one of which she comes face-to-face with her fully-grown daughter. Vala's provisionary acceptance on Earth is only lifted in the eighth episode of the season, "Memento Mori", in which she is finally made a full member of SG-1. In "Unending", the last episode of the series, SG-1 gets stuck in a time dilation field aboard the Earth ship Odyssey, and a romance between Vala and Daniel finally comes to fruition. Before the time dilation field is reversed after fifty years, erasing all linked memories in the process, Daniel and Vala express their feelings for each other.

Reader's Guide

Claudia Black characterized early Vala as "sassy", "intelligent", "manipulative", and "mercurial", but found it "very hard to tell what the real core of Vala is." Black later described Vala as "a new, weird element", "irritating", "very vibrant", "sort of the hair-pulling variety", "really infuriating" and "[hopefully] funny." With Vala being a departure from Black's former Farscape role as Aeryn Sun, Black regarded Vala as a comedic and energetic character with streaks of irreverence and naughtiness who "says everything that everyone else is thinking, but doesn't dare say", although both characters share "being damaged goods [in the beginning] and on a path to becoming a better person." Robert C. Cooper thought of Vala as "a bit of a wild card" and "a very sexy character, who isn't afraid to take whatever she wants in any given situation." Cooper and Black believed the character had a moral compass to her actions. Claudia Black resumed her role in the 2008 direct-to-DVD film Stargate: The Ark of Truth, which finishes the Ori arc. Black also appeared as Vala and her Goa'uld alter ego Qetesh in the 2008 film Stargate: Continuum.

Did You Know?

• Vala was created by Damian Kindler and Robert C. Cooper as a guest character for the season 8 episode "Prometheus Unbound" (2004).
• Claudia Black was nominated for a 2006 Saturn Award in the category "Best Supporting Actress on Television" for her portrayal of Vala.
• Black won a Constellation Award in the category "Best Female Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television" in 2007.
• Vala was not supposed to return for the announced third Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD film that was scheduled to be filmed in spring 2009, but was abandoned.
• In "Family Ties", Vala's father Jacek is revealed to be a con artist who had left her and her mother to pursue his scams.