SLICE OF SCIFI conducted an interview recently with Claudia Black in which she talks about Vala’s role in the two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
Spoilers follow.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Robert C. Cooper wrote, directed, and produced this story that concludes the Ori storyarc started in Season Nine of Stargate SG-1. Vala is reunited with her husband Tomin and her daughter Adria, and Black states, “In general the loose ends which we tie up seemed to be in keeping with the style/tone of the series: things wrap up as they need to in order to restore order.”
Concerning her scenes with Tim Guinee who plays Tomin, she said, “There are some nice little details that Tim Guinee and I were able to explore in the Vala – Tomin arc. I liked how that wrapped up. Or at least how it did on the day. Not sure what made the cut!”
And, of course, Vala must deal with her daughter Adria, now an Ascended Being. “…I think the writing was probably on the wall where Adria and Vala were concerned. No room for a grey area. So there are two ways things could go for them at story’s end; Happy families or see ya later…”
Black said that the filming schedule was much more demanding than it had been during the TV show’s run. “Ark of Truth as good as killed me. We did way more overtime than I ever have on the show before.”
Stargate: Continuum
Brad Wright’s stand-alone story Stargate: Continuum sees the return of the Goa’uld Ba’al as he tries to gain galactic domination through the use of time travel, preventing the Stargate Program from ever forming. Included in his manipulations are having Vala remain as the host to Qetesh and as his queen, and having Teal’c as his First Prime.
Black commented on the lesser screen-time she had in this movie as compared with The Ark of Truth: “Continuum is not a Vala-centric piece so both I and the Vala haters sigh with relief on that one. She is a high energy character to say the least and as much as I love to work and play her, it is great to sometimes add a flash of colour and go home. I also play another character in Continuum which was great fun. Short but also sweet. I loved Brad’s script and what he gave me to do. […] Continuum, I was outta there in just over a week.”
Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum will be released on DVD in 2008.
To read the full transcript of the interview, visit SLICE OF SCIFI.
Wow, having read the full interview, I have to say I find it very sad that Claudia is aware of the “Vala-haters” and mentions them several times. I wonder if they really bother her. 🙁 And that sure is a big piece of news, that she won’t be much in Continuum! Very interesting interview, even if short.
It’s unfortunate that any character or actor has too feel ‘hated’. In my opinion I wasn’t really happy that season 10 turned into the Daniel/Vala show, I wanted more team interaction esp with original team members. Maybe it would have been a little different if Vala was only a recurrent character.