For season nine, Claudia Black readily reprized her role as the feisty - and occasionally fickle - Vala Maldoran. "I got a test drive. I had received a couple of enquiries about my availability for Stargate SG-1 guest roles over the years, and obviously I was busy doing other things, and finally they asked at a time when I could fit it in."

[...] "Vala runs the risk of being a one-trick pony if not integral. Fortunately, she was driving the story forward to a great extent. As we started to get into the more macabre elements, such as when she's burnt [in Avalon], I was actually very impressed. I really didn't think they would go that far with it. I know that that would have been disturbing, because it is an early time slot and it's got a big family audience. So in terms of the story telling I was very impressed that they took that risk and they took it that far, because it's rare to be surprised in television these days. So that's when I started to feel as if I was edging more into the Aeryn territory, when things were getting a bit more tragic and serious."

[...] "She has been damaged. A good liar always keeps as close to the truth as possible, so I would say a lot of the time when she is talking about what's happened to her, most of it is true. She will lie and steal and do whatever, but she has a moral compass."

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