The new mother reveals how the experience of maternity pushed her to the limit, but couldn't keep her from the Stargate universe.
It was a little over three years ago that the then SG-1 team, or to be more precise, Dr. Daniel Jackson, first encountered Vala Mal Doran in the eight season story Prometheus Unbound, as the semi-reformed thief and con artist hijacked Earth's prototype starship and tried to sell it to the highest bidder.
Like all good anti-heroines, she got away to scheme another day, but actress Claudia Black made such an impression on the SG-1 creative team, that she was invited back to guest star in eight stories the following year. Then, in Season 10, with her moral compass pointing ever more reliably towards the straight and narrow, more or less, Vala became part of the SG-1 team.
"Vala was a new toy for the writers to play with, which was delicious for me as it meant great material and plenty of it," comments the actress.
"I was SG-1 Barbie with a new campervan, lots of new Ken dolls to play with, along with one old but lovely one, yes, you Ben," she says, gesturing towards her Farscape and SG-1 co-star Ben Browder, "as well as accessories that would have made any of the Barbies most envious."
Having apparently sacrificed herself in order to save Earth from an Ori invasion in the ninth season's Beachhead, Vala joined the team full time after turning up alive and well, not to mention very much pregnant and a prisoner of the Ori, at the season's end, and came to earn a place on the SG-1 team. Who would have imagined that this one-time self-centred thief had it in her to make such a transformation? Claudia took her scenes, ran with them and made Vala a hugh asset to the SG-1 universe.
"I was given so many opportunities on the show," she notes. "I think Vala was a little lost girl who found her way more than she expected to or bargained for. She ended up with a true friend in Daniel (Michael Shanks), no matter how hard she tried to make him angry. I don't feel Vala ever had a friend like him nor stayed in one place long enough to ever feel at home the way she ended up feling on the base, despite how bored she got when she was underground with no windows," jokes the actress. "With SG-1's help, my character learnt to use her skills, primarily resourcefulness, without creating total havoc and selfish destruction every time. Vala found some balance by not regarding everything and everyone as expendable. That, in turn, made her much more vulnerable, which she probably loathed at first, but then realized it was the vital currency upon which true bonds of friendship trade."
However, full time work on the tenth season took a personal toll on the actress. "On the personal side, I thought I could do what Amanda Tapping had done the prior season and have a baby," she says. "Nurse the baby on set, which production was willing to accommodate (amazingly rare in the workplace) and do a decent job. I was wrong and I failed. While everyone else was celebrating 200 episodes - a milestone in Science Fiction television - I was experiencing in stark contrast, a personal and professional low.
We had relocated from Australia to Vancouver with a newborn who was ill and no family or friends around to help. My hours were hell, the workload more than sizeable, and when my poor husband got pneumonia and I got postnatal hyperthyroidism, our family and household crashed."
"When I finally admitted defeat - personal, first, then professional - and went to Rob Cooper," Stargate SG-1's executive producer, "to ask for help, there was little he could do. I was used to the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants production that was Farscape,where the scripts were delivered on the day if you were lucky and prodcution got used to being very flexible. These guys in Vancouver, however, are extremely organized; the scripts had been written well in advance and were wall-to-wall Va-la-la! So Rob asked me if I could hold off having a 'breakdown' until the upcoming hiatus, and I obliged to the best of my ability."
The season and, as it turned out, the series, came to an end with Unending, as the team spent 50 years together after Sam Carter activated a Time dilation device to stop their ship from being destroyed. As time passes, or heroes age, some more gracefully thanothers.
"With regard to the ageing, my understanding is that they out-sourced the making of our various make-ups to different workshops because it was a big workload, and it resulted in a hugh disparity in how our characters aged," explains Claudia. I looked like a walking Tale From The Crypt, Amanda looked one day older, and Michael somewhere in between. Perhaps Vala had had a harder life and it showed," jokes the actress. "I loved the wig that Brender Turner (hair stylist) had made for me. I hd such a cool two-tone thing going on, like the chick from the band Berlin. I started acting like a batty old coot - with a very broad Australian accent - from a nursing home constantly repeating how much I liked eating soup, and that kept us amused for a while.
"The roller-skating scene was fun, and as for the pink fuzzy handcuffs, they were part of a honeymoon gift my husband and I were given that I though made a good sight gag. And I also liked the fact that Cameron went crazy in the episode and tore his room apart."
That might have been the end for the team, but with made-for-DVD movies already in the pipeline, some techno-wizardry saw them restored to normal for Stragate: The Ark Of Truth and it's follow-up Continuum, the latter of which sees the return of an old adversary, ex-Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al (Cliff Simon).
"Ark Of Truth was an exercise in tying up loose ends and giving some closure to an unfinished story arc from Season 10," says Claudia. "I love working with Tim Guinee," who played Vala's husband, Tomin, "and relished my times on set with him. We had a great laugh."
"Vala was low-ish maintenance in Continuum," continues the actress. "I enjoyed reading the script and was really happy to be a part of it as I told Brad Wright," the shows's co-creator who serves as writer and executive producer on Continuum. "Martin Wood, who directed the film, is very talented and super organized. I was on strict doctor's orders to work limited hours with Continuum due to a miscarriage scare during the first movie, so that put a lot of pressure on production to get me out evey day on time.
"I did have fun playing Qetesh," the Goa'uld symbiote that once possessed Vala, "and hanging out with Cliff Simon. The costume department was forced to work with my ever-increasing bump, but fashioned a loverly dress for me with groovy John Fluevog boots. And on both movies I struggled monumentally with shocking morning sickness. If anyone mentioned food I started to cry, and then dug my knuckles into my palms until they were close to drawing blood. Basically, I felt like ten tonnes of turds on a Soviet freight train 24/7."
"Cliff was incredibly sweet and careful about what he consumed around me, but one day I caught a whiff of something and gagged through my lines 'til I heard Martin Wood yell, 'Cut!' and then raced to a trashcan just next to set. I hope Cliff didn't take it personally.
Costumes very kindly made no fuss about the sea bands I was wearing on my wrists and let me wear them on-camera. I wouldn't have been ale to get out of bed and to work otherwise. Miraculous wee things they are."
Since producion wrapped early last summer on Continuum, Claudia has enjoyed spending time with her family, including her and her husband's second boy, born in November 2007. With the strike by the Writers' Guild of America having been settled and cameras once again rolling on most TV shows, what role is next for the actress? "Who knows?" says Claudia. "Something juicy I hope. For now, I'm just enjoying auditioning."