Vala Mal Doran

"Look, I know she's no angel. She has lied, she has stolen, she has cheated, she has misrepresented herself, she has… lied. But, she also risked her life to warn us that the Ori were on their way, and almost sacrificed herself to shut down the very first Ori supergate."

- Daniel Jackson

Vala Mal Doran is a thief, a con artist, former Goa'uld host, and current member of SG-1.

Vala has a tendency to lie and trick people in an attempt to get her way. This sometimes gets to the point where she assumes it is necessary when it really isn't, such as when she is required to take a psychiatric evaluation and she gives fake answers in an attempt to avoid being "tricked". Despite this fact, she has proven herself to be quite courageous and trustworthy in many circumstances, and is now a valued member of Stargate Command.

Background information
Much of Vala's early life is unknown. She was raised by her father Jacek and her stepmother, Adria. At some point, she was taken as a host to the Goa'uld Qetesh, who was a rival to Ba'al. Eventually, Vala was freed when a Tok'ra incited a rebellion and removed Qetesh from Vala. However, the people who had been enslaved by Qetesh didn't understand that she was only Qetesh's host and tortured her, until she was eventually freed once again by the Tok'ra.

2004
Upon first meeting, Vala Mal Doran hijacked the Prometheus, which was traveling to Atlantis, wearing Kull armor. She shot the crew with a Zat'nik'tel and ringed them onto an unoccupied Al'kesh, but kept Dr. Daniel Jackson as her prisoner because he was "very attractive" (and she needed him to tell her the ship's codes). Daniel insisted that he didn't know the codes to the ship, but Vala tried to get him to tell them to her, first by shooting him with a Kull weapon, then by attempting to seduce him, then by trying to win his sympathies by claiming she needed the ship to save the lives of her people, who were refugees. After shooting him, Vala healed Daniel's wound with Goa'uld technology, which led Daniel to assume that Vala was a Goa'uld; she replied that she was a former host, and that this permitted her to not only use the Goa'uld technology, but also to understand the systems of the "primitive" Prometheus.

Eventually, Daniel was able to fight back and regain control of the ship, throwing Vala in the brig. He discovered that Vala was not helping refugees, but was taking the ship to sell it to Jup and Tenat for a large quantity of naquada. During negotiations they were attacked by a group of Al'kesh and Death Gliders belonging to Ba'al, and Daniel realized that he needed Vala's help to overcome the assault, so they worked together. At this point, the Al'kesh being commanded by Lt. General George S. Hammond and the crew of the Prometheus caught up to them and destroys the enemy Al'kesh. Vala was thrown back into the brig, and the crew started bringing the Prometheus back to Earth, abandoning their original mission as the ship was in need of repairs. Vala escaped and ringed to the Al'kesh, then fled to hyperspace.

2005
Motivated by her insatiable appetite for ill-gotten gain, and quite possibly for want of an excuse to be near Dr. Daniel Jackson, Vala came to Earth bearing a stolen tablet that only Daniel could decipher. She was convinced that the tablet held the secret to an incredible buried treasure, while Daniel was convinced that some way, somehow, she was going to make his life miserable. At Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell's request, however, he consented to a meeting with her. Unfortunately, the tablet wasn't the only artifact Vala had stolen. She had also brought along some insurance — two ancient kor mak bracelets which Teal'c later explains were once used to bind prisoners to their guards and thus prevent escape. Before Daniel has a chance to argue, Vala clamps one of the bracelets onto his wrist and the other onto her own, thus preventing Daniel from going on his much-desired trip on the Daedalus to Atlantis.

After Dr. Bill Lee tries and fails to remove the shackles, a resigned Daniel complies with Vala's demand and cracks the tablet's code. His translation leads the pair, along with Mitchell and Teal'c, into a deep Ancient cavern on Earth. With the treasure just out of reach, they find themselves trapped.

They figure out the puzzle and find an Ancient Long-range communication device that supposedly can help them communicate with other people. However, Vala and Daniel Jackson's minds were transported to the bodies of Harrid and Sallis, a married couple in another galaxy. There they learn about an oppressive religion called Origin. They discover that Harrid and Sallis were part of the anti-Ori underground and meet Fannis, one of their friends who was also part of this organization, and he tells them they have a communicator device identical to the one they used in the Milky Way, which Harrid and Sallis had connected to. Not long after, they are revealed as impostors. Vala is killed by The Administrator, then brought back to life by a Prior. Daniel and Vala are both taken to the Ori City of Celestis. They reject what the followers of Origin are telling them, and are both sentenced to be killed by fire. Their actual bodies in the Milky Way are responding to what is happening to them in the other galaxy, which causes Stargate Command great concern, so Teal'c and Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell take the communication device and throw it into the unstable vortex of an activating Stargate, thus vaporizing it and bringing Daniel and Vala back to their own bodies just before they can be burned.

As Vala prepared to leave Stargate Command, she was searched by Dr. Daniel Jackson. After having been gone for about a half an hour, Daniel passed out and she returned to Earth. Dr. Bill Lee theorized that the Kor mak bracelets and the Long-range communication device may have had an effect on each other. She suggested going to see the man she stole the bracelets from, Arlos Kadawam. He was willing to help but not until he received the necklace that Vala stole. They went to see Inago to get the necklace back but he wanted his power coil back. They then traveled to see Caius to get the power coil but he demanded his cargo ship in exchange. Unfortunately the ship was in the hands of the Lucian Alliance and Daniel was needed to testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee. At the hearing, she accused Senator Fischer of "having a small manhood" and Major General Henry Landry ordered SG-1 to go after the cargo ship to get her off his base. They devised a plan that required Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Teal'c to pose as Bounty hunters and hand over Vala and Daniel to Jup and Tenat. They double crossed them and stole the cargo ship. Once in orbit, they were surrounded by Lucian Alliance ships. Vala used the ship's Phantom vessel generator to confuse the ships and then the Pulse wave generator to disable the ship that were chasing them and enter hyperspace. They returned the ship and got the power coil and the necklace but once they gave it to Arlos he wasn't able to do anything to help saying the effect should wear off on its own. Vala's earlier statement that she was host to a Goa'uld is backed up when she and the others on SG-1 travel to the planet where she used to rule. She was not in fact Qetesh's host at the time, though--she went to the world shortly after the Tok'ra removed Qetesh, and she then impersonated him, convincing the people of the outpost that she was a god, and ruled over the people there, who gave her many treasures. She initially came to the planet with the intent of taking her treasures and leaving, but SG-1 (and Dr. Daniel Jackson in particular) managed to convince her to attempt to help the people by admitting to them that she was not their "god" Qetesh, that in fact Qetesh was a false god, and by using her influence over them to convince them that the Ori are also false gods. When the Prior released a plague, she used the Goa'uld healing device to try and cure it but the population kept getting reinfected. In the end, the desperate and dying people embraced the Ori and were cured, although they did allow Vala to go free.

When Nerus contacted Stargate Command, Vala warned Major General Henry Landry that allowing Nerus to come to Earth was a mistake. She then traveled to Kallana on the Prometheus and beamed down to the planet. They were unable to get the Prior to stop and detonated a Mark IX Nuclear warhead. After the planet collapsed and the Supergate began to form, she made a heroic and successful effort to prevent the Ori from establishing a foothold in this galaxy by flying a Tel'tak into a gap in the unfinished Supergate, thereby interfering with the Supergate's formation, so that the formation of the singularity destroyed the Supergate. Vala was then presumed dead. She had attempted to ring back off of the Tel'tak before it was destroyed, but she did not make it back onto the Prometheus. After analyzing what happened, Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter makes the assumption that Vala did make it to the Transportation rings, but her matter stream may have been sucked into the Ori home galaxy.

2006
Vala was found and nursed back to health by Tomin, who believed that the Ori had sent her to him. While recovering, she discovered that she was impregnated by the Ori, so she married Tomin to prevent herself from being burned alive for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. She later made some controversial comments to Denya, a friend of hers, leading Denya to suspect she didn't believe in the Ori. Denya, who was also a heretic, told Seevis, the Administrator of Ver Isca and leader of the Anti-Ori underground. She was chained in the Ara for three whole days without food and water, but Tomin cut her free. After revealing themselves, Denya and Seevis told her about their plan to sabotage the Ori warships being constructed, and allowed her access to the Ancient Long-range communication device, and through this she inhabited Dr. Daniel Jackson's body, allowing her to warn Stargate Command about the Ori fleet. Just as she was about to tell them what she knew about how the ships worked, Tomin destroyed the device and killed Seevis and Denya.

Vala accompanied Tomin with the Ori fleet, and gave birth to the Orici, whom she named Adria after her stepmother. Dr. Daniel Jackson was able to rescue Vala with help from the Odyssey, and she was later made a probationary member of Stargate Command.

After being kidnapped by Athena and The Trust, Vala lost her memory and became a waitress at Sol's Diner. SG-1 was eventually able to find her and help her regain her memories, and afterwards Major General Hank Landry made her an official member of the team.

When the Lucian Alliance hijacked the Odyssey, she used her contacts to trade for a Tel'tak, that she and SG-1 used to try and locate Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter and the Odyssey. They tracked the ships locator beacon to a planet with ties to the Alliance. Vala and Daniel went down to the planet but were captured and taken to the Odyssey. Once there, they were able to escape and reclaim the ship. Vala then worked to restore the hyperdrive with Carter. Thanks to a distraction created by Mitchell, Vala was able to repair the hyperdrive by jamming a crystal into the control panel and the Odyssey escaped.

A short time later, Vala had a dream that leads SG-1 to Osric's planet. Once there, they find Adria and it is revealed that she implanted the dream in Vala to lure her to the planet. She forces SG-1 to help her find the Sangraal. After beating Morgan's puzzles, they are transported to another planet, where they find Merlin in a Stasis pod. They revive him and he agrees to help them build the Sangraal but Merlin's body had deteriorated too much during that time, and his memories were downloaded into Daniel. Vala was concerned for Daniel's health as he slowly deteriorated from using the Molecular construction device. After Daniel was captured by Adria, she was determined to find him.

2007
She was later reunited with Tomin who captured her and tried to train her in the ways of Origin, but ultimately helped her escape.

When Daniel returned as a Prior, Vala advocated for him and believed his story even though she had no proof it was true. Along with the rest of SG-1, she boarded an Ori warship and she put together the weapon and activated it when it was time.

At the end of the Ori crusade she encountered Tomin again, and he was convinced to change allegiances after witnessing SG-1 kill a Prior. SG-1 and Tomin took the Odyssey to the Alteran Home Galaxy and there Vala and Tomin were captured and tortured before being taken to see Adria, who at that point was ascended. Adria was somehow distracted by Morgan Le Fay and left. After Vala was shown by Morgan the symbols necessary to activate the Ark, she rescued Tomin and with Dr. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c headed to the room that held the Ark. She distracted Adria, allowing Daniel to activate the Ark. Adria was then weak enough for Morgan to attack and destroy her. Afterwards, back at Stargate Command, Vala and Tomin had a conversation about their marriage. Although Vala had the choice to return with him, she chose to stay on Earth saying that while she didn't know her place in life, she hoped it was on Earth with SG-1. She and Tomin planned to spend the rest of their lives making up for the terrible things they did.

Alternate realities

 * In an alternate reality Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter accidentally traveled to, Vala was under confinement in Area 51, possibly because of theft. 

Alternate timelines

 * At the Extraction Ceremony of Ba'al she disappeared as the original Ba'al had gone back in time and changed history. In the alternate timeline she was still Qetesh (the Goa'uld who had controlled her in the past). She killed Ba'al and was later killed by the alternate Teal'c in a massive explosion. After history was restored and the Goa'uld symbiote was extracted from the Ba'al clone and killed, she decided to stay behind and help the clone's host cope with the extraction because she knew what he was going through as a former host herself.

Relationship with Daniel Jackson
It has been noted by Gen Landry and Col Mitchell that Vala only ever listens to Daniel Jackson; this causes some problems when he isn't around, as she tends to improvise strategy or create her own rather than follow the planned one. The fact that she doesn't listen to most people could be because she is used to looking out for herself, or she simply dislikes following orders. Either way, it appears that Vala does listen to Daniel because she is looking for his approval. Also, when she lost her memory, despite not trusting anyone, she seemed to instinctually trust Daniel and got back at the very least some of her memories of him without outside help and collapsed into his arms. Whether or not she got all of her memories back as a result of his appearance was unclear, but she at the very least got enough back that she trusted him enough to take her to the SGC where Doctor Lam was able to help her regain all of her lost memories.

She has feelings for Daniel, and it seems that he might feel the same towards her were it not for the fact that her actions towards him come off as nothing more than attempts at seduction; then again, it seems that she doesn't know how to approach a man she likes other than seducing him. There have been a few examples to suggest he feels the same way, such as rescuing her instead of grabbing Adria (which Vala herself told him he should've done) which would have given the SGC a valuable prisoner.

When Martin Lloyd asks SG-1 for suggestions on how to end his Wormhole X-treme movie, Vala suggests a wedding, implying that it be between her and Daniel. Daniel seems annoyed (and, possibly, slightly disturbed) by this.

In an alternate timeline within the time-dilation field around the Odyssey, Daniel and Vala, along with Landry and the rest of SG-1, are trapped on the ship for about fifty years. About three months after they enter the time-dilation field, Daniel and Vala discuss their relationship, realize their love for each other, and remain together during the fifty years. Once the time-dilation field is reversed, however, neither of them have memories of this, and their relationship returns to how it was before. Ironically, the Vala in main timeline assumes something like this must have happened, but when Teal'c refuses to elaborate on the details, she begins guessing everyone except Daniel.