Claudia Black won the hearts of many Stargate fans this year, playing the sexy thief Vala Mal Doran in eight episodes of SG-1's ninth season. Now Black is set to join the long-running series as a full-time cast member. Black will join Ben Browder ("Cameron Mitchell"), Amanda Tapping ("Samantha Carter"), Christopher Judge ("Teal'c"), Michael Shanks ("Daniel Jackson"), and Beau Bridges ("Hank Landry") for the successful series' tenth season, premiering next summer on The SCI FI Channel reports Gateworld.

The 33-year-old, Sydney-born actress is best known to sci-fi fans as Officer Aeryn Sun on SCI FI's late, lamented series "Farscape". She has also appeared in such films and TV series as "Pitch Black," "Queen of the Damned," Hercules, and more. She made her first Stargate appearance in Season Eight, hijacking the Earth ship Prometheus and attempting to sell it to a pair of fellow thieves in "Prometheus Unbound." Black appeared in the first six episodes of Season Nine, pinch-hitting for co-star Amanda Tapping during her maternity leave. Vala will return for the final two episodes of the season this March.

Thanks to 'Darren'