Stargate SG-1 Features A Cameo From A Star Wars Legend

Prolific genre actors are not necessarily contained to a single series. Major science fiction franchises are a great example — just look at every actor who's been in both "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" over the years. It's arguably even more amusing when an actor who's primarily known from one sci-fi thing turns up in another in such a stealthy fashion that fans don't even realize until the credits roll.

This brings us to the late, great James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader. While he doesn't ever show up onscreen, his iconic, booming voice is an integral part of the "Star Wars" experience, and his slew of other roles mean that his face is immediately recognizable to any fan. As such, you wouldn't expect the man to be able to sneak a cameo in another notable sci-fi property without people immediately noticing. Yet, that's exactly what he did in an episode of "Stargate SG-1."

No, Jones doesn't play Teal'c's (Christopher Judge) dad, much as he'd fit the part. Instead, he turns up in "Stargate SG-1" season 1, episode 9, titled "Thor's Hammer," as the nameless member of the monstrous Unas species who hosts the parasitic Goa'uld villain known as Ruax. He clashes with Teal'c and Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) on a planet called Cimmeria, only to suffer the kind of fate villains of the week tend to in a sci-fi show. As befits Jones' "Star Wars" work, though, he doesn't turn up in person. Instead, Vincent Hammond physically portrays the character while Jones provides the voice.

James Earl Jones' "Stargate SG-1" voice cameo is a fairly brief affair that's easy to miss. His character has but a few lines before he attacks Jack and Teal'c. After a brief struggle, the latter manages to push the Ruax-controlled Unas into the Thor's Hammer device that gives the episode its name, which promptly destroys Ruax. A Darth Vader-level villain this is not, but clearly, he wasn't meant to be one either. Ruax-Unas is simply a quick throwaway villain in a season that produced some of the worst episodes of "Stargate SG-1," and frankly? That makes the fact that Jones of all people voices him so much funnier.

Jones was known for his acting across numerous genres, providing his voice to memorable characters like, most notably, Mufasa from "The Lion King." However, after "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" premiered in 1977, he generally kept away from prominent roles in non-"Star Wars" sci-fi. In fact, the actor rarely even used the Darth Vader voice outside of "Star Wars," save for the one time he used it to playfully terrorize some truckers while messing with a CB radio.

That being said, Jones was known to lend his vocal prowess to the occasional science fiction-adjacent project, playing narrator roles in movies like the 1995 "Judge Dredd" and shows like the alien sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun," and even voicing the main character in the 1994 sci-fi video game "Under a Killing Moon." His voice cameo on "Stargate SG-1" fits this theme very well, giving Jones a chance to flex his sci-fi muscles while also allowing the show to proceed as planned without "the Darth Vader guy" suddenly turning up and grinding everything to a halt.