Why Stargate SG-1 Didn't Bring Back Sam J. Jones As Aris Boch

"Stargate SG-1" marched out a cavalcade of fascinating characters during its 10-season existence, to the point that it could seemingly afford to introduce some extremely cool figures and never bring them back again. One such character was Aris Boch (Sam J. Jones), a bounty hunter with a memorable design and a suitably rogue backstory. Boch is a capable and powerful individual who can easily outsmart the main characters, as well as an interesting guy who quickly builds a rapport with the SG-1 team despite their initial issues.

The charismatic and witty Boch has "recurring character" written all over him, but despite this, his sole live-action appearance is in "Stargate SG-1" season 3, episode 7, "Deadman Switch." For fans who have wondered why Jones' affable bounty hunter never returned on the show despite parting with SG-1 on good terms, the series' writer-producer Robert C. Cooper has revealed the reason for the character's one-and-done fate. Here's what he said about Aris Boch in a 2022 interview with Gateworld:

"I wanted to create a Han Solo-type character who could be kind of a wildcard. Some episodes just don't turn out the way you hoped. Some characters don't kind of 'pop' the way you think they would. Compared to other situations on the show, where you can see something that really came alive — and it's really no knock against Sam, or anyone who was involved in the episode — it just didn't work as well [as I'd hoped]. I know fans liked it, and I'm glad they did. We just didn't feel it was as successful as it could have been."

Though Cooper wasn't quite satisfied with the way Aris Boch turned out, "Stargate SG-1" did eventually manage to create a rogue character that the makers of the show deemed cool enough to become a major player. Said character is former Goa'uld host and con artist Vala Mal Doran (Claudia Black), who joined the cast of "Stargate SG-1" late in season 8 and proceeded to become an instrumental part of the final two seasons (along with the show's follow-up direct-to-DVD sequel films, "Stargate: The Ark of Truth" and "Stargate: Continuum").

Funnily enough, "Stargate SG-1" originally planned to make Vala a one-off character. Fortunately, Black (who was already something of a genre legend thanks to her roles as Aeryn Sun on "Farscape" and would later play the Nightsister Mother on "Ahsoka") was utterly magnetic as the funny and mischievous character, who turned out to fit the show perfectly. While Black's performance was the key to Vala's success, Cooper openly admitted in his interview with Gateworld that the character's wild card nature could be traced directly to Boch: 

"The DNA of [Boch] and the idea behind it, we tried again. And the next time we tried it, it was a lot more successful with Vala. ... I think making it a female character, and then Claudia Black just brought something to the role that was special. And when that happens you're like, 'Yeah, that's something that will be additive and bring life to the series.'"