Greatest Star Trek Villains of All Time
A colleague and I somehow got on the topic of Star Trek (ST) villains. This got me thinking about the all time greatest villains in Star Trek. As with any “greatest of all time list”, the criteria can be subjective. Is the greatest villain the most formidable? The most diabolical? Do they inflict the most widespread damage? Several of the ST adversaries also experience some form of redemption, for example the Talosians (TOS), do they still count as villains?
Many episodes also involve an adversary that presents a challenge that is overcome by the end of the episode with no lasting damage. The crew happily moves on to the next episode. It seems to me that one of the characteristics of the great villains is that they endure; that they prevail in some way to fight again and often leave behind some lasting effect both with the crew and the audience.
So here is my list. Let me know what you think.
10. Seska (Voyager)
I thought about starting the list with the Kazon but the more I thought about it, the Kazon’s effectiveness was almost entirely rooted in Seska’s efforts. She was the puppeteer that guided their actions. This was all the more impressive given that she was a female with no relationships in the delta quadrant and managed to hijack their entire misogynistic organization for her mission. The second season cliffhanger (Basics Part 1) is one of the more desperate situations as the crew is abandoned on an inhospitable planet watching the Kazon fly away with Voyager. Seska is a formidable adversary who is always one step ahead with her insidious efforts and she leaves considerable destruction in her wake.
9. Lore (TNG).
No redemption here, Lore is pure evil and a major sibling embarrassment for Data; as well as a prime example of AI gone bad. Across multiple episodes, Lore’s supporting case includes murdering his father, summoning the crystalline entity, rallying a Borg rebellion and brainwashing data. As an artificial life form with super human strength, he was consistently formidable.
8. Nero (Star Trek Movie - 2009)
The only villain that is exclusively from a movie gets a spot on the list for the scope of the damage inflicted; destroying Vulcan, making Spock an endangered species and starting the Kelvin timeline. He also murders Captain Robau in cold-blood. His ruthlessness and singular focus on vengeance also make him a generally bad dude.
7. Xindi (Enterprise)
The Xindi have all of the bases covered. They introduce themselves by obliterating a big chunk of Earth and killing millions of humans. They survived and became a formidable adversary for an entire season. There was some redemption along the way and you could argue for putting Dolim on the list rather than indicting all 5 species, but remember that the entire council agreed with the initial deployment of the test weapon that killed millions.
6. Moriarty (TNG)
This one deviates from my criteria a bit but it recognizes one of the more memorable acting performances in Star Trek history. Played brilliantly by Daniel Davis, Moriarty is confronted with the reality that he is simply a holodeck character. Literally created as a character capable of defeating Data, Moriarty never disappointed. The audience sees his sentience emerge as he chooses a path that differs from his programming and, eventually, voluntarily gives the ship back to Picard. In this way, Moriarty’s villain status is debatable. However, in his return to the holodeck, the sheer cleverness of his ruse and ensuing negotiations, along with his willingness to destroy the ship and its crew warrant him a spot on this list.
5. Gul Dukat (DS9)
Dukat certainly endures as he is present from the beginning to the very end of DS9. The character goes through multiple apparent redemptions but remains consistently treacherous. Despite his well known history and nature, he manages to continually deceive, survive and present himself as a changed man. His life’s work includes war crimes and atrocities against the Bajorans, aligning Cardassia with the Dominion against the interests of his own people which results in millions of Cardassian deaths and of course, murdering Jadzia Dax.
4. The Founders (DS9)
The founders were slave owners, drug dealers and conquerors who demonstrated no regard for life outside of their species. They bred two species from the genetic ground up (the jem hadar and the Vorta) to worship and serve them. If that weren’t bad enough, they gave the jem hadar a genetic drug addiction to assure their loyalty. The Dominon war which killed billions was initiated by them.
3. Q (TNG and Voyager)
If the criteria were just based on the capability to inflict damage and triumph, Q would be a the top of the list (and the series would have been pretty short). However, there was a sense that Q was always playing in a manner not dissimilar to Trelane (The Squire of Goths -TOS) and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. He brought hysterical repartee to the episodes along with story lines that were almost child-like (eg. Robin Hood). So, there is a real question as to whether Q is a villain at all. Yet his complete disregard for the value of “puny", non-omnipotent life forms, his indifference toward causing suffering for his amusement, his apathy qualify him as a villain. Remember when Q loses his powers in Deja Q and we get a glimpse of the other species (the Calmarians) that he has tormented.
If the criteria were just based on the capability to inflict damage and triumph, Q would be a the top of the list (and the series would have been pretty short). However, there was a sense that Q was always playing in a manner not dissimilar to Trelane (The Squire of Goths -TOS) and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. He brought hysterical repartee to the episodes along with story lines that were almost child-like (eg. Robin Hood). So, there is a real question as to whether Q is a villain at all. Yet his complete disregard for the value of “puny", non-omnipotent life forms, his indifference toward causing suffering for his amusement, his apathy qualify him as a villain. Remember when Q loses his powers in Deja Q and we get a glimpse of the other species (the Calmarians) that he has tormented.
2. The Borg (TNG, Voyager and First Contact)
From the Enterprise’s first encounter with them, thanks to Q, the Borg struck a unique and overwhelming kind of terror; the terror of assimilation. The Collective represent a faceless and relentless force that cannot be reasoned with. Freedom is irrelevant, resistance if futile! Against many criteria, a strong case could be made for the Borg to be at the top of the list. Their damage extends from Guinan's race to fluidic space. Their destruction is both immense (remember the graveyard of starships in The Best of Both Worlds) and immensely personal (Locutus). It is also worth noting that the Borg played the key adversarial role in some of the best episodes of both TNG and Voyager.
From the Enterprise’s first encounter with them, thanks to Q, the Borg struck a unique and overwhelming kind of terror; the terror of assimilation. The Collective represent a faceless and relentless force that cannot be reasoned with. Freedom is irrelevant, resistance if futile! Against many criteria, a strong case could be made for the Borg to be at the top of the list. Their damage extends from Guinan's race to fluidic space. Their destruction is both immense (remember the graveyard of starships in The Best of Both Worlds) and immensely personal (Locutus). It is also worth noting that the Borg played the key adversarial role in some of the best episodes of both TNG and Voyager.
1. Khan (TOS, Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Into Darkness)
Since his arrival from the Botany Bay, no villain in trek history has had the staying power of Khan. Like a generational sports legend, he is so transcendent that non-trekkies recognize his name. He is the only villain that has been at the center of the story line of two movies (arguably the two best star trek movies) across both timelines and both Spocks! In the spirit of the truest Shakespearean villains, he is ruthless, brilliant and capable with a certitude in his unique moral sense of right and wrong. While he inflicts considerable broad destruction, he is the villain credited with perhaps the most personal moment in Star Trek history, the death of Spock. In theaters around the world, when the lights dim for a new Trek movie, you can hear someone scream "Khan!".
Since his arrival from the Botany Bay, no villain in trek history has had the staying power of Khan. Like a generational sports legend, he is so transcendent that non-trekkies recognize his name. He is the only villain that has been at the center of the story line of two movies (arguably the two best star trek movies) across both timelines and both Spocks! In the spirit of the truest Shakespearean villains, he is ruthless, brilliant and capable with a certitude in his unique moral sense of right and wrong. While he inflicts considerable broad destruction, he is the villain credited with perhaps the most personal moment in Star Trek history, the death of Spock. In theaters around the world, when the lights dim for a new Trek movie, you can hear someone scream "Khan!".
So there you have it. Let me know what you think. Who is missing and what is the case for replacing one of these offenders?
I struggled with the fact that I should consider Q a villain or not.
ReplyDeleteEven if I take the arguments of the posted in mind : damage and staying power something still does not fit. I believe that they do not fit because it's much more to it than a mere villain. Maybe it's a philosophical approach, but I consider Q like a Greek god of Olympian times. He's a scoundrel, although wars have been thought because of such "playful" gods. But at the end of the day one cannot forget that it is a god and we are its whims. His whims are there because Q maybe because he is bored, capricious, but he's so far away from the likes of Seska, Khan, etc that it deserves its own list, where it lives alone ( I am using IT pronoun on purpose here ). I believe it serves a purpose, to improve the crew and to judge the crew. Theological approach or not -- he's in his full right to judge the crew. The crew constantly fights Q on his own ground ( as opposed to Kirk fighting The Squire by shutting down his power source ), with "minor" moments when the Continuum semi-controls him. I could ramble on.
All considered this is a very good list.
Request : I would be interested to see a list with the lowest moments of the crew(s) -- I am just twisted like that ( for example Sisko's : I can live with the fact we just killed an Romulan ambassador to trick Rommulus to join the war moment ).