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Nero (Kelvin Timeline)

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Nero is the main antagonist of the 2009 sci-fi action adventure film Star Trek , the first installment of the rebooted Star Trek film series.

He was a Romulan miner in his childhood period and served as the captain of the Narada spaceship.

He was portrayed by Eric Bana , who also played Chaz in Back to the Outback .

• 1 Biography
• 4 Navigation
• 5 References

Biography [ ]

Nero was a Romulan miner originating from the late 24th century, and captain of the mining vessel Narada . Following the destruction of Romulus in 2387 caused by a star going supernova, he sought vengeance against those he felt were responsible, ultimately resulting in him being sucked in by a black hole and transported back in time to the year 2233. Nero's actions in the past resulted in the creation of an alternate reality. In this reality, his actions led to the destruction of the USS Kelvin as well as the deaths of its two senior officers, Captain Richard Robau and Lieutenant Commander George Kirk. George Kirk's death altered the upbringing of his son James T. Kirk who, in this timeline, did not join Starfleet until 2255.

In 2258, Nero was responsible for the destruction of the alternate reality's Vulcan, which resulted in the deaths of the majority of the Vulcan race, including Spock's mother Amanda Grayson. He also attempted to destroy this timeline's Earth, but his plot was foiled by Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise . Nero apparently died when Spock caused the Jellyfish , a small ship carrying red matter, to collide with the Narada , creating a black hole in the center of the Romulan ship. Kirk gave Nero and his crew the chance to be saved, but Nero viciously refused the offer. Kirk then ordered his crew to fire upon the ship as it was being sucked into the black hole. As Nero watched his ship being sucked into the black hole while being blasted by the Enterprise, he accepted his fate and closed his eyes as his ship was sucked in, killing him and his crew and avenging the deaths of Robau, George Kirk, Amanda Grayson, and the numerous Vulcans involved in the destruction of Vulcan.

Gallery [ ]

• Russell Crowe was considered for the role of Nero before Bana was cast. In fact, Crowe and Bana were director JJ Abrams' only two choices for the role. [1] [2]
• Eric Bana was a big fan of the original Star Trek series growing up. [3]
• Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci named Nero after the Roman emperor of the same name, as a nod to the Roman inspirations of the Romulans. [4]
• In the script of  Star Trek , Nero seemed significantly more compassionate to Humans than he is in the final version of the film, at one point commenting, "It's not the fault of the human race that Starfleet chose Earth as its center. You're a more noble race than my fallen cousins. I'll take no pleasure in your extinction." The script also had Nero kill Ayel prior to the Battle of Earth, and Nero's scripted last words were "Forgive me... Romulus..." [5]
• In a deleted scene, Nero is interrogated by a Klingon  on the prison planet Rura Penthe, and escapes. This sequence also contains Nero's line, "The wait is over.", as seen in trailers for the film. [6] [7]
• When writer Cameron Crowe saw a rough cut of the film, he kept asking who played the villain, being staggered to realize that this was Eric Bana.

Navigation [ ]

References [ ].

• ↑ Russell Crowe Beamed Up For Star Trek Movie
• ↑ Russell Crowe As ‘Star Trek’ Villian?
• ↑ EXCLUSIVE Eric Bana interviewed
• ↑ Orci and Kurtzman Reveal Star Trek Details In TrekMovie Fan Q&A
• ↑ STAR TREK
• ↑ STAR TREK Deleted Scene: Nero Vs. Klingons
• ↑ Star Trek (2009) - Klingon Prison Escape/"The Wait is Over" (Deleted Scene)
• 1 The Boiled One
• 2 Miss Circle
• 3 Skar King

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Published Aug 26, 2022

Everything You Need to Know About Nero

Who is the Romulan captain with an axe to grind towards Spock? Let’s explore the Kelvin timeline and find out!

StarTrek.com

Welcome back to the Star Trek Villain Showdown as it heads towards the ultimate final face-off between Khan and Gul Dukat !

Before we get to the epic battle between those two nefarious foes, we’re showcasing a few honorable mentions who kept our Federation crews on their toes. There’s the fanatical Kai Winn Adami who wreaked havoc on Deep Space 9 along with Gul Dukat. We also got Spock’s wayward half-brother Sybok . Now we’re diving into the Kelvin timeline to meet the Romulan miner turned vengeful captain, Nero , and his sole mission to destroy Spock’s home world and family.

Who Was Nero?

Nero , portrayed menacingly by the brilliant Eric Bana, opens Star Trek (2009) at the helm of the Romulan mining vessel turned warship the Narada as it emerges from a black hole and immediately launches a vicious assault on the Federation ship the U.S.S. Kelvin .

Upon learning the stardate—2233—and discovering Captain Robau ’s lack of knowledge of Ambassador Spock , Nero lashes out and kills Robau in anger. As the Narada continues its full-scale attack on the Kelvin , the now acting captain George Kirk sacrifices his life by plotting a collision course with the Narada in order to give the 800 survivors of the crew, including his wife Winona and newborn son James T. Kirk , a fighting chance at escape and survival.

Why Was Nero Searching for Spock?

Nero arrives in 2233 through the black hole from over 150 years in the future. Following his assault on the Kelvin , Nero and his vessel waited another 25 years before the arrival of Ambassador Spock, providing him ample time to sit with grief over the loss of his wife, unborn son, and home planet Romulus.

In the year 2387, Nero, off-world on a mining expedition, faced the destruction of his family and Romulus due to an adjacent supernova. Ambassador Spock, in his Vulcan Science Academy Jellyfish vessel, attempted to neutralize the supernova’s effects with a black hole created with red matter. However, Spock was unsuccessful in reaching Romulus before its annihilation.

Nero directs his all-consuming rage towards Spock, who had sought to mitigate disaster, and the Federation, who did not aid in the dying planet’s evacuations. Unbeknownst to Nero, former admiral Jean Luc Picard left the Federation to command a rescue armada to aid in the evacuation of 18 billion Romulans off their planet, as explained on Star Trek: Picard ’s “Remembrance .”

Nero’s Incursion Creates an Alternate Timeline — The Kelvin Timeline

The crew aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin were not familiar with the Romulans as first visual contact with the race would not occur until 2266, as seen in The Original Series ’ “ Balance of Terror ” episode.

The singularity event pulls Nero and his crew on the Narada , as well as Spock and his Jellyfish , into its red matter-created black hole, sending them into the past. While Nero arrives in 2233, Ambassador Spock finds himself in 2258, setting up a time paradox with the younger Commander Spock , first officer to Captain Christopher Pike , aboard the not yet christened U.S.S. Enterprise .

It’s Nero’s actions in 2233 that trigger the creation of an alternate reality, dubbed the "Kelvin" timeline, changing course and the history for the Federation and the last of the Romulan Empire’s present future in the Prime Universe.

The Assault on Earth and Vulcan

In order to inflict the same amount of pain onto his adversary Spock, Nero seeks to punish the half-Vulcan, half-human ambassador by having him witness the destruction of his two home worlds — Vulcan and Earth. Nero believes destroying Vulcan and the Federation will ensure a future for Romulus, one where they are the ultimate power in the universe.

When Ambassador Spock arrives in 2258, Nero and his crew are ready to intercept. Marooning the elder Spock to Delta Vega, Nero forces him to witness the destruction of Vulcan with Spock’s supply of red matter.

As the Federation dispatched several starships to aid the Vulcan planet, Nero spots the Enterprise and wants the younger Spock, of the Kelvin timeline, to witness Vulcan’s destruction and know it was brought by his hands as well.

The Enterprise is unsuccessful in thwarting Vulcan’s destruction, as the red matter created a black hole at the center of the planet. This caused the planet to implode on itself. Both the young and elder Spock face the mass genocide of their people, including the loss of their mother, Amanda Grayson .

It is Nero’s deep desire to attack Spock’s people and planet that ultimately cements his short-lived present. Now on the radar of both the Federation and the U.S.S. Enterprise , Pike, Spock, George Kirk’s son Jim , and the rest of the crew will stop at nothing to stop Nero from doing what he did to Vulcan to Earth and other Federation planets. It’s this narrow-minded pursuit to kill Spock that has Nero and the Narada engulfed by the red matter he sought to exploit when he attempts to destroy Earth. Refusing aid from Captain Kirk and the Enterprise after his ship is fatally damaged, Nero declares he’d rather witness Romulus suffer a thousand times and goes down with his ship.

Holding a Mirror to Spock

In Star Trek (2009), Nero and his actions present a treacherous mirror of the Romulans to Spock and Vulcans. In fact, Romulans and Vulcans descended from the same ancestry ; Romulans are distant cousins from Vulcans who rejected Surak and his teachings that led Vulcans to master their emotions via logic. Those who rebuked those teachings would become what we now know as Romulans. The Romulans were a very moral people with an absolutist view of what’s right or wrong. As such, they were incredibly xenophobic and isolationists, which was why and how they went unnoticed by the Federation for as long as they did.

In the film, both Nero and Spock grapple with the loss of their loved ones and witness the destruction of their entire home worlds. However, how they react to the all-consuming grief and despair sets them both on mirrored paths. While Nero pursues the road of narrow-minded revenge, both the young and elder Spock head down the path of hope and survival, ensuring their Vulcan history and the remaining surviving Vulcans can rebuild an enduring future.

Where does Nero rank for you on the never-ending list of nefarious Star Trek foes? Let us know @StarTrek on social! And come back to StarTrek.com next week as we had to the Star Trek Villain Showdown finals as Khan goes head-to-head with Gul Dukat!

Christine Dinh (she/her) is the managing editor for StarTrek.com. She’s traded the Multiverse for helming this Federation Starship.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Distribution Group on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Bana: Nero Is Really The Misunderstood Tragic Hero Of Star Trek

We got a few minutes alone with Star Trek 's Romulan bad boy, Eric Bana , and looked deep into the psyche of Nero. Bana explained how he got so revved up, he passed out on set.

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Let's talk about your character, Nero. He has such a tragic back story. Did you ever feel like a tragic hero?

That's a good question. Tragic hero? I guess to a degree. I never really saw him as a villain, even though he sort of performs that function for the drama of the story. To me, yeah, he was Nero, leader of the Romulans who has been wronged and is seeking revenge, and that's kind of how I see him so I think. Yeah, I like your description.

The writers wrote a whole comic prequel about your character, did you read it?

No, no I didn't, actually. I was so engrossed in the script and had a bunch of ideas for the character, and I was very careful. I learned about some of that stuff, but I didn't want to cloud what I had going on in my own head, but I'm looking forward to reading it now.

So how did you come up with your ideas for the character? Where did you go?

Essentially, I think if a script's well-written, it sparks your imagination, and you almost like start directing the film in your head, with ideas. And for me it was a lot of his back story and the fact that he's been in prison for so long, and was so patient in enacting his revenge, which makes it a lot about the character. So it was essentially, you know, I guess... you join the dots and try to come up with something that's interesting and entertaining. You know, it's a character we haven't seen before.

I'm curious about your movements in character. You're very aggressive and strong, did you come up with any of those reactions and jumps yourself or was it all planned out?

Some of them were a bit spur of the moment. It was a pretty intense character. I passed out, I think, once during one of the takes, I got so carried away. Lost about twenty seconds, down on the floor, and got up, and the camera was still rolling and it was like, "I guess I just continue now." Um yeah. It was pretty crazy.

I can't believe you passed out on set! How did you stay that cranked up on set?

You get used to it. The reality of it is you just ebb and flow. There are times during the day when you're really really peaking, and then you just come down the other side. It's like having an espresso, you know - you just gotta allow for that and just try and jazz yourself up when that camera's rolling, but it is exhausting.

Time traveling should be very familiar to you now. You time-travel in Star Trek and you time travel in The Time Traveler's Wife . How is that time-traveling different from what we see in Star Trek ?

Well it was very, very different. The Time Traveler's Wife, ... it's very, very emotional context, all the time. I mean, they're going back to visit your wife as she's growing up. It's such a beautiful story, and yeah, yeah, it's a lot less about revenge and destruction.

Does the travel have any special FX in Time Traveler that are similar to Star Trek with the back holes?

No. I wouldn't really describe it as science fiction-y at all, it's a love story with some time-traveling elements.

And are we gonna see more science fiction from you after this?

I don't know. I'm sort of not such a huge science fiction guy. It just sort of happened that way. I got involved in this, you know essentially, because I thought the script was incredible and [I'm] just a huge fan of J.J., and was dying to work with him. And so it was out of a longing to get into science fiction, but yeah, I'm interested in it. It's fascinating.

See Nero in action this Thursday night when Star Trek is released in theaters.

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'Star Trek': The 10 Best Villains, Ranked

"KHAAANNNN! KHAAANNNN!"

With well over twenty television series and movies focusing on the exploits and adventures of numerous Starfleet commanders, the Star Trek saga has become one of the most iconic sci-fi stories in entertainment history. With its incredible line-up of heroic leads, though, there also needs to be an array of antagonists capable of striking fear into the hearts of fans.

From the original Star Trek series to revival shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation to 2009’s cinematic re-imaging of the franchise, the saga at large has a cohort of worthy villains. Ranging from misunderstood antagonists to outright evil and tyrannical beings, Star Trek ’s 10 best bad guys are just a small collection of the regular threats to the galaxy Starfleet faces.

10 Captain Gabriel Lorca – 'Star Trek: Discovery' (2017-)

From Harry Potter to Star Wars: Rebels , Jason Isaacs has made a career out of playing villains with outstanding and underrated impact. As such, it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise when Gabriel Lorca was revealed to be a bad guy in Star Trek: Discovery .

As the commanding officer of the USS Discovery, Lorca presented as a hard-edged captain, but not one without a sense of fairness and accountability. However, it was then revealed that he was an imposter from the mirror universe who had murdered and schemed to get to his position. To date, Discovery is yet to produce a villain as compelling as Lorca.

9 Nero — 'Star Trek' (2009)

A credit to the brilliance of 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , many of the series’ villains have boasted epic tales of revenge against crew members of Starfleet. While most of those homages have fallen well short, one that did get close was Eric Bana ’s portrayal of Nero, a spiteful Romulan who blames Spock ( Zachary Quinto ) for not preventing the supernova which killed his family.

RELATED: Why We Haven't Gotten a New 'Star Trek' Movie Yet

Traveling back in time to exact his vengeance, Nero creates an alternate timeline the new Star Trek movies take part in. While the character is a little one-dimensional, Bana makes his seething hatred burst off the screen with a magnetic vigor, and the fact that he realizes part of his plan by destroying Vulcan made him all the more impactful.

8 Kai Winn Adami — 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' (1993-1999)

Religious zealots often make for fantastic villains. In addition to having immense power and influence in their story worlds, they also usually excel as complex characters who are difficult for protagonists to outmaneuver. That was exactly what fans got in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Winn Adami ( Louise Fletcher ).

As a ruthless opportunist, Adami often used her prominent standing in her faith as a means to gain more power and often came at odds with Captain Benjamin Sisko ( Avery Brooks ), despite being named the Emissary of the Prophets. Delivering every snide line with her spiteful, condescending smirk, Adami may not have been the most terrifying villain in Star Trek , but she was certainly capable of stoking the ire of fans like few others.

7 General Chang — 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country' (1991)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country served as the film farewell to the cast of the original series. It also saw the belligerent race of the Klingons restored to the brand of villainy that made them so popular in the original series, with General Chang ( Christopher Plummer ) an over-the-top antagonist for the ages.

With peace talks between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets nearing a conclusion, Chang uses his unique Birds of Prey warship to frame Captain Kirk for a political assassination, thus shattering relations between the Klingons and humanity. Resentful of the prospect of a peaceful future, the wily old Klingon was also made memorable for his love of Shakespearean quotes.

6 Weyoun — 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' (1993-1999)

A gifted villainous actor, Jeffrey Combs has appeared as a wide range of characters throughout Star Trek , but the greatest one he portrayed was Deep Space Nine ’s Weyoun. A Vorta who serves as the mouth of the Dominion, the conniving diplomat always presented a wide smile but was never one to be trusted.

RELATED: From 'Picard' to 'Discovery': Every 'Star Trek' TV Show (So Far), Ranked

As a clone (which all Vorta are), he was also quite difficult to get rid of. Despite being killed several times throughout the series, he kept coming back for more and usually delighted fans every time he returned with his wonderfully slimy personality still firmly intact.

5 Q – 'Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

As a being of unlimited power, it is quite funny that Q ( John de Lancie ) became almost a comedic figure in the series, but that is not how he was introduced. First appearing in the pilot episode of The Next Generation , the omnipotent villain charged Picard for the crimes of humanity before becoming a recurring character, not only in The Next Generation but in the wider Star Trek series.

Arguably his most villainous action came when he challenged Picard’s mettle as a leader by transporting the Enterprise to a distant system. His display of immense power introduced the Borg to the Federation, which kick-started a conflict that resulted in the deaths of millions.

4 Kruge — 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' (1984)

Feudal, ruthless, and incredibly brutal, the Klingons were a military power to be feared ever since their introduction in Star Trek: The Original Series . That couldn’t have been emphasized better when Christopher Lloyd portrayed Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .

A commander of a Klingon Bird of Prey warship, Kruge was a relentless fighter with a stern desire to acquire secrets of Genesis to further his career and strengthen the Klingon Empire. He killed his own lover for looking at classified information and sanctioned the murder of Captain Kirk’s ( William Shatner ) son, something which haunted Kirk throughout the rest of the Star Trek saga.

3 Gul Dukat — 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' (1993-1999)

Star Trek has had many unforgettable villains across its numerous television series, but few are as truly evil as Gul Dukat ( Marc Alaimo ). A Cardassian war criminal who appeared throughout Deep Space Nine , he ruled over Bajor with an iron fist, assembling labor camps that saw millions of Bajorans die.

RELATED: Ranking the Top 10 Takes on the Enterprise: Trekking Throughout the Years

Interestingly, Alaimo didn’t only excel at making Dukat a force of evil, but he was also able to give him layers and complexity as well, which made him all the more compelling. Not only the best of Deep Space Nine ’s antagonists, Gul Dukat is arguably greatest villain in Star Trek ’s television history.

2 The Borg Queen — 'Star Trek: First Contact' (1996)

After making their first appearance in the second season of The Next Generation , the Borg fast became one of Star Trek ’s most notable antagonistic clans. As a cybernetic force operating as a hive mind to assimilate all other lifeforms to their state of being, the Borg were a terrifying threat that fans feared would be undermined with the introduction of their queen in Star Trek: First Contact .

With Alice Krige portraying her, however, the character became one of the saga’s most striking villains with her horrific goals and her unnerving sensuality. The character became a recurring role in the franchise, appearing in Star Trek: Voyager and recently returning in Star Trek: Picard .

1 Khan Noonien Singh — 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' (1982)

If its cinematic predecessor left some fans a little underwhelmed, then The Wrath of Khan more than made up for it. The first of many sequels, it features all the fan-favorite main characters of the series but became such an adored film within Star Trek ’s filmography thanks to Ricardo Maltabán ’s turn as Khan.

A past enemy of Starfleet, Khan was a genetically engineered superhuman on a warpath to exact revenge against Captain Kirk and his crew. With his raw and resonant motivation, some great dialogue, and a magnetic performance from Maltabán, Khan elevated The Wrath of Khan to be the best Star Trek movie produced to date and stands unmatched as the greatest villain the saga has ever produced.

KEEP READING: From 'Star Trek' to 'The Mandalorian': 10 Iconic Shows Set in Space

Star Trek (2009)

Eric bana: nero.

• Photos (12)

Photos 

Quotes 

James T. Kirk : Your ship is compromised, too close to the singularity to survive without assistance, which we are willing to provide.

Spock : [speaking privately]  Captain, what are you doing?

James T. Kirk : Showing them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock. I thought you'd like that.

Spock : No, not really. Not this time.

Nero : [replying to the offer of assistance]  I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you.

James T. Kirk : You got it! Arm phasers. Fire everything we've got!

[as the Narada pursues Spock, he suddenly whips the ship around and heads directly for it] 

Nero : What's he doing?

Spock's Ship's Computer : Ambassador Spock, you are on a collision course.

Nero : [panicking]  FIRE EVERYTHING!

Nero : James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man. He went on to captain the U.S.S. Enterprise... but that was another life. A life I will deprive you of just like I did your father!

Christopher Pike : I'm Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?

Nero : Hi, Christopher. I'm Nero.

Nero : That ship. Take it out.

Romulan : Sir, if you ignite the Red Matter...

Nero : [yelling]  I want Spock dead now!

[from trailer #3] 

Nero : I've been waiting for this day my whole life... This day of reckoning.

Nero : I know your face from Earth's history.

[from trailer #2] 

Nero : The wait is over.

Nero : We wait. We wait for the one who allowed our home to be destroyed, as we've been doing for 25 years.

Ayel : Once we've killed him?

Nero : Kill him? I'm not gonna kill him. I'm gonna make him watch.

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7 best Star Trek villains, ranked

Thanks to its more than 50 years of continued existence, Star Trek   has produced just a lot of stuff. That stuff includes several great TV shows, more than a few outstanding movies, and perhaps most importantly of all, some genuinely great villains.

4. The Klingons

3. the borg queen, 2. gul dhukat.

Because Trek has always concerned itself with the politics of the stories it tells, the series has also introduced some genuinely nuanced bad guys. There are plenty of great villains of the week, to be sure, but there are also legendary villains who have made their way onto this list. These are the seven best Star Trek villains, ranked.

Say what you will about  Star Trek Into Darkness , but J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek effort was a rousing success. Among its many feats was its introduction of a totally new villain in the form of Nero, a vengeful Romulan who blames Spock for not preventing the death of his family.

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Eric Bana’s performance in the role is transformative, but what really sells the whole endeavor is the sense of grandeur and scale that’s on display. Nero is filled with rage, and it’s that rage that has driven him to where he is now.

We’ve had plenty of great villains from across the many Trek shows, but Deep Space Nine ’s Weyoun was among the most beloved, in part because he was an ideal foil to the show’s cast. As the mouthpiece for the Dominion and a Vorta himself, Weyoun always delivered his message with a smile, but that rarely meant that he actually had the best of intentions.

In fact, Weyoun was in many ways your typical slimey politician, and that was undoubtedly a huge part of what made him so appealing to fans of  Deep Space Nine every time he was killed off and then inevitably returned to the show.

An omnipotent being that is a reminder of how far  Star Trek  characters can come, Q was first introduced as an ominous presence but became something much sillier as he became more familiar to Star Trek fans.

It was Q’s actions that ultimately resulted in the introduction of the Borgs to the universe, and he was also the one who charged Picard with the crimes of humanity. In spite of his power, Q is ultimately not the worst perpetrator of evil in the world of Star Trek, even though he certainly could have been.

In many ways the primordial Star Trek villain, the Klingons have shown up in a number of different villainous guises over the course of the franchise’s long and storied history. In the show’s original configuration, they existed as a foil to the Federation — the USSR to the Federation’s America.

Of course, Trek never expressed any idea quite that simply, and the Klingons were always humanized, even as they often opposed what the Federation was doing. You understood that they had their reasons, even if you weren’t always supposed to be sympathetic to them.

The Borg, in general, is a major menace to the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Operating as a hive mind with the goal of assimilating all other living things into them, part of the point of the Borg was that they were everywhere and nowhere.

That’s why many were so worried by the introduction of the Borg Queen, but they didn’t have any reason for concern. The Borg Queen totally works, in large part thanks to Alice Krige’s memorable, sensual performance in the central role.

Gul Dukat was the best version of the authoritarian mode of Star Trekvillain. A character so villainous and tyrannical that you wanted nothing more than his ultimate defeat, even if you also found him compelling.

A Cardassian war criminal who ruled over Bajor as a complete totalitarian, what made Dukat so remarkable was that you could understand that his actions were heinous, even as you found yourself drawn into his world. Many argue that Gul Dhukat is the finest villain Star Trek has ever produced, and we think that’s pretty close to being on the money.

A name memorably screamed not once but twice in Star Trek movies , Khan is most remembered today for killing Spock in  The Wrath of Khan , widely regarded as the best of the  Trek  movies for a reason.

Although Khan was just a villain-of-the-week in the original series, in Wrath of Khan , he is elevated to a devious mastermind, capable of taking down and outsmarting even Kirk, Spock, and their crew. Ricardo Montalbán’s performance made the role one of the most important in the history of the franchise. As for Benedict Cumberbatch’s reprisal of the character? Well, the less said about that, the better.

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Because the franchise is so beloved by so many, there have been tons of great parodies over the years. We've pulled together a list of seven of the best parodies in the history of Star Wars, ranked from pretty good to undeniably great. 7. Hardware Wars Hardware Wars: The Original Star Wars Parody 1978

Star Wars: The Acolyte aims to be one of the more unique additions to the Star Wars universe. This upcoming series will give audiences their first look into the world of the Jedi during the age of the High Republic. Specifically, it will follow the Jedi near the end of this era as they investigate a string of crimes that will have them uncover evil forces brewing in the shadows.

Due to the open-ended nature of this piece of Star Wars history, fans can only imagine what The Acolyte will add to the franchise. But until it premieres, here's hoping the show will feature these five things in its first season. The Jedi-Sith War

Star Trek: Who Plays Nero & Which Academy Award Winner Was Rumored For The Part?

The "Star Trek" universe has had a brilliant collection of villains causing trouble for Starfleet and whichever hot-shot team leader we follow on their particular five-year mission. In the case of the "Star Trek" reboot in 2009, Chris Pine's charismatic James T. Kirk faces off against a rebellious Romulan named Nero, who was responsible for the death of Kirk's father (Chris Hemsworth). Considered one of the most dangerous foes in "Star Trek" history , such a role demanded some serious acting chops — someone who could deliver menace that stretched beyond the prosthetics and makeup covering their face. The filmmakers found it in none other than "Chopper" and "Munich" star Eric Bana, who managed to find some humanity in an alien enemy who was ferocious when he needed to be.

Taking on the antagonist gig in what he described to The Guardian as a film that's "almost made for the non 'Star Trek' fan," Bana, as brilliant as he was in the role, wasn't the initial choice for Nero. Instead, J.J. Abrams had another star in mind for the part — one who originated not too far from Bana's homeland. It was "Gladiator" star and Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe.

Russell Crowe got offered to face off with Kirk in Abrams' Star Trek

Perhaps in another timeline (one where the Academy Award winner wasn't so busy at the time), Russell Crowe may have accepted the initial offer to take on the role of Nero when J.J. Abrams tried to beam him aboard. According to CourierMail , Crowe was "definitely considering J.J. Abrams' offer. Russell was always a 'Star Trek' fan as a kid, which is a big bonus." Unfortunately, that casting never came to be, but at least the result we got was still worth a watch when Bana came aboard.

As Nero, Bana provided one of those rare but always welcome foes that, as evil as they are, are relatable in their actions and aims. "I hate films where the villain just turns up, and we have to accept that they're the villain for no real reason," explained Bana, whose character swore vengeance against Spock both past (Leonard Nimoy) and present (Zachary Quinto). "We can at least connect to some human quality in the rage and the revenge." While Crowe's involvement never came to pass, given that "Star Trek" has gained a resurgence with the likes of "Strange New Worlds" and "Star Trek: Discovery," there still might be some space aboard the bridge for Crowe to turn up eventually, in this parsec or the next.

15 Greatest Star Trek Villains Of All Time, Ranked

Just because Star Trek takes place in a mostly idyllic future doesn't mean that its protagonists haven't had to face some menacing foes.

The Star Trek universe has grown by leaps and bounds since the first episode aired on September 8, 1966. The fan-favorite series is famous for depicting a future where mankind has come to find peace. Humanity now traveled the stars seeking new life and new civilizations. Star Trek has given the world of pop culture quite a few different heroes. Star Trek is nearly 60 years old, and the science fiction saga created by Gene Roddenberry only lasted this long because of its heroes.

With Star Trek , its villains are often mere ideas, misunderstood alien creatures, or entire races created as a metaphorical allegory. Still, Captain Kirk, Spock, Jean-Luc Picard, or Seven of Nine transcend even their own heroic status when they come face-to-face with a real villain. From Khan Noonien Singh to the nameless Borg, Star Trek 's villains may not be as iconic as that other space franchise, but they nonetheless stand apart from the typical threat to the United Federation of Planets . While not every villain has stood out over time, some have become as well-known as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. These are the villains that have left an impression not only in the Star Trek universe but in pop culture as a whole. They are presented in chronological order based on their first appearance in the franchise.

Updated on December 30, 2023, by Robert Vaux: The article has been updated to include details on each character and when they appeared in the franchise. The entries have also been reorganized to better rank each villain accordingly.

15 Gary Mitchell Tried To Turn The Captain Kirk Against His Crew

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Gary Mitchell appeared in one of the most memorable episodes of Star Trek: TOS . He started as a close friend of Captain Kirk and the ship's navigator for the USS Enterprise . However, the Galactic Barrier irradiated Mitchell, and he gained supernatural powers. Gary's powers continued to intensify, and as he grew more powerful, he became less human.

Gary Mitchell lost all connection to his humanity, and he put the crew of the Enterprise at risk. He tried to force Captain Kirk to do the one thing no good leader ever wants to do; kill his own crewmate. Gary Mitchell set the standard for what made a good Star Trek villain. He was a character fans rooted against even as they felt for him. This episode was the second pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series . While Captain James T. Kirk proved to be the hero NBC wanted, he needed Gary Mitchell to show them why.

14 The Romulan Star Empire Attacked From The Shadows

While the Romulans have never been given the same standing in pop culture as the Klingons, they are arguably even more villainous. The Earth-Romulan War led to the creation of the United Federation of Planets. The secretive Romulans were so elusive that no one saw their faces for over a hundred years. While there have been many dangerous individual Romulans, like Nero, perhaps the most sinister was Picard 's Narek. A member of the Zhat Vash, hidden within the Tal Shiar "secret police," he used kindness and empathy as his weapon against Soji Asha, the "daughter" of Star Trek: TNG 's Data.

When Romulans first showed up in The Original Series , it shocked everyone to learn that they looked just like Vulcans. The Romulans were an offshoot of the Vulcan race from millennia before the series. They refused to bury their feelings and become purely logical beings, which led them to establish their own society. By the time of the 32nd Century, however, the Vulcans and Romulans reunited thanks to Spock's efforts.

13 Khan Noonien Singh Left Destruction In His Wake

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A former ruler of Earth, Khan Noonien Singh was a genetically engineered superhuman who rose to power during the Eugenics Wars. He became Star Trek 's greatest villain after he was overthrown and exiled into space. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , he and his surviving fellow "augments" nearly killed everyone on the Enterprise . To save the ship, beloved character Spock died .

Khan stands out as not only the greatest villain in Star Trek but one of the greatest villains in sci-fi. The Wrath of Khan reinvigorated the Star Trek franchise, leading to a series of sequels and new shows that continue to this day. Khan was such a compelling villain that he was even brought back for the second movie in the reboot trilogy, Star Trek Into Darkness . His descendant, La'an Noonien Singh, serves as the Chief of Security on the Enterprise in Strange New Worlds .

12 The Klingon Empire Was Ruthless And Formidable

One of the best-known alien races from the Star Trek franchise is the Klingons. They started as an allegorical representation of the Soviet Union to Starfleet's America in The Original Series . By the time of Star Trek: TNG , it was revealed that the Klingons made a tenuous peace with the United Federation of Planets. This was set in motion in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , paralleling the fall of the Soviet Union.

However, Kruge, played by Christopher Lloyd in The Search for Spock , was perhaps the most formidable of all, because he killed Captain Kirk's son, David Marcus. The Federation-Klingon War seen in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery featured the Klingons as one of the greatest foes in Star Trek . Despite the heroic actions of Lt. Cmdr Worf in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine , Klingons like Kruge and General Chang prove that one can never turn their backs on the Klingons.

11 Q and the Q Continuum Were Over-Powered

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Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation , Q is an extradimensional being of unknown origin who appears to have nearly full control over all time and space. He is a member of a continuum of other beings, who also identify as "Q," meant to keep the cosmic balance of the universe. Q takes a specific interest in Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of his Enterprise. He put them on "trial" to see if humanity had overcome their "savage" nature. If Picard failed to convince Q, he would erase humanity from the galaxy.

While many of Q's exploits were fun to watch, it was his actions that first brought the Federation to the attention of the Borg. Q tried to play his games with another of Star Trek 's best captains, Benjamin Sisko. He quickly discovered that not every human was as willing to play along with his whims when Sisko punched the omnipotent being. He also frequently visited Captain Janeway on the USS Voyager, including involving her in the Q Continuum civil war that only ended when the fan-favorite Q mated with another of his species.

10 Lore Was A Master Manipulator

One of the things some fans forget about Data is that he has a brother. Dr. Noonien Soong created Lore, who is a prototype android and the older brother of Lt. Cmdr. Data. He had emotions, but his inability to handle his feelings properly led to Lore becoming a dangerous villain. He believed he was better than humans and other organic lifeforms.

Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation , Lore believed he was not only superior to living beings but to his brother Data as well. His association with powerful forces like the Crystalline Entity allowed him to manipulate it and turn it towards destruction. Lore would later lead a group of Borg against the crew of the Enterprise. However, his ego would eventually lead to his destruction.

9 Armus Killed Lt. Tasha Yar

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While there were several "redshirts" who died in service to the Enterprise , no member of the main bridge crew was permanently killed off without being resurrected somehow. That all changed in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "Skin of Evil" from the first season. A few of the best members of Star Trek: TNG 's away team encountered a powerful being known as Armus.

Armus was a being composed of the discarded evil from an ancient race of alien celestials. He had incredible psionic abilities that he used to strike down Lt. Tasha Yar. She died instantly, and Armus threatened other members of the crew by trapping them inside his inky liquid body. Picard outsmarted Armus and free his crew members, but the damage was done. Denise Crosby, the actor who played Yar, wanted to leave the series during its tumultuous first season. However, she would return in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "Unification I & II."

8 The Borg Queen Led A Conquering Army

One of the most dangerous enemies from Star Trek: TNG was the Borg . They were a hivemind of cyborgs that hoped to wipe out all living things in the universe and replace them. The Borg go from planet to planet, assimilating the alien races they come across and turning them into Borg. They also used up the resources of the planets to fuel their evolution and power their ships.

The Borg Queen led the Collective when they threatened the Enterprise in Star Trek: First Contact . The only true threat to the Borg was the Federation, and they even attempted to assimilate Earth in the past to erase its place in history. The Borg were ultimately defeated by a one-two punch (separated by 25 years) from Captains Picard and Janeway. In the Voyager series finale, a time-traveling Admiral Janeway poisoned the collective while also using them to get the lost ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. In Picard Season 3, the Borg made a last-ditch attempt to assimilate Starfleet but were defeated by the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D.

7 The Cardassian Empire Had A Violent History Of War And Oppression

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Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced a few new alien species who would become lasting threats to the Federation. The Cardassians were a xenophobic race of aliens involved in quite a few violent skirmishes over territory. They also occupied the planet of Bajor and committed several atrocities before the enslavement ended. Ensign Ro Laren was the first recurring Bajoran character, until Major Kira Nerys became Benamin Sisko's first officer on the Deep Space Nine station, originally built by the Cardassians to further oppress Bajor.

There were a few memorable Cardassian soldiers who left a lasting impression on fans. Gul Madred captured and psychologically tormented Captain Picard in "Chain of Command." The former head of Deep Space Nine was Gul Dukat, who was responsible for war crimes against the Bajoran people. If Deep Space Nine had a central villain, it was Gul Dukat, who ultimately met his end along with Captain Sisko in the series finale.

6 The Changelings and the Dominion Sought Power

While Captain Picard's biggest problems were Q and the Borg, Captain Sisko and the crew of Deep Space Nine had to deal with the Dominion. Hailing from the Gamma Quadrant, the Dominion was essentially an evil version of the United Federation of Planets. Made up of hundreds of races, the Dominion looked to expand past the Gamma Quadrant using the Bajoran Wormhole. Called "the Founders" by other Dominion races, a character known only as "the female changeling" led their war effort.

The Dominion War lasted two years and became one of the deadliest wars in Federation history. It only ended when a secretive faction of Starfleet, known as Section 31, created a deadly plague. It threatened to wipe out the shape-shifting alien race known as the Founders, who led the Dominion. Od o, the constable of Deep Space Nine, was a changeling who didn't know his history. In their liquid state, changelings can "join." He administered the cure first to the female changeling and then, in the series finale, returned to their home, the Great Link, to cure the rest of his species. Little is known about what happened to other Dominion races.

5 The Hirogen Were Blood-Thirsty Hunters

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A species of hunters, The Hirogen harried the USS Voyager as they attempted to return to Federation space. Wanting the Voyager and her crew as trophies, various groups of the Hirogen attacked the lost ship numerous times throughout the series. With their insatiable need for the hunt, the Hirogen proved one of Voyager's toughest challenges.

The encounters varied from one or two of the crew coming across the Hirogen to a two-part episode where some Hirogen, including Alpha Karr and his second Turanj, capture the ship. They force the brainwashed crew into performing various scenarios on the Holodeck, including a version of German-occupied France. When Captain Janeway successfully negotiated a cease-fire with Karr, Turanj killed him and tried to continue hunting the crew.

4 'Boothby' and Species 8472 Could Impersonate Others To Get Their Way

Despite only appearing in a few episodes, Species 8472 was one of the most dangerous enemies the Voyager ever faced. Hailing from another dimension known as "fluidic space," Species 8472 used a form of biotechnology for the ships and weapons. After their first entry into the dimension Star Trek heroes occupy, they set up a holographic Starfleet headquarters as a reconnaissance operation, including duplicating legendary Academy groundskeeper Boothby, played by the late Ray Walston.

Initially, they posed such a threat that it took an uneasy alliance between the Voyager and the Borg to defeat them, bringing Seven of Nine into the crew. Yet, Captain Janeway learned Species 8472 wasn't as aggressive as the Borg claimed. Rather, the Borg tried to assimilate them, and they assumed all creatures in the galaxy were like the Borg. The member of Species 8472 who impersonated Boothby was a threat but not unreasonable. He later told Janeway he would try to convince his fellows to not invade the Milky Way.

3 The Xindi Murdered Millions Of Humans During Their Attack On Earth

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The Xindi were a species made up of a collective of six alien races located in the Delphic Expanse. There were the humanoid primates, the ape-like aboreals, an insectoid race, an aquatic race, and the militant, villainous reptilians. The main villains in the third season of the controversial Star Trek: Enterprise , the Xindi sent a superweapon to Earth after hearing that Starfleet planned to destroy them, designed by primate scientist Degra.

The Xindi superweapon killed seven million people and left a scar stretching from Florida to Venezuela. The Xindi stand out as the only enemies in all of Star Trek — besides humans, of course — who have caused serious damage to Earth. After being captured and deceived by the NX-01 Enterprise crew, Degra realized the Xindi had been duped by another alien race from another dimension. They built spheres throughout the Delphic Expanse meant to "terraform" the galaxy so their people could live in it. Only after the Xindi and humanity united were the Sphere-Builders defeated.

2 Nero Destroyed The Planet Vulcan

Introduced in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, Nero was a Romulan, one of the greatest adversaries of Star Trek 's Federation. Nero blamed Spock for the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. Nero traveled 129 years into the past, which allowed him to use his superior technology to attack the USS Kelvin, a Federation ship on which James T. Kirk's parents were stationed. He and his mother lived, while his father died with the ship.

This created the "Kelvin Timeline" an alternate reality like the Mirror Universe, but one where different versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest lived "new" lives. One of Nero's most villainous acts was using implosive "red matter" to destroy the planet Vulcan. Nero's actions set the course for the new Star Trek films, while the current TV shows continued in the original timeline. Later, Star Trek: Picard revealed the destruction of Romulus had lasting consequences there as well.

1 Captain Gabriel Lorca Used His Position To Manipulate His Crew

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Star Trek: Discovery introduced the titular new ship and its captain, Gabriel Lorca . He recruited Michael Burnham to his crew and manipulated his mission orders to take the Discovery to another reality. Lorca was secretly from the Mirror Universe, a dark alternate reality that first appeared in The Original Series , and was revisited in both Deep Space Nine and Enterprise . He's become something of a standard-bearer for the concept, which the franchise periodically returns to in order to explore its protagonists' dark sides.

Lorca was a traitor who turned on the Terran Emperor in the Mirror Universe. He escaped punishment by accidentally traveling to another reality. Lorca took the place of his counterpart, using his rank in Starfleet to get assigned to the one ship that could take him home. Lorca was conniving and determined, but still a captain who could inspire his crew. He was a dangerous enemy, emblematic of the third wave of Star Trek .

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

Star Trek: Discovery Finally Gave Us A Closer Look At The Franchise's Most Mysterious Villain

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."

"Star Trek" might represent an idealistic vision of a bolder and brighter future, but the last few seasons of "Discovery" have proven that there will always be bad guys with a penchant for muddying up those ambitions in unexpected ways -- even in the 32nd Century. While the Borg, Romulans, and the warlord Khan often have a stranglehold on the title of "Best 'Trek' villains," one alien species in particular has remained shrouded in mystery for decades. First mentioned in foreboding whispers in "The Next Generation" and finally seen in the flesh (well, so to speak) in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," the Breen have played a significant role throughout the franchise in the years since ... yet Trekkies still had to wait until now to actually see what lies underneath their distinctive helmets.

The advantage of never showing us a Breen's face, as it turns out, is that "Discovery" was able to hide one in plain sight all along.

So far, the addition of scavengers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) has felt like a shoe waiting to drop. The close-knit pair continue to frustrate Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the rest of the Discovery crew (nowhere more dramatically than in last week's time-traveling bottle episode ), remaining one step ahead of our heroes in their quest to recover whatever Progenitor technological treasure hides at the end of this galaxy-spanning rainbow. About midway through episode 5, titled "Mirrors," the writers unleashed their big twist. L'ak, thus far considered an unknown type of extraterrestrial, actually reveals himself as a Breen. Or, rather, an emotional Moll lets this information slip by accident during a particularly fraught moment. In the process, "Trek" finally unmasked its most enigmatic aliens.

Read more: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

Putting On A Brave Face (Or Two)

In the span of one episode, "Discovery" officially made "Star Trek" history.

Long treated as a mystery that left everything up to our own imaginations, the Breen reveal puts a specific face to what had previously only been a name ... actually, make that two faces. While Moll and L'ak come to a tense faceoff with Burnham and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) on board the mirror-universe version of the USS Enterprise while trapped in multidimensional space (it's a long story), the writers treat this as the perfect opportunity to delve into the scavengers' shared past. In a series of flashbacks, we find out that L'ak was part of the Breen royal family and disgraced by his powerful Primarch uncle. Hoping to earn his way back to his people's good graces, all his plans are upended by a torrid romance with then-courier Moll. With their backs against the wall and nowhere else to turn, the lovers choose their own path altogether and, along the way, L'ak reveals his most private aspect of himself: his Breen face.

Of course, the episode adds another twist and introduces the concept of the Breen having two  faces -- a solid, corporeal form they can present to others if they so choose, and a more translucent one. (Really, it can only be described as  squishier. ) In fact, this creepy and altogether unique visage symbolizes a much more meaningful difference, as we learn when L'ak's uncle calls his chosen face an "insult to your heritage." Apparently, most Breen have moved beyond this "weak" form and consider this some sort of societal faux pas. In just a few minutes, we discover more about Breen culture than we've ever known before.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream every Thursday on Paramount+.

Read the original article on SlashFilm

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The Best ‘Star Trek’ Villains Who Give Starfleet Nightmares

Vote up the Star Trek villains who are a blight on the final frontier.

Few science fiction franchises have been as enduring or as popular as  Star Trek.  Sprawling across numerous media , it has drawn in legions and generations of fans who welcome the opportunity to lose themselves in this alternate world. Like all great sci-fi,  Star Trek  is populated by many infamous villains.

While some take the form of races and groups opposed to the Federation, the most fascinating are the individuals who have posed a danger to Kirk, Picard, and other notable captains and crew members journeying across the final frontier .  These are the figures who stay with the viewer long after the episode itself is over - a perpetual reminder of the many guises villainy can take .

Khan Noonien Singh

Appears In: Star Trek: The Original Series;  also appeared in  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  and  Star Trek Into Darkness 

Species: Augmented human

Background: As one of a group of superhumans, Khan solidified control of a major part of Earth, with a domain that encompassed much of Asia. Although he was incredibly powerful, he wasn’t nearly as despotic as he might have been (and certainly not like many of his fellow superhumans). He was deposed, but managed to escape Earth and was cryogenically frozen until discovered by the  Enterprise.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Khan attempts to take over the  Enterprise  in an episode of the original series, after which Kirk defeats him. However, he returns in  The Wrath of Khan,  set on vengeance . He comes perilously close to killing Kirk - whom he's determined to destroy to avenge being left to die - but ultimately fails. 

Khan also served as the main antagonist of  Star Trek Into Darkness , albeit with slightly different motivations. He's forced to develop superweapons for Admiral Marcus, after which he rebels and tries to take over the  Enterprise,  before being defeated by Spock.

The Borg Queen

Appears In: Star Trek: First Contact;  also appears in  Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Voyager,  and  Star Trek: Picard 

Species: Borg

Background: As her name suggests, she is the epitome of the collective consciousness of the species known as the Borg. In many ways, she's the guiding intelligence of the collective as a whole. In addition to being ruthless in her approach to all other life in the universe - which she sees as inherently inferior to the Borg - she also views her role as bringing order to chaos.   

Why She's A Bane To Starfleet: After her initial appearances, she became one of the most powerful and potent threats faced by the crew of the  Enterprise.  Unsurprisingly, her primary goal was the propagation of the Borg, even if this meant the extinction of all other life forms. 

She pursued this with relentless efficiency even though - like many other great  Star Trek  villains - she also had moments of complexity, particularly once she started to feel the  sting of loneliness and despair . Although she was a formidable foe, she was beaten many times before her final demise in  Picard.

Appears In: Introduced in  Star Trek: The Next Generation;  also appears in  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Lower Decks,  and  Star Trek: Picard 

Background: Part of what makes Q such a compelling  Star Trek  villain is just how little is known about him/them. As the ambiguity of the name suggests, Q is a being of almost incomprehensible power and abilities, and seems to delight in showing off its superiority to humans. Q is particularly invested in making sure humans aren’t becoming a  threat to other elements of the universe .

Why They’re A Bane To Starfleet: In earlier appearances, particularly in  The Next Generation,  Q enjoys posing various challenges to members of the  Enterprise.  In part, these are opportunities for humanity to prove its worth, but they also seem to be for the being’s own amusement. Among other things, Q puts the crew on trial, and even temporarily gives Riker the power of a Q - again, as a sort of test. As the series goes on, and in subsequent iterations, Q proves to be an ally and teacher to Picard and to other humans. At the end of  Picard , it's unclear if Q still exists.

Appears In: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Species: Cardassian

Background: A member of the Cardassian race, Gul Dukat for a time ruled over the planet of Bajor. While charming and charismatic, he's also shown to be very authoritarian, ruling with an iron fist.  He was particularly embittered once his position was taken away from him.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Dukat was one of the most potent villains faced by Benjamin Sisko, the commanding officer of Deep Space Nine . The two clashed numerous times throughout the series, and Dukat was determined to get back what he thought was rightfully his. Perhaps the gravest threat he posed, however, occurred when he allied himself with the  Pah-wraiths , sinister beings who possessed his body. He's ultimately foiled and imprisoned forever, thanks once again to Sisko.

Appears In: Introduced in  Star Trek: The Original Series;  also appeared in  Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Species: A humanoid reptilian species 

Background: Even before Captain Kirk and the  Enterprise  encountered one of the Gorn, there had been other moments of contact between this species and the Federation.  They were notorious for their predatory attitude toward any warm-blooded creatures, including humans.

Why They’re A Bane To Starfleet: The most notable incident concerning the Gorn on-screen is when Kirk has to engage one in hand-to-hand combat. It initially seems as if the creature might defeat him, but he eventually emerges victorious. In typical Kirk fashion, however, he shows the creature mercy rather than killing it. After decades of obscurity in the Star Trek universe, the Gorn returned in Strange New Worlds , updated as a violent threat for Captain Christopher Pike, despite the series taking place a decade before the Gorn's initial appearance in The Original Series .

General Chang

Appears In: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Species: Klingon

Background: As a Klingon, Chang was a skilled warrior who took a dispassionate and sometimes ruthless view toward the world. He harbored a particular dislike for the Federation, and was motivated by the belief that war cannot be prevented. Given his prowess as a warrior, he understandably took part in several conflicts within the Klingon Empire.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Given his longstanding antipathy to the Federation, Chang was particularly angered by the prospect of his beloved Empire turning to them for any kind of assistance, which did indeed happen. He joined a conspiracy whose sole intention was to keep the Empire and Federation from declaring peace, which caused the demise of several of his own people, including Chancellor Gorkon. 

Chang went to extraordinary lengths to destroy the peace process, even though he was ultimately destroyed by the  Enterprise,  despite using an invisible ship to launch attacks.

Appears In: Star Trek: The Next Generation; also appears in Star Trek: Picard 

Species: Soong-type android 

Background: Lore was created by human cyberneticist Dr. Noonien Soong. The android was highly sophisticated, but Soong soon realized he was malevolent and destructive , and decommissioned him. Before that, however, Lore orchestrated the destruction of life on Omicron Theta.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Lore was discovered by the  Enterprise,  and it wasn’t long before he was wreaking havoc again. Among other things, he deactivated his sibling android Data and assumed his identity. In Lore's first appearance, he tried to give the crew up to the being known as the Crystalline Entity . He also enslaved a group of Borg (whom he programmed to kill rather than assimilate others), and for a time he even managed to bring Data under his sway. 

In The Next Generation , he was ultimately defeated by Data and disassembled, including the destruction of his “brain.”

Appears In: Introduced in  Star Trek: The Next Generation;  also appears in  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Background: After his initial appearance in  The Next Generation,  Gowron became Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. Throughout the series he faced a number of challenges to his position, sometimes necessitating intervention from Picard and others on the  Enterprise. 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Gowron became more of an antagonist in  Deep Space Nine.  Among other things, he disinherited Worf and his entire family, and attempted to force Benjamin Sisko to surrender Gul Dukat and the rest of the Detapa Council . He was repeatedly prone to challenging the Federation with demands, no matter how unreasonable, which ultimately led to a shattering of the peace between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. Wolf eventually killed him in hand-to-hand combat.

Species: Vorta

Background: Weyoun was a Vorta , a race of violet-eyed, genetically modified humanoids serving in the Dominion. He had been cloned numerous times over the years. 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Like many others of his kind, Weyoun’s various iterations were deployed by the Dominion in its war against the Federation. Weyoun 5, for example, was a personal aide to Gal Dukat. Possibly the most sinister of the clones was Weyoun 8, who played a key role in a Cardassian genocide before meeting his death at the hands of Cardassian Elim Garak.

Gary Mitchell

Appears In: Star Trek: The Original Series

Species: Human

Background: Throughout his life, Gary Mitchell demonstrated remarkable skill with guessing games, which may have had something to do with his ancestry - many of his family members possessed extrasensory perception. He also had a long history with Captain Kirk, as the two met at Starfleet Academy. They had also conducted several missions together, where Mitchell demonstrated remarkable telepathic abilities. 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Things took a turn for the worse for Mitchell when the  Enterprise  passed through a galactic barrier, which made his telepathic abilities ever stronger. Unfortunately, a side effect was a major personality change; he became a megalomaniac, convinced of  his own power and superiority . He was eventually overpowered by Kirk and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, and was buried beneath tons of rock.

Kai Winn Adami

Species: Bajoran

Background: Winn was a steadfast believer in the Prophets , which earned her imprisonment when the Cardassians ruled her planet, Bajor. At the same time that she developed a rigid adherence to orthodoxy, she also became bitter at the Prophets, whom she believed never spoke to her as she deserved, given her sacrifices. She repeatedly showed a subtle political mind, and was willing to ally herself to whoever  would give her what she wanted . 

Why She's A Bane To Starfleet: Winn was a particularly inveterate enemy to Benjamin Sisko, whom she resented due to his status as Emissary of the Prophets. Aside from her various manipulations, she also became one of the primary antagonists as  Deep Space Nine  reached its conclusion; she even went so far as to ally herself with none other than Cardassian villain Gul Dukat, joining his efforts to release the Pah-Wraiths. Fortunately for Winn, she ultimately returned to the side of good, though this led to her destruction at Dukat’s hands.

Appears In: Star Trek  (2009)

Species: Romulan

Background: Nero was a miner, and the master of the ship  Narada.  However, his planet was destroyed by a supernova, which engendered in him a relentless thirst for revenge . When he was caught in a black hole and sent back in time, he killed Captain George Kirk, setting in motion an alternate timeline and changing the fate of George's son, James T. Kirk. Nero also managed to leave an alternate Spock - who had tried to save Romulus but failed - stranded on a distant planet.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Nero is the primary antagonist of the new timeline established in 2009’s  Star Trek.  His primary motivation was to get revenge on anyone he thought was responsible for the destruction of his planet, which included Spock (both the one from his timeline and the alternate one). Among Nero's many heinous actions was setting in motion the destruction of Vulcan by a black hole. He clearly intended the same for Earth, but was foiled by Spock, who created a black hole into which Nero and his ship disappeared.

Captain Gabriel Lorca

Appears In: Star Trek: Discovery

Background: The man known in the primary universe as Gabriel Lorca was, in fact, the Lorca from the Mirror Universe, who at some point had taken over the identity of his counterpart. Previously, he served as a lieutenant for Empress Philippa Georgiou. Lorca was at one point the captain of the  Buran  and later became captain of the  Discovery. 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: In the primary universe, Lorca was shrewd and manipulative, particularly when it came to Captain Michael Burnham. His real purpose was always to unseat the Empress; he was willing to do anything necessary to bring this goal to fruition, no matter how much damage it might cause to the primary universe (and the damage was indeed extensive). However, Lorca was ultimately defeated by Georgiou herself, who stabbed him with a sword and threw him into a reactor. The fate of the primary Lorca remains unknown. 

Appears In: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Species: Machine entity / Space probe

Background: V’ger began as a space probe sent into outer space by humans, appropriately named  Voyager 6 . It later became lost in a black hole, after which it gained sentience thanks to the intervention of an alien race of thinking machines. It subsequently  gave itself a new name .

Why They’re A Bane To Starfleet: V’ger’s main purpose was to fulfill its original mission: learn everything possible about the universe and take this information back to Earth. Given how much power and knowledge it came to wield, it nearly destroyed its very creators in the process, and to further complicate matters, it began seeking answers to vast existential questions. Fortunately, its threat to destroy Earth if its questions weren't satisfied was averted when the new captain of the  Enterprise  merged with the being, giving it the answers it craved.

Appears In: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Background: As a member of the House of Kruge, he belonged to very powerful political family, with the resultant connections and influence. His full name was a mouthful: Kruge sutai-Vastal . By the opening of The Search for Spock , he had also long been a member of the Klingon Defense Force. 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: In the film, Kruge believed the device used to transform the planet Genesis was a weapon, which is why he captured those present on the planet, setting up a confrontation with Kirk and others on the  Enterprise.  Kruge proved himself to be a violent and unpredictable adversary, but was ultimately outwitted by Kirk, who had the  Enterprise  self-destruct. The two ultimately engaged in a hand-to-hand duel, in which Kirk defeated Kruge by kicking him over a cliff.

Talak’talan

Species: Jem'Hadar

Background: Talak’talan was a reptilian creature who served the Dominion as part of a corps of shock troops beholden to the Founders, the Jem'Hadar. This regularly put them in conflict with others, and the Jem'Hadar were known for their belligerence and their tendency to resort to violence (including genocide). 

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Talak’talan captured Commander Benjamin Sisko and several others when they made their way into the Gamma Quadrant. He made no secret of his contempt for humans (he had hoped to connect with Klingons), and he also did not give Sisko any of the information he desired. Though a relatively minor antagonist, it was still clear Talak’talan was not one to be trifled with. His ultimate fate remains unknown. 

Species: Breen

Background: Thot Gor was a Breen, a race with a longstanding conflicted relationship with the Federation, and with humans in particular. Their most notable allies were the Dominion, who likewise had a bellicose dynamic with the Federation. Gor and other Thots served as high-ranking military officers among the Breen.

Why He's A Bane To Starfleet: Gor was one of those most responsible for forging an alliance between the Breen and the Dominion against the Federation. He showed himself to be a formidable military leader, particularly in the attack on San Francisco and in the Battle of Chin'toka. He was eventually succeeded by Thot Pran under unclear circumstances.

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Star Trek’s Worst Movie Villains

Star Trek currently has 13 movies to its name, and all but one of them have a big bad. * Some of these villains are great, while others are… not so great. Today, we cover the six main villains that are the worst, starting with the least terrible and counting down to find out which Star Trek baddie is the very worst. 

6. Sybok: The Final Frontier  

Star Trek V is generally considered one of the worst – if not the worst – films in the franchise, so I was surprised when its villain ended up as the least bad entry on this list. Don’t worry, though, there’s still plenty wrong with Sybok: most immediately, his plan and the powers he uses to accomplish it. 

If it’s been a while since your last film rewatch, Sybok wants to take a starship to the center of the galaxy and meet God. This is the one and only time in the Star Trek universe where acquiring a ship is presented as a major problem. If the Pakleds and Space Hippies can manage it, I suspect Sybok could find himself a warp-capable shuttle somewhere. 

Instead, he decides to steal the Enterprise using a very inconsistent set of mental powers. Sometimes his abilities behave like mind control, directly overriding the victim’s free will. In other cases, we see that major characters can simply choose not to be affected. Sure. Even with the most generous interpretation of Sybok’s powers, he should still have failed several times, as his plan to take over the Enterprise is half-baked at best. It requires him to mind meld with the entire crew, one at a time. If he weren’t protected by authorial contrivance, that would give them plenty of chances to stop him. 

More fundamental to the story, Sybok’s beliefs feel super random. The movie does nothing to set up why he believes God lives at the center of the galaxy; he just announces that’s where they’re going about halfway into the film. Instead of an exciting or tense moment, it leaves you wondering if this is a reference to some Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episode you haven’t seen. It’s not, for the record. Then, when Sybok’s God turns out to be an evil alien, the twist is meaningless. We had no reason to think God would be there at all, so this is just another bit of trivia for Memory Alpha . 

What saves Sybok from falling lower on the list is primarily Laurence Luckinbill’s performance. He sells the idea of a charismatic cult leader, even when the script isn’t giving him any help. Despite that, I think this villain would have been better suited to a single episode rather than a feature-length film, as he just isn’t that deep or interesting. Maybe if the Enterprise had started near the center of the galaxy, with Sybok on board as a visiting scientist, there would have been time to establish his beliefs before he took over the ship. 

5. Khan: Into Darkness

Were I the type of critic to hold a grudge, I’d have put Reboot Kahn last simply because of the incredibly obnoxious marketing around him . That’s right – I still remember how the film’s publicity campaign swore up and down that the mystery villain wasn’t Khan, even though we all knew it was Khan, and then it was “revealed” to be Khan. What a waste of everyone’s time. 

But still, let’s take the high road and examine this villain based on his merits, or rather his lack thereof. In this timeline, Khan is thawed out by an evil admiral and then coerced into developing new ships and weapons for Starfleet. I get that Khan is genetically engineered to be super smart, but that still sounds very silly. As a warlord from the 1990s , * he’s centuries out of date. Plus, previous iterations of Khan showed that his genius was in strategy and tactics, not naval architecture. This is theoretically the same person, so I don’t know why he’d have different expertise. 

From a logistics perspective, Khan’s plan also doesn’t make any sense. He’s trying to get revenge on the evil admiral who coerced him and held his crew hostage. Fair enough. But then he mows down a roomful of Starfleet brass, and somehow misses the one guy he was actually aiming at. Then Khan heads off to Klingon space, which is exactly what the evil admiral wants, as it provides an excuse for war. This is so conspicuous that I expected a reveal that the two of them were working together, but no, it’s just bad plotting. 

Khan also starts the movie with an equation that lets him transport seemingly anywhere in the galaxy, which he naturally uses once and then forgets about. Great.

The main saving grace of Khan’s plan is that we don’t see as much of it as we do for the other villains on this list, as Khan spends a good chunk of the film as a mysterious, offscreen bad guy. There’s less time to consider the inconsistencies, which helps when a character’s plan makes no sense. 

A bigger problem for Khan is that he has no motivation to fight the good guys. His goals are to free his crew and get revenge on an evil admiral. Once he’s done those things, there’s no conflict in the plot. Khan could just leave in this evil-looking spaceship he stole from the admiral, but instead he decides to blow Kirk up because… I guess he knows the movie isn’t over yet. Khan’s certainly not a nice person, but his evil is supposed to be calculated, not random and pointless. 

Into Darkness desperately wants there to be a big grudge between Kirk and Khan like there is in Wrath of Khan, but it’s not there. The actors do their best, but you can’t forget that these are characters who’ve never met before. Khan even has a big moment when he reveals his name like it’s supposed to mean something. It’s more embarrassing than anything else – like a minor celebrity insisting you must have heard of them. 

4. Nero: Star Trek 2009

The first and only Romulan to serve as the big bad in a Trek movie, Nero starts the film off in decent shape. That’s mostly because we don’t know anything about him. Mystery is often a villain’s best friend , and that’s certainly the case for Nero. All we see is that he has a huge ship made of spines and hatred, which is decently scary when it emerges from a black hole. Unfortunately, the more we learn about Nero, the worse he gets. 

Unlike the previous entries, this villain is meant to be sympathetic, despite his plan to blow up multiple Federation worlds and their inhabitants. He’s out for revenge, motivated by the loss of his own planet in the future, where his wife and child were tragically fridged. * But wait, you say, what could the Federation have to do with that? Even in the most grimdark versions of Star Trek , the Federation doesn’t go around demolishing planets. 

The answer is that in the future, the Federation – and Spock, specifically – tried to save Romulus from the natural disaster that threatened it, but the help arrived too late. That might have worked as Nero’s motivation if the Federation had an obligation that it failed to meet, but that’s not the case. Instead, the Federation went out of its way to help a sworn enemy. The only justification for Nero’s hatred is that he’s a real jerk, which negates any sympathy he might have. 

Despite these problems, we get several scenes where Nero angsts about his fridged family and how, really, the Federation is just as bad as he is. Few things are more tiresome than a villain who thinks they’re sympathetic when they aren’t, and all the angsting does is make us wish Nero would get on with his plan already. Nero’s motivation is so bad that a tie-in comic tried to fix it by establishing that the Vulcan government specifically held back technology that could have saved Romulus until it was too late. That might have helped if it was actually in the movie. Even then, the most obvious thing for Nero to do with his time-traveling ship is stop the destruction of Romulus in the first place, something he seems to have no interest in. 

The only problem worse than Nero’s total lack of sympathy is that once he actually starts talking, his threat level goes out the window. While his ship might be intimidating, Nero himself is not. It starts when Nero’s first words to the good guys are “Hi, Christopher, I’m Nero.” The line sounds more like a new coworker at the office than a blockbuster villain, and it makes him hard to take seriously. It can work for villains to be casual, but they still need to establish some menace first. Nero just seems like he has no idea what he’s doing. 

That impression is reinforced by Nero’s command style. He’s surprised that Federation reinforcements show up, and he seems confused that a Starfleet captain doesn’t just give him classified defense codes. Unlike most nonthreatening villains, I think this was actually done on purpose, as Nero was supposedly a mining captain before traveling back in time. But that doesn’t change the problem: for most of the movie, it seems like the bad guy has no idea what he’s doing. It also raises questions about Nero’s ship that previously no one was asking. No matter how much technology advances in the next century, it seems unlikely that a mining ship would be so powerful in a fight. 

3. Shinzon: Nemesis  

At first glance, Shinzon shares many of Nero’s problems. This TNG villain also depends on his big spaceship to be threatening, but it somehow makes less sense than the spiny mining ship of death from the future. Instead of all that temporal nonsense, Shinzon has the Scimitar, an uber-ship that was somehow built by enslaved miners without their Romulan overlords catching wind of it. I guess mining is another trait that Nero and Shinzon share, for some reason. 

Shinzon also has the false sympathy angle going. Despite being human, he leads the Remans, an alien species enslaved by the Romulans. As victims of slavery , the Remans seem like they should be sympathetic, except that they’re all evil space orcs. If that weren’t enough, the one Reman who gets lines and screen time helps Shinzon become a mind-rapist. Pro tip: if you want your villains to be sympathetic, don’t make them space orcs or mind-rapists, and definitely don’t do both at the same time. 

The first way Shinzon differs from Nero is that the former doesn’t even benefit from being mysterious. There’s no sign of him for about 20% of the film, and when he does show up, he immediately exposits his entire life story. This includes being a clone of Captain Picard. I think that’s supposed to give the hero and villain an emotional connection, as Shinzon once insists that he’s living in Picard’s shadow, even though the two of them are nothing alike and have very different career paths. The only effect of this clone storyline is that Shinzon needs a “transfusion” of DNA from Picard to live. That might have generated some conflict if Picard had a reason not to give his DNA, but Shinzon wants to attack the Federation regardless of whether or not he gets it, so even that doesn’t matter. 

Speaking of which, why does Shinzon want to attack the Federation? The only explanation in the film is that he’s being pressured by his Romulan allies, but they could simply attack the Federation without him if they wanted to. And if Shinzon really was being pressured into a war he didn’t want, surely he’d try to do something about it? The best explanation is that he resents humans due to his background as a clone of Picard, but why that would lead to genocidal hatred isn’t explored. 

Shinzon’s personality is less that of a powerful warlord and more of an awkward teenager. He seems really insecure, and when he does edgy stuff like cut his hand to provide a DNA sample, it comes across as trying too hard. He also shouts and whines when things don’t go his way, adding to his immaturity. But easily Shinzon’s weirdest moment is when he sets up his own comeback. 

During an argument with a Romulan officer, Shinzon says, “Spend eighteen hours every day under the lash of a Romulan guard and you’ll soon understand patience.” That sounds like a decent comeback to the previous line, “You really must learn patience,” until you realize that Shinzon said both lines. He really wanted to use his backstory as a denouement, but no one was giving him an opening, so he just made one himself. I guess the sheer dedication could be admirable, but only if the exchange weren’t so silly.  

2. Ru’afo: Insurrection  

Every villain on this list is subpar, but until now, they’ve at least been memorable. Whether it’s Shinzon setting up his own comebacks or Khan revealing his name to people who don’t know him, there’s always something to remember them by. Ru’afo doesn’t even have that much. The most you can say about him is that he’s definitely in the movie. 

I don’t know if it’s the makeup, direction, or acting choices, but Ru’afo just doesn’t have much presence in this film. I think the makeup is supposed to make him look gross and scary , but it only succeeds in looking vaguely silly. It’s not memorable either, as every member of Ru’afo’s species has the same makeup, making them harder to tell apart. Ru’afo’s not from the future, he’s not genetically engineered or gifted with unusual powers, and he’s not even a clone. He’s just some guy in charge of a species that is, according to the movie, mostly concerned with interstellar drug dealing.

Ru’afo’s only memorable moment is when he randomly screams after an unexpected complication in his plan: an emotion that comes from nowhere and then disappears. 

In fairness to Ru’afo, he actually starts off with the best motivation on this list. He wants to harvest some antiaging radiation from a nearby planet so he can make antiaging drugs and sell them for cold hard cash. He doesn’t care that the extraction process will wipe out the planet’s low-tech population. That’s not terribly exciting, but at least you can understand it. A profit motive beats weird clone jealousy every time. 

Unfortunately, the straightforward villainy doesn’t last. As the end approaches, we get a big reveal: Ru’afo and his people are originally from the planet they want to harvest. We’re told that they tried to take over the planet’s pacifist society, and when they somehow failed, they were exiled. By pacifists. I’m guessing this is another attempt at making a sympathetic villain. Don’t you feel bad for Ru’afo now that you know he was somehow exiled from his home by mean pacifists? Or maybe this is supposed to make Ru’afo more evil, since he’s actually killing his own people rather than random strangers. Either way, all it actually does is raise a bunch of questions that the movie isn’t interested in answering. 

A final nail in Ru’afo’s villain coffin is that he’s somehow the least threatening villain on his list. He leads a group of spaceborn drug dealers, or as the film calls them, “petty thugs.” By this point in the timeline, Picard and his officers have faced down the Federation’s greatest enemies, from scheming Romulans to the relentless Borg. The good guys are flying Starfleet’s most advanced warship, making it feel like a battle between the US Navy and a bunch of cartel goons. When the Enterprise struggles against Ru’afo’s ships, the scenes aren’t tense, they’re just confusing. 

1. Krall: Beyond  

Hang on, does the most recent Star Trek film even have a villain? I remember a swarm of drone ships that attacked the Enterprise and made the good guys crash on an alien planet, but wasn’t that it? 

Oh right, Krall was there, somehow more forgettable than even Ru’afo. That’s a major accomplishment, considering that Krall is played by none other than Idris Elba, a forceful presence if ever there was one. At first, I thought the problem was that he doesn’t appear onscreen much, but he actually shows up early and often. 

After some rewatching, I think Krall’s supreme forgetableness is caused by a number of factors. First, there’s his appearance and makeup. He looks like a generic alien of the week from one of the TV shows, not the big bad of a $185 million movie. The makeup likely makes emoting more difficult, which explains his stiff affect. His voice is stiff as well. I don’t know if that was an intentional choice or if it was caused by teeth prosthetics, but either way, this is not one of Elba’s better performances. 

Another factor is how aimless Krall’s presence feels. He’s around for most of the movie, so he isn’t mysterious. But at the same time, we have no idea what he’s trying to accomplish or what’s driving him until near the end. It’s clear that someone is fighting our heroes, but there’s little indication as to why. Krall and his minions could easily be swapped out for mindless robots, and most of their role in the movie would be unchanged. 

Then we finally do learn more about Krall, and it only makes things worse. His plan is to blow up a big Starfleet base nearby, and to do that he needs part of a super weapon that Kirk just happens to have. Sure, except that he already has a swarm of invincible drone ships, so why does he need the super weapon? No one knows, but like Ru’afo before him, Krall also has a Secret Sympathetic Backstory(™). 

You see, he’s actually a human named Balthazar * M. Edison from the Enterprise-era MACO marines , and he’s angry that the Federation doesn’t fight wars anymore, apparently. I already hate this, as it inevitably ignites the inane “is Starfleet a military” argument, but it gets worse. After his ship crashed, Edison decided Starfleet had given up on him and his crew. Then when he found some alien tech, he used it to turn into a weird vampire-alien instead of, you know, returning to the Federation. 

At this point, we’re supposed to believe that Krall wants to kill millions of Federation citizens because he’s mad that Starfleet made peace with aliens who killed millions of Federation citizens. Not only does nothing about this make any sense, but it’s hard to remember because the aliens he’s mad about * aren’t even in the movie. His motivation is such nonsense that it slides off long-term memory like water off a duck’s back. 

As a final insult, his drone fleet is destroyed by the good guys turning up the volume on their Beastie Boys playlist. That might fit in a campy TOS episode, or even one of the later show’s attempts at comedy. But in an epic movie that wants you to seriously consider the ethics of war and peace, it’s a grating incongruity.

Star Trek Beyond really is better if you imagine Kirk and his crew are fighting mindless robots; at least then there’s no convoluted backstory to keep track of.  

These villains are in a real race to the bottom. You could probably make a good argument for shuffling this list into whatever configuration you want, possibly based on which movie you’ve seen most recently. Nevertheless, rank them I have. That means it’s time for me to cook up a best-villains list for the other six. * Perhaps some of them will even be… good? We can only hope! 

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Comments on Star Trek’s Worst Movie Villains

The one thing I love about Shinzon was the: “I was lonely” scene😂 it was wonderful

To me, the worst thing about Khan, though, is that the original Khan was played by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban. The character was from Northern India and “probably a Sikh”. This was in 1967. 46 years later, both the character and the actor were White Englishmen

This is NOT progress

In addition, it cheapens the “reveal”. Of course we can’t guess that it’s Khan, because that is NOT Khan as we knew him

I know that’s not exactly in-movie merits, so we shouldn’t hold that against the movie character himself, but I have difficulty looking past that

There’s a fan theory that Cumberbatch’s character was lying, was NOT actually Khan. He was protecting Khan by claiming to be him. A tie-in comic says he underwent a procedure to change his appearance

Neither of these help

Yeah, the original Khan was clearly not white. One could argue about a Mexican playing an Indian on TV, but that was in the 1960s and Montalban played an excellent Khan. With Montalban’s version, the name ‘Khan’ made sense and it was easy to belive that he was Northern Indian (or at least partially so, as he was the result of eugenic experiments).

Original Khan also had a proper motivation: it was Kirk who left him and his people on the planet (even if, to be fair, Kirk couldn’t know that disaster would strike). It a personal revenge and that justifies coming after Kirk with all he had.

I thought when I saw it “ok I guess he had sci-fi plastic surgery to hide his identity and that’s why he now looks like a white guy” and like one second later “although that’s the obvious in-universe explanation that’s one hell of a stupid choice by the moviemakers”.

In fairness to Khan’s reveal moment, he is presumably still famous in the new timeline, so his identity could be expected to provoke a reaction. But it’s not just Khan who’s famous, but the augments in general – the evil admiral could have woken one whose expertise *was* in ship/weapon design – the reveal that he once served Khan is lesser on the face of it, but it doesn’t really need to be that big. More people would have appreciated a minor callback than a worse version of the real thing.

The only thing I liked about Shinzon was his ship, which is what the Nazgul would have been flying had Mordor been a space age polity (you know I’m right!).

Sybok’s cult deal might have been more interesting if Spock had been the one to be unaffected (they give an actual reason for him to be, unlike Kirk and McCoy) – although I doubt it.

>he’s centuries out of date. Plus, previous iterations of Khan showed that his genius was in strategy and tactics, not naval architecture.

In Khan’s defense, he was never NOT said to be an expert in naval architecture. And, given how smart he was, there’s no end to the number of topics he could have learned. As for being out of date, remember in Space Seed how quickly he read the info while in sickbay, and he caught up on their world enough to take over the ship. So even if he knew nothing, he probably could have become an expert in a week or two

Whether or not the evil admiral would have known this, however…

Overtly villainous aesthetics can be cool and menacing, but only if they make sense. I give the Remans a pass for their vampiric appearance – they evolved in a dark environment, that explains it. But why is a Romulan mining vessel colossal, armed to the teeth, and composed almost entirely of giant blades and spikes, its entire crew with shaven heads and fearsome tattoos? Why did Edison start calling himself Krall, speaking an alien language, and wearing an outfit with a bunch of constantly moving mechanical parts which serve no discernible purpose? It can’t be to do with the weird life/DNA draining technology he uses, because his two henchmen have been using the same thing but do not wear such outfits. And why do the Son’a look like that? Their bodies are in bad shape because they’ve been away from the anti-aging/age-reversing radiation of their home planet for so long, so… shouldn’t they just be, y’know, really old? Instead they show no real signs of aging in their physical ability, voices, or overall health, except for apparently having decided that having wrinkles would be worse than intentionally making themselves look like rejected designs from Hellraiser. It would’ve been perfectly simple to explain that Nero’s ship was a warship from some other species (since it doesn’t at all match established Romulan aesthetics). Krall could have adopted the language of the civilisation which once populated the planet, as well as a name in it, because it was necessary to command the drones, and his suit could’ve been shown to allow him to interface with the technology. The Son’a could have undergone cosmetic procedures as a rejection of their Ba’ku roots. All these design elements could’ve been retained in natural ways fitting the characters, instead of just being there because they’re evil so they have to be scary.

Like much of Nemesis, the disappointing thing about Shinzon is that there are good ideas, they’re just never followed through on. A humble Reman revolutionary who overthrew and took over the Romulan Star Empire, and a clone of Picard whose circumstances shaped him into a villain, laying bare the Captain’s own dark side. Either of those could have been a great idea, but instead they did both while keeping both largely irrelevant and unexplored. His indiscernible motivation seems connected to neither.

The best version of the Romulans was the original where they were the Space Romans to the Vulcans Space Greeks. Getting rid of the Space Romans aspect makes them less interesting.

The expectation that Khan would suddenly be up-to-date on military tech reminded me of a web-novel from 2008. Ever read The Salvation War?

The premise is that humans discover heaven and hell are actually adjacent dimensions and after God declares the Apocalypse and Hell invades, humans counter-invade. As we counter-invade, we discover the souls of dead humans residing in Hell, many of which are recruited for the war effort because they WERE famous tacticians and commanders in their time… only to lead to a scene in which Robert E. Lee resigns his position because he recognizes that the technology and tactics of war have advanced so far since his day that he can’t possibly understand them. He winds up managing a Veterans Support Administration instead.

Does the first movie have a big bad if the fourth doesn’t? I

Yeah the first movie’s antagonist is V’Ger.

Whereas V’Ger was an intelligent being who deliberately intended harm (though out of limited understanding rather than genuine malice), the alien probe in the fourth film was not sentient, nor was it designed with any harm intended; it was only trying to establish communication with humpback whales, and the damage it caused was an unintentional effect of intensifying its signals when no humpback whales were responding. It’s also absent for most of the movie, only present at the very beginning and end, motivating the plot but playing no more direct role. Though the initial source of conflict, it could no more be called a villain than if your roommate has one of those alarm clocks that gradually gets louder and they aren’t shutting it off.

Have to say I disagree with the idea that the probe only being seen at the beginning and end of the movie means it can’t be called a villain, but your other points are certainly fair.

Yeah, I guess that wasn’t the most relevant point against its qualifying as a villain, more an additional reason it wouldn’t belong on the list. With its presence so minimal, and no direct interaction with the protagonists, there would be very little to say about it. Hypothetically, one could include it for the sake of being the closest thing “The Voyage Home” has to a villain, but since it doesn’t have a motivation or a personality, only does one thing, AND is a brief and indirect presence, it would be almost impossible to discuss it as a villain.

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Screen Rant

Star trek's section 31 are becoming a literal god-level villain - theory explained.

As IDW's flagship Star Trek book heads into its third year, the villainous Section 31 may become a god-level threat to the franchise.

• In Star Trek #19, the sinister Section 31 enters the franchise-spanning god war.
• Section 31's agenda with Ensign Sato and the crew of the Theseus remains a mystery for now.
• Section 31 having access to the Pleroma could spell bad news for the galaxy.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek #19!

The secretive Section 31 are set to become god-level villains in the Star Trek universe. Working from the shadows, Section 31 works to keep the Federation safe–no matter the cost. Controversial among Star Trek fans, Section 31 has nonetheless become a fascinating part of the lore. Now, in Star Trek #19, the agency approaches one of Sisko’s crew with an offer that may doom the universe.

Star Trek #19 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Megan Levens. Throughout Star Trek’s previous storyline, Ensign Sato became more and more disillusioned with Starfleet and the Federation. At the end of issue 19, she is approached in her quarters by a man identifying himself as “Martin” and using a person named Sloan’s override. Martin appeals to Sato’s growing dissatisfaction, telling her that “mistakes have been made” and certain Starfleet officials “lack leadership.”

Martin then offers Ensign Sato a job with Section 31.

Section 31 Is The Darkest Aspect of Star Trek Lore

Section 31 has a long history of violence and terror.

Star Trek depicts a utopian society that has moved beyond money and the need to acquire wealth. This idea is embodied in the United Federation of Planets. An organization such as Section 31, that works in the shadows and routinely uses torture and murder to further their ends, would seem at odds with Gene Roddenbery’s optimistic view of humanity. Indeed, Section 31 has proven to be a point of contention among fans. Some portions of Star Trek fandom oppose it because it violates the show’s core principals, while others have hailed it as giving the franchise nuance.

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Section 31 first appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s sixth season, in the episode “Inquisition.” Created by Deep Space Nine’s creative team to explore the darker sides of Federation life, Section 31 works to keep the Federation a paradise. However, their means are extreme. Section 31 has been responsible for assassinations and staging coups. They have allegedly infiltrated nearly every other agency in the Federation, giving them eyes and ears everywhere. The closest real-world analogy to Section 31 is the Central Intelligence Agency. Section 31 also finds echoes in the Romulan Tal’Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order.

A handful of Star Trek episodes, including the Original Series episode "The Enterprise Incident" and The Next Generation's "The Pegasus" have been retconned to have involved Section 31.

No Star Trek show or movie has explored the history of Section 31, but it is (chronologically) one of the oldest agencies in the franchise. They derive their authority from Article 14, Section 31 of Starfleet’s charter, hence the name. This part of the Starfleet Charter allows the organization to take extreme measures in times of great crisis. Section 31 has been active at least as early as the 22nd century. Malcolm Reed, the Tactical Officer under Captain Jonathan Archer, was affiliated with Section 31 earlier in his career.

By the 23rd century, Section 31 had grown, and seemed to be working even further undercover. The agency had a presence on board the USS Discovery, which was using the then-new “spore drive,” that tapped into a universal mycelial network. Discovery’s affiliation with the agency only grew as crew member Ash Tyler was recruited, as was Empress Phillipa Georgiou, from the Mirror Universe. Finally, the AI Section 31 relied on, tried to seize control of the agents, and use them to unleash chaos on the galaxy. Discovery was instrumental in stopping Section 31, but was sent to the future.

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In the 24th century, Section 31 was instrumental during the Dominion War. As the war dragged on, and casualties began to pile up, Section 31 bioengineered a virus that could kill Changelings. During this time, the agency approaches Doctor Julian Bashir, seeking to recruit him. Much like Ensign Sato in Star Trek #19, Section 31, represented by Luther Sloan, approaches Doctor Bashir in his quarters. However, unlike Sato, Section 31 did not find a receptive audience in Doctor Bashir. Bashir also finds a cure for the virus Section 31 designed, which helped end the Dominion War.

Although Section 31’s plans to use their virus were thwarted, the agency still took an interest in Changelings. Season three of Star Trek: Picard revealed that Section 31 experimented on Changelings, even after the war’s conclusion. These rogue Changelings broke free of Section 31, and in an act of blowback, killed thousands of Federation citizens. They also allied themselves with the Borg Queen, who also sought revenge against the Federation. Section 31 is even still active in the 32nd century, as seen in subsequent seasons of Star Trek: Discovery.

Section 31 has also appeared in the Kelvin Universe films, including 2013's Star Trek: Into Darkness

Despite the moral ambiguity of Section 31, it has proven irresistible to generations of Star Trek writers and directors. The agency has been a part of nearly every Star Trek show since its introduction on Deep Space Nine , even Lower Decks . The gray areas Section 31 works in provide even more depth and substance to the Star Trek universe. Deep Space Nine regularly explored the darker sides of Starfleet and life in the Federation, and Section 31 was perhaps its most scathing interrogation of these ideals. Section 31 showed that even a utopia can have a dark side.

Section 31 Adds Darkness--And Depth, to the Star Trek Franchise

Section 31 can change the course of the god war.

And now Section 31 is seemingly joining the franchise’s god war–but in what capacity remains to be seen. Previous issues of Star Trek have seeded Section 31. Harry Kim had seemingly allied himself with them. Kim worked closely with Ensign Sato during the Tzenkethi crisis, which may have led to her recruitment. In a recent interview with ScreenRant , Star Trek writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly commented on Section 31’s involvement, cryptically teasing that the answer may lie in the distant past, as opposed to more recent events. They did not elaborate on this further.

Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly are no strangers to the Star Trek comics universe, having masterminded Year Five , also from IDW.

In the same interview, Lanzing and Kelly discussed Sloan’s presence, or lack thereof. Martin, the agent sent to bring Ensign Sato into the fold, invokes Sloan’s name in his override code. Lanzing and Kelly pointed out Martin is not Sloan in disguise. However, Martin’s use of Sloan’s code is another hint, they revealed. Elaborating on the point, Lanzing stated that some Section 31 agents may feel Sloan did not go far enough in his plans. This would echo Martin’s comment about Starfleet officials “lacking leadership.” The murderous and duplicitous Sloan has become a rallying point for Section 31.

Kahless’ recent crusade against the gods of the Star Trek universe no doubt caught Section 31’s attention. The god war Kahless instigated threatens far more than the Federation, but the entire fabric of reality as well. The god war is the exact type of situation Section 31 was designed to combat. Section 31 has access to technology the average Starfleet officer does not, which can give them an edge in a fight with Kahless or his god-killer. Furthermore, the god war also fundamentally altered Lore. Now on a quest for godhood, Lore must be stopped as well.

Are Section 31's Intentions Truly Honorable? Or Are They Merely Looking Out for Themselves?

With kahless' god-killer technology, section 31 could be unstoppable.

Section 31 may also have less than noble intentions by recruiting Ensign Sato. Sato, and the rest of the Theseus’ crew, are headed to the Pleroma, the newly revealed “realm of the gods.” The Theseus’ excursion to the Pleroma represents a new frontier in knowledge for the Federation, but it could also be a huge threat as well, one Section 31 will want to be well primed on. Kahless and his god-killer have proven that the franchise’s god like beings can be killed, a technology Section 31 might want their hands on too.

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Star Trek #19 advances a horrifying notion: Section 31 having control of the Pleroma. If Section 31 gets their hands on Kahless’ technology, they can use it to extort and threaten the beings in the Pleroma. Bringing these beings under their thumb, Section 31 could become a truly existential threat to the Star Trek universe. With god-like powers at their disposal, Section 31 could implement and maintain one of the most oppressive surveillance systems ever known. Dissension will become a thing of the past, as Section 31 imposes their will on the rest of the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek #19 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!