Star
Trek has had some epic villains over the years. From Khan to the Borg,
they are just evil bastards who will do anything to achieve their own
goals. No matter who they hurt along the way.
However, some villains really aren’t evil in my opinion anyway. Just because someone does something awful doesn’t always have to mean they are evil. Maybe they are just misguided or immature, or doing things which are potentially harmful because they feel there is some greater goal. Here are a few Star Trek villains which I just can’t bring myself to call “evil”. Do they do bad things? Oh my yes. But evil? Let’s discuss:
Romulan Commander (TOS-Balance of Terror)
If you ever wondered why Mark Lenard got the role as Sarek, check out his first Trek role in “Balance of Terror”. Yes I know I trashed this episode earlier in the year, but to be fair it does have some great performances. It’s clear that the Romulan Commander (apparently Romulans in TOS don’t deserve names) is a good and honest person who is doing what he feels he has to do. You can see the torment he feels in his actions, thanks to Lenard’s fantastic portrayal. He’s a master tactician doing his job. In fact the end of the episode he even admits that he figures if things were different he and Kirk may have been friends.
Kruge (Star Trek III)
Linkara summed this one up in his Star Trek III review and I feel he is 100% right. Kruge isn’t evil he’s just scared to death that the Genesis device will be the end of his people. The only action he takes that could be considered evil is killing Kirk’s son. Blowing up The Grissom wasn’t his intention, and that final fight between him and Kirk is his way of regaining his honor after his screw up caused most of his crew to be killed. This is probably alos why the villain is not the most memorable, because he has no real motivation or evil agenda. It could be any Klingon and you’d get the same results which isn’t good in a major motion picture. That’s what made Khan work, for example.
Bruce Maddox (TNG-Measure of a Man)
While this guy is a bit a douche, I honestly don’t think he is evil. He is narrow minded and more concerned with his work than he is the rights of androids that’s for sure. But sometimes people have a hard time changing their belief’s about something. Maddox refused to accept Data as anything more than a machine, so it was OK for him to experiment on him as much as he wanted. Thankfully Picard beautifully illustrated in the episode that there is more to Data than wires and circuits. In the end Maddox learns to accept this (calling Data he rather than “it”) and is still doing his work. In fact Data is keeping in touch with him as established in another episode. Maddox isn’t evil he’s just a guy who needs to open his mind up a bit.
Q (TNG/VGR)
This is a tough one to defend, since if you were only to go by his first appearance than there’s not argument here. He puts the crew on trial and torments him through the mission. But the more he appeared in TNG, the more you could see that Q wasn’t all evil. Credit this to the actor John De Lancie who managed to find the humanity in the character. The best example may be in Voyager’s “Death Wish” where we see that Q is torn because he doesn’t want to admit that his people are in such decay. In the end he realizes that being a “good soldier” isn’t helping anybody. In TNG we see Q give Picard a reminder of the dangers out there, express gratitude after the crew save him, act with selflessness when he takes a shuttle to give himself up to an attacking alien, helps Picard to see how different his life would have been if he had chosen another path, helps Picard when the Q force him to send him hurling through three time periods to solve their puzzle. Yes he has no social grace and can be insulting to people, Ok even mean, but deep down he cares for humanity, Picard in particular.
Norah Satie (TNG-The Drumhead)
Ok not gonna lie, this is why I did this article. Am I the only one who thinks this way? Maybe, but here we go. Norah comes aboard the Enterprise to discover if there is a conspiracy on The Enterprise. And I will just say it, this woman is not evil, even though by the end the episode basically calls her that. What she does is reprehensible, don’t get me wrong. You don’t go persecuting a person based on a vague hunch and no real evidence. But let’s think about this character. It’s established in the episode that she’s retired, after a long and respected service. Her father was not only in Starfleet but was a huge figure in Starfleet. His writings are still required reading. Also, it’s established that when she was a child her father would make her and her brother’s debate an issue every night until it was satisfactorily resolved. He was clearly a large, imposing person. Also, she makes point that she has worked several years straight jumping from assignment to assignment with no real home. She has no friends and hasn’t seen family in ages. No, I think she is tired and just reached a point of burn out. Well past it probably. So much so that all she sees is conspiracies even when there aren’t any. As I said she had a distinguished career why wouldn’t this have come up before now if she always acted like this way? In her final scene she blows up at Picard, and then sits there without another a word. I always wondered what she was thinking in that moment. Is she realizing that maybe she has gone to far? So while I have no problem at all with Picard’s objection in the episode (he’s absolutely right don’t get me wrong) I do disagree with the way she is vilified in the end. It reminds me of an old Night Court episode where a respected judge one night acts loony, and turns out he’s just a frustrated and tired person who probably should have stepped down years ago. Think the same goes for Satie. At least that’s how I see it. I love this episode as it mirror’s the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthy hearings in the 50’s beautifully.
So feel free to disagree with me on this one, or if you think of one I should have listed, comment and let me know.
However, some villains really aren’t evil in my opinion anyway. Just because someone does something awful doesn’t always have to mean they are evil. Maybe they are just misguided or immature, or doing things which are potentially harmful because they feel there is some greater goal. Here are a few Star Trek villains which I just can’t bring myself to call “evil”. Do they do bad things? Oh my yes. But evil? Let’s discuss:
Romulan Commander (TOS-Balance of Terror)
If you ever wondered why Mark Lenard got the role as Sarek, check out his first Trek role in “Balance of Terror”. Yes I know I trashed this episode earlier in the year, but to be fair it does have some great performances. It’s clear that the Romulan Commander (apparently Romulans in TOS don’t deserve names) is a good and honest person who is doing what he feels he has to do. You can see the torment he feels in his actions, thanks to Lenard’s fantastic portrayal. He’s a master tactician doing his job. In fact the end of the episode he even admits that he figures if things were different he and Kirk may have been friends.
Kruge (Star Trek III)
Linkara summed this one up in his Star Trek III review and I feel he is 100% right. Kruge isn’t evil he’s just scared to death that the Genesis device will be the end of his people. The only action he takes that could be considered evil is killing Kirk’s son. Blowing up The Grissom wasn’t his intention, and that final fight between him and Kirk is his way of regaining his honor after his screw up caused most of his crew to be killed. This is probably alos why the villain is not the most memorable, because he has no real motivation or evil agenda. It could be any Klingon and you’d get the same results which isn’t good in a major motion picture. That’s what made Khan work, for example.
Bruce Maddox (TNG-Measure of a Man)
While this guy is a bit a douche, I honestly don’t think he is evil. He is narrow minded and more concerned with his work than he is the rights of androids that’s for sure. But sometimes people have a hard time changing their belief’s about something. Maddox refused to accept Data as anything more than a machine, so it was OK for him to experiment on him as much as he wanted. Thankfully Picard beautifully illustrated in the episode that there is more to Data than wires and circuits. In the end Maddox learns to accept this (calling Data he rather than “it”) and is still doing his work. In fact Data is keeping in touch with him as established in another episode. Maddox isn’t evil he’s just a guy who needs to open his mind up a bit.
Q (TNG/VGR)
This is a tough one to defend, since if you were only to go by his first appearance than there’s not argument here. He puts the crew on trial and torments him through the mission. But the more he appeared in TNG, the more you could see that Q wasn’t all evil. Credit this to the actor John De Lancie who managed to find the humanity in the character. The best example may be in Voyager’s “Death Wish” where we see that Q is torn because he doesn’t want to admit that his people are in such decay. In the end he realizes that being a “good soldier” isn’t helping anybody. In TNG we see Q give Picard a reminder of the dangers out there, express gratitude after the crew save him, act with selflessness when he takes a shuttle to give himself up to an attacking alien, helps Picard to see how different his life would have been if he had chosen another path, helps Picard when the Q force him to send him hurling through three time periods to solve their puzzle. Yes he has no social grace and can be insulting to people, Ok even mean, but deep down he cares for humanity, Picard in particular.
Norah Satie (TNG-The Drumhead)
Ok not gonna lie, this is why I did this article. Am I the only one who thinks this way? Maybe, but here we go. Norah comes aboard the Enterprise to discover if there is a conspiracy on The Enterprise. And I will just say it, this woman is not evil, even though by the end the episode basically calls her that. What she does is reprehensible, don’t get me wrong. You don’t go persecuting a person based on a vague hunch and no real evidence. But let’s think about this character. It’s established in the episode that she’s retired, after a long and respected service. Her father was not only in Starfleet but was a huge figure in Starfleet. His writings are still required reading. Also, it’s established that when she was a child her father would make her and her brother’s debate an issue every night until it was satisfactorily resolved. He was clearly a large, imposing person. Also, she makes point that she has worked several years straight jumping from assignment to assignment with no real home. She has no friends and hasn’t seen family in ages. No, I think she is tired and just reached a point of burn out. Well past it probably. So much so that all she sees is conspiracies even when there aren’t any. As I said she had a distinguished career why wouldn’t this have come up before now if she always acted like this way? In her final scene she blows up at Picard, and then sits there without another a word. I always wondered what she was thinking in that moment. Is she realizing that maybe she has gone to far? So while I have no problem at all with Picard’s objection in the episode (he’s absolutely right don’t get me wrong) I do disagree with the way she is vilified in the end. It reminds me of an old Night Court episode where a respected judge one night acts loony, and turns out he’s just a frustrated and tired person who probably should have stepped down years ago. Think the same goes for Satie. At least that’s how I see it. I love this episode as it mirror’s the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthy hearings in the 50’s beautifully.
So feel free to disagree with me on this one, or if you think of one I should have listed, comment and let me know.
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