Part 6

[lxskllr@mastodon.world]

@Nmyownworld

For an individual, Q. For a species, the Borg.

I hate personal transporters with a fiery passion. The only way they can work is with a cerebral implant. My unfleshed Borg fiction is the Borg are descended from Starfleet that went too far with the implants and lost the plot. They went from seeking new life/civilizations to assimilating them while seeking perfection.

I want to see that show. From personal transporters to Borg.

[cliftonmr@en.osm.town]

@Nmyownworld I’ve always kind of sympathized with Annorax, trying everything that he can with his timeship to get back to his lost loved one. I mean, he kind of went numb to the destruction he was causing trying to bring back one person, but somewhere in there he wasn’t evil.

[andoriansoup@mastodon.social]

@Nmyownworld
For me it will always be the mighty General Chang. Christopher Plummer just owned the role, and seethed in Shakespearian madness

#StarTrek60

[giltay@tenforward.social]

@Nmyownworld Maybe it's because I'm on a DS9 rewatch, but Kai Wynn is one of the greatest TV villains. Louise Fletcher's performance is sublime. Her smarmy backhanded compliments. That mix of righteousness and venal ambition.

I think the best Trek villains are the ones that you can't just kill or destroy and be done with. The ones where you have to learn some way of living with them.

[nmyownworld@tenforward.social]

Dukat from DS9. A wonderful portrayal of a terrible person.

Asencia from PRO. So consumed by vengeance that she caused the very thing she sought to prevent. As well as nearly causing the literal erasure of her society.

[lxskllr@mastodon.world]

@Nmyownworld

Dukat is amazing! He could be very charming and likeable. You think "Well, ok. Maybe he's learned, and grew from his experience", and then he turns around and acts like an asshole again. The narcissist perfected.

[giltay@tenforward.social]

@Nmyownworld This is why, despite her faults, I like Lwaxana Troi as an antagonist. You just can't defeat her with violence.

[nmyownworld@tenforward.social]

@cliftonmr I think Kurtwood Smith did a great job portraying Annorax. That's a character portrayal that could have gone very wrong.

[jrdepriest@infosec.exchange]

@Nmyownworld

How can it not be Q? He / it makes it personal and John Delancie brings a mountain of personality to the role. The simmering disdain with just a hint of condescending encouragement. The godlike power behind carefully cultivated aloofness that conceals his genuine affection for Jean Luc Picard. He seems to carry all of that effortlessly.

Nobody else comes close on my opinion.

Lower Decks made the Pakleds compelling antagonists by leaning into their already canon ability to use their appearance of simpleness to manipulate the larger powers. I never expected that.

Romulans are always nice as a dark mirror to what the Vulcans would be if they didn't turn logic into a religion.

I thought Klingons were boring until DS9 fleshed them out. Still not a "favorite" antagonist.

I feel like they dove into the Borg well a bit too often. I also played a ton of Star Trek Online where the early years built-up to the Borg returning and the first repeatable Task Force Operations were all Borg for too long. So that probably is another reason I got burnt out on the Borg. The game eventually brought in the Iconians and did an amazing job. If we were talking about STO, I'd put the Iconians at the top of the list.

[nmyownworld@tenforward.social]

@giltay Louise Fletcher's portrayal of Kai Wynn is amazing.

[starkrg@myside-yourside.net]

@giltay @Nmyownworld DS9 has a lot of truly great antagonists, but she's the best of the best. Or, rather, she's the worst of the worst in the best way.

If you ever feel the need to cleanse yourself of the Winnness of it all, have a watch of Louise Fletcher's 1976 Oscar acceptance speech for Nurse Ratched. Makes me wish I knew her in real life.

[moriel@chaosfem.tw]

@Nmyownworld

Gotta say Ricardo Montalban's Khan wins this one

[gareth@tenforward.social]

@lxskllr @Nmyownworld
I'm going to have to think of someone else because two people have already said Dukat now, but look at him.

A character that they had to make ever more overtly evil because the actor playing him was so charismatic that the viewers still ended up thinking he wasn't so bad...

[tamazon@indieverse.social]

@Nmyownworld You know, Shran going from enemies to lovers with Archer was pretty memorable.

[nmyownworld@tenforward.social]

@gareth @lxskllr Yeah, Dukat gave me mental whiplash, sometimes within the same episode. Like in the episode "Indiscretion" (DS9 s4e4).

[nmyownworld@tenforward.social]

@tamazon Excellent! Shran is such a good character.

[andoriansoup@mastodon.social]

@Nmyownworld
I'm gonna follow this up with another choice. Because Chang is kind of a one shot character. My choice for long run, fleshed out, truly engrossing antagonists are Gul Dukat and Kai Winn. Both desperate for redemption, and both deserving of nothing. I hate(ish) to use a Babylon 5 reference here, but it's easy to compare to the rise and fall of Londo Mollari

#StarTrek60

[paulos@dice.camp]

@Nmyownworld Armus! He’s literally pure evil, and he actually killed a main character!

[andoriansoup@mastodon.social]

@Nmyownworld
And let's not talk about the collective trauma we all have from this moment

#StarTrek60

[moriel@chaosfem.tw]

@Nmyownworld

Going to also give a shout out to Christopher Plummer as General Chang in The Undiscovered Country, and Wilbur Campbell as Trelane in the TOS episode The Squire of Gothos