Summary
- Captain Picard's Enterprise faced 4 evil villains in Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies,.
- TNG's movie villains were mostly attempts to recapture the menace of Khan in Star Trek II.
- Soran, the Borg Queen, Ru'afo, and Shinzon are all major leage Star Trek movie villains, but here's who is best.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) faced four major league villains in Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies, and here they are ranked worst to best. Starting with 1994's Star Trek Generations, directed by David Carson, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation took over the Star Trek movie franchise. Three more films followed; 1996's Star Trek: First Contact and 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection, directed by Jonathan Frakes, and 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, directed by Stuart Baird.
Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), the eponymous villain of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, looms over the cinematic adversaries Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D and E faced. Khan is considered the ultimate Star Trek movie villain, even today. When Star Trek: The Next Generation switched to feature films, they required larger-than-life heavies, and nearly all of Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies tried to create their version of Khan. It's notable that the most successful TNG movie villain wasn't a Khan substitute but an expansion of Star Trek: The Next Generation's greatest foe.
Star Trek: TNG' s movies eschewed the TV series' morality tales in favor of big screen bombast, turning Captain Picard himself into an action hero.
4 Ad’har Ru’afo
Played By F. Murray Abraham In Star Trek: Insurrection
Ad'har Ru'afo was the leader of the Son'a, a nomadic race who were originally part of the Ba'ku people. Ru'afo partnered with Starfleet Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe) to take the metaphasic particles of the Briar Patch, a region of space which has regenerative effects akin to a 'Fountain of Youth'. Ru'afo and Dougherty's plan would have rendered the planet Ba'ku uninhabitable, so Starfleet planned to forcibly relocate the Ba'ku people. Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-E commit an insurrection against Starfleet to foil this plot and save the Ba'ku.
Ru'afo may be best known for his comical scream.
Despite his treachery, Ru'afo doesn't project the necessary menace of a truly great Star Trek movie villain. Ru'afo may be best known for his comical scream toward the end of Star Trek: Insurrection. Ru'afo and the Son'a were willing to commit genocide against the Ba'ku, but they didn't pose much of a problem for Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-E. Meanwhile, Admiral Dougherty was the latest in a long line of evil Starfleet Admirals, but he was betrayed and murdered by Ru'afo. However, Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham does what he can from beneath Ru'afo's prosthetics to make his Star Trek: Insurrection villain memorable.
3 Dr. Tolian Soran
Played By Malcolm McDowell In Star Trek Generations
Dr. Tolian Soran goes down in Star Trek history as the villain responsible for killing Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Like Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), Soran was an El Aurian, a long-loved race of listeners. In the late 23rd century, Soran was released from the Nexus, an intergalactic energy ribbon that contained an alternate reality that was like "being inside joy". Enacting an 80-year scheme to re-enter the Nexus, Dr. Soran planned to destroy the Veridian star to disrupt the Nexus path to the planet Veridian III, where Soran would be waiting to return to paradise.
An obvious attempt by Star Trek Generations to echo Khan's villainy, Dr. Tolian Soran was a relentless madman, although he wasn't seeking vengeance. Yet Soran was willing to kill millions just to return to the Nexus, and he parterned with the Klingon criminal sisters Lursa (Barbara Marsh) and B'Etor (Gwynyth Walsh) to achieve his goal. It took the team-up of Captain Picard and Captain Kirk to stop Soran, at the cost of Kirk's life. Had the mad doctor killed Kirk by shooting him in the back, as in Star Trek Generations' original cut, it may have guaranteed Soran as the top Star Trek: The Next Generation movie villain.
Preview audiences disliked the ending where Soran shoots Kirk in the back and kills him, so Star Trek Generations ' reshoots had Kirk die from his injuries after a bridge collapse as Jim tried to stop Soran.
2 Shinzon
Played By Tom Hardy Star Trek: Nemesis
Shinzon was a clone of Jean-Luc Picard created by the Romulans, initially, to replace the Captain of the Enterprise. However, Shinzon suffered from the degenerative Shalaft's Syndrome, and the Romulans abandoned their Picard switcheroo plan, banishing Shinzon to the mines of Remus. Shinzon gained the loyalty of the Remans and took his vengeance by massacring the Romulan Senate and installing himself as Praetor. From there, Shinzon planned to attack the United Federation of Planets and Captain Picard with an apocalyptic Thelaron weapon.
Tom Hardy makes Shinzon equally formidable, detestable, and pitiful.
Star Trek: Nemesis is a blatant rehash of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Shinzon is an obvious Khan substitute, complete with a personal vendetta against the Captain of the Enterprise. Tom Hardy makes Shinzon equally formidable, detestable, and pitiful, as the Praetor is clearly dying yet hellbent on revenge. Shinzon's attempt to use his Thelaron weapon on the Enterprise results in Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) sacrificing himself to save his friends. However, the scope of Shinzon's plot to level the Federation, and his other dastardly acts like mentally violating Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), make Picard's clone a truly contemptible baddie.
1 The Borg Queen
Played By Alice Krige In Star Trek: First Contact
The Borg Queen is the ruler of the Borg Collective, and the embodiment of their eternal pursuit of perfection in the universe. The Borg Queen retcons what's known of the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation, giving the alien cyborgs a charismatic persona to menace Captain Picard in Star Trek: First Contact. The Borg Queen's plot in First Contact was to time-travel to 2063 and assimilate a post-World War III Earth so that the Federation is never formed. As the Borg infect the USS Enterprise-E, the Borg Queen also attempts to seduce Data to be her mate. Ultimately, Picard and Data defeat the Borg Queen and her minions to protect Star Trek's timeline.
The Borg Queen is both terrifying yet oddly compelling.
Easily the greatest villain introduced by Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies, the Borg Queen even rivals Khan himself as Star Trek's all-time greatest villain. The Borg Queen is both terrifying yet oddly compelling, thanks to Alice Krige's mesmerizing performance. The unforgettable Borg Queen elevates Star Trek: First Contact, helping cement Jonathan Frakes' feature film debut as the best Star Trek: The Next Generation movie. The Queen's impact has also lasted beyond the Star Trek movies, as the Borg Queen has returned multiple times, played by different actresses, in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Picard. But Alice Krige's original Borg Queen is still the best.
