Highlights
- Star Trek's envisioned future is a utopia, but it still has a seedy underbelly of crime and villains.
- Characters like Wesley Crusher, Vash, and Quark showcase the criminal side of this future world, engaging in various illegal activities.
- Despite their criminal tendencies, these characters also have redeeming qualities and sometimes use their connections or skills to help others.
Star Trek's future, as envisaged by creator Gene Roddenberry, celebrates the best that humanity has to offer. Poverty is a thing of the past; peace reigns across the Earth. The bigotry of previous eras is nowhere to be seen. And, yet, there is a seedy underbelly to this supposed utopia.
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Even in a moneyless future, crime still pays. From Mafia planets to human trafficking, the criminal villains of the Star Trek universe show that, while the future is bright, it is not without its amoral side. It is a mercy, then, that the forces of the Federation are there to put a stop to these criminal acts.
8 Wesley Crusher
Wesley Crusher may have gone down in Star Trek history as an annoyance rather than a villain, but this boy genius shows that brains and criminal leanings are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, Wesley's crime is so heinous that the justice system decides that only one response is warranted: execution.
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What sickening offense could lead to such an outcome? Wesley is accused of disrupting a flower bed on the idyllic planet of Rubicun 3. While this may seem trivial, the native Edo maintains a tough-on-crime policy, and only Captain Picard's intervention saves Wesley from the lethal injection.
7 Vash
Vash makes multiple appearances in both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Initially introduced as a foil and love interest for Picard, Vash later joins forces with Q—with dangerous consequences. However, she is best known for her affectionate banter with Picard as they search for a historical artifact in "Captain's Holiday."
While Vash is not the most nefarious criminal in the Star Trek rogue's gallery, she nonetheless has her dark side. Like Lara Croft, Vash blurs the line between grave robbing and archeology. She has a reputation among other archeologists as a profit-hungry adventurer. Her crimes include trespassing on forbidden alien archeological sites and stealing alien treasures, although this reckless behavior doesn't prevent the uptight Picard from growing attracted to her.
6 Quark
Armin Shimmerman's iconic Ferengi would probably not describe himself as a criminal, but there is a definite underbelly to Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House, and Holosuite Arcade. If there are dodgy dealings taking place on Deep Space Nine, Quark is usually involved in them, from smuggling contraband to stealing patented technology from other species.
However, despite his numerous criminal ventures, Quark has a softer side. While the Ferengi is always willing to pursue profit, he lacks the hardheartedness of a true criminal mastermind. He is also willing to use his criminal connections to help others, as in the episode "Profit and Loss," where he assists a group of Cardassian dissidents when they seek to escape their totalitarian government.
5 Ro Laren
Recurring character Ro Laren became a fan-favorite as a result of her appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ro starts the series as a rebellious Starfleet officer whom Captain Picard attempts to redeem and remains torn between her Bajoran heritage and Starfleet's expectations.
Ro carries a great deal of trauma from a childhood spent under Cardassian domination. As such, it makes sense that Ro's departure sees her join the Maquis, a terrorist organization opposed to the Cardassian Union. While her actions are illegal (and a betrayal of Starfleet principles), it's difficult for viewers to judge her.
4 Bela Okmyx
Star Trek's early years are littered with parallel Earths discovered by Kirk and the Enterprise. "Bread and Circuses" sees the starship visit a Roman-themed planet, and "Patterns of Force" sees the heroes don Nazi uniforms to investigate a planet modeled on the Third Reich (the episode was banned in Germany until the 1990s).
"A Piece of the Action" offers viewers a sci-fi twist on gangland Chicago, as the Enterprise uncovers a civilization that developed under the influence of human literature. This Mafia-esque planet is the setting of a power struggle between two criminal masterminds, Bela Okmyx and Jojo Krako, though Okymx ends up as the top dog after Kirk's intervention.
3 Garth of Izar
Garth of Izar is an insane megalomaniac who seeks to dominate the entire galaxy. Yet Garth's backstory reveals that the genocidal criminal was once a Starfleet legend. He played a crucial role in the game-changing Battle of Axanar, but his subsequent descent into madness led to him being incarcerated in the prison world of Elba 2.
The episode "Whom Gods Destroy" sees Garth assuming the form of Captain Kirk in an attempt to escape from his asylum prison. However, Spock is able to differentiate between the duplicate Kirks, and Garth is returned to the facility to receive proper treatment.
2 Kodos the Executioner
Many politicians throughout history have earned dubious nicknames, but Governor Kodos' reputation as a mass murderer nets him the threatening title of Kodos the Executioner. Kodos is responsible for the massacre of 4,000 colonists after food shortages affected his planet. The famine was soon salivated, but was too late. Kodos's eugenics-inspired purge was complete.
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One of the few survivors of the purge is James T. Kirk, who later becomes captain of the Enterprise. Kirk learns that Kodos faked his own death and is living under a false identity. Even worse, murder clearly runs in the family, as Kodos' daughter is willing to kill to protect her father's terrible secret.
1 Harry Mudd
Notorious swindler Harcourt Fenton Mudd is a frequent thorn in the side of Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. The Federation vessel first encounters Mudd in the aptly named "Mudd's Women," in which the rogue is involved in selling wives to the miners on an alien world. Mudd's crimes don't stop at human trafficking; he's also wrapped up in hijacking the Enterprise and offering Christine Chapel a love potion in order to seduce Spock.
Nor are Mudd's misdeeds limited to The Original Series. The criminal mastermind also makes appearances in Star Trek: Discovery (where he traps the starship in a time loop and repeatedly destroys it) and Short Treks, showing once and for all that he's bad to the bone.