Star Trek: The Most Evil Characters In The Franchise

Highlights

V'Ger, a powerful entity, poses a threat to the whole galaxy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
The Keepers, illusionists with mind-control powers, trap humans for their own amusement in Star Trek: The Original Series .
Lore, an evil android, undermines humans and their allies in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

The Star Trek universe has a whole volume of evil characters that fans of every show and movie love to hate. Some of these bad guys were so memorable that the writers and creators of modern Star Trek have brought them back to drive the plot again and push our heroes to the limit of their abilities.

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There are so many awesome and terrifying antagonists in the Star Trek IP that it's difficult to choose only a few of the best. A few are so famous, however, that their reputation for evil deeds extends well beyond the franchise.

A few of the following entries give away a villain's origins, plans, and ultimate fate. Spoiler alert for those who have yet to explore every corner of the Star Trek universe.

6 V'Ger

The Potential To Destroy All Life

First Appearance: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was made when science-fiction meant big, epic blockbusters that leaned hard into visuals as opposed to action, which is why critics and audiences at the time weren't impressed. However, the movie has aged well, partly because of the brilliant idea behind the villain.

Identified at first only as V'Ger, this powerful entity seems to be a mix of artificial and extraterrestrial intelligence, and it has the power to hold the whole galaxy hostage. The crew of the Enterprise has been sent to make contact with V'Ger and figure out what it wants before it destroys all life in the galaxy.

V'Ger has modest wants. It's searching for its "creator" and it wants to go home, and any human can empathize with that. Home is Earth, the creators are humans, and V'Ger was the old Voyager satellite returning to its origin after hundreds of years adrift in alien space.

5 The Keepers

Powerful Beings Above All Life

First Appearance:Star Trek: The Original Series, Episode 1, "The Cage."

The antagonists of "The Cage" appeared again in "The Menagerie" a two-parter that was intended to tie up the dropped thread of the previous episode. The stakes were high in the pilot, and the cast and storyline had to go through some changes afterward, but it's interesting that when the villains returned they were just as effective with few changes.

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The legend of Christopher Pike, who was the Captain at the time, was ensured by his successful battle with the Keepers. In "The Cage" the race known as The Keepers were illusionists who had the power to control the human mind.

They lured the Enterprise under the pretense of a rescue mission but they were really trying to trap humans under the pretext of breeding them for a zoo of sorts, hence the title of "The Menagerie" for the two later episodes that featured Kirk's Enterprise.

4 Lore

Data's Evil Twin

First Appearance:Star Trek: The Next Generation, S1E13, "Datalore."

Considering that the development of artificial intelligence was one of the more interesting themes of The Next Generation it makes sense that one of the series' best and most memorable evil villains was an android. In modern Trek, androids are called "Synths" which is short for "synthetic" and Lore reason why their manufacture is so controversial.

Lore was colloquially referred to as Data's "brother" because they were both built by Doctor Noonien Soong. Another earlier model, B4, was too simple-minded to be dangerous, but Lore had the same level of strength and intelligence as Data with none of the morals or ethics.

Soong had built Lore's brain differently from Data's, and the older model had unstable emotional responses. Lore came to believe that he was superior to humans instead of equal to them. This led to several instances where Lore would actively undermine or even attack humans or their allies in Starfleet and the Federation.

3 Gul Madred

Cardassian Torturer Who Almost Broke Picard

First Appearance: Star Trek: The Next Generation, S6E10, "Chain Of Command, Part 1."

Not all Cardassians are evil, but Gul Madred embodies all the worst stories about this aggressive and malevolent culture. More often known simply as Madred, the officer that was put in charge of Picard's interrogation was the total, parallel opposite of the popular captain.

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Lacking compassion, courage, or even the slightest bit of empathy, Madred had a rough childhood growing up poor and never got over it. This is how Picard retained some degree of compassion and understanding for this villain, even as he was being brutally tortured.

2 The Borg Queen

Total Assimilation Of Life

First Appearance: Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Human beings place a high value on individuality, making the conformist Borg especially horrifying. The Borg themselves are bad enough, and when the presence of a queen was confirmed, audiences recognized her as an embodiment of their malevolence.

Her initial appearance was in the TNG movie First Contact, and despite the character's "death" at the end of the movie, it was understood that as long as the Borg existed, she would appear again. The Borg Queen would also appear as an important villain in more recent TV shows from the IP, like Picard and Voyager, sometimes cooperating with the protagonists but always planning evil behind their backs.

1 Khan Noonan Singh

Desires To Conquer Humanity & Kills Anyone In His Way

First Appearance:Star Trek: The Original Series, S1E24, "Space Seed."

Another modern human invention was the Augments, or human beings that had been genetically altered for greater strength, intelligence, and survivability, and they weren't any more reliable than the Synths. Khan Noonan Singh is the most famous example of the Augment craze that gripped Earth in the late 20th century, although it was a few decades before the genetically enhanced villain and other humans like him would be referred to as Augments.

The Star Trek: TOS episode that introduced this now iconic character seemed to end on a positive note. When the story was picked up for the movie Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, we discovered that Kirk's plan to maroon Khan and his crew on what looked like a hospitable planet had gone awry.

Another planet nearby was knocked out of orbit, turning their fertile world into a barren wasteland and killing most of Khan's friends and family. Khan's path of revenge was costly to both the Federation as a whole and James Kirk personally, confronting the Captain of the Enterprise with his worst nightmare, a no-win scenario.