Weekly Poll: Favourite Star Trek Villains
Star Trek has featured many strange alien races over its long history and not all of them have been friendly with perhaps The Borg being the most famous example. This week we’re asking Star Trek fans to pick their favourite villains from our selection.
To celebrate the news that all five Star Trek (television series) captains are to appear on stage together later this year in London we are running a Trek themed poll this week. The Radio Times is also running a poll but the more predictable ‘which captain is your favourite’. We’ve decided to run a poll asking Trekkies which Star Trek villains, from our selection, are their favourite.
We’ve tried to pick at least one villain from each television series of Star Trek or villains that have appeared in multiple television shows – such as The Borg and the Klingons.
The Romulans: One of the main antagonists of the original series of Star Trek though they do appear in all subsequent television shows. The Romulans – and Remans – are related to the Vulcans but are polar opposites of their more logical cousins. Romulans are deeply distrustful of the Federation and have expansionist desires. While they are mostly antagonists within the Star Trek universe the Romulans did join the Federation’s war against the Dominion becoming temporary allies of with their long-standing rivals.
The Klingons: Also one of the main antagonists of the original series but by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation launched there was an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Klingons were even serving in Star Fleet with Wolf (Michael Dorn) being the most obvious example. The Klingons were a warlike species who placed great emphasis on honour and battles. Although they had an alliance with the Federation by the time of TNG they could still appear, on occasions, as antagonists in storylines especially in Deep Space Nine when they Klingons were infiltrated by Dominion changelings in an attempt to create a new war between the Federation and the Empire.
Cardassians: Primarily the main antagonists of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine though it could be argued they were also antagonists in the latter half of The Next Generation. The Cardassians were a military-ruled species with placed great emphasis on the family and honour as well. The Cardassian occupation of Bajor was brutal and bloody – millions of Bajorans died in slave labour camps or massacres during the occupation. The Cardassians allied themselves with the Dominion in their war against the Federation though they switched sides in the latter stages of the final battle after Dominion troops massacred millions of Cardassian civilians on their home-world.
The Borg: Along with the Klingons the cybernetic creatures are the most famous of Star Trek’s many aliens. Their popularity and instant recognition was boosted by their appearance in the movie Star Trek: First Contact in which they were the principal villains of the piece. The film was notable for introducing The Borg Queen (Alice Krige) who subsequently appeared in Star Trek: Voyager (played by Susanna Thompson for four episodes and by Alice Krige for the series finale, Endgame). The Borg were originally introduced in TNG and became the main antagonists of Voyager from its third season. In Voyager Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) became a member of the crew after being freed from the collective.
Kazon: A Delta Quadrant species first encountered by Voyager after it was dragged 70,000 light years across space in the spin-offs pilot episode Caretaker. The Kazon was another aggressive species who wanted advanced technology to aid their conquest of other species. They were the main antagonists of Voyager’s first two seasons though they were not hugely popular with fans.
Hirogen: Another species from Star Trek: Voyager who lived in the Delta Quadrant. The Hirogen were hunters who had scattered across the quadrant to continue their society’s ritual of hunting and killing prey. They had presumably long abandoned their home-world in favour of an almost nomadic existence based purely on the hunt. Their culture and technology revolved around the pursuit of interior species.
Dominion:The Dominion was an alliance in the Gamma Quadrant which was made up of many different species – many of whom were presumably conquered by the Dominion – such as the Jem’Hadar and the founders of the Dominion, the Changelings. The Jem’Hadar were the dedicated foot-soldiers of the Dominion. In some ways the Dominion was a more aggressive, militaristic and totalitarian version of the Federation. The Dominion were the principal antagonists of Deep Space Nine after their introduction and waged a brutal war against the Federation with the Cardassians and Breen joining the Dominion.
If your preferred Villian is not on our list then you can still vote for them by using the comments form at the bottom of this page!
The poll is located in the top left-hand side of the ATV Today website; simply select your preferred choice and click vote!
