Ratings for Various 'Star Trek' Villains
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Villains both menacing and lackluster
have gone after the crew of the starship Enterprise through
10 feature films in the "Star Trek" franchise.
As played by British actor Tom Hardy, the latest bad guy
— Shinzon, a younger clone of Patrick Stewart's Capt.
Jean-Luc Picard — stacks up fairly well in the rogue's gallery
of past "Trek" evildoers.
Here's one fan's ranking of previous "Star Trek" villains
(note that "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Star Trek
IV: The Voyage Home" had no conventional villains, instead
using giant space entities to menace Earth).
1. Khan Noonien Singh, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
— Ricardo Montalban creates one of sci-fi's nastiest
lunatics and gives probably the best performance ever in a
franchise that's had more than its share of bad acting. Reprising
his role from the '60s TV show, Montalban hisses, rages and
chortles with gleeful menace, all the while paraphrasing "Moby
Dick's" Ahab as Khan hunts his own great white whale, James
Kirk.
2. The Borg Queen, "Star Trek: First Contact" — Alice Krige is a true ice queen, a part-flesh, part-machine bad
girl who woos android Commander Data as she tries to turn
all life on Earth into cybernetic Borg drones. While most
"Trek" alien makeup and wardrobe is corny, Krige looks quite
the sexpot with her glistening, grayish skin, tight black
suit and dreadlock-like tubes sticking from her head.
3. General Chang, "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country"
— Christopher Plummer makes for a jovially black-hearted
enemy as a Klingon leader conspiring to quash peace efforts
and turn the Earth-Klingon Cold War into an all-out battle
to the death. You've just got to love a bald villain with
a patch over one eye who quotes Shakespeare in the "original
Klingon" and bellows Bard lines in the thick of combat.
4. Commander Kruge, "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock"
— Typecast in comedy, Christopher Lloyd never got his
due credit for creating the arrogant, vainglorious commander
that set the tone for future incarnations of the Klingon race.
Lloyd brings single-minded hatefulness to the role, but it's
a bit hard to accept a bad guy who speaks with the loony Rev.
Jim's voice from "Taxi."
5. Dr. Tolian Soran, "Star Trek: Generations" — Malcolm McDowell has curled his lip into an ugly grimace in so many
movies, it's a wonder his face hasn't frozen that way. McDowell
is quietly malignant as a mad scientist destroying solar systems
to gain access to a roving celestial paradise. And he's the
only "Trek" villain who dukes it out with both Enterprise
captains, Kirk and Picard.
6. Adhar Ru'afo, "Star Trek: Insurrection" — F. Murray Abraham
is cursed with a dumb name and a really bad skin condition
as a deteriorating alien trying to steal a fountain of youth
from a planet of peaceniks. In a battle of evil wits, Abraham's
delectably despicable Salieri in "Amadeus," which earned him
an Oscar, could have made mincemeat of the whiny Ru'afo.
7. Sybok, Capt. Klaa, "God," "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"
— Laurence Luckinbill as Spock's starship-hijacking half-brother,
Todd Bryant as a renegade Klingon and George Murdock as a
malevolent entity posing as "God" add up to a trio of weenies
in the franchise's worst movie. But William Shatner does get
to ask the "Almighty" the choice question, "What does God
need with a starship?"
Strong
Villians Make for Bolder 'Trek'
By
DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) Excuse Patrick Stewart if he sounds
a bit envious of those bad eggs who befoul his ``Star Trek''
universe while his heroic Capt. Jean-Luc Picard mops up after
them.
Like most sci-fi, fantasy and action franchises, ``Star Trek''
often lives and dies on the strength of its villains. ``Star
Trek: Nemesis,'' the 10th big-screen adventure for the crew
of the starship Enterprise, opens Friday and has one of the
series' most intriguing premises for an archenemy: a young
Picard clone whose harsh upbringing has made him a hateful,
murderous monster.
The Picard duplicate Shinzon, played by British actor Tom
Hardy, gets to rage and bully in a manner that Stewart's noble
character never would dream of.
``There always seems to be a much wider range of opportunities
for actors when playing a bad guy,'' Stewart said. ``Occasionally,
you get these ambivalent good guys, and they're interesting.
But to be evil brings more complexity than playing a clear-cut
hero. Most actors always have a lot of fun investigating the
worst side of human nature.''
And successfully capturing that dark side goes a long way
toward creating an entertaining yarn.
What would ``Star Wars'' be without Darth Vader, where would
Harry Potter be without Voldemort? The best James Bond flicks
generally have the most memorable bad guys, such as Gert Frobe
as the title character in ``Goldfinger'' (with a great assist
from Harold Sakata as Oddjob) or Robert Shaw in ``From Russia
With Love.'' As lovable scoundrel Lex Luthor in ``Superman,''
Gene Hackman stole the show from Christopher Reeve.
``Star Trek'' offered up one of sci-fi's great villains in
the second movie, ``The Wrath of Khan.'' As genetic superman
Khan, a role he created in an episode of the original ``Star
Trek'' TV show, Ricardo Montalban took William Shatner's James
Kirk and the Enterprise on an explosive deep-space dogfight,
all the while snarling paraphrased snatches of Capt. Ahab's
vengeful rants from ``Moby Dick.''
Part of Khan's appeal was his deep connection to Kirk, rancor
that festered after the Enterprise captain exiled him to a
wasteland for 15 years. ``Star Trek: Nemesis'' screenwriter
John Logan said the aim for the new movie was to create that
sort of antagonism between Picard and Shinzon.
``In any story, if there's a personal connection between the
hero and villain, it gives you more opportunity for drama,''
said Logan, whose screenplay credits include ``Gladiator.''
``The dramatic possibilities here were all the better because
the villain not only is equal to Picard, he is Picard.''
Along with Montalban, ``Star Trek'' has drawn an impressive
lineup of actors as villains, among them Christopher Plummer
(``Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''), Malcolm McDowell
(``Star Trek: Generations''), Christopher Lloyd (``Star Trek
III: The Search for Spock''), and Academy Award winner F.
Murray Abraham (``Star Trek: Insurrection'').
Generally, the more menacing the foe, the better the movie
clicks with audiences. ``Wrath of Khan'' was a big hit, Plummer's
turn as a Shakespeare-spouting Klingon miscreant gave ``The
Undiscovered Country'' a boost, and Alice Krige's creepy Borg
Queen, a cybernetic seductress, helped make ``Star Trek: First
Contact'' the most successful of the franchise's recent films.
``I've got to confess a terrific attraction for the Borg Queen.
I wouldn't mind spending time with her,'' Stewart said of
the leader of the part-flesh, part-machine Borg race. ``She
is beautiful and deadly, sensual and horrifying. She's sexy
and repellant, and one of the nice things is, she has a sense
of humor. I think that made her especially strong.''
Conversely, the least popular movie, ``Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier,'' offered mundane foes a soft-spoken Vulcan,
a fairly innocuous Klingon and a none-too-sinister entity
posing as God.
A strong bad guy, though, is not the only key to success.
``Star Trek'' scored its only $100 million hit with the fourth
movie installment, ``The Voyage Home,'' which had no villain,
just a giant space probe that menaced Earth. That film had
broad appeal beyond ``Trek'' fans because it was more slapstick
comedy than sci-fi adventure.
Still, the ``Star Trek'' filmmakers hope Hardy's Shinzon provides
the same sort of lift the wicked Borg Queen and Khan brought
to their movies.
``I think the Borg Queen and Khan were wonderful villains.
They were scary and threatening and memorable,'' said the
film's producer, Rick Berman, who took over from the late
Gene Roddenberry as the franchise's shepherd. ``I believe
everyone will agree when they see this film that Shinzon is
in the same category.''
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