I always thought that Cumberbatch should have been John Harrison, one of Khan Noonien Singh's fellow superhumans, who somehow got awoken *instead of Khan by Admiral Marcus. Then, at the end of the film, when panning across the cryotubes in the storage space, pass slowly over Cumberbatch/Harrison and settle on Ricardo Montalban/Khan in another nearby cryotube. Would have made so much more sense!
A great villain truly believes he is the hero of his own story, and moreso, makes the audience believe it as well. That's why Khan (Montalban) and Chang worked so well in the movies. It's why Dukat worked so well on TV.
@@Kieranhc Joker is more compelling when they write him with a backstory. He is more of a fun villain but I consider Two-Face of Mr. Freeze to be more compelling. They have motive.
Soran: Have you ever considered a prosthesis that would make you look a little more... how can I say... more normal? Geordie: What's normal? Soran: "What's normal?" Well, that's a good question. Normal is what everyone else is and you are not. As a disabled person I absolutely pissed myself laughing at that line, Soran wasn't afraid to show how much of a dick he was in every single way
I think what really made Soran was Malcolm Mcdowell. The character of Soran was blatantly shallow and in the hands of another actor would have come across just as ho-hum and who cares? But Malcom, with a good history of playing bad guys, bloody well nailed it in this performance. Yeah, the guy was a dick. But he didn't care about what you thought about him and it shows. Like Khan he only cared about one thing - himself. Anyways, glad you were able to find some humor in that exchange because Star Trek is absolutely horrible on how it handled any kind of disability. The future is picture perfect, blah blah. Look, we have a blind navigator who can actually see better than you. TBH, I think the line "I hope you are initiating a mating ritual" was funnier.
See, the thing about Into Darkness is that, John Harrison is an interesting character on his own. This movie seems to give you a disgruntled Section 31 agent bent on exposing the organization and raining down hell on Starfleet and the Federation for something Section 31 had done to him. But then, it really isn't. I like that movie, but John Harrison didn't need to be Khan in disguise
Ha, first fella who actually admits to liking "Into Darkness" (courage!). As well, Harrison did not have to be Khan Noonien Singh pretending to be someone else.
Into Darkness would have been redeemed quite a bit if they just added one small scene at the end. Seeing Ricardo Montalbán's likeness in the cryo-tube. Thus implying that 'Khan' in the movie was lying about who he was the entire time, knowing that pretending to be Khan would give him some sort of leverage in negotiations (aka, using Khan's reputation to impress the Admiral). Sure, it would still have some major issues - but at least then that whole thing would be wrapped up.
Either show the real Khan (with John Harrison lying about his identity), or have Harrison BE Harrison. Would've been better than JJ's constant "He's not Khan, he's not Khan... oops, yes he totally is Khan". Also, they wouldn't have to shoehorn Nimoy in as a glorified "wikipedia" for Kirk and Spock. Nimoy's presence in the '09 film was good, but his cameo was wasted in Into Darkness.
Yes, Lloyd's delivery of that line is hilarious! A truce wasn't the outcome Kruge was expecting at all -- and Lloyd conveys Kruge's amusement in that moment so well.
Can we call your 19th slot (the Admiral) a villain? I mean… I think of him, and the word that comes to mind is “Patsy”. He’s not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination. But a character getting strung along like a marionette a second is generally a good indication that the first isn’t the story’s big bad. Edit: I Love how Chang has an eyepatch bloody bolted to his face. He’d have been one of the top villains even if Plummer didn’t play the role (RIP, Actor Extraordinaire), because that tiny little character detail is just that badass!
Never thought of this inverse parallel before. III. 20-year-old flagship sacrificed in gambit to capture the rival Bird of Prey VII. 20-year-old Bird of Prey lost in the process of shooting down the flagship
In a sense, Kruge is the kind of villain we needed more of. The first two films were about the threats; V'Ger and Khan. They spent the next film Searching For Spock instead, so they needed a new threat who was worthy yet wouldn't pull focus. Wish they'd done this with Romulans in the NextGen films.
Dude your reading of Kahns speech gave me Goosebumps. Also made me find and start watching " the Wrath of Kahn" again. Even making my fiance watch it with me.
The Borg.... great idea and all. a blatant rip off of Starship Troopers. Q was a dick to introduce them, just to prove a point. One hive mind versus another?
The more I watch Star Trek, the more I like the major female characters. Both the good guys and the bad guys. Maybe one reason is that they're always a mix, with some intense struggle between good and evil (think Valeris, Kira).
Not just the best Star Trek villain, but Khan is IMO one of the best villains ever!… in the same breath as Vader, The Joker, Hannibal Lecter, Thanos, and Hans Gruber… among many others!
That would be interesting to see. But it would have to be all inclusive and not just limited to current Trek. But overall, I do think Worf would top this list simply because that's who most people know. Let's hope the people at Trekculture do this, and do their homework because well Klingons.
@@AbsentCoffee Yes you did :) I was just grousing that alot of these Trek lists tend to ignore everything pre-millennial as if Trek just magically streamed into existence.
i'm not saying Insurrection is perfect, and it does have some plot holes but I think it gets a bad rep because it followed the excellent First Contact. and it is better than Nemesis and Generations. Also, pretty sure if Kahn didn't make number one, you'd have been hunted down lol
I really liked Insurrection. Some solid special effects, some surprising twists (the primitive villagers were actually advanced), an interesting woman for Picard, and arguably the best corruption within Starfleet's house ever portrayed in the franchise.
Got to agree with you on this! I woukd never have thought of it on my own as the movie itself I hardly think of.... however, once thinking of it, few [among many] of the 'troubled admiral' villains have the creepy intensity of Marcus. Good thinking!🖖
Picard himself actually has a good but brief turn as a villain in First Contact. Murdering Ensign Lynch, taking the fight against the Borg to extremes, hurting Mr. Worf’s feelings etc. Similar to Khan with the Ahab allusions. And Patrick Stewart’s “I will make them pay for what they’ve done!” is utterly chilling.
Brilliant video Sean!!! V’ger puzzles the hell out of me mind. V’ger was an unfathomably evolved sentient AI whose 2au sized, 12th power vessel made mincemeat of Klingon cruisers and Epsilon 9 using plasma weapons. Yet, despite what is arguably the most advanced being/ vessel in all Star Trek cannon, it didn’t even manage to deduce ‘V’ger’ was ‘Voyager!!! 🤷🏼♂️. I mean, c’mon it can assimilate lieutenant Ilia into a new life form but can’t take a duster and polish to the probes plaque?!?! Maybe a vessel that big needs more than one cleaning lady! 😂
"Captain, V'Ger is a child. I suggest you treat it as such. Yes, captain, a child. Evolving, learning, searching, instinctively needing." V'ger did not care what it's name was, it just wanted to join with the creator, being told/figuring out your name is V'ger would result in next objective done with that. It's possible it/the Alien race never even read the plaque/had no or incomplete knowledge of how to read English. V'ger may not have even been able to got that name until Ilia (possibly, UT) taught it to read English or it scanned the Enterprise's computer. Even assuming the thing could read until it/the machines were able there is no real way to be sure what goes in that gap. Imagine seeing 5 hieroglyphs or Kanji with two obscured and no knowledge of the language, save maybe here's 24 other symbols that could fit? Kirk ( a native history buff scientist/engineer turned command officer) takes one look at a plaque on a very 20th century looking probe and deduces from the missing letters its the only "missing" Voyager probe, the Deltan had no chance, the Vulcan maybe.
Tom Hardy deserves to be HIGHER on this list. He was the perfect foil for Picard, not just in his look with a disguised voice, but he had Picard's inflections/mannerisms down brilliantly. The battle scene was literally a dual perspective, Picard as good and evil....and it was PERFECTLY believable. And did you expect a bad performance from Robocop?
That's always something I loved about Khan's demise. Most villains, in or out of Star Trek, know when they get their comeuppance. It might be a slow burning realization, perhaps it happens in the middle of a fight, or it's an "oh shit" moment. Usually, they realize at some point that they lost. Not Khan, however, as he dies fully believing he won. Sure, he might not have lived through it and it doesn't end up being true...but as far as he knows, he got his revenge!
Khan was watching the Forward Viewscreen with an excellent view of the Enterprise, a front row seat! When the Enterprise went to warp, Khan most definitely saw that he had failed at the last few seconds...it would have been nice to see the expression on his face though!
Well, perhaps I am romanticizing Khan's death to a degree. I suppose in all truth, you never actually "see him die". Still, I would argue that between his wounds, sense of vengeance, and the fact that the view screen is very clearly fucked like all the way up...I like to believe he died a happy, angry man...
The "long episode" complaint, as I see it, recognizes a lack of scale in Insurrection compared to the other films. The fact that it came out right after First Contact only highlighted this issue, because of the threat level present in that film by comparison
@@andreabindolini7452 who’s to say that wasn’t what she was to begin with and evolved into their leader? I think this obsession with keeping them just one hive mind actually makes them less interesting. But that’s me personally
@@HoustonSoto The Queen act as a indipendent entity, with a free will. Locutus was nowhere near this level. The "hive mind", interesting or not, is what really sets the Borg apart from everything else in The Next Generation. But I can understand that, for the sake of drama, they needed a single evil face to relate to.
If you count V'Ger as a villain, you have to count Nomad, which is V'Ger without the redeeming qualities. Not something you could negotiate with, any more than you could negotiate with a virus. Being voiced by Vic Perrin just added to the sense of menace.
19. Admiral Dougherty was also a sleazy Little House on the Prairie villain called Dr. McQueen who imprisoned and exploited a 13 year old mute boy for his medicine/side show and presented him as "The Wild Boy" (also name of the LHOTP episode)
I saw him on an episode of Columbo as the murder victim (he was a magician), and in the James Bond film "Licence to Kill". In Trek they pulled his face apart, in Columbo his head got cut off, in Bond his head was blown up...I'm noticing a pattern here.
Where's the tar monster that killed Tasha? That thing was LITERALLY pure sadistic evil and wasn't even killed! It's still alive on that planet and I'm sure that travelers ignored the warning beacons and went to the surface anyway to become its next victim!
There's no doubt that Khan from Star Trek TOS Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan is the best villain the franchise has created to date. As strong and as high of a presence William Shatner's Capt. James T. Kirk was Ricardo Montalbán's Khan Noonien Singh towered over the former exponentially. It's fitting this character would receive the number one spot as anything less would be disrespectful both to the character and the man who brought the character to life from the scripts making the character more than just words on a script.
@@notanactualuser That's why Gul Dukat was mentioned to be in the list right between 1st and 2nd. While it's true that Gul Dukat had more time on DS9 to showcase his villainy and I might add he was phenomenal in his own right Khan still managed in just one episode of Star Trek TOS to cement himself as an indomitable force to be reckoned with in spite being from the past. The single TV episode established Khan as a villain above villains. The movie cemented this further. Only two appearence separated with quite a long window of time yet Khan still managed to be more evil than Gul Dukat just by a small fraction. Basically a race like that of thoroughbred horses at a horse track where it was a picture perfect finish. Alone each is the embodiment of villiany. Together if they could avoid backstabbing each other long enough to unleash evil they'd utterly destroy the Star Trek Universe.
i love seeing Shinzon ranking so high on your list... i'm a little tired of everyone praising hardy (mad max meh) but he was fabulous in Nemesis (and Locke, and DK Rises)...
Yes if they had kept Cumberbatch as Harriman as a bottom tier Augment with something to prove, they could have had a CGI Ricardo Montalbán still in a cryo-tube in the sickbay scene.
Shinzon had like 5 days to live, and spent the first 2 days doing nothing while making the Enterprise crew wait and wonder what he wants. How is anywhere near the top 10
Appropriate that you called Khan “Ahab”- that quote is him paraphrasing Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in the 1956 film version of Moby Dick (my favorite movie, and the only version worth watching- sorry, Patrick Stewart.)
Khan would definitely be my number one also. You say he thinks that he got Kirk, but he does notice that the Enterprise jumps to warp just before he dies.
Tom Hardy was BRILLIANT! I immediately saw him channelling Patrick Stewart's Picard as well as creating Shinzon. He has impressed me ever since. Number 1 had to be Khan - Ricardo Montalbhan was incredible in Space Seed and brought the character to new heights inn TWOK.
Valeris was tremendously good. Thanks God Saavik has not turned into a villain. Regarding Khan, well... Montalban destroyed Cumberbatch. With all due respect.
Nope, the writers and the director destroyed Cumberbatch. I could say JJ Amateurms destroyed him. Bad writing, even worse directing. That whole movie is a mess (just like all of JJunk Abrams's works. I've never understood the hype around him. Almost as bad as Michael Bay). The whole crew is clueless about Star Trek (just like about Star Wars).
I disagree with #3 and Cartwright being so high up. Yes, he and several others betrayed star fleet as patriots what they thought was good for the federation, however #11 Valeris betrayal hits more of personal level, as she being mentored by Spock (and you know it bothers her as she went to speak to Spock speaking too the future, but because she is Vulcan she cannot express herself to Spock and Spock also being Vulcan could not read the tea leaves). And her betrayal of her captain, again a close relationship she must have had on the Enterprise, and in almost every star trek series and movie the crew loyalty to the captain always is greater then to the star fleet (many examples). I would not switch places, but from the same film I think Valeris is more of villain then Cartwright because of the relationship with main characters. I mean if you think about it, Spock mind rapes her to extract the information on the plot..and you feel the betrayal and anger from Spock and for Vulcan to have these emotions surface by a character's action is saying a lot. Anyway it just my opinion, great list.
I would definitely have to rank Kruge above Shinzon or Soran. Kruge was a shrewd, wily and SMART Klingon, who didn't prattle on about "HONOR!" but actually was the sort of opponent who would get what he wanted if he wasn't faced off against Kirk at the top of his game. He made mistakes, of course, but they were the kind of mistakes that any commander might make (who would truly anticipate a Starfleet officer blowing up his own ship to kill half a dozen Klingons?). And Kruge didn't fall for Kirk's more obvious ploys, and made Kirk deal with him on his own terms (personal combat - which Kirk could easily have lost). Kruge was the sort of Klingon I wish we had gotten more of in TNG...
Thank you for giving Admiral Marcus the respect he deserves. He's a fantastic villain. Completely believes he's the hero of that story and is being a Federation patriot.
Actually the criticism of a film being a “long episode” is valid. We wait at minimum 2 years for a film. It’s an event. Why would you want to see something that has NO bearing on the universe. Insurrection changes nothing about anyone other than Riker and Troi get back together. Plus it’s thematically close to a season 7 episode, so we’ve essentially already seen it. Picard going rogue doesn’t matter bc he’s going to be back on the ship at film’s end. It’s pointless. So yeah, long episode is a perfectly valid criticism.
I see a few comments that Harrison should have been a different super soldier to Khan, and I agree to that. But the movie is slightly redeemed by the not-quite-canon-why-do-they-do-this comics which states he has been surgically altered by Marcus and memory blocked and slowly remembers he is Khan which is based on unused script ideas. Which just allows some head canon that he thought he was Khan but just a lieutenant?
11:59 Wish I could remember who on the production team said he was proudest of Insurrection of all the NextGen films "because it was the most like an episode!" Shows they weren't trying to develop the STU. Skip a third of the TOS films and MAYBE you won't need a recap. Skip half the TNG films and what have you really missed?
Agreed, although Generations was more of a two-part episode than anything. Seriously... Watch it again, and there's the season-ending cliffhanger at about mid point. I just wish people would quit idolizing The Voyage Home. I rank that one just slightly below The Final Frontier as the worst. V, IV, TMP and III tied, II and VI tied.
Around the point when the Duras sisters are beating the snot out of Enterprise D. It could go to the "To Be Continued..." screen after the anonymous bridge crew members are flying around from explosions, just before the discussion about forcing the bird of prey to cloak. Then the next episode picks up with them having the cloak talk and implementing it. Or if you needed a few more minutes, you could "To Be Continued..." as Geordi is about to be tortured... Regardless, Generations is a two part episode. Even the production quality was way less than other Trek films, but only slightly above TV episodes...
question, what are the chances the Admeral Marcus from Into Darkness is a descendant of John Fredrick Paxton from the Terra Prime arc of Enterprise? i mean it makes at least some sence, right? right?
Wasn't star trek the motion picture originally was to be a new TV series called star trek phase 2, hints the new uniforms and the two that merge was to be the capt and the first officer
Sorry dude I just can't agree with Benedicts placing. He should have been higher up. He was excellent in his performance. He made many people cry and root for him when telling his story. When you have a villain who is able to do so much on his own and you find yourself rooting for them over the heroes. Thats a damn good villain.
Two things with the Borg Queen is she’s obviously a retconned in character and the fact that they put red lipstick on her to add sex appeal to her which made no sense since she’s a techno-zombie head on a robot body.
“17, Khan.”
Me: “What?!”
“… Into Darkness”
Me: “Oh. Carry on then.”
I was like that as well. LOL
ROFL
I heard the music stop with a record scratching in my head there not gonna lie.
Personally for me I liked the movie more than others on my top 6. Liked the movie better than Nemesis and The Motion Picture
@@jaycenzimbeck7638 EPIC COMMENT WIN
I always thought that Cumberbatch should have been John Harrison, one of Khan Noonien Singh's fellow superhumans, who somehow got awoken *instead of Khan by Admiral Marcus. Then, at the end of the film, when panning across the cryotubes in the storage space, pass slowly over Cumberbatch/Harrison and settle on Ricardo Montalban/Khan in another nearby cryotube. Would have made so much more sense!
That is exactly what I always thought when I saw it! Never met anyone else who thinks that too!
Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! I thought that too!
A great villain truly believes he is the hero of his own story, and moreso, makes the audience believe it as well. That's why Khan (Montalban) and Chang worked so well in the movies. It's why Dukat worked so well on TV.
Excellent observation.
The most compelling villains are not bad just for the sake of being bad. They have a motivation that makes snese in their mind.
How about villains like the Joker?
Khan, like Dukat, is a 📺 villain, indeed started as a comparatively low-key one.
@@Kieranhc Joker is more compelling when they write him with a backstory. He is more of a fun villain but I consider Two-Face of Mr. Freeze to be more compelling. They have motive.
Soran: Have you ever considered a prosthesis that would make you look a little more... how can I say... more normal?
Geordie: What's normal?
Soran: "What's normal?" Well, that's a good question. Normal is what everyone else is and you are not.
As a disabled person I absolutely pissed myself laughing at that line, Soran wasn't afraid to show how much of a dick he was in every single way
I think what really made Soran was Malcolm Mcdowell. The character of Soran was blatantly shallow and in the hands of another actor would have come across just as ho-hum and who cares? But Malcom, with a good history of playing bad guys, bloody well nailed it in this performance. Yeah, the guy was a dick. But he didn't care about what you thought about him and it shows. Like Khan he only cared about one thing - himself. Anyways, glad you were able to find some humor in that exchange because Star Trek is absolutely horrible on how it handled any kind of disability. The future is picture perfect, blah blah. Look, we have a blind navigator who can actually see better than you. TBH, I think the line "I hope you are initiating a mating ritual" was funnier.
@@tag1462 well said
See, the thing about Into Darkness is that, John Harrison is an interesting character on his own. This movie seems to give you a disgruntled Section 31 agent bent on exposing the organization and raining down hell on Starfleet and the Federation for something Section 31 had done to him.
But then, it really isn't.
I like that movie, but John Harrison didn't need to be Khan in disguise
Ha, first fella who actually admits to liking "Into Darkness" (courage!). As well, Harrison did not have to be Khan Noonien Singh pretending to be someone else.
I think Harrison was just one of Khan's supersoldier minions pretending to be Khan. Maybe to protect his boss from Admiral Marcus.
@@bonghunezhou5051 Into Darkness is my favourite Trek movie ♥️
"Please, Idris Elba, be in more things."
Good timing with this statement, since he's gonna be voicing Knuckles in Sonic 2.
“…To the last, I grapple with thee;
from hell’s heart, I stab at thee;
for hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”
Into Darkness would have been redeemed quite a bit if they just added one small scene at the end.
Seeing Ricardo Montalbán's likeness in the cryo-tube. Thus implying that 'Khan' in the movie was lying about who he was the entire time, knowing that pretending to be Khan would give him some sort of leverage in negotiations (aka, using Khan's reputation to impress the Admiral).
Sure, it would still have some major issues - but at least then that whole thing would be wrapped up.
Either show the real Khan (with John Harrison lying about his identity), or have Harrison BE Harrison. Would've been better than JJ's constant "He's not Khan, he's not Khan... oops, yes he totally is Khan". Also, they wouldn't have to shoehorn Nimoy in as a glorified "wikipedia" for Kirk and Spock. Nimoy's presence in the '09 film was good, but his cameo was wasted in Into Darkness.
genius
Also fact that Lloyd was able to pull off such an ruthless villain makes Kruge great.
And in between Back to the Future gigs at that! He played maniacal and then ruthless, then back again with an energy that belied his years. 🖖😎
When Christopher Loyd says “Put him on screen” I crack up every time.
Yes, Lloyd's delivery of that line is hilarious! A truce wasn't the outcome Kruge was expecting at all -- and Lloyd conveys Kruge's amusement in that moment so well.
I remember reading when Insurrection came out that F Murray Abraham had said he would quite happily play characters in Trek for the rest of his days
Can we call your 19th slot (the Admiral) a villain? I mean… I think of him, and the word that comes to mind is “Patsy”.
He’s not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination. But a character getting strung along like a marionette a second is generally a good indication that the first isn’t the story’s big bad.
Edit: I Love how Chang has an eyepatch bloody bolted to his face. He’d have been one of the top villains even if Plummer didn’t play the role (RIP, Actor Extraordinaire), because that tiny little character detail is just that badass!
Never thought of this inverse parallel before.
III. 20-year-old flagship sacrificed in gambit to capture the rival Bird of Prey
VII. 20-year-old Bird of Prey lost in the process of shooting down the flagship
I think the point was, it's not about the ship but the crew. Any old hunk of junk will do, but it's the crew that makes the difference.
You must have the AC cranked to 11 to be wearing a sweater this time of year, Sean.
11:24 It broke his Gunner up though, didn't it? 😁
A...C..?
@@Seal0626 Air Conditioning.
In a sense, Kruge is the kind of villain we needed more of. The first two films were about the threats; V'Ger and Khan. They spent the next film Searching For Spock instead, so they needed a new threat who was worthy yet wouldn't pull focus. Wish they'd done this with Romulans in the NextGen films.
I know a certain blonde haired Romulan Commander I think would've made a great movie villan.
@@Jamersonde Sela... Denise Crosby?
@@Jamersonde I to this day cannot believe she wasn't chosen as part of a story post First Contact.
@@Jamersonde I still think Sela should have been the main villain in "Nemesis" instead of the Picard clone.
“He should’ve won that fight as Remans are supposed to be bad asses”
Erm hello this is William T Riker we are talking about! 😂
Dude your reading of Kahns speech gave me Goosebumps. Also made me find and start watching " the Wrath of Kahn" again. Even making my fiance watch it with me.
Sqaurespace commercial just proved to me that it was cold in your office. Nice tight shirt!!
It's been so long since I've seen Krall, I thought you put in footage of a Krill from Orville...
You forgot to mention that Adm. Cartwright also was the father of the Emissary to the Prophets.
good point!
Same actor, but different character.
@@robertszekely8686 I'm pretty sure he was just being funny. At least I was.
@@francescosmith7859 You're probably right. Lol
@@francescosmith7859 The reason I mention this is that some people reading this are new to the Star Trek history and may think it to be true.
Finally! A fair list! Thanks a million. Dukat is best for TV if one splits the two formats. Do you have a similar list for Star Trek TV villains?
YEP! Dukat rules :)
Dukat is the most fleshed out and well rounded villain so far I ve seen in Star Trek.
It is not even a question. Dukat is THE most villaniest villan that ever villaned a swath of evil across the trekin universe! 🖖
Dukat isn't even top 50. He's terrible. They completely rewrite him every other season.
@@adamarens3520 Watch more Star Trek. For what you said to have been true you've seen like 12 episodes of DS9. Dukat wasn't even top 5 on that show.
Ok that was good, now where’s the “Every Borg episode” ranked from worst to best?
The Borg.... great idea and all. a blatant rip off of Starship Troopers. Q was a dick to introduce them, just to prove a point. One hive mind versus another?
@@tag1462 knob.
"This Ahab......got his whale!" I see what you did there Shaun! Well played, well played!
The more I watch Star Trek, the more I like the major female characters. Both the good guys and the bad guys. Maybe one reason is that they're always a mix, with some intense struggle between good and evil (think Valeris, Kira).
Actually Vger didn't destroy those things, it added them to its memory circuits .
Female Changeling! Badass.
@R J Meeks I actually liked the character of Ro Laren. But I do agree that Kira turned out to be a much better character overall.
Don’t forget to hit the like button so whatculture can pay to turn on the heat when Sean makes sponsored ads
don't forget to unsubscribe sice sean is a racist
@@pedro-on-wheels what?
Not just the best Star Trek villain, but Khan is IMO one of the best villains ever!… in the same breath as Vader, The Joker, Hannibal Lecter, Thanos, and Hans Gruber… among many others!
I would have to agree. Credit this to Ricardo Montalban's great acting.
That's a great Bad Guy list.
We need a list of best Trek television villains to appear only in one episode.
Again, it would go to Khan. But I'd also submit Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, Charlie X, Harcourt Fenton Mudd twice,
How about recurring villains also.
@@tag1462 Mudd was more of a joke.
@@robertszekely8686 Kirk didn't think so.
@@tag1462 It seemed to me that Kirk did think so. But you could say he did, I could say he didn't.
There was a deleted scene in The Wrath of Khan where Khan actually sees the Enterprise escape. He still would've made No. 1 though.
Pity they couldn't get George Burns to play God in ST V that would have been fun.
17. Khan
It's as if millions of voices cried out in terror...
...Into darkness...
And were suddenly silenced.
should do a top ten best klingons throughout star trek history that would be interesting to see what you come up with
That would be interesting to see. But it would have to be all inclusive and not just limited to current Trek. But overall, I do think Worf would top this list simply because that's who most people know. Let's hope the people at Trekculture do this, and do their homework because well Klingons.
@@tag1462 I said throughout the history of trek so cannon noon cannon novels new old kelvin all would apply so decently don't limit to current trek
@@AbsentCoffee Yes you did :) I was just grousing that alot of these Trek lists tend to ignore everything pre-millennial as if Trek just magically streamed into existence.
@@tag1462 wow I'm so sorry for not checking before hitting send lmao I can't even interpret my own comment there lol
Its not often I'll agree with these type of lists, but this spot on, well done sir!
i'm not saying Insurrection is perfect, and it does have some plot holes but I think it gets a bad rep because it followed the excellent First Contact. and it is better than Nemesis and Generations. Also, pretty sure if Kahn didn't make number one, you'd have been hunted down lol
I really liked Insurrection. Some solid special effects, some surprising twists (the primitive villagers were actually advanced), an interesting woman for Picard, and arguably the best corruption within Starfleet's house ever portrayed in the franchise.
I love insurection too, has some great TNG moments good ideas and jokes
I’ve gotta admit, there’s something about Séan wearing a woolly jumper that makes my face light up like a puppy 😍
Nicely done on the voiceover!
I believe you forgot Marcus from Into Darkness. His " Who will lead us, YOU?" Just chilling
Got to agree with you on this! I woukd never have thought of it on my own as the movie itself I hardly think of.... however, once thinking of it, few [among many] of the 'troubled admiral' villains have the creepy intensity of Marcus. Good thinking!🖖
Picard himself actually has a good but brief turn as a villain in First Contact. Murdering Ensign Lynch, taking the fight against the Borg to extremes, hurting Mr. Worf’s feelings etc. Similar to Khan with the Ahab allusions. And Patrick Stewart’s “I will make them pay for what they’ve done!” is utterly chilling.
Was ensign Lynch the Borg he killed while playing private eye??
Clicked and zipped to the end to make you got number 1 correct. Good job.
Brilliant video Sean!!! V’ger puzzles the hell out of me mind. V’ger was an unfathomably evolved sentient AI whose 2au sized, 12th power vessel made mincemeat of Klingon cruisers and Epsilon 9 using plasma weapons. Yet, despite what is arguably the most advanced being/ vessel in all Star Trek cannon, it didn’t even manage to deduce ‘V’ger’ was ‘Voyager!!! 🤷🏼♂️. I mean, c’mon it can assimilate lieutenant Ilia into a new life form but can’t take a duster and polish to the probes plaque?!?! Maybe a vessel that big needs more than one cleaning lady! 😂
"Captain, V'Ger is a child. I suggest you treat it as such. Yes, captain, a child. Evolving, learning, searching, instinctively needing."
V'ger did not care what it's name was, it just wanted to join with the creator, being told/figuring out your name is V'ger would result in next objective done with that.
It's possible it/the Alien race never even read the plaque/had no or incomplete knowledge of how to read English. V'ger may not have even been able to got that name until Ilia (possibly, UT) taught it to read English or it scanned the Enterprise's computer.
Even assuming the thing could read until it/the machines were able there is no real way to be sure what goes in that gap. Imagine seeing 5 hieroglyphs or Kanji with two obscured and no knowledge of the language, save maybe here's 24 other symbols that could fit?
Kirk ( a native history buff scientist/engineer turned command officer) takes one look at a plaque on a very 20th century looking probe and deduces from the missing letters its the only "missing" Voyager probe, the Deltan had no chance, the Vulcan maybe.
the problem with dougherty is that his motivation was a bit of a stretch
19:30 when you said "and this ahab" i was thinking is he gonna say "this ah...." something else? LOL
The shot of the Klingon being sucked into space as the bird or pray is blown up got reused a bunch of times
I’m glad I didn’t skip the ad, just because I got to hear Sean reference his nipple shirts
Tom Hardy deserves to be HIGHER on this list. He was the perfect foil for Picard, not just in his look with a disguised voice, but he had Picard's inflections/mannerisms down brilliantly. The battle scene was literally a dual perspective, Picard as good and evil....and it was PERFECTLY believable. And did you expect a bad performance from Robocop?
I know this will be an extremely unpopular opinion but to me it seems that the original Khan is so well regarded only because of nostalgia
Ricardo Montalban's blonde mullet just MAKES that performance.
That's always something I loved about Khan's demise. Most villains, in or out of Star Trek, know when they get their comeuppance. It might be a slow burning realization, perhaps it happens in the middle of a fight, or it's an "oh shit" moment. Usually, they realize at some point that they lost. Not Khan, however, as he dies fully believing he won. Sure, he might not have lived through it and it doesn't end up being true...but as far as he knows, he got his revenge!
Khan was watching the Forward Viewscreen with an excellent view of the Enterprise, a front row seat! When the Enterprise went to warp, Khan most definitely saw that he had failed at the last few seconds...it would have been nice to see the expression on his face though!
Well, perhaps I am romanticizing Khan's death to a degree. I suppose in all truth, you never actually "see him die". Still, I would argue that between his wounds, sense of vengeance, and the fact that the view screen is very clearly fucked like all the way up...I like to believe he died a happy, angry man...
The "long episode" complaint, as I see it, recognizes a lack of scale in Insurrection compared to the other films. The fact that it came out right after First Contact only highlighted this issue, because of the threat level present in that film by comparison
The first half of this list could basically be called 'how to waste awesome actors'.
I didn’t like the concept of the Borg Queen. Most of the terror of the Borg was that they were decentralized with no center that could be destroyed.
It would have made a lot more sense if, instead of a "queen", she had been another "spokesman" purposely assimilated, just as Picard/Locutus.
@@andreabindolini7452 who’s to say that wasn’t what she was to begin with and evolved into their leader? I think this obsession with keeping them just one hive mind actually makes them less interesting. But that’s me personally
@@HoustonSoto The Queen act as a indipendent entity, with a free will. Locutus was nowhere near this level. The "hive mind", interesting or not, is what really sets the Borg apart from everything else in The Next Generation. But I can understand that, for the sake of drama, they needed a single evil face to relate to.
@@HoustonSoto Making them just lamer Romulans makes them less interesting.
If you count V'Ger as a villain, you have to count Nomad, which is V'Ger without the redeeming qualities. Not something you could negotiate with, any more than you could negotiate with a virus. Being voiced by Vic Perrin just added to the sense of menace.
Agreed. I've always maintained that ST: TMP was just a remake of The Changeling, with a different ending thrown in to cover it up.
19. Admiral Dougherty was also a sleazy Little House on the Prairie villain called Dr. McQueen who imprisoned and exploited a 13 year old mute boy for his medicine/side show and presented him as "The Wild Boy" (also name of the LHOTP episode)
He was also the sleazy animatronics expert in "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park". Less said about that the better.
I saw him on an episode of Columbo as the murder victim (he was a magician), and in the James Bond film "Licence to Kill". In Trek they pulled his face apart, in Columbo his head got cut off, in Bond his head was blown up...I'm noticing a pattern here.
Nice list; I can't imagine any serious disagreements, and anyone that disagrees with the top two should have their Helmsman Operating License revoked.
Where's the tar monster that killed Tasha? That thing was LITERALLY pure sadistic evil and wasn't even killed! It's still alive on that planet and I'm sure that travelers ignored the warning beacons and went to the surface anyway to become its next victim!
I always thought, the view screen was still working and the last thing Khan saw, right before the timer hit zero was the Enterprise warping out.
That was outstanding. Well done Sean, well done. To the last I grapple with thee.....
The irony of commenting on reused footage while reusing a comparison clip from a recent TrekCulture video.
What number was the reused TrekCulture video? I haven’t watched vids from this channel that much
@@realgamerguyvlog32 it was the Klingon sisters, when you see the two birds of prey exploding side by side.
There's no doubt that Khan from Star Trek TOS Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan is the best villain the franchise has created to date. As strong and as high of a presence William Shatner's Capt. James T. Kirk was Ricardo Montalbán's Khan Noonien Singh towered over the former exponentially. It's fitting this character would receive the number one spot as anything less would be disrespectful both to the character and the man who brought the character to life from the scripts making the character more than just words on a script.
Best movie villain, but I got to say Gul Dukat is the best ST villian if you ask me by a mile, gets a whole series to be a all kinds of villian
@@notanactualuser That's why Gul Dukat was mentioned to be in the list right between 1st and 2nd. While it's true that Gul Dukat had more time on DS9 to showcase his villainy and I might add he was phenomenal in his own right Khan still managed in just one episode of Star Trek TOS to cement himself as an indomitable force to be reckoned with in spite being from the past. The single TV episode established Khan as a villain above villains. The movie cemented this further. Only two appearence separated with quite a long window of time yet Khan still managed to be more evil than Gul Dukat just by a small fraction. Basically a race like that of thoroughbred horses at a horse track where it was a picture perfect finish. Alone each is the embodiment of villiany. Together if they could avoid backstabbing each other long enough to unleash evil they'd utterly destroy the Star Trek Universe.
::Ignores 2002::
"Him: "That incredibly popular vampire show on TV."
Me: "The 1991 Dark Shadows reboot?"
i love seeing Shinzon ranking so high on your list... i'm a little tired of everyone praising hardy (mad max meh) but he was fabulous in Nemesis (and Locke, and DK Rises)...
The only change between your list and my list is that your number 2 is my number 1, and your number 1 is my number 2.
I have always loved Nemesis and Shinzon. Totally underrated. Easily in my top 3 Trek movies.
Yes if they had kept Cumberbatch as Harriman as a bottom tier Augment with something to prove, they could have had a CGI Ricardo Montalbán still in a cryo-tube in the sickbay scene.
Brock Peters also played Sisko's Dad. Also, Rene Auberjonois played Colonel West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
I don't know why but I've always thought of General Chang as a Klingon version of Picard.
He does do a great French Shakespeare.
We need a BuffyCulture. Unless there is one already and no one told me.
I kinda need a video ranking the best villains from the mirror universe! :3
Shinzon had like 5 days to live, and spent the first 2 days doing nothing while making the Enterprise crew wait and wonder what he wants. How is anywhere near the top 10
Haven't started the video yet.. but if Kahn isn't #1 I will loose my temper.
Edit: had a heart attack at 17. But I'm good now.
You can't call something villainous, or that it does villainous things if said something lacks such intent.
Appropriate that you called Khan “Ahab”- that quote is him paraphrasing Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in the 1956 film version of Moby Dick (my favorite movie, and the only version worth watching- sorry, Patrick Stewart.)
Khan would definitely be my number one also. You say he thinks that he got Kirk, but he does notice that the Enterprise jumps to warp just before he dies.
I'm really surprised Doctor Tolian Soran was only 5th. I like the description on why Soran is a villain. Short and sweet.
Tom Hardy was BRILLIANT! I immediately saw him channelling Patrick Stewart's Picard as well as creating Shinzon. He has impressed me ever since. Number 1 had to be Khan - Ricardo Montalbhan was incredible in Space Seed and brought the character to new heights inn TWOK.
Valeris was tremendously good. Thanks God Saavik has not turned into a villain. Regarding Khan, well... Montalban destroyed Cumberbatch. With all due respect.
Nope, the writers and the director destroyed Cumberbatch. I could say JJ Amateurms destroyed him. Bad writing, even worse directing. That whole movie is a mess (just like all of JJunk Abrams's works. I've never understood the hype around him. Almost as bad as Michael Bay). The whole crew is clueless about Star Trek (just like about Star Wars).
@@egyeneskifli7808 You missed the "With all due respect" part, that implies that is not entirely his fault.
Gul Dukat deserves to be on that list. You said it, almost as good as the original Khan.
I disagree with #3 and Cartwright being so high up. Yes, he and several others betrayed star fleet as patriots what they thought was good for the federation, however #11 Valeris betrayal hits more of personal level, as she being mentored by Spock (and you know it bothers her as she went to speak to Spock speaking too the future, but because she is Vulcan she cannot express herself to Spock and Spock also being Vulcan could not read the tea leaves). And her betrayal of her captain, again a close relationship she must have had on the Enterprise, and in almost every star trek series and movie the crew loyalty to the captain always is greater then to the star fleet (many examples).
I would not switch places, but from the same film I think Valeris is more of villain then Cartwright because of the relationship with main characters. I mean if you think about it, Spock mind rapes her to extract the information on the plot..and you feel the betrayal and anger from Spock and for Vulcan to have these emotions surface by a character's action is saying a lot.
Anyway it just my opinion, great list.
I agree. Sean's #1 and #2 were spot on, but I too would put Valeris above Cartwright.
I can't believe that Q is not even on the list
Soran: "He killed Kirk! I mean...!" 🤷🏽♀️😂
For me Benedict Khan is the best Star Trek Villain ever!!
Yes I really agree with your list "He Tasks me" but you are right Lol 😄
18:14: Nice nod to a fellow Illinoisan. (Side note, I lived in Stevenson Hall in college)
I would definitely have to rank Kruge above Shinzon or Soran. Kruge was a shrewd, wily and SMART Klingon, who didn't prattle on about "HONOR!" but actually was the sort of opponent who would get what he wanted if he wasn't faced off against Kirk at the top of his game. He made mistakes, of course, but they were the kind of mistakes that any commander might make (who would truly anticipate a Starfleet officer blowing up his own ship to kill half a dozen Klingons?). And Kruge didn't fall for Kirk's more obvious ploys, and made Kirk deal with him on his own terms (personal combat - which Kirk could easily have lost). Kruge was the sort of Klingon I wish we had gotten more of in TNG...
Thank you for giving Admiral Marcus the respect he deserves. He's a fantastic villain. Completely believes he's the hero of that story and is being a Federation patriot.
Star Trek Beyond.....is a film, I can't say fairer than that
Favorite of your lists so far!
Actually the criticism of a film being a “long episode” is valid. We wait at minimum 2 years for a film. It’s an event. Why would you want to see something that has NO bearing on the universe. Insurrection changes nothing about anyone other than Riker and Troi get back together. Plus it’s thematically close to a season 7 episode, so we’ve essentially already seen it. Picard going rogue doesn’t matter bc he’s going to be back on the ship at film’s end. It’s pointless. So yeah, long episode is a perfectly valid criticism.
Didn’t Geordie grow back a new set of healed eyes? So that alone could’ve made it all worth it…for him at least.
@@bcs2em625 only for that movie. I’m pretty sure he was back to the ocular implants in nemesis.
1) Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, CBS = *#1* 👍
Oh, you will be interested to know that in 2022, Idris Elba will be the voice of Knuckles in the new Sonic movie.
"interested"
Soran. He killed Kirk... Next! 😂
You got this list 100% correct.
I see a few comments that Harrison should have been a different super soldier to Khan, and I agree to that. But the movie is slightly redeemed by the not-quite-canon-why-do-they-do-this comics which states he has been surgically altered by Marcus and memory blocked and slowly remembers he is Khan which is based on unused script ideas.
Which just allows some head canon that he thought he was Khan but just a lieutenant?
Sean: who is the worst Star Trek movie villain?
Me: it had better be Khan.
Sean: 17... Khan ...
Me: WTF?
Sean: (Into Darkness)
Me: Oh. Yeah, ok.
Just want to say that I love the sweater.
11:59 Wish I could remember who on the production team said he was proudest of Insurrection of all the NextGen films "because it was the most like an episode!" Shows they weren't trying to develop the STU.
Skip a third of the TOS films and MAYBE you won't need a recap. Skip half the TNG films and what have you really missed?
Agreed, although Generations was more of a two-part episode than anything. Seriously... Watch it again, and there's the season-ending cliffhanger at about mid point.
I just wish people would quit idolizing The Voyage Home. I rank that one just slightly below The Final Frontier as the worst. V, IV, TMP and III tied, II and VI tied.
You mean the break is between the two Generations, @@robdembski5648, or later?
Around the point when the Duras sisters are beating the snot out of Enterprise D. It could go to the "To Be Continued..." screen after the anonymous bridge crew members are flying around from explosions, just before the discussion about forcing the bird of prey to cloak. Then the next episode picks up with them having the cloak talk and implementing it. Or if you needed a few more minutes, you could "To Be Continued..." as Geordi is about to be tortured...
Regardless, Generations is a two part episode. Even the production quality was way less than other Trek films, but only slightly above TV episodes...
question, what are the chances the Admeral Marcus from Into Darkness is a descendant of John Fredrick Paxton from the Terra Prime arc of Enterprise? i mean it makes at least some sence, right? right?
Wasn't star trek the motion picture originally was to be a new TV series called star trek phase 2, hints the new uniforms and the two that merge was to be the capt and the first officer
Sorry dude I just can't agree with Benedicts placing. He should have been higher up. He was excellent in his performance. He made many people cry and root for him when telling his story. When you have a villain who is able to do so much on his own and you find yourself rooting for them over the heroes. Thats a damn good villain.
Kahn, Chang, and the Borg Queen Remain my absolute favorite.
Two things with the Borg Queen is she’s obviously a retconned in character and the fact that they put red lipstick on her to add sex appeal to her which made no sense since she’s a techno-zombie head on a robot body.