Lloyd certainly used his trademark voice for Kruge, no question about it. And I also agree that Larroquette was using a different voice than he used for Dan Fielding. Voice is just as important as the visual appearance, isn't it? However, I'm going to plead ignorance on whether Lloyd could have used a different voice. He's always used that trademark voice in anything I've ever seen him in, but I don't know what he's fully capable of when it comes to voice work. --- GROAN!!!
I don't think so, as the studio's suggestion of Terence Stamp is even smaller and slighter, I believ.
Can't find the reference, but Jurgen Prochnow (pre-DUNE, post-THE KEEP and DAS BOOT) was also supposed to be a shoo-in at some point.
Judging by a five minute bit from a show early in his career (30-some years ago)? Another show from that time period is where I first saw the man, and came to admire his work. Maurice LaMarche is an accomplished voice actor. You might know him better as The Brain, any number of characters on Animaniacs and Histeria, not to mention Morbo, Calculon, and Kif Kroker (among others) from Futurama, or more recently the Voice of Lexus. He also originated "Talk Like William Shatner Day."
I always saw Kruge as a Klingon in the tradition of Kor, Koloth and Kang: an antagonist with an understandable perspective, as opposed to a caricature of evil. Definitely a contrast to post-TOS films. There is no way to sympathize with Soran, the Borg Queen, Ru'afo, Shinzon, Nero or Marcus. This is especially disappointing in the case of Shinzon, who, given the concept, certainly could have been a somewhat sympathetic character, but the film never gives him a fair shake.
I find Nero very easy to to sympathize with. He'd lost his family. That will mess you up in the worst way. Shinzon is the polar opposite. What he should have been and what he was... yeah they just didn't connect. At all.