What civilization/species in Star Trek is, in your opinion, most evil?

[Shandor]

Borg seem like the obvious choice. Also don't care much for the godlike aliens (Q, Organians, etc.) that want to get involved in our business or the business of other mortal species.

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

 

[Shandor]

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

Oh and btw. same is true for other spiecies. Its just a different culture. Who can say what is evil and what is good? The Vikings had to die on the battle field to make the gods happy. No war, no death in battle, no good place for you in afterlife. moat of us did grow up with other ideologies. But who can tell what is the right one?

 

[Timofnine]

No species is truly evil, that is one of the whole points of Star Trek. Though some species may have leaders which are more dastardly than others. Tbf though, it was quite shocking when the Founders ordered the destruction of Cardassia… but that was probably the first example of something *spine tingly* dark in the Star Trek universe that I can remember, seemed evil at the time?

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Cool battle sequence, though!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

There's a bit of business in one of the novels in which Sarek appears. Maybe DD's Spock's World. I'm pretty sure that whichever one it is, it's not Kathleen Sky's Death's Angel.
Humans have been alluding to Vulcans' "Satanic" appearance around him for his entire diplomatic career, without explaining the allusion, and he finally demands an explanation. When he's shown an old book illustration depicting a pointed-eared devil, he incredulously asks if everybody has really been comparing him to (as he puts it) "a personification of entropy."

Somebody then asks if the Vulcans have any similar mythological figures.

Yes, and they all have pointed ears.

He then goes on to say that the Vulcans need no image but their own to personify evil.

Well, guess what? Neither do we. I nominate Humans -- not all of them, of course -- as the species with the most diabolical individuals.

Armus is an individual, the concentrated evil of an entire species. The Zetarian lifeforces that attempted to possess Lt. Romaine are similar. Nagilum is an individual. So is the Gorgan. We don't know much about the species that spawned these examples.

*****

Found the Sarek passage online (click here), and it is from Spock's World!

 

[Timofnine]

There's a bit of business in one of the novels in which Sarek appears. Maybe DD's Spock's World. I'm pretty sure that whichever one it is, it's not Kathleen Sky's Death's Angel.
Humans have been alluding to Vulcans' "Satanic" appearance around him for his entire diplomatic career, without explaining the allusion, and he finally demands an explanation. When he's shown an old book illustration depicting a pointed-eared devil, he incredulously asks if everybody has really been comparing him to (as he puts it) "a personification of entropy."

Somebody then asks if the Vulcans have any similar mythological figures.

He then goes on to say that the Vulcans need no image but their own to personify evil.

Well, guess what? Neither do we. I nominate Humans -- not all of them, of course -- as the species with the most diabolical individuals.

Armus is an individual, the concentrated evil of an entire species. The Zetarian lifeforces that attempted to possess Lt. Romaine are similar. Nagilum is an individual. So is the Gorgan. We don't know much about the species that spawned these examples.

*****

Found the Sarek passage online (click here), and it is from Spock's World!

Going by this logic, is it possible that Surak mind melded with all of the ‘pure’ Vulcan people, took away their emotions, pain and ‘evil’, and transferred all of this into the Romulans before the Surakittes shipped them ‘off planet’ to Romulus onboard rocket ships? Almost like a form of ‘judgement’ for the Vulcan species, separating the ‘good’ Vulcans from the ‘bad’ Vulcans (Romulans)? I have a lot of respect for Romulans btw, cool species. The ‘badness’ could have been dropped off onto the planet ‘Vagra II’ in Skin of Evil before the Romulans reached Romulus?

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Nagilum was also perhaps evil and misogynistic, but this entity was not Vulcan.

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[JoseNoodles]

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

They're an anti-social civilization predicated on stripping people of their individuality and violating their bodies for an ill-defined concept of "perfection". That sounds pretty evil to me.

 

[Starflight]

Skin of Evil drives me nuts because it's a brilliant concept that doesn't go anywhere. The people who extracted Armus from themselves have become something, but we have no idea what. But whatever process they used to remove their "evil", it was clearly subjective - Armus contains hatred and violence, but also loneliness and desperation. It's not objectively evil, it's a collection of traits and emotions these people considered evil, and its absence may have turned them into something totally unrecognisable.

The episode ending with Picard essentially calling Armus an arsehole then beaming away is so flat, there's so much more you could do with that story.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They were at the very least careless.

I don’t recall. Did they at least post a sign or something?

 

[DonIago]

I don’t recall. Did they at least post a sign or something?

I don't think there's any such mention of that in the episode, though Picard's priority, understandably, is on rescuing the shuttle crew.

Was there any indication that Armus himself brought the shuttle down?

Regarding the Borg, I can't consider them evil. As a 'race' perhaps, but I tend to consider the vast majority of them to be prisoners and slaves forced to do terrible things. They're victims.

 

[scotthm]

The energy creature in Day of the Dove fed on hatred, and manipulated others to maximize their hatred. Also, Redjac from Wolf in the Fold was pretty evil -- he fed on terror.
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[mspencewvr]

"Evil" seems to be a relative term in Trek, after all the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Founders, etc don't see themselves as evil by their own lights. Certainly there have been evil characters but one of the core messages of Trek is that an entire species shouldn't be considered "evil."

 

[Annorax849]

It’s still the parasites from Operation Annihilate for me. Probably the scariest too.

 

[knightgrace]

There's a bit of business in one of the novels in which Sarek appears. Maybe DD's Spock's World. I'm pretty sure that whichever one it is, it's not Kathleen Sky's Death's Angel.
Humans have been alluding to Vulcans' "Satanic" appearance around him for his entire diplomatic career, without explaining the allusion, and he finally demands an explanation. When he's shown an old book illustration depicting a pointed-eared devil, he incredulously asks if everybody has really been comparing him to (as he puts it) "a personification of entropy."

Somebody then asks if the Vulcans have any similar mythological figures.

He then goes on to say that the Vulcans need no image but their own to personify evil.

Well, guess what? Neither do we. I nominate Humans -- not all of them, of course -- as the species with the most diabolical individuals.

Armus is an individual, the concentrated evil of an entire species. The Zetarian lifeforces that attempted to possess Lt. Romaine are similar. Nagilum is an individual. So is the Gorgan. We don't know much about the species that spawned these examples.

*****

Found the Sarek passage online (click here), and it is from Spock's World!

Just to clarify...

The Commandments of G-D, are perfect. However some like the one cited, are only active during a forced March, such as the Exodus. Others apply only to Jews, and some only to males - such as circumcision, which must be done on the Eighth day no matter what. Even on the Sabbath day. ??? The Commandments of G-D are hierarchical in nature. I am not enough of an expert to go over much more.
But G-D's actual laws must be followed. The Rabbinical Laws, not so much. Why? Every miracle that was Done by Christ, went against Rabbinical Laws, not G-D's.

Bachelor's Degree in Cultural Anthropology 2002.

People's cultures are quite interesting.
And remember that people are wierd.

 

[Moopsy]

Don't mess with the Talosians...

 

[XCV330]

First there is the process of defining evil. We won't agree on it but let's try.
I think we can toss Nietzsche in the bin. If we get all Arent and the Banality of Evil than we'll miss the wood for the trees, though we will learn a lot about ourselves and society in general.

If you want to delve into moral philosophy it's time to dig up Kant. So Kant would say we are free persons. And as free persons we have a moral mandate to do good things. So we start to get a definition: A free acting individual who chooses to do bad things is a bad person. But you're talking about an entire species being bad. Is that possible?

Kant to the rescue. We can use Kant in this case. Kant thinks evil is broken down into catagories:

First up is Moral Frailty. A morally frail person knows what the right thing to do is, and they sort-of want to do it, but they're too weak to do it. And in a Kantian sense, that is evil. Not very evil, on the grand scheme of things, Mr Potter, but anyway. What if you DID do the right thing.. but you did it for the wrong reason.. because of.. SELF INTEREST. Evil catagory number 2 According to Kant it doesn't matter if you did everything right, but if you did it for personal aggrandizement or gain, that's actually worse than being too weak to do it at all. So whats worse than that? Perversity! The truly wicked person will do whatever they do for themselves. Because they wanna. They have no interest in doing good.

I'm long winded but we actually already have an answer here. First off, most species and individuals are going to fall under Moral Fragility. Humans are unfortunately probably not going to rise above self-interest most of the time. Some species may appear evil but actually do have proper goals. Klingons for instance are generally honest, adhere to a strict moral code where intentions are important and fragility is unthinkable.

And while most species show examples of truly wicked personal-gain types, they are not the standard by which an entire species can be judged. EXCEPT.... (Drum roll) According to Kant (and verified by Kovics in DISCO season 3) Terrans are evil. Their every move is determined simply because they felt like it.

 

[Mudd]

Humans.

 

[Artoo Atari]

Humans.

Absolutely. F#%&ing Hew-mons.

 

[Laughing Dragon]

I don't see the Borg as necessarily evil. Even though they assimilated entire worlds and almost succeeded in destroying Captain Picard's life. It did not seem personal. What about Cardassians? They are basically space Nazi/Custers right?

 

[FredH]

In real life I’d say humans (since who else is there?), but in-universe it looks like the Vezda have been given the title.

 

[Shawnster]

I don't see the Borg as necessarily evil. Even though they assimilated entire worlds and almost succeeded in destroying Captain Picard's life. It did not seem personal. What about Cardassians? They are basically space Nazi/Custers right?

Custers?