The cruelest villains of Star Trek

Khan for sure.

 

The difference between the injured security guard and the mass Yangs is the Yang were attacking the otherwise defenseless village. Tracy was the only thing stopping the Komm villagers deaths at the hands of the Yang warriors.

Even McCoy pointed this out.

 

The cube crushing really freaked me out as a kid. I think something about the body horror mixed with the just nastiness of the act. That and Charlie X giving that woman no face.

 

So in effect Tracey was a hero attempting to save the defenceless Kohms from the Yangs. Killing those Yangs attempting to get their lands back was an act of selfless heroism by Tracey.

 

That action, taken in isolation, was Tracy acting in a positive fashion.

 

Fleet Captain Garth was very cruel, but he was also mentally unstable. So, it's hard to know if "cruelty" really applies, as he is acting on insane, erratic impulses and compulsions. Much of his cruelty was revealed in dialogue, however, enough was shown to rank him pretty high on this list of "Cruelest Villains of STAR TREK." Sweet, beautiful (and dangerously unbalanced) Marta getting dragged out from her bed, into the poisonous atmosphere was sadistic enough. But to stuff her jewelry with TNT and to blow her up like a New Year's Eve firecracker was too much to forgive ...

 

What episode?

 

What episode?

 

The Omega Glory I need to watch again and what other episodes?

 

The Omega Glory? Need to watch it again.

 

Forgot about that. Yes more cruel than Khaun, however as you said he was also mentally ill.

 

Well, by the TOS definition, breaking the law is the same thing as being mentally ill, so that doesn't tell us much. (But Garth bellowing "Lord Garth!!" is telling enough.)

What's this thing about Tracey starting a war? He started nothing - the Yangs were slaughtering the Kohms when he arrived. And killing, oh, a thousand Yangs shouldn't even register on the scale of evil, considering how many the Yangs had killed so far (that is, every single Kohm on the planet, save for those Tracey protected). It's just too bad Kirk didn't agree to wiping out the evil Yang once and for all.

Yes, Khan's villainy was of the bloodless sort. He had a soft touch and a smooth turn of phrase in general, and he was the one who made the choice not to kill Kirk and the rest of the bridge crew. But he did appear to think he had succeeded in killing Kirk in the pressure chamber - and we have no idea what his designs for the crew were, once his capture of the Enterprise would be complete.

Since Kirk was an admirer of Khan, the villain couldn't be too villainy, lest Kirk's credibility be ruined. Perhaps Kirk got the idea of marooning Khan from the master himself, that is, Khan's plan had been to strand Kirk's 430 crew on a habitable planet?

(He did maroon the crew of the Reliant if we can believe Chekov, rather than killing them - and that was the crazy version of the man. Khan, I mean, although admittedly Chekov wasn't in complete control of his faculties, either.)

Hmm. My vote for the biggest villain goes collectively for everybody who survived "Metamorphosis", that is, contributed to feeding Nancy Hedford to the Companion...

Timo Saloniemi

 

Remember Khaun makes a villain of Khan and U.

 

Space Seed and Errand of Mercy are the ones I referenced.

 

Sighhh, there IS such a thing as Google to search for basic information like this. Honestly, usually I'm usually more than happy to help out members who search for things when I can, but many of your threads in the last few weeks seem just thrown out there...

 

Thank you. Will need to watch Errand of Mercy and The Omega Glory again. I did use google to read up on these episodes.

 

I do use Google regularly for Trek info, however all I needed was a episode name to learn more.

 

Kor (who returns in Ds9) would have been my vote. And let's be real here: John Colicos was a helluva lot better actor than Morgan Woodward (who was very good) or Ricardo Montalban (who I always found meh). If any one of the villains we've seen has that Bond villain touch, it's Kor, and with style. Could you imagine the return of Kor in one of the earlier Trek films?


It would have been glorious.

 

You mean better than Reverend Jim in space?

 

I've always said that Ron Tracey was the most evil enemy encountered in the Original Series. He not only committed mass murder and violated his most sacred oath as a Starship Captain, but he tried to bring the end down on Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew. He killed the security officer in cold blood, almost killed Spock, was cold about the death of his crew, and would have slaughtered Kirk as well.

Just a ruthless, selfish, evil, man. A lot of the other villains were either comic bookish / mustache twirling or were misunderstod / shades of gray types. Tracey was just evil. And, the fact that this is Kirk's peer, the Captain of a Constitution-class starship...that makes it even scarier.