Biggest villians fail? "Discovery" Klingons, "TNG" Ferengi or "Voyager" Kazon?

[Jayson1]

I think these 3 most likely will go down as the worst ongoing villians of the Trek shows so I thought it would be fun to see who is worst or the best depending on how you see it.

In terms of look and characters and acting it has to go to the Discovery Klingons right now. Nothing about them feels like Klingons which means none of the fun things about Klingons are in these new versions. The actors can't act because they are over designed and to much, muck on their faces.

The Ferengi were the worst in being a credible threat or danger. Plus the jokes were one not and not that funny. They were saved by "DS9" and Quark and his family and even the one note jokes started to work better because the characters had more depth. I will say though the Ferengi ships on TNG were better than any of the ships of the other villians on this list.

The Kazon on "Voyager." Me I liked the Kazon and only added them because I know most people, really hate them. Other than that one attempt to make them, Klingons in the ep with the actor who plays Nog I felt like they were a effective at being low level villians. I like their backstory of being ex-slaves and i liked the hair. I also liked Seska and Kullah in season 2.

That means the "Discovery" villians are the worst and will stay the worst unless they fix them somehow.

Jason

 

[BigDaveX]

Well, if we're talking about them as villains...

The Discovery Klingons may be a departure from their forerunners, and I'm 50/50 on the make-up, but they do generally come across as overall dangerous and somewhat effective villains.

The Ferengi started out as a completely ineffectual joke, but that was mostly because the producers were trying to use them in the same way that they'd have used the Klingons or Romulans in TOS. Once they'd fleshed them out to be less caricatures and had them carrying out more devious and underhanded plans instead of trying to pretend they were a military force, they worked a lot better.

The Kazon, on the other hand... yeah, there was no saving them. In their first appearance they came across as fairly unimpressive Klingon knock-offs, and then most of their subsequent appearances depicted them as being so stupid that if not for Seska being around to give them direction, they'd most likely have ended up shooting each other by accident instead of Voyager. And even the creators saw that there was no chance of saving them, and ditched them at the start of Season 3. So the Kazon get my vote as the worst.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enjoying the DISCO Klingons thus far.

Ferengi and Kazon were shit. Although I feel the Kazon would have been more successful with something other than an "off brand Klingon" look.

 

[BlueStuff]

Easily TNG's Ferengi. There's absolutely no basis for calling out DIS' Klingons as examples of the worst villains ever, less than halfway through the first season.

 

[Michael]

For me it's between early TNG Ferengi and Voyager's Kazon. And I think I'll go with the latter. The Ferengi were cringe-worthy and unbelievably unengaging as villains, but the Kazon were just bland and uninteresting.

 

[Rahul]

The Ferengi were a GIANT fail at actually creating a serious antagonist. But IMO, it made TNG so much better for it! Suddenly, they had a complete functioning show, even without a major villain! It was proven that it could work (that wasn't obvious for a science fiction series). They later tried to fix that, and introduce a new enemy - the Borg! And this time, they were super effective! But they already knew from experience they didn't have to include an antagonist regularly to be successfull, and thus were able to hold back on the Borg to keep them interesting. Even though everyone always laughs at how utterly they failed at making the Ferengi a believable antagonist - it IMO turned out to be one of TNG's biggest assets in the whole run.

The Kazon were just not very memorable. But they served their story purpose just fine: They represented a villain, weaker than Voyager alone, but in advantage because they were in packs. They even were somewhat effective villains in the handfull of episodes they appeared in. Just nont very memorable ones.

My point has to go do the DIS-klingons therefore, even though it's a paradox, because they are very effective as villains! They are memorable, are well produced and everything. Really, if they were a complete new species, they would instantly be a classic and immediately gain a seat with all the other iconic adversaries. But because they are supposed to be klingons, and because klingons are so iconic in pop-culture, and these new things fail SO HARD at EVERYTHING klingon, they are the biggeat weakspot of DIS yet.

 

[BillJ]

All three are pretty bad.

 

[galad2003]

I voted Kazon just because they were in more Voyager episodes. The TNG Ferengi were awful but weren't so central to the story whereas the Kazon were central villains for 1-2 seasons. (Or at least it seemed to me, I thought they were horrible and could never get into Voyager for a variety of reasons).

While I am upset over the change to the STD Klingons, they aren't bad villains. They should have just kept the same look, been turned into a different race or been explained as a new species in the Klingon empire that has risen to power.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Kazon are the worse villian ever created in Trek history. Even the Borg didn't want them.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The Ferengi failed the most as VILLAINS. They aren't so much villainous as pesky, and it was useful to have them around in a way that characters could play off them.

The Kazon were better as villains, but they were not great characters. They had a definite sell-by date.

 

[suarezguy]

The Ferengi bombed very badly as the new big villains but I thought some of the humor with them, including pre-DS9, worked pretty well. So I think they win the poll though I like them.
The Kazon felt like really half-hearted Klingons (though they did have cool ships), puzzling why they appeared so much and still couldn't become more interesting. Knowing what the executive producers were trying for almost makes the results worse.
The new Klingons didn't seem real interesting but not particularly bad either.

 

[JRoss]

I didn't mind the actual design of the new Klingons, but the makeup team dropped the ball. The cosmetics are very obvious.And something about them sounds very off. I can't see these fellows doing anything important.

Kazon actualy worked well, at least given the circumstances. A large backwater power that is a threat to a single starship, but one which they have the ability to evade. The Kazons had a somewhat sympathetic backstory and weren't all doom and gloom like latter-day Klingons. I also like that Cullah got away in the end.

Ferengi were not great villains, but I liked them as comedic relief and as a realistic look at what the corporate culture is trying to become.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Shame there isn't an "all three" option.

 

[Greg Cox]

The Kazon committed the ulitmate sin: they were boring. They needed Seska, a Cardassian, to make them interesting at all. The Ferengi tanked as "serious" adversaries, but redeemed themselves many times over as comedy relief.

Liking the DISCO Klingons so far. They're different than what we're used to, just like the TNG Klingons were different from the TOS Klingons, but they're an interesting new variation on the concept.

 

[Red Shirt]

"Biggest villians fail? "Discovery" Klingons, "TNG" Ferengi or "Voyager" Kazon?"

Yes.

 

[USS Triumphant]

None of the above. Correct answer: Species 8472. Huge new utterly badass enemy in their first appearance... followed by being neutered shapeshifting puppies that just really want to understand us so we can be friends in the very next appearance. Biggest waste of a bad guy since Darth Maul.

 

[Greg Cox]

None of the above. Correct answer: Species 8472. Huge new utterly badass enemy in their first appearance... followed by being neutered shapeshifting puppies that just really want to understand us so we can be friends in the very next appearance. Biggest waste of a bad guy since Darth Maul.

You make a good case.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Jury is still out on Discovery Klingons. Though they might win worst alien makeup.

Kazon were failure but not abject failure.

I'd go with TNG Ferengi. Ferengi made good humor in DS9 but I don't think they were even funny in TNG/Voy. They were bad cartoon villains.

 

[Jayson1]

I also thought about adding the Jem'Haddar but to me they were effective villians but didn't make for interesting characters, sort of like the Discovery Klingons. Same issue in the makeup makes it hard to tell them apart and hurts the actor give a good performance. Unlike the Disco Klingons though I think they at least look kind of cool plus they were part of a more interesting thing in the Dominion. I just wish they had a character on the level of Weyoum to sort of represent their race. That didn't happen until the books with Taran-atar.

As for it being to soon to judge the Disco Klingons that is possible but didn't we know the TNG Ferengi weren't going to work, even as soon as season 1? Also I think the Romulans were the main villians of TNG. To me the Borg were like the cool villian you bring out only on special occasion. That might have been were "Voyager" messed up with them. They used them to much.

Jason

 

[DarKush]

I got to go with the Kazon as the weakest. I've been watching and re-watching VOY recently and while I don't hate the Kazon as much as I once did, they were definitely a misstep. I can't get how the VOY writers didn't realize that the Vidiians were far stronger and more interesting as adversaries. Even the too late introduced Trabe would've been more of a challenge. The Kazon were introduced as being weak and the uninspired look did not help. I did enjoy Maje Cullah though. He was such a blowhard.

TNG quickly corrected from the Ferengi. And despite that miscue I still found later TNG Ferengi enough of a challenge and Daimon Bok remained a good villain. I also loved the D'Kora marauders. I also liked the Kazon ships a lot too, but that gets a demerit because they took them from the Trabe.

The jury is out with the DIS Klingons. They might wind up taking the top spot from the Kazon. Right now, while I think they have an interesting look, armor, and ships, very little of it strikes me as Klingon. If they had just made them the Hur'q or some other species, maybe soldiers in the employ of the Sheliak or something. Or since there is the John M. Ford influence, the Kinshaya, and I would have less misgivings about them.

I do like the Ferengi and Kazon ship designs better than the DIS Klingons thus far.