TrekMovie has an article on S3: "‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Has Khan-Level Villain, Jean-Luc/Beverly Tension… And The Enterprise". WHY does damn near every single black hat in Trek need to be hyped as a "Khan-Level Villain"? There was only one Khan (and it wasn't the Into Darkness version, either, with all due respect to Mr. Cumberbatch).
Khan set the benchmark, and TWOK set the standard in terms of expectations. It's the most frustrating truth I have come to find within Star Trek fandom as far as broad opinions go. From different magazines to villain lists, Khan is listed as number 1, usually. It would be great, in my opinion, if TWOK could be left behind, and if that standard could change. Thus far, I don't see that happening.
TWOK has its revered place in Trek lore, yes, and there it shall reside until the sun burns out, but to constantly lead the fans on with "Khan-level" rhetoric is kind of dumb. It's been said so many times before with less-than-optimal results and the fans are tired of being the Charlie Brown to Paramount's Lucy's football. They just don't ever seem to learn that we've heard and seen it all before. Hell, I think even that whiny bitch Ru'afo from In-suck-erection was at one point likened to Khan. I think that was the one that did it for me.
It's very dumb but it is the nature of both the fan base to instantly compare it: "Oh, it's the next Khan!" or "Oh, it's the next TWOK" rather than working to try and allow it to stand on it's own, or fail. Not every Trek movie is TWOK and should not be.
I tried. They stopped taking my calls. And I still love Into Darkness, but not because of Khan or anything related to TWOK.
Well, star trek has an in general Villain problem, most of the time they suck vacuum. The odd time they gave us a good villain, in Khan, Chang, Borg, has been rare. Then latter shows dilute the effort by featuring them again, and easily beating them again, basically making them a paper tiger. I would say its kind of simple to write a good villain, but it isn't. there harder to write than the hero. You basically have to find a reason there " The Baddy" that makes some kind of sense, then find a competent actor to carry it out. But that doesn't always end up true, Idris Alba was a great actor.. useless in Beyond. Nero was also meh, CumberKhan was okay, but that was just shear force of will from Cumberbatch.
It takes a sweet-spot combination of good writing, directing and acting. If any one of those three things comes up short, the whole thing falls flat on its face. I personally find Cumberbatch an amazing actor in everything I've ever seen him in but, IMO, woefully miscast as Khan. Agreed about Idris Alba. He, too, is fantastic but, sadly, not even he could make the Beyond premise work.
I think Cumberbatch did great with what he was given. Elba was sadly wasted and carried little of the gravitas I felt he could wield. Bana was amazing as a truly unique villain. I still prefer Nero over Khan. Also, Peter Weller did great as the villain for Trek, twice.
I think it could have worked if they hadn't been so insistent on burying one of their best assets under make-up for the purposes of a middling twist. Beyond is actually my favorite of the Kelvin Treks, but I don't think maintaining the mystery of the villain's origin was worth the trade-off of hampering Alba's performance.
According to one of the hosts of Trek Yards, Robert told him he went over the Terry's (the showrunner) house last weekend and watched all of Season 3 as it is. It's apparently 90% finished.
More to the point, after all the other "Khan-Level Villains" including Cumberbatch as a recast Khan have failed to live up to the hype, you'd think they'd learn to stop comparing new villains to Montalban.
Yep, exactly. It’s the boy who cried wolf all over again. Topped off with the ubiquitous “We’re all very pleased” platitude from the suits prior to release, after which they realize that they were the only ones actually “pleased”.
Well.... Spoiler I think they (Riker & Picard) rescue Beverly, or at least get to Beverly, by episode two. The scene in the first teaser with Riker and Picard aiming their phasers is probably them about to enter wherever Beverly is being held. I also think Bev's capture is at set up by the villain to get Picard out into space.
Kurtzman has been playing up the villain as being a Khan-level threat. He also said there's another TNG legacy character outside of the main cast returning that he was sort of surprised the actor was willing to return to the role. Could Michelle Forbes' Ro Laren be the villain? Ro has a huge personal connection to Picard, she's a criminal, and presumably spent a large portion of time in a Federation penal colony so she may have an axe to grind. But on the other hand, she has a deep admiration for Jean-Luc so maybe not.
Yeah she had lots more animosity towards Riker than she did for Picard. It certainly would be cool to see her again, but I don't think she'll be the villain.
I think they're just trying to say this new thing will be like that old cool think people liked. Just hyping folks up. Take it or leave it. Sometimes it's ok if the villain doesn't steal the show every time. Heck, Captain Angel went over well so maybe they're on to something.
Denise Crosby is still working, what if Sela is lurking within the whole Romulan conflict and wages one final encounter with Picard, and crew of TNG?
Matalas has indicated the villain is a new character, played by a well-known actress not from Trek. Unless he's completely lying, I doubt Sela/Crosby is the one.