The most evil individual and most evil regime in Star Trek

[JirinPanthosa]

I was surprised to see Tolian Soran so much in this thread. His primary characteristic was obsession, not malevolence. Not caring that people will suffer and wanting people to suffer are wholly different levels of evil

I can sort of see the argument made for Kivas Fajo, but he's small change really

I might argue it's even more evil to be willing to destroy entire planets if you're mentally capable of feeling remorse.

Knowing the difference between right and wrong and still choosing wrong is worse than not possessing the neural structures to process the concept.

 

[Taylirious]

I thought The Clown from 'The Thaw' was evil but it was just a program?

 

[CuttingEdge100]

I'd generally say the Dominion were: Admittedly they were the result of being horribly mistreated by other alien races. However by the time they morphed to what the Federation was facing they were incredibly dangerous.

Frankly, despite viewing Section 31 as a rogue government and an awful organization; I can't say that the genocide they wished to perpetuate in this case was entirely wrong. Sometimes when an enemy is bad enough, and there's no other way to have peace, killing every last one of them would be a decent solution.

Frankly I think the Federation should have just ran the clock out with various delaying tactics on the final episode of the Dominion war than a head to head slugfest with them while the founders all rot and die.

Of course, you'd want to cure Odo, but keep him away from all the other changelings until they're flaked up and gone. I suppose this makes me sound a bit cold-blooded.

 

[wulfio]

Any leader from the Mirror Universe are pretty despicable.

 

[Mojochi]

I was surprised to see Tolian Soran so much in this thread. His primary characteristic was obsession, not malevolence. Not caring that people will suffer and wanting people to suffer are wholly different levels of evil

I might argue it's even more evil to be willing to destroy entire planets if you're mentally capable of feeling remorse.

But wouldn't you agree that it's worse to be capable of remorse and still want to make people suffer? The two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Like Lore for example, who I mentioned in my post. He destroyed a world for no other reason than he wanted them to pay with suffering, and be destroyed horrifically.

By all accounts I know of, Soong did make him capable of remorse. So it exists in real life too. There's people who are mentally capable of remorse, who still act on the desire to see others suffer. Maybe they regret it at a later time, but they still acted on it. I view that being more evil than acting on an unrelated obsession that results in suffering, regardless of whether the inflictor may have remorse over it.

Malicious intent versus blind indifference. I suppose it can be viewed either way as which is more evil, since evil really is a gray area, but from a dramatic standpoint, maliciousness always seemed more evil

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any leader from the Mirror Universe are pretty despicable.

If you're referring to the Terran Empire, just how many of their leaders did we actually see? Not very many.

The mirror Kirk was probably the nastiest of that bunch. The mirror Spock turned out to be an honorable chap, of course.

Also, mirror Forrest was a decent sort - he genuinely cared about his crew, and sacrificed himself to let their lifeboats get away as his ship disintegrated around him.

(Mirror Archer was a bit of a jackass, and Hoshi...we got to see maybe ten seconds of her career as Empress, so that was too close to call.)

 

[Drone]

I would suggest Annorax. His temporal ministrations obliterated entire civilizations, races, and even the memory of their existence from anyone outside his little bubble. Were these efforts actuallydedicated to the salvation and greater good of the Imperium, its power, prestige, and influence? No. We clearly saw that even when an incursion resulted in his people attaining a greater hegemony in their corner of the DQ than had been extant during his own timeline, he wasn't satisfied. All that mattered in his neverending quest and casual unthinking impersonation of a godhead, was the resurrection of his wife and their happy home. Nothing else, not the fate of the Krenim, other races, or certainly any shred of morality, was of any account.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Annorax did terrible things, yes. But he was clearly tortured over what he was doing and felt some measure of remorse for it. He wasn't utterly without compassion.

 

[wulfio]

Any leader from the Mirror Universe are pretty despicable.

If you're referring to the Terran Empire, just how many of their leaders did we actually see? Not very many.

The mirror Kirk was probably the nastiest of that bunch. The mirror Spock turned out to be an honorable chap, of course.

Also, mirror Forrest was a decent sort - he genuinely cared about his crew, and sacrificed himself to let their lifeboats get away as his ship disintegrated around him.

(Mirror Archer was a bit of a jackass, and Hoshi...we got to see maybe ten seconds of her career as Empress, so that was too close to call.)

Mirror Kira, Garak, and Worf had absolutely no redeeming qualities.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And Andrew Robinson didn't particularly care for playing MU Garak, either. He said that was just being a common thug, without any of the subtlety of the regular Garak.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Reading the title, I thought this was another Rick Berman-related thread.

 

[erastus25]

^ And Andrew Robinson didn't particularly care for playing MU Garak, either. He said that was just being a common thug, without any of the subtlety of the regular Garak.

He also hated the chain and leash bit.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Conversely, Nana seemed to enjoy the hell out of playing the Intendant. I always wondered how she'd handle the "Crisis on Infinite Kiras" storyline from the novels...

 

[Hypaspist]

^ And Andrew Robinson didn't particularly care for playing MU Garak, either. He said that was just being a common thug, without any of the subtlety of the regular Garak.

Wasn't the whole subplot with Worf and Garek done for laughs? I thought it was funny. Worf was really just blunt and ambitious, while Garak was even further in dire straights, having to beg for everything.

 

[erastus25]

^ And Andrew Robinson didn't particularly care for playing MU Garak, either. He said that was just being a common thug, without any of the subtlety of the regular Garak.

Wasn't the whole subplot with Worf and Garek done for laughs? I thought it was funny. Worf was really just blunt and ambitious, while Garak was even further in dire straights, having to beg for everything.

It certainly has a comedy aspect, but Andrew Robinson, in general, kind of despised being thrust into schlocky roles like that.

 

[wulfio]

It might have been intended as a gag, but it wasn't actually funny.

One thing I'll say about ST writers. They were great at social commentary, but terrible at humor.

 

[erastus25]

It might have been intended as a gag, but it wasn't actually funny.

One thing I'll say about ST writers. They were great at social commentary, but terrible at humor.

And then there were the times they tried to combine social commentary AND humor. Annnddd...we got Let He Who is Without Sin and a Quark as a transsexual episode. uh...

 

[Drone]

Annorax did terrible things, yes. But he was clearly tortured over what he was doing and felt some measure of remorse for it. He wasn't utterly without compassion.

Perhaps, but he still couldn't stop himself from continuing to inflict his depredations hither and yon. He would have likely done so for another 200 years if he hadn't run into Starfleet's stonewall.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Compassion isn't worth a damn if it doesn't change your future actions. Annorax had sympathy for his victims, but he was not penitent. He had every intention of continuing to commit the same crimes.

Somebody who is capable of feeling compassion and still decides to murder people for his selfish motives is much more evil than somebody who is not capable of feeling compassion.

If Annorax had been convinced the error of his ways and HE was the one who made the choices to temporally invert his own ship to erase his crimes, you could say he was redeemed. He would have erased the entire galaxy if it meant he got his wife back. He was pretty damn evil.