The Wrath of Khan alternative villain?

[Riley]

Hey! Stop speaking ill of the first Irish crew member of the U.S.S. Enterprise! In my head canon (which ignores the awful TNG films), Kevin Riley became captain of the Enterprise-B.

 

[Set Harth]

Maybe a "Trial of James T. Kirk," where some Commodore court martials him for controversial actions from previous seasons.

And then the Commodore turns out to be a future incarnation of Kirk...

 

[Vger23]

Ron Tracey. As a former Starfleet Captain, he would have been a very dangerous adversary. He also had every reason to want to go after Kirk...and he was relentlessly evil in "Omega Glory."

 

[The Salt Umpire]

It turns out that James Tiberius Kirk was the imposter and James Roy Kirk (WNMHGB) was the true Academy graduate, and now he's back for Revenge.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

Ron Tracey. As a former Starfleet Captain, he would have been a very dangerous adversary. He also had every reason to want to go after Kirk...and he was relentlessly evil in "Omega Glory."

Morgan Woodward chewed the scenery so well in both his roles. A delight to watch.

 

[Greg Cox]

There was a fan suggestion a while back for a Cold War-allegory finale for TOS that would have been thematically-appropriate.

Which is what they did for sixth movie, which is essentially the finale of TOS.

 

[Checker222]

Which is what they did for sixth movie, which is essentially the finale of TOS.

Yes. But the fan suggestion was more of a standalone 'don't let a WWIII missile confrontation destroy your incipient-spacefaring primitive planet' kind of allegory episode, directed at 1960s America.

 

[SatrianiRules]

Balok, they could have made him an angry rebellious teen with a severe Tranja addiction who wanted Kirk's job...

 

[Admiral Archer]

If they wanted something more in line with the tone of the first film (which I know they didn't but still) I think either the Talosians or Gary Mitchell could have been included as the villains for a more cerebral story. You obviously can't just shoot phasers at these antagonists so what would you do? More talking, more trying to find a motivation or compromise, more thinking and less 'splosions. It would have also been a great way to go "back to where it all began", as these were both pilot episode antagonists. But we never would have gotten that so it doesn't really matter.

 

[DonIago]

Maybe something where Gary's original personality was starting to reassert itself and he was trying to fight the corrupting power subsuming him, and Kirk somehow ended up helping him in that regard, but didn't really know whether he could trust his old friend or not.