What civilization/species in Star Trek is, in your opinion, most evil?

[Shandor]

Borg seem like the obvious choice. Also don't care much for the godlike aliens (Q, Organians, etc.) that want to get involved in our business or the business of other mortal species.

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

 

[Shandor]

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

Oh and btw. same is true for other spiecies. Its just a different culture. Who can say what is evil and what is good? The Vikings had to die on the battle field to make the gods happy. No war, no death in battle, no good place for you in afterlife. moat of us did grow up with other ideologies. But who can tell what is the right one?

 

[Timofnine]

No species is truly evil, that is one of the whole points of Star Trek. Though some species may have leaders which are more dastardly than others. Tbf though, it was quite shocking when the Founders ordered the destruction of Cardassia… but that was probably the first example of something *spine tingly* dark in the Star Trek universe that I can remember, seemed evil at the time?

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Cool battle sequence, though!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

There's a bit of business in one of the novels in which Sarek appears. Maybe DD's Spock's World. I'm pretty sure that whichever one it is, it's not Kathleen Sky's Death's Angel.
Humans have been alluding to Vulcans' "Satanic" appearance around him for his entire diplomatic career, without explaining the allusion, and he finally demands an explanation. When he's shown an old book illustration depicting a pointed-eared devil, he incredulously asks if everybody has really been comparing him to (as he puts it) "a personification of entropy."

Somebody then asks if the Vulcans have any similar mythological figures.

Yes, and they all have pointed ears.

He then goes on to say that the Vulcans need no image but their own to personify evil.

Well, guess what? Neither do we. I nominate Humans -- not all of them, of course -- as the species with the most diabolical individuals.

Armus is an individual, the concentrated evil of an entire species. The Zetarian lifeforces that attempted to possess Lt. Romaine are similar. Nagilum is an individual. So is the Gorgan. We don't know much about the species that spawned these examples.

*****

Found the Sarek passage online (click here), and it is from Spock's World!

 

[Timofnine]

There's a bit of business in one of the novels in which Sarek appears. Maybe DD's Spock's World. I'm pretty sure that whichever one it is, it's not Kathleen Sky's Death's Angel.
Humans have been alluding to Vulcans' "Satanic" appearance around him for his entire diplomatic career, without explaining the allusion, and he finally demands an explanation. When he's shown an old book illustration depicting a pointed-eared devil, he incredulously asks if everybody has really been comparing him to (as he puts it) "a personification of entropy."

Somebody then asks if the Vulcans have any similar mythological figures.

He then goes on to say that the Vulcans need no image but their own to personify evil.

Well, guess what? Neither do we. I nominate Humans -- not all of them, of course -- as the species with the most diabolical individuals.

Armus is an individual, the concentrated evil of an entire species. The Zetarian lifeforces that attempted to possess Lt. Romaine are similar. Nagilum is an individual. So is the Gorgan. We don't know much about the species that spawned these examples.

*****

Found the Sarek passage online (click here), and it is from Spock's World!

Going by this logic, is it possible that Surak mind melded with all of the ‘pure’ Vulcan people, took away their emotions, pain and ‘evil’, and transferred all of this into the Romulans before the Surakittes shipped them ‘off planet’ to Romulus onboard rocket ships? Almost like a form of ‘judgement’ for the Vulcan species, separating the ‘good’ Vulcans from the ‘bad’ Vulcans (Romulans)? I have a lot of respect for Romulans btw, cool species. The ‘badness’ could have been dropped off onto the planet ‘Vagra II’ in Skin of Evil before the Romulans reached Romulus?

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Nagilum was also perhaps evil and misogynistic, but this entity was not Vulcan.

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[JoseNoodles]

I think from the Borg Standpoint they are not evil. They think they found the best way to make all Civilisations better. And as more they add the better everyone will be.
Sure they could ask if they want to join but i guess they think that individual persons are to dumb to understand what they offer. Look at our politicans right now. If you offer them a car drives with water, the car and oil industry would make them refuse it because of personal greed. So why even ask them if you k ow better what is good for them?

That's not my opinion. I just try to understand the Borg philosophy . In thier opnion they are the best that could happen to the other spiecies.

They're an anti-social civilization predicated on stripping people of their individuality and violating their bodies for an ill-defined concept of "perfection". That sounds pretty evil to me.

 

[Starflight]

Skin of Evil drives me nuts because it's a brilliant concept that doesn't go anywhere. The people who extracted Armus from themselves have become something, but we have no idea what. But whatever process they used to remove their "evil", it was clearly subjective - Armus contains hatred and violence, but also loneliness and desperation. It's not objectively evil, it's a collection of traits and emotions these people considered evil, and its absence may have turned them into something totally unrecognisable.

The episode ending with Picard essentially calling Armus an arsehole then beaming away is so flat, there's so much more you could do with that story.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They were at the very least careless.

I don’t recall. Did they at least post a sign or something?

 

[DonIago]

I don’t recall. Did they at least post a sign or something?

I don't think there's any such mention of that in the episode, though Picard's priority, understandably, is on rescuing the shuttle crew.

Was there any indication that Armus himself brought the shuttle down?

Regarding the Borg, I can't consider them evil. As a 'race' perhaps, but I tend to consider the vast majority of them to be prisoners and slaves forced to do terrible things. They're victims.

 

[scotthm]

The energy creature in Day of the Dove fed on hatred, and manipulated others to maximize their hatred. Also, Redjac from Wolf in the Fold was pretty evil -- he fed on terror.
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[mspencewvr]

"Evil" seems to be a relative term in Trek, after all the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Founders, etc don't see themselves as evil by their own lights. Certainly there have been evil characters but one of the core messages of Trek is that an entire species shouldn't be considered "evil."