Despite their status, some of the biggest and best villains in the universe have never been featured in the Star Trek movie franchise. Two of the franchise’s best-ever movies, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact gave big-screen upgrades to the TV villains Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) and the Borg Collective. However, not all of Star Trek‘s best villains have joined Khan and the Klingons in any of the thirteen existing Star Trek movies. Looking across the movie franchise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to Star Trek: Nemesis, it’s striking that the Romulan Star Empire never featured as principal antagonists.
Even in Star Trek: Nemesis, the Romulans are victims of the machinations of Tom Hardy’s Shinzon, not villains to be defeated by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). It was only until J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek movie that the Romulans became central villains, courtesy of time-traveling villain Nero (Eric Bana). The sequel, Star Trek into Darkness resurrected Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch) and arguably made Section 31 the true villains of the second Kelvin Timeline movie. Repeating Khan’s story was controversial, and seems even stranger when looking back at the wealth of Star Trek aliens with untapped movie potential.
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10 Q (John de Lancie)
Picard’s arch-nemesis never got his own movie.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan pitted Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) against his nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, in one of the most acclaimed movies in the franchise. Interestingly, when the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies did attempt their own version of Khan, it was with Tom Hardy’s Shinzon, and not John de Lancie’s Q. It may be that Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s finale was seen as the end of Picard and Q’s story as humanity’s trial came to an end. However, the prospect of Q pitting Picard and Kirk’s Enterprises against each other could have really livened up Star Trek Generations.
9 Lore (Brent Spiner)
Data played a huge role in the TNG movies, so where was his evil brother?
Lore, the evil brother of Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) was disassembled at the end of TNG season 7, episode 1, “Descent”, but it would have been easy enough to rebuild him for one final outing. In Star Trek: Nemesis, the body of a prototype Soong android, B-4, is discovered, which, it was hinted, would be the receptacle of the dead Data’s soul. It would have been more fitting if Nemesis‘ B-4 had instead been a reformed version of Lore, finally bringing the two brothers together, in a way similar to their final confrontation in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
8 The Dominion (Star Trek: DS9)
The TNG movies take place during DS9’s Dominion War
Star Trek: Insurrection saw Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-E expose a conspiracy on the fringes of Star Trek: DS9‘s Dominion War. Insurrection‘s villains, the Son’a, were associates of the Dominion, so the story could have been about the Enterprise-E sabotaging their ketracel-white production instead of the Son’a’s relocation of the Ba’ku. The Star Trek: The Next Generation villains only paid lip service to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so it made sense that the Dominion didn’t feature more heavily in Insurrection. However, it doesn’t make the Dominion’s absence any less disappointing.
7 The Gorn Hegemony (Star Trek: The Original Series)
Kirk never had his rematch with the Gorn
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has proved that the Gorn can be terrifying villains, perfect for inclusion in a blockbuster sci-fi action movie. It’s understandable that the Gorn never appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, given that they ran the risk of looking like men in rubber suits. However, the terrifying reptilian villains are ripe for exploration in the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek universe, especially as they’re not beholden to the events of the TOS episode “Arena”. A battle between Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and the Gorn Hegemony would make for a thrilling sci-fi adventure.
Complete History Of The Gorn In Star Trek
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6 The Mirror Universe (Various Star Trek Shows)
A war between Star Trek universes would have been ahead of its time.
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe explores war in the multiverse, Star Trek has the option of doing something similar. To date, it’s odd that Star Trek never revisited the Mirror Universe in the movies, especially as the cast could double up as both heroes and villains. Years after Star Trek: Discovery resurrected the Mirror Universe, there’s still the potential to revisit it in the J.J. Abrams’ movies, or elsewhere in the franchise. Michelle Yeoh’s Star Trek: Section 31 movie will see the Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou confront the sins of her past, suggesting it may return to Star Trek‘s dystopian universe.
5 Vau N’Kat (Star Trek: Prodigy)
Star Trek: Prodigy’s new villains have movie potential.
Star Trek: Prodigy‘s newest villains have obviously never featured in any of the thirteen feature films that preceded their introduction into the franchise. However, the Vau N’Akat definitely have the potential for future movie appearances, given their tragic backstory. The Vau N’Akat tore themselves apart with a civil war after their first contact with Starfleet. There’s strong potential for a movie that explores the societal impact of Star Trek‘s ongoing mission. The future of Star Trek: Prodigy is uncertain beyond season 2, but a feature-length send-off for the crew of the USS Protostar that fixes the Vau N’Akat’s fractured society could provide a victory lap for the poorly treated animated series.
4 The Xindi (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Star Trek: Enterprise’s fascinating aliens were namechecked in the Abrams movies.
The Xindi War was one of Star Trek: Enterprise‘s most acclaimed story arcs, but the aliens have never returned to the franchise in a substantial way. Given that J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies only have Enterprise to pull from in terms of mythology, they could have been a good fit as villains. Star Trek Beyond directly references the Xindi War, through the character of Captain Balthazar Edison a.k.a. Krall (Idris Elba), who had previously fought in the devastating conflict. Perhaps the new Star Trek origin story movie will revisit the aftermath of the Xindi War in the decades prior to the Chris Pine movies.
3 The Iotians (Star Trek: The Original Series)
Quentin Tarantino wanted the deep-cut aliens for Star Trek 4.
Quentin Tarantino’s abandoned Star Trek 4 script featured the gangster-inspired Iotians from “A Piece of the Action”. While it was hardly surprising for a filmmaker like Tarantino to be drawn to the idea of a Star Trek gangster movie, it’s also unsurprising the Iotians never appeared in a movie. With their culture rooted in the Chicago mobsters of the 1930s thanks to a pre-Prime Directive mix-up, it would be hard to differentiate them from a period mob movie. However, if anyone could blend the genres of mob movies and sci-fi then it would have been genre movie nerd Quentin Tarantino, if the project hadn’t been abandoned.
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Quentin Tarantino’s unmade gangster movie is one of the great Star Trek “What If?” questions – here’s why Tarantino’s Star Trek 4 never got made.
2 The Orions (Multiple Star Trek Shows)
Modern Star Trek has made the Orions a force to be reckoned with.
Aside from the Orion that Cadet Kirk was caught in-flagrante with during Star Trek (2009), the Orions haven’t featured in any Trek movies. Modern Star Trek has updated the Orions considerably, ejecting the outdated “slave girl” tropes in favor of a rich society of both pirates and scientists. Star Trek: Discovery season 3 showed what a threat that a mercenary, profit-based society could pose to the Federation, so it could be fascinating to see that realized on the big screen. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was essentially a naval movie about dueling warships, so a feature film about Orion space pirates would continue the franchise’s maritime traditions.
1 The Cardassians (Star Trek: TNG and DS9)
Star Trek’s coldest villains could be major movie villains.
The Cardassians occupied Bajor, brutally tortured Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and nearly brought the Federation to its knees in alliance with the Dominion. It’s strange that such a powerful enemy of Starfleet and the Federation never appeared in the Star Trek movie franchise. The disconnect between the movies and the ongoing TV franchise was likely a contributing factor, but there are still stories to tell in future feature films. For example, Star Trek canon heavily hints that the Federation knew of the Cardassians in the 23rd century, during the time of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Star Trek: The Next Generation also revealed that Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and his father, Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lennard) had a disagreement over the Federation’s handling of the Cardassian border wars. This revelation would brilliantly lend itself to a fourth J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie, especially as it’s reportedly about the older Enterprise crew. Perhaps the starship Enterprise’s final mission brings them face to face with the Cardassians, whose brutal oppression of other species inspires Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) to follow his Prime Universe counterpart into diplomacy.
