Favorite Star Trek Villains Part 1

Next up on this Star Trek frenzy of mine is the topic of villains. With Trek, they tend to vary. You have some that are really good, you have some that are average, and then you have “hippies in space.” Guess what won’t be on this list, “brother!” Today’s list is going to center on 15 of my favorite villains from the franchise. I did something similar to this years ago and I actually included a couple of villains that’ll see today. You’ll probably see some of the regulars like Khan (not the Bennie Cumberbatch variety) and the Borg. You may also see some that don’t get mentioned on the top lists especially since most of those lists center on the movies. First, here are some honorable mentions:

• Garth of Izar – Yes, I kind of like this guy even though it’s literally being played to the nth degree of cheese. ‘Ole Garth was once a famous captain in Starfleet who was driven mad and sent to Elba II’s asylum for the criminally insane. He quarrelled with Kirk in the episode, "Whom Gods Destroy." While he’s not one of my favorites, I like him. I heard someone say that he’s basically a Batman villain from the 60’s TV show and I see it. What’s even funnier is that Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) is in the episode too! I would have rather had seen Cumberbatch play him than Khan as well.
• Soran – In Star Trek Generations, Soran was an El-Aurian scientist who wanted to go to a dimension called the Nexus aka “Red Ribbon in the Sky”. Unfortunately, he had to make a sun go nova and kill millions including the crashed Enterprise. Luckily, that dark future was erased because Picard decided to bring James T. Kirk (who then dies…) back from the Nexus at that exact moment and stop it even though he could have used the Nexus to take him to a better vantage point. Yeah, Generations wasn’t that good though it had its moments. Luckily, Malcolm McDowell was pretty good as Soran.
• T’Pring– That was one mean, logical…woman! T'Pring was Spock's arranged wife from "Amok Time." Unfortunately for "Hot and Bothered" Spock, T'Pring wanted to marry someone else. Now, I get she wanted to marry Ston instead of Spock. It was her right. What makes her a stone cold antagonist is that she picks Kirk to take Ston’s place in the… that battle which name I don’t remember. That’s cold-blooded in my dictionary!
• Shinzon – I know Star Trek: Nemesis gets a bad rep but I thought Shinzon was fine. It was cool that he was a clone of the Picard. Plus, the guy did some bad stuff like killing Romulan governing officials and ultimately killing Data (sort of). And that ship of his looked pretty cool. Too bad the movie couldn’t be that cool.
• The aliens from “Conspiracy”– During Seaosn 1 of TNG, these interesting aliens caused Picard and Starfleet quite a scare in a pretty entertaining episode. They had somehow taken control of the higher-ups at Starfleet and were making plans to take over more officers. They and their queen who had taken over an officer named Remmirick were eventually beaten but others like them were still out there waiting in another system. Unfortunately, they kept waiting since this episode was all we got of them. They were never brought back to the show and I heard that they were replaced by the Borg for being the Federation’s big threat.

And now, here's the first part of the list.

Love is in The Air... Sort of - Star Trek's Favorite/Least Favorite Relationships

When preparing my Latinum/Vole Awards posts, I came across one category: Romance in Star Trek. I mulled over it and really couldn’t make up my mind on what to say. So, guess what becomes its own separate post? Yes, Valentine’s Day is far from us, but love knows no season. Just imagine me saying that in a sultry, deep voice that brings the house down. While I’ll be listing five of my favorite romances from the franchise, I’ll also put five of my least favorite romances too.  I might as well balance it out with this one. Trek didn’t always do romance that great even when the couples were cool, so I‘ll mention that as well. They’re also not in any sort of order.

The Cardassian Vole Awards - Star Trek's Low Moments

Here on the Random Boat of Randomness, I try to look at the good stuff. Even when I talk about something that isn’t really good, there’s usually something in there that’s okay. Heck, I was able to find something good in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 and that mostly sucked. I even said the DVD would make a nice coaster. So, that’s where I’m going with the Vole Awards. For those who don’t know, voles are annoying ugly creatures from Cardassia that know how to muck up your standard space station. Gul Dukat must have left some over there when the Federation came to take over Terok Nor.

The things I’ll be looking at today are some of my least favorite aspects of the franchise. You’ll notice I didn’t say “worst” here. While some of these things are definitely bad, you may be able to find some good in them. There are things on here that I kind of like but they have aspects that I’m not really fond of. So, what will get a nice vole to put on their shelf at night? Find out below.

The Latinum Awards - The Best of Star Trek

Greetings to the first (and probably only) Latinum Awards. Since we’re in the franchise’s 50th year, I thought it was finally time to look at some of the good things it’s given us. After all, Star Trek has given us a lot of good things over the years. This is something that fans have probably debated for years on end and it’s time to throw my cards in on the subjects. I have 10 categories and I may have some surprises in there for y’all.  Yes, I did choose latinum for the award since it just looks good. Just don’t have any Ferengis around it or it might go missing. So, what will get a statue made of gold-pressed latinum for being pretty cool?

Movie Talk - Star Trek Beyond

Nice homage to a pretty underrated Trek movie.

Well, this is a little late. I was actually planning on seeing this again and I still might, but I want to at least get my thoughts on Star Trek Beyond out. Seeing this movie ended up being a little hassle for me. I went to go see it opening weekend and it was pretty packed. I was busy earlier in the day with my family and I didn’t get to eat anything that morning or afternoon. I planned on eating something at the theatre, but that line was way too long. It was for the best though since I really need to watch what I eat. Besides, Panda Express was just a small walk away. Before you ask, I mostly got veggies.

Star Trek Beyond takes place three years after Star Trek Into Darkness. By the way, STID really doesn’t stand up on a re-watch but it is still entertaining. Anyway, they’re well on into their five-year mission. While they’re getting supplies at the Yorktown starbase, they get sent on a mission to escort a survivor from a planet in unexplored space. Unfortunately, it all turns out to be an ambush as a swarm of small ships attack the Enterprise when it reaches the planet. When the Enterprise is damaged beyond repair, Kirk and the crew must find a way to survive on the planet and stop the villain, Krall, from unleashing a deadly weapon.

Without getting into too much, I thought this was a better improvement over the last movie. The cast was at their best here. I also liked the newer characters we got. The effects and the action were on par with the previous two movies. Even the comedy worked. While I liked it, it did have some stuff that didn’t work out. It was mostly related to the villain, Krall, who didn’t get too fleshed out. Also, some of the writing could have been better. Still, I did think the movie was good in the end. If you want a better, more-spoilerish look, go on down.