Fans of the Star Trek franchise are naturally excited after Paramount's announcement of a green-lit fourth feature film featuring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, slated to release on June 9, 2023. Star Trek characters are iconic across the pop culture landscape, particularly the bridge crews of The Original Series and The Next Generation.
There are a number of one time roles outside of the command personnel of the varied starships Enterprise worthy of note, most of them adversaries Trek fans loved to hate, and like Kahn or the Borg Queen would've been great to see in return appearances.
Lieutenant Ilia, Star Trek – The Motion Picture
Persis Khambatta’s portrayal of the bald Deltan Starfleet officer rendered an intriguing dynamic of a species not often found within the standard Trek lexicon, exuding a Vulcan-like demeanor as she balanced her past romantic baggage with Stephen Collins’ Will Decker with her required vow of chastity to enter Starfleet. Unfortunately, her early demise in the movie, only to be reincarnated as an artificial envoy for V’ger, meant future appearances from the complicated yet ethereal Lt. Ilia were unlikely.
General Chang, Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country
One of the highlights of the sixth Star Trek film to feature the Original Series cast was Christopher Plummer’s General Chang, a well-spoken Klingon who was a big fan of Shakespeare and oozed a sophisticated, barely restrained malice. His memorable denouement just before the Enterprise and the Excelsior destroy his Bird of Prey is the stuff of Star Trek legend.
Though Shatner and Nimoy's time in the cinematic sun as Kirk and Spock was wrapping up, it would've been nice to see Plummer's Chang as a recurring foe.
Tolian Soran, Star Trek Generations
Star Trek: The Next Generation cast’s debut onto the big screen heralded the arrival of the first El-Aurian other than Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan in its antagonist Tolian Soran, a genocidal villain bent on reuniting with his family who had been assimilated by the Borg and cared little whether they were Nexus illusions or not. A staple of science fiction films, Malcolm McDowell lent a genuine, tortured angst to his role even as he met his maker courtesy of Kirk and Picard. Fans lamented the missed possibilities of a potential long term foil for Picard's mysterious bartender.
Admiral Alexander Marcus, Star Trek Into Darkness
While the Kelvin timeline’s second movie has its share of detractors, Into Darkness contains a scene-stealing performance by Peter Weller of Robocop fame as Admiral Marcus. Weller manages an ominous performance as a Starfleet Admiral moonlighting as a Section 31 agent, wielding a massive dreadnaught class starship at the film’s climax. His comeuppance at the hands of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Kahn is a brutal if fitting end for the treasonous officer, though the prospect of an early Section 31 foe returning to haunt Chris Pine's Kirk was tantalizing.
Ahdar Ru’Afo, Star Trek Insurrection
Most Trekkers thought Star Trek: Insurrection likely might be the final nail in the Next Generation’s cinematic coffin, what with its leisurely placed plot about breaking the Prime Directive. Yet F. Murray Abraham, always a solid and versatile performer in virtually anything he does, brought an uncommon sense of pathos to the leader of the S'ona.
While Ru'Afo perished in a fiery explosion as Picard narrowly escaped, a critically acclaimed actor like Abraham would've done justice to a role as a recurring enemy for the crew of Star Trek - The Next Generation.
Lily Sloane, Star Trek First Contact
Though Trek staple James Cromwell’s scenery-chewing Zefram Cochrane gets more air time, it’s Alfre Woodard’s Lily Sloane who deserves equal note as a 21st-century post-apocalyptic survivor who dares that ever-so-rare feat of standing up to Jean-Luc Picard, a man notorious for icy command and regal stature. Unfortunately, her character was a one-timer because of the time travel motif in Star Trek First Contact. Yet Sloane takes no prisoners as she rebuffs Picard’s overkill reactions to his most feared nemesis.
Praetor Shinzon, Star Trek Nemesis
Tom Hardy’s depiction of a maniacal Picard clone commanding a rogue contingent of Remans was impressive, giving a tormented portrait of a marginalized population within the Romulan Empire. However, very few Romulan villains have made long-term strides in Trek legend (Andreas Katsulas' Commander Tomalak notwithstanding) and Shinzon ends up getting impaled during a climactic scuffle with Picard. Perhaps the ever Method-stringent Hardy could've made a bigger impact with recurrent appearances.
Captain Edison/Krall, Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Beyond had much to overcome in its release after the tragic and sudden death of Anton Yelchin. Yet the oft overlooked film had its strengths, one of which was Idris Elba’s Balthazar Edison, a former Starfleet captain turned vampiric despot. As usual, Elba eats up the screen, even under pounds of makeup and prosthetics, though his fate was sealed when the charismatic villain was sucked out into space. While the prospect of People Magazine's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive becoming a semi-regular in the Kelvin timeline was a long shot, it was enticing nonetheless.
Nero, Star Trek
J.J Abrams’ hard reboot became one of the franchise’s biggest successes, in no small part due to Eric Bana’s grief-stricken, Romulan miner Nero. Few scenes in Trek history are as unsettling as the destruction of Vulcan and Nero’s stoic resolve in exacting retribution was as stone cold as Star Trek gets. Nero succumbs to his own machinations as his ship implodes in a red matter black hole, though imagining a serial role for him was easy enough, what with the character's extensive baggage with both iterations of Spock.
Commander Kruge, Star Trek III The Search For Spock
Christopher Lloyd’s Commander Kruge holds the distinction of being the Klingon who deals the most damage to Captain Kirk, in ordering the death of Kirk’s son David as well as forcing Kirk’s hand to destroy the original Enterprise itself. Lloyd hams up the warlord ethic with just enough tongue-in-cheek awareness to make an otherwise milquetoast ret-con of Spock seem like it had real stakes, making it all the more satisfying when Kirk boots him off a ledge down to the burning Genesis planet. Unlike many other villainous bows, this one-and-done was well deserved.