# Most vile STAR TREK characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534 "2010-08-17T16:23:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/101 "2010-08-19T03:09:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Skammer](#): > > > > Yes, that sounds just like something Starbuck would say. > > Starbuck would have slept with Kahn and slit his throat. 🙂 Damn kids! Starbuck is a guy! Don’t you forget it! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/102 "2010-08-19T03:12:52Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > I’m not arguing that DS9 was the overall best series (well, maybe a little - I remain fond of TOS), just saying that if they were even _more_ ruthless, it woulda helped. > > Are you a Garak fan? Possibly the best exchange in the entire franchise: > [@](#): > > [Garak takes a drink of root beer] > Quark: What do you think? > Elim Garak: It’s vile. > Quark: I know. It’s so bubbly and cloying and happy. > Elim Garak: Just like the Federation. > Quark: And you know what’s really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it. > Elim Garak: It’s insidious. > Quark: Just like the Federation. > [pause] > Elim Garak: Do you think they can save us? > Quark: I hope so. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/103 "2010-08-19T03:22:59Z")
I’d heard that was a throwaway bit, tacked on at the last minute because the episode was running short. Or maybe I’m confusing it with similar rumours about classic bits from _Casablanca_. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/104 "2010-08-19T03:28:47Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > I like that he got his start as the “Afro Comb” guy from Spaceballs. 😃 He did? _check IMDB_ He DID! Awesome! How could I not have noticed that? > [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > > Starbuck would have slept with Kahn and slit his throat. 🙂 > > Damn kids! Starbuck is a guy! Don’t you forget it! And he would still have slept with Kahn and slit his throat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/105 "2010-08-19T04:38:23Z")
I always thought Tomalak was a great enemy. The Defector just came on tv and I watched it. I wouldn’t call him the most vile, but he was always as shady as can be, making him a great Romulan. Too bad he disappeared about halfway through the series. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/106 "2010-08-19T04:47:04Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I always though Khan’s group looked like they should be circling a desert bar with Broncos, dirt bikes, and dune buggy’s. [Gary Zimmerman](http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2008/0801/20080801_122236_sp01zimmerman_200.jpg) would have fit right in with Khan’s crowd. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/107 "2010-08-19T05:25:33Z")
[Harcourt Fenton Mudd](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Harcourt_Mudd)- No one else comes close. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/108 "2010-08-19T05:26:01Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I always thought Tomalak was a great enemy. The Defector just came on tv and I watched it. I wouldn’t call him the most vile, but he was always as shady as can be, making him a great Romulan. Too bad he disappeared about halfway through the series. Star Trek writers always seemed hesitant about giving any good roles to Romulan characters. My theory is that it’s a fear of alienating armchair trekkies who are wondering why Spock is suddenly so angry and passionate…:rolleyes: Telek R’Mor is a great example. They could have easily made him a crew member on Star Trek Voyager, and from a writing standpoint, that would have made a much more interesting fodder and character development than Geri Ryan’s “Oooh baby, wrap my boobs in spandex and teach me to feel feelings again” Borg babe. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/109 "2010-08-19T12:32:02Z")
> [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > > Starbuck would have slept with Kahn and slit his throat. 🙂 > > Damn kids! Starbuck is a guy! Don’t you forget it! In the next incarnation of BSG, both of these could be true and we won’t care. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/110 "2010-08-19T14:34:32Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Star Trek writers always seemed hesitant about giving any good roles to Romulan characters. My theory is that it’s a fear of alienating armchair trekkies who are wondering why Spock is suddenly so angry and passionate…:rolleyes: > > Telek R’Mor is a great example. They could have easily made him a crew member on Star Trek Voyager, and from a writing standpoint, that would have made a much more interesting fodder and character development than Geri Ryan’s “Oooh baby, wrap my boobs in spandex and teach me to feel feelings again” Borg babe. After Nemesis, I was hoping to see how the Romulans would act after being saved by The Federation. Instead, they were all killed. I guess JJ Abrams might be the most vile person attached to Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/111 "2010-08-19T15:24:38Z")
The Viidians from Voyager. They were an alien race who was suffering from a skin disease called the phage, which is like super leprosy. The Viidians would capture and kill other aliens to harvest their skins and organs. In one episode, a Viidian killed a “red shirt” in a landing party, skinned his face off and applied it to himself, to make him appear more attractive to a Klingon woman. (who was the Klingon DNA 1/2 of Belanna Torres’,…I think.) That’s the only time in my thousands of hours of Trek viewing that freaked me out. As an aside, Trek is a lot like Saturday Night Live. It is mostly lame but occasionally brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/112 "2010-08-19T17:30:41Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > > [@antonio107](#): > > > > Star Trek writers always seemed hesitant about giving any good roles to Romulan characters. My theory is that it’s a fear of alienating armchair trekkies who are wondering why Spock is suddenly so angry and passionate…:rolleyes: > > > > Telek R’Mor is a great example. They could have easily made him a crew member on Star Trek Voyager, and from a writing standpoint, that would have made a much more interesting fodder and character development than Geri Ryan’s “Oooh baby, wrap my boobs in spandex and teach me to feel feelings again” Borg babe. > > After Nemesis, I was hoping to see how the Romulans would act after being saved by The Federation. Instead, they were all killed. I guess JJ Abrams might be the most vile person attached to Star Trek. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/113 "2010-08-19T18:49:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Unfortunately, moments like that tend to get outnumbered by agonizingly stupid Vic Fontaine bits. Go suck an egg, pallie. Vic is the bee’s knees. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/114 "2010-08-19T19:19:39Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > Unfortunately, moments like that tend to get outnumbered by agonizingly stupid Vic Fontaine bits. > > Go suck an egg, pallie. Vic is the bee’s knees. He’s the wasp’s knipples! ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/115 "2010-08-20T15:09:06Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > I was going to go all _Fook of a Took!_ on you but I couldn’t generate the bile necessary. Anyway, I’ve been rewatching DS9 recently, and doing so has confirmed my previous opinion that it’s the best of the Trek series: generally superior to all but the best of TOS, better on average than any of TNG, and far, far better than VOYAGER or ENTERPRISE. > > I’m not arguing that DS9 was the overall best series (well, maybe a little - I remain fond of TOS), just saying that if they were even _more_ ruthless, it woulda helped. Who was insufficiently ruthless – the writers or the characters? I mean, Sisko once poisoned the biosphere of a rebellious colony to catch the rebel leader. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/116 "2010-08-20T15:13:17Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > Unfortunately, moments like that tend to get outnumbered by agonizingly stupid Vic Fontaine bits. > > Go suck an egg, pallie. Vic is the bee’s knees. I too like Vic Fontaine, though I didn’t care for the episode in which the the crew was trying to save his fictional casino. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/117 "2010-08-20T15:15:57Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > The Viidians from Voyager. They were an alien race who was suffering from a skin disease called the phage, which is like super leprosy. The Viidians would capture and kill other aliens to harvest their skins and organs. > > In one episode, a Viidian killed a “red shirt” in a landing party, skinned his face off and applied it to himself, to make him appear more attractive to a Klingon woman. (who was the Klingon DNA 1/2 of Belanna Torres’,…I think.) > > That’s the only time in my thousands of hours of Trek viewing that freaked me out. > > As an aside, Trek is a lot like Saturday Night Live. It is mostly lame but occasionally brilliant. I saw the voyager episode “Deadlock” recently, and it reawakened contempt for the Vidians. Specifically there’s the bit where they kill a woman who has just given birth (“just” as in “still in her hospital bed”), stand over here discussing which of her organs to harvest first, and then go off to find her newborn baby and do the same to her. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/118 "2010-08-20T15:17:26Z")
> [@astro](#): > > [Harcourt Fenton Mudd](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Harcourt_Mudd)- No one else comes close. Oh, Mudd’s not so bad. He’s a thief, a con man, and (arguably) a pimp, but he’d never kill anybody. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/119 "2010-08-20T15:33:51Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > [@astro](#): > > > > [Harcourt Fenton Mudd](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Harcourt_Mudd)- No one else comes close. > > Oh, Mudd’s not so bad. He’s a thief, a con man, and (arguably) a pimp, but he’d never kill anybody. and he’s been drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534/120 "2010-08-20T16:18:56Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > Oh, Mudd’s not so bad. He’s a thief, a con man, and (arguably) a pimp, but he’d never kill anybody. > > and he’s been drinking. Which distinguishes him from Montgomery “I am a 60s ad exec” Scott how, exactly? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-vile-star-trek-characters/550534.md?page=7)