# Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Antagonists



## DreadPirateMurphy (Jul 1, 2006)

Here are 10 repeat, memorable antagonists.  I don't think I've fogotten any obvious ones like Harry Mudd in the TOS poll.


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## trancejeremy (Jul 1, 2006)

Troi's mother.


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## DreadPirateMurphy (Jul 1, 2006)

trancejeremy said:
			
		

> Troi's mother.




Curse you, trancejeremy!  She was really only an antagonist to Picard.


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## Vigilance (Jul 1, 2006)

Gotta be the Borg. Three of my 5 favorite TNG episodes are borg-related (Q Who? and Best of Both Worlds 1 and 2). 

The Borg were also the bad guy of the single best TNG movie, which Id rank in the top two trek movies ever (it's tied with Wrath of Khan). 

Chuck


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## sydbar (Jul 1, 2006)

Professor Moriarity was the best antagonist.


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## Nightfall (Jul 1, 2006)

Tie: Q and the Borg, with Q winning out on personality.


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## Aaron L (Jul 1, 2006)

Nightfall said:
			
		

> Tie: Q and the Borg, with Q winning out on personality.





I'll have to agree with that.


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## Nightfall (Jul 1, 2006)

And people call me crazy and biased.


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## Mouseferatu (Jul 1, 2006)

Meh. None.

The borg were fantastic villains _at first_, but they were eventually horribly over-used. (To be fair, though, much of that over-use happend on Voyager, but even just counting TNG, they were getting tired by the end, there.) While I loved most of Q's appearances, he was often more of a plot point than an antagonist in the truest sense of the word.

Honestly, I think one of the things that kept TNG from rising to its full potential was the _lack_ of a truly meaty antagonist.


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## KenM (Jul 1, 2006)

Wesley Crusher.


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## Vigilance (Jul 1, 2006)

Mouseferatu said:
			
		

> The borg were fantastic villains _at first_, but they were eventually horribly over-used.




I agree with this but I do think the way they were used on TNG was awesome. Three of the best TNG episodes, along with THE best TNG (maybe the only actually good TNG movie). 

I also felt the episode where the crew struggled internally over whether or not to commit genocide on the Borg was a great character episode and showed how the Federation put their lives at risk for their ideals, a perfect episode for TNG's touchy-feely Federation (Sisko, by contrast would have dusted those slimy cyborgs).

Another character episode that ranks as one of Trek's finest moments was Family (I think that's the title), the episode after Best of Both Worls part II where Picard has a nervous breakdown over what happened. That's another great moment that I can't see happening without the Borg.


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## Dark Psion (Jul 1, 2006)

Of all of those only one was a true threat, a threat that always returened, a threat so insidioius that they never recognized it, even though it has been there since the 1st season. 


The Holodeck!


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## Lord Pendragon (Jul 1, 2006)

I voted for the Borg.  Ignoring the ruination of the concept on later series as well as the TNG "Hugh" story arc, they were a fantastically threatening nemesis.  As originally portrayed, they were more an unstoppable force of nature than a foe that could be fought.  And when they finally _did_ appear to be fought, they were responsible for some of the best Trek in the series, IMO.  (Indeed, one of the best episodes, IMO, took place immediately _after_ the Borg were defeated, when Picard returns to Earth to visit his brother.)

Close second for Q.  He only lost this one because I'm not sure that he's really an antagonist, at least not all the time.  (I recall a fantastic episode where Picard is dying because his artificial heart has failed, and wishes he'd been more cautious as a youth.  Q shows him how things would have been if he had indeed been less reckless.  It was a fascinating appearance by Q, left delightfully unexplained.)

If the question were merely "best recurring character" he'd win hands-down.


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## Lorgrom (Jul 1, 2006)

Best Antagonists in my option were the writers of the series.


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## Ambrus (Jul 1, 2006)

Dark Psion said:
			
		

> The Holodeck!



I second that! Welcome to the next generation in which our starships have built in death-machines. Now that's progress!


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## Mycanid (Jul 1, 2006)

I voted for the Borg....


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## Knightfall (Jul 1, 2006)

Aaron L said:
			
		

> I'll have to agree with that.




Me too.


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## Odhanan (Jul 1, 2006)

Nightfall said:
			
		

> And people call me crazy and biased.



But you are.


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## Dingleberry (Jul 1, 2006)

I voted Roumlans, but really just for Tomalok, who should've been singled out. Kastulas ruled.


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## Orius (Jul 2, 2006)

Definitely Q.  While he showed up on DS9 and Voyager as well, his best moments by far were on TNG.  Heck, my favorite Q episode is _Tapestry_, and in that one, he's not really an antagonist at all.  

Sorry, no votes for the Borg.  They're ok, but I'm not a big fan of them.

And of course, another vote for Romulans.  They really came into their own as Trek villians in TNG.


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## Orius (Jul 2, 2006)

Dark Psion said:
			
		

> Of all of those only one was a true threat, a threat that always returened, a threat so insidioius that they never recognized it, even though it has been there since the 1st season.
> 
> 
> The Holodeck!




True, but that's a fault of bad writing.  Holodisaster episodes started to get pretty old fast.


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## Hand of Evil (Jul 2, 2006)

Lore and or Data.


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## Welverin (Jul 3, 2006)

*because I can't help myself...*

I had to go with Q, I just couldn't bring myself to back any of the others.

The conscription against ongoing or recurring plot really hurts TNG here.



			
				Vigilance said:
			
		

> The Borg were also the bad guy of the single best TNG movie, which Id rank in the top two trek movies ever (it's tied with Wrath of Khan).




I don't recall them being in a good movie.

Oh, and the Ferengi hve no place on this list.



			
				Lorgrom said:
			
		

> Best Antagonists in my option were the writers of the series.




Um, no. The writers kept the show from completely sucking, it's Rick Berman who was the true antagonist.


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## Kesh (Jul 3, 2006)

Dingleberry said:
			
		

> I voted Roumlans, but really just for Tomalok, who should've been singled out. Kastulas ruled.



 Absolutely. The Romulans have always been the best villains in ST, combining their intrigue, secrecy and sheer military power. Katsulas at Tomalok was perfect.


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## Rackhir (Jul 3, 2006)

The borg always struck me as refugees from "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future"







That plus they were so slow and lethargic that I could never take them seriously as villians. Their popularity seems to be largely due to the "Imprinting" Effect as they were the first villians introduced in STNG that weren't a bad joke (the Ferengi) and for a lot of people STNG was their first "Trek".

I thought the Romulan's had a lot of potential when they were first introduced as I loved their arrogance and their ship design, but nothing was done with them for a long time afterwards and they just became another set of pretty generic bad guys.


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## Mercule (Jul 3, 2006)

Anybody but the holodeck, though Borg would be pretty low on my list, too.

Romulans are a personal favorite.


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## Kesh (Jul 4, 2006)

Rackhir said:
			
		

> The borg always struck me as refugees from "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future"
> 
> 
> 
> ...



 From what I've read, there was supposed to be a long "arc" storyline involving the return of the Romulans, with hints about the Borg through the seasons until it came down to a big crisis for the Borg invasion. However, the suits thought an arc would be bad for drawing in new viewers, so we got the chopped up bits of the borg plot, and the Romulans went to the wayside.

Not to mention the whole thing came out during the Writer's Guild strike, so they had to recycle a lot of old scripts from other series they had on hand.


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## Aesthetic Monk (Jul 5, 2006)

Lord Pendragon said:
			
		

> I voted for the Borg.  Ignoring the ruination of the concept on later series as well as the TNG "Hugh" story arc, they were a fantastically threatening nemesis.  As originally portrayed, they were more an unstoppable force of nature than a foe that could be fought.  And when they finally _did_ appear to be fought, they were responsible for some of the best Trek in the series, IMO.  (Indeed, one of the best episodes, IMO, took place immediately _after_ the Borg were defeated, when Picard returns to Earth to visit his brother.)




Absolutely right. I saw "Best of Both Worlds Part I" when it first aired, and I was totally blown away by it--probably more so than by any other Trek episode. While Part II didn't quite live up to the setup, the follow-up episode was really well done, too. The problem was that the Borg were too monochrome and too unstoppable--and too popular; hence, they had to be humanized (Hughmanized?), weakened, and warmed over.


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## DreadPirateMurphy (Jul 6, 2006)

The Borg have pulled nicely ahead of Q, but Q gets the honorable mention.


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