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02:46 am

Star Trek: Where are the bad guys?
Continuing (sorta) from my last post, I'd like to share this thought.

Star Trek lost its bad guys.

You see, when I became a Trek fan when I was young, one of the things that most impressed me with the show was the way that most villains were not black and white. The Horta were my favorite example of a villain that later turned out not to really be the bad guy. (For those of you not wanting to click the link, the Horta was the blob thing that was killing humans but was eventually revealed to be a silicon life-form and mother protecting her young.)

However, Star Trek had a few good villain groups in the classic pulp style. First-and-foremost were the Klingons. To paraphrase a bit from a book I read years and years ago about the making of Trek, "Klingons were the ultimate bad guys. They sharpened their teeth for fun. They liked to kick old ladies. Their ships didn't have bathrooms because it made them nastier."

Then, Roddenberry's vision of the future was brought into the 24th century and the 23rd century Klingons were revealed to be pretty misunderstood. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we learned that the Klingons were very honorable race. Suddenly everyone loved the Klingons. We even had a member on the Enterprise! (Okay, fans of the comic book series already had a Klingon Starfleet guy, but hey....)

Likewise, Romulans were also revealed to have much more depth than we were originally given.

The Cardassians were created to replace them as Star Trek's classic baddie and when they started, boy were they bad! They seemed to relish torturing Picard and were always up to something.

Gul Dulat was introduced in DS9 as the ongoing bad guy, but by the time the series ended the Cardassians weren't as bad as we originally thought them to be and Dukat....well, he was still a villain. He just was kinda pathetic and a little sympathetic.

Over in Voyager, they did the same to the Borg, for crying out loud!

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
-Obi Wan Kenobi

Personally, I love this aspect of Trek. I don't want mustache-swirling bad guys all the time and I like that Trek has morality that isn't always black and white. However, I don't think most people want this. I think one of the reasons Superheroes are doing so well in the movies these days is people want bad guys and good guys. Moral greys just aren't appreciated. So, Star Wars with its Darth Siddious and bad guys that come along with "we're-so-bad music" works. The good guys struggle against the dark side and there is never any wonder who is on which side.

One of my bigger worries about the JJ Abrams Trek is that its just going to be Star Wars with the names switched to Trek names. Looking at the Romulan bad guys, he seems to have tried to give them the "we're evil" visual cues that Star Wars does and the trailer looks like the same kind of popcorn-munching action-fest that Star Wars did well. Maybe that is what Star Trek needs to do to survive as a franchise, but I keep hoping for a plot that will challenge people to think just a little bit...like the plots of Star Trek that I've enjoyed most.

Tags: star trek

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