Lower Decks Names the Greatest Villain in the Star Trek Universe
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 8, "Much Ado About Boimler," now streaming on CBS All Access.
The Star Trek franchise includes movies, television series, comic books and even cartoons, and across all of these mediums, fans have seen the Federation's very best go up against the most vicious and cunning enemies in the universe. For more than 50 years, the crews of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Voyager, Discovery, Cerritos and more have faced some truly despicable villains. But which, among all of them, is the most formidable foe?
This is exactly the debate Ensigns Mariner and Boimler have in the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks. And of course, Mariner determines that there is only one answer when it comes to who is the "biggest badass" in the Star Trek franchise: Khan Noonien Singh.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowAt the start of "Veritas," Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford and Tendi are found in the repair bay of the U.S.S. Cerritos, hard at work fixing a shuttlecraft. As they work, Boimler and Mariner are in the middle of a heated debate over which of Starfleet's enemies is the "biggest badass."
For some reason, Boimler insists that the greatest villain in Star Trek history is Roga Danar, an Angosian soldier who appeared in the Season 3 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Hunted." Danar may not be the most memorable villain when compared to others in the franchise, but Boimler says that not only did he have great hair, but he was also one of the only beings ever able to outsmart Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Of course, Mariner tells him that no one even knows who Roga Danar is, given that he is somewhat of a deep cut in Star Trek history.
Mariner, of course, shoots back that there's only one answer: Khan. "Khan was a genetically engineered supervillain! Dude was a space seed," she says. Here, Mariner is referring to Khan's first-ever appearance in the Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode, "Space Seed." In the episode, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise found an old ship floating in space, but inside this vessel, there were a number of enhanced soldiers held in suspended animation. Khan was their leader, and he ended up becoming one of Kirk's most fearsome enemies.
The villain would return to become the antagonist in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a confrontation that would ultimately lead to the death of Kirk's closest friend, Spock. Khan would also appear in the cinematic Kelvin timeline, where he would once again prove his genetic superiority by taking the crew of the Enterprise head-on. While Boimler made a valiant effort for his argument, you have to give it to Marinier, there's no other Star Trek villain like Khan.
Star Trek: Lower Decks stars Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as Ensign Tendi, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, Gillian Vigman as Doctor T'Ana and Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs. The show premiered on CBS All Access on Aug. 6.
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