star trek 2 wrath of khan cast

Full Cast of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan Actors/Actresses

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan cast list, listed alphabetically with photos when available. This list of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan actors includes any Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan actresses and all other actors from the film. You can view trivia about each Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan actor on this list, such as when and where they were born. To find out more about a particular actor or actress , click on their name and you'll be taken to a page with even more details about their acting career. The cast members of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan have been in many other movies, so use this list as a starting point to find actors or actresses that you may not be familiar with.

Examples of actors on this list include William Shatner and Kirstie Alley.

If you want to answer the questions, "Who starred in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?" and "What is the full cast list of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?" then this page has got you covered.

William Shatner

Ricardo Montalbán

Kirstie Alley

Leonard Nimoy

George Takei

Paul Winfield

DeForest Kelley

Nichelle Nichols

Walter Koenig

James Doohan

Merritt Butrick

Ike Eisenmann

Judson Scott

John winston.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Khan, a genetically enhanced “super man” from Kirk’s past, returns to seek revenge on now-Admiral Kirk, the man who banished he and his followers to a dying planet 15 years earlier.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Full Cast & Crew

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Captain Kirk leads his crew in a desperate battle to the death against ruthless arch-nemesis Khan. Sci-fi adventure with the late Leonard Nimoy.

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Sound effects, special effects, executive producer, assoc. producer, cinematographer.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Cast

Meet the cast, kirk (william shatner), khan (ricardo montalban), spock (leonard nimoy), saavik (kirstie alley), dr. marcus (bibi besch), marcus (marritt butrick), bones (deforest kelley), chekov (walter koenig), joachim (judson scott), tired of ads, cite this source, logging out…, logging out....

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Making of the Classic Film

By: john tenuto and maria jose tenuto.

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The peculiar thing about Spock is that, being half human and half Vulcan and therefore possessing about half the usual quota of human emotions, he consistently, if dispassionately, behaves as if he possessed very heroic human emotions indeed. He makes a choice in “Star Trek II” that would be made only by a hero, a fool, or a Vulcan. And when he makes his decision, the movie rises to one of its best scenes, because the " Star Trek " stories have always been best when they centered around their characters. Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favorite characters again, and “Trek II” understood that desire and acted on it. 

Time has passed since the last episode. Kirk has retired to an administrative post. Spock is commanding the Enterprise, with a lot of new faces in the crew. The ship is on a mission concerning the Genesis device, a new invention which, if I understand it correctly, is capable of seeding a barren planet with luxuriant life. A sister ship, the USS Reliant, is scouting for lifeless planets and finds one that seems to be dead, but its instruments pick up a small speck of life. Crew members investigate, and find the planet inhabited by an outlaw named Khan, who was exiled there years ago by Kirk, and has brooded of vengeance ever since. 

Khan is played as a cauldron of resentment by Ricardo Montalban , and his performance is so strong that he helps illustrate a general principle involving not only Star Trek but “ Star Wars ” (1977) and all the epic serials, especially the “James Bond” movies: Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph. In a curious way, Khan captures our sympathy, even though he is an evil man who introduces loathsome creatures into the ear canals of two Enterprise crew members. Montalban doesn't overact. He plays the character as a man of deeply wounded pride, whose bond of hatred with Admiral Kirk is stronger even than his traditional villain's desire to rule the universe. 

There is a battle in outer space in this movie, a particularly inept one that owes more to "Captain Video" than to state-of-the-art special effects. I always love it when they give us spaceships capable of leaping across the universe, and then arm them with weapons so puny that a direct hit merely blows up a few control boards and knocks people off their feet. Somehow, though, I don't much care if the battles aren't that amazing, because the story doesn't depend on them. It's about a sacrifice made by Spock, and it draws on the sentiment and audience identification developed over the years by the TV series. 

Perhaps because of that bond, and the sense that an episode may be over but the Enterprise will carry on, the movie doesn't feel that it needs an ending in a conventional sense. The film closes with the usual "Star Trek" end narration, all about the ship's mission and its quest, and we are obviously being set up for a sequel. You could almost argue that the last few minutes of “Trek II” are a trailer for “Trek III”, but, no, that wouldn't be in the spirit of the Enterprise, would it?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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Watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Considered by many fans to be the best of the Star Trek movies, Khan features a strong plot, increased tension, and a sharp supporting performance from Ricardo Montalban.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Nicholas Meyer

William Shatner

Admiral James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy

Captain Spock

Ricardo Montalban

Khan Noonien Singh

DeForest Kelley

Commander Leonard H. McCoy, M.D.

James Doohan

Commander Montgomery Scott

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Produced by, star trek ii: the wrath of khan (1982), directed by nicholas meyer.

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Synopsis by Daniel Gelb

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Credits for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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List of credits as presented in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .

Opening credits [ ]

• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• James Doohan
• Walter Koenig
• George Takei
• Nichelle Nichols
• Merritt Butrick as David
• Paul Winfield as Terrell
• Kirstie Alley as Saavik
• Ricardo Montalban as Khan
• Gene Roddenberry
• James Horner
• William P. Dornisch
• Joseph R. Jennings
• Gayne Rescher , ASC
• Harve Bennett
• Jack B. Sowards
• Robert Sallin
• Nicholas Meyer

Closing credits [ ]

• Kirk : William Shatner
• Spock : Leonard Nimoy
• McCoy : DeForest Kelley
• Scotty : James Doohan
• Chekov : Walter Koenig
• Sulu : George Takei
• Uhura : Nichelle Nichols
• Carol : Bibi Besch
• David : Merritt Butrick
• Terrell : Paul Winfield
• Saavik : Kirstie Alley
• Khan : Ricardo Montalban
• Preston : Ike Eisenmann
• Jedda : John Vargas
• Kyle : John Winston
• Beach : Paul Kent
• Cadet : Nicholas Guest
• Madison : Russell Takaki
• March : Kevin Sullivan
• Crew Chief : Joel Marstan
• Bridge Voice: Teresa E. Victor
• Radio Voice: Dianne Harper
• Radio Voice : David Ruprecht
• Computer Voice : Marcy Vosburgh
• Steve Blalock ( Enterprise crewmember )
• Janet Brady
• Diane Carter ( Regula I scientist )
• Tony Cecere
• Ann Chatterton ( Augment )
• Gilbert Combs ( Enterprise engineer )
• Jim Conners
• Bill Couch, Sr.
• Bill Couch, Jr.
• Eddy Donno ( Regula I chef )
• John Eskobar
• Chuck Hicks
• Tommy J. Huff
• Hubie Kerns, Jr. ( Enterprise trainee )
• Paula Moody
• Tom Morga ( Enterprise crewman / Dry dock worker )
• Mary Peters
• Ernest Robinson
• John Robotham
• Kim Washington
• Mike Washlake ( Enterprise trainee )
• George Wilbur
• William F. Phillips
• Robert Fletcher
• Austen Jewell
• Douglas E. Wise
• Richard Espinoza
• Thomas W. Lay Jr.
• Charles M. Graffeo
• Craig Denault
• Catherine Coulson
• Tom Connole
• Jim Alexander
• Patrick Clark
• Mark S. Server
• Agnes G. Henry
• Kimon Beazlie
• Joseph Markham
• Robin Michel Bush
• Werner Keppler
• James L. McCoy
• Dione Taylor
• Mary Jane Ferguson
• Edward A. Ayer
• Martin Becker
• Gary F. Bentley
• Fred Brauer
• Peter G. Evangelatos
• William Purcell
• Harry Stewart
• Sam Nicholson
• Romolo Acquistapace
• Charles Langham
• Murphy Wiltz
• Gene Griffith
• Don Whipple
• Gary L. Jensen
• Charles C. Eguia
• Michael Friedman
• Michael C. Gian
• John Graffeo
• Al DeGaetano
• Daniel Gluck
• Daniel E. Maltese
• Mike McDuffee
• Rick Valencia
• Howard Davidson
• Terry Ahern
• Jeff Melichar
• Edward Egan
• Bruce Birmelin
• John A. Haggar
• Christopher L. Koefoed
• Cecelia Hall
• George Watters II
• Teresa Eckton
• Michael Hilkene
• Jim Siracusa
• Curt Schulkey
• Alan Howarth
• Eugene Finley
• Cliff Bell, Jr.
• Robert Badami
• Dan Wallin , Record Plant Scoring
• Ray West , CAS
• David J. Hudson
• Mel Metcalf
• Mary V. Buck
• Dr. Richard Green
• Rodger Johnson
• Marc Okrand
• Deborah Arakelian

Industrial Light & Magic , a Division of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

• Jim Veilleux
• Ken Ralston
• Scott Farrar
• Stewart Barbee
• Selwyn Eddy III
• David Hardberger
• Robert Hill
• Michael Santy
• Bruce Nicholson
• David Berry
• Keneth Smith
• Donald Clark
• Thomas Rosseter
• Ralph Gordon
• Tim Geideman
• Duncan Myers
• Bob Chrisoulis
• Patricia Rose Duignan
• Warren Franklin
• Chris Evans
• Frank Ordaz
• Neil Krepela
• Craig Barron
• Steve Gawley
• William George
• Steve Sanders
• Bob Diepenbrock
• Mike Fulmer
• Marty Brenneis
• Samuel Comstock
• Kim Knowlton
• Scott Caple
• Kathryn Lenihan
• Judy Elkins

Additional Animation Visual Concept Engineering [ ]

• Arthur Repola
• Peter Amundson
• Malcom Blanchard
• Loren Carpenter
• Robert D. Poor
• Thomas Porter
• William Reeves
• Alvy Ray Smith
• Brent Watson
• Steve McAllister
• Neil Harrington
• Dr. Robert Langridge
• Terry Chostner
• Roberto McGrath
• Kerry Nordquist
• T.E. Moehnke
• Dave Childers
• Harold Cole
• Bobby Finley III
• Patrick Fitzsimmons
• Edward Hirsh
• John McCleod
• Peter Stolz
• Thaine Morris
• Wade Childress
• Bruce Hill Productions
• Kyle Turner
• Kathy Shine
• The National Aeronautics & Space Administration
• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• The Burbank Studios
• Hal Landaker
• Alan Landaker
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Modern Film Effects
• Music by Alexander Courage
• Panavision ®
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘KHAAAAN!’: why Wrath of Khan remains the greatest Star Trek movie, 40 years on

A gloriously evil villain, big-screen shocks, mind-control space slugs! The film photon torpedoed everything that went before, leaving a legacy that has yet to be bettered

W hen JJ Abrams began rebooting Star Trek with a fresh cast and crew of the Enterprise in 2009, many hardcore Trekkers complained that the new movies lacked the Apollo-era optimism and vision of space adventure as one giant cosmic morality tale that, in their view, had made the long-running saga stand out from its peers. Gone were slow-paced allegories playing on contemporary western culture, its triumphs and its horrors. In were hectic space battles, time travel, a strange obsession with motorbikes and plenty of fisticuffs.

What many of these critics failed to notice, was that this dichotomy between Star Trek as blockbuster space opera and thinking-man’s sci-fi had been going on for at least three decades before Abrams even got his hand on the Enterprise’s tiller. And to this day, the series’ greatest movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, only succeeded because it broke all the rules expected from an episode of Gene Roddenberry’s creation.

The Nicholas Meyer-directed 1982 film, which celebrates 40 years since its UK release this year, was a low budget follow-up to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That film lifted a storyline straight out of the 1960s original series: something about a nefarious energy cloud later revealed as an ancient human space probe refitted by aliens that has subsequently achieved sentience and turned on Earth. The plot was so nebulous that even Spock struggled to work out what was going on. It duly picked up middling reviews and was a box-office disappointment for studio Paramount, largely due to its gargantuan (for the time) $44m shooting budget.

Out went Roddenberry (as producer) and in came Meyer to write and direct the project, with a much more frugal $12m budget. As well as including some juicy sci-fi stylings such as the Genesis terraforming program, Meyer, who knew nothing about Star Trek, spotted early on that the sequel needed an antagonist for William Shatner’s Admiral James T Kirk to face off against if it was to achieve the right level of big screen theatricality. The perfect solution was to bring back Ricardo Montalbán’s Khan Noonien Singh from the 1967 TV episode Space Seed, about a group of dangerous superhumans encountered by the crew of the Enterprise, who are left stranded by Kirk on an uninhabited but fertile planet.

At the time this is intended to be a merciful decision by the captain, an alternative to being sent to a penal colony for their crimes. But of course, we swiftly find out in Wrath of Khan that the supposedly perfect world picked by Kirk turned out to be in an unstable region of space, and that most of Khan’s people ended up dead or starving when a neighbouring planet subsequently exploded. Oops.

Cue a Melvillian battle between the two men as Khan takes out 15 years of frustration on his nemesis. Montalbán chews scenery like it’s an Ikea showroom made out of prime steak, yet crucially never slips too far into the realms of pantomime. The veteran Mexican actor remains a terrifying, vengeful force of nature, rage personified, throughout.

At the end of each episode of the original series, there was usually the sense that the Enterprise could fully reset, with danger averted and normal duties resumed. By contrast, the events of Wrath of Khan are so horrific that they can never be forgotten, and the level of threat seems to have been suddenly upped to warp factor 9.9.

Walter Koenig’s Chekov, along with newcomer Clark Terrell (captain of the USS Reliant) are mind-controlled by Khan using hideous space slugs that are painfully, and bloodily lodged inside their ears! Spock dies of radiation poisoning trying to restart the Enterprise’s warp engine! Khan himself is left to die once again after being summarily outwitted by his supposed inferiors. Where The Motion Picture was mildly intriguing, Wrath of Khan represents blood-pumping, big screen shock tactics on an epic scale.

Thirty years later, Abrams tried to recapture its magic with an effective remake, Star Trek Into Darkness. But even with Benedict Cumberbatch as a younger version of Khan (who crucially never got marooned by Kirk in the new timeline, so was really just a boring, big-headed eugenics experiment in human form) most of the original’s bloodthirsty lust for life and death failed to re-manifest.

Into Darkness was once voted hardcore fans’ least favourite Star Trek movie , a nadir for anyone who loved the original series’ more intellectual, cosmic musings. Yet it was all based on a movie that had to destroy everything that went before it, everything that fans expected from a Star Trek episode, just to keep the Enterprise from crashing down to earth for ever.

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Star trek ii: the wrath of khan.

1982 Directed by Nicholas Meyer

At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance.

Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship the Enterprise on a two week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a life or death struggle when Khan escapes from years of exile and captures the power of creation itself.

William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan Walter Koenig George Takei Nichelle Nichols Bibi Besch Merritt Butrick Paul Winfield Kirstie Alley Ricardo Montalban Judson Scott Ike Eisenmann John Vargas John Winston Paul Kent

Director Director

Nicholas Meyer

Producers Producers

Robert Sallin William F. Phillips

Writer Writer

Jack B. Sowards

Story Story

Harve Bennett Jack B. Sowards

Casting Casting

Mary V. Buck

Editor Editor

William Paul Dornisch

Cinematography Cinematography

Gayne Rescher

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Richard Espinoza Douglas E. Wise

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Harve Bennett

Lighting Lighting

Romolo Acquistapace

Production Design Production Design

Joseph R. Jennings

Art Direction Art Direction

Michael Minor

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Charles Graffeo

Special Effects Special Effects

Bob Dawson Martin Becker

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Jim Veilleux Ken Ralston

Stunts Stunts

Mary Peters Eddy Donno Steve Blalock Bill Couch John Escobar Chuck Hicks Jim Burk Anthony Cecere Diane Carter Gary Combs Gilbert B. Combs Ann Chatterton Bill Couch Jr. Tommy J. Huff Jim Connors Kym Washington Longino Hubie Kerns Jr. Tom Morga Beth Nufer Paula Moody John Robotham Ernest Robinson George P. Wilbur Mike Washlake Fletcher Bryant Janet Brady Allan Graf

Composer Composer

James Horner

Sound Sound

Cecelia Hall James R. Alexander Mel Metcalfe David J. Hudson Noyan Cosarer Ray West George Watters II

Costume Design Costume Design

Robert Fletcher

Makeup Makeup

Werner Keppler James Lee McCoy

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Dione Taylor

Releases by Date

04 jun 1982, 16 jul 1982, 23 jul 1982, 29 jul 1982, 10 sep 1982, 20 oct 1982, 29 oct 1982, 04 nov 1982, 19 dec 1982, 21 jan 1983, 26 feb 1983, 05 feb 2002, 01 apr 2008, 28 may 2009, 15 aug 2002, releases by country.

• Theatrical PG
• Theatrical L
• Theatrical 10
• Theatrical U
• Theatrical 12

Netherlands

• Theatrical 6
• Physical 6 DVD
• Physical 6 Blu ray
• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical A
• Theatrical 15

113 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Branson Reese 5

Everybody's dressed so well in this one. It's winter on the Enterprise.

It's very funny that the conventional wisdom is that Shatner can't act. He can. He just acts in a way that makes boring people feel embarrassed. Good.

Review by Will Menaker ★★★★ 11

The one that takes place in San Francisco.

The best Star Trek movie, even Shatner is genuinely moving at the end of this one. I'd like to make special acknowledgment of the amazing original score by James Horner and how beautiful the special effects look, especially during the thrilling climax where the Enterprise and Reliant battle in the nebula. Ricardo Montalbán is so sick as Khan, A+ ham acting, riffing on Moby Dick "He tasks me! I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round perdition's flames" and generally displaying a masterclass in swag. The Seti Alpha 5 earwig scene scared the shit out of me when I was kid. Wonderful film.

Review by Kelebek 🦇 on break! ★★★★★ 2

I hate Star Trek. What the fuck is "You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been, and always shall be yours"?? Bitch I'm gonna cry my eyes out.

Review by David Sims ★★★★★ 8

'round perdition's flames

Review by Matt Singer ★★★★

Thought experiment: How would our (already quite high) opinion of this movie — and especially its ending — change if it was the final Star Trek movie? Or if the franchise had carried on without Nimoy and Spock remained dead?

Review by matt lynch ★★★★½

A near-perfect naval adventure movie.

Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 19

Felt like I was visiting an old friend! The humor, banter and squabbles amongst the gang on Star Trek was in full swing and filled me with much delight!

Khan's (Ricardo Montalban) breasteses were to say the very least way too distracting!

Capt Kirk was to Khan what Moby Dick was to Captain Ahab!

The SPOCKtaneous heroic actions taken by Mr. Spock gave me heart palpitations! The speed of which rivaled Enterprises Warp 8!

I recall the 1st time I saw the grand finale I was quite upset and thought to myself NO! NO! NO! They can't do that!

Soon the they can't do that turned into Yes they can do that and it left my eyeball's drowning in an ocean of tears!

Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★ 1

“He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!”

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 4

A tale of performance, illusions, veils, trickery. Just as in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible , the opening of Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek installment is a magic trick on the audience but serious business for our characters; an act designed for confidence, productivity, and success in the great unknown. Captain Kirk enters into the scene shot against creamy rays of light, doors opening as gateways. He's a film director in the process of evaluation, watching and searching for opportunity. A great performance is more than a highlight in Star Trek, it becomes the seed of greatness, a realm of shows and simulations translating into genuine progress. But we do not see forward motion in Star Trek II: The Wrath of…

Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★½ 9

KHAAANNNN! -Kirk

The film that everyone wanted Star Trek: The Motion Picture to be. Even though the first film was met mostly with disappointment by critics and fans it still managed to pull in just enough money to warrant a sequel. A sequel with a considerable smaller budget mind you, but a sequel none the less. This, along with a few other elements that should have effected the project negatively, inadvertently created not only the best possible Star Trek film for the time, but possibly the best Star Trek film ever.

The smaller budget also pushed out Gene Roddenberry from the production team to a symbolic credit as Executive Consultant because his scripts simply demanded bigger budgets. Another problem was…

Review by Alan Sepinwall ★★★★½ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This remains easily the best film in the franchise, and arguably the only one that's great in its own right rather than "great for a Star Trek movie." And even then, I'm not sure how well it would play to a Trek newbie, since so much of its power and themes come from Kirk and Spock being older, and the ways that time has changed them both. Middle age is a nightmare for Kirk. His body is betraying him (the dreaded reading glasses), and he takes no pleasure in the rank of an admiral if a starship doesn't come with it. (His itchiness to return to action was one of the smarter things that Star Trek: The Motion Picture did.)…

Review by cait ★★★★★ 3

can’t believe william shatner has the audacity to constantly tweet about kirk being straight when he spends literally every second of this film looking at spock like they’re soulmates... running around his his little heeled boots while spock says stuff like ‘i have been and always shall be yours...’ mister shatner they’re in LOVE!!! whats not clicking

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WhatCulture

10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Posted: April 26, 2024 | Last updated: April 26, 2024

The Wrath of Khan is arguably the greatest Star Trek movie, but it's far from perfect.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Cast and Crew

Star trek: the original series collection.

Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection contains the first six Original Series films starring the U.S.S. Enterprise's cast and crew from the 1960s TV series of the same name.

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7 best Star Trek villains, ranked

Thanks to its more than 50 years of continued existence, Star Trek   has produced just a lot of stuff. That stuff includes several great TV shows, more than a few outstanding movies, and perhaps most importantly of all, some genuinely great villains.

4. The Klingons

3. the borg queen, 2. gul dhukat.

Because Trek has always concerned itself with the politics of the stories it tells, the series has also introduced some genuinely nuanced bad guys. There are plenty of great villains of the week, to be sure, but there are also legendary villains who have made their way onto this list. These are the seven best Star Trek villains, ranked.

Say what you will about  Star Trek Into Darkness , but J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek effort was a rousing success. Among its many feats was its introduction of a totally new villain in the form of Nero, a vengeful Romulan who blames Spock for not preventing the death of his family.

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Eric Bana’s performance in the role is transformative, but what really sells the whole endeavor is the sense of grandeur and scale that’s on display. Nero is filled with rage, and it’s that rage that has driven him to where he is now.

We’ve had plenty of great villains from across the many Trek shows, but Deep Space Nine ’s Weyoun was among the most beloved, in part because he was an ideal foil to the show’s cast. As the mouthpiece for the Dominion and a Vorta himself, Weyoun always delivered his message with a smile, but that rarely meant that he actually had the best of intentions.

In fact, Weyoun was in many ways your typical slimey politician, and that was undoubtedly a huge part of what made him so appealing to fans of  Deep Space Nine every time he was killed off and then inevitably returned to the show.

An omnipotent being that is a reminder of how far  Star Trek  characters can come, Q was first introduced as an ominous presence but became something much sillier as he became more familiar to Star Trek fans.

It was Q’s actions that ultimately resulted in the introduction of the Borgs to the universe, and he was also the one who charged Picard with the crimes of humanity. In spite of his power, Q is ultimately not the worst perpetrator of evil in the world of Star Trek, even though he certainly could have been.

In many ways the primordial Star Trek villain, the Klingons have shown up in a number of different villainous guises over the course of the franchise’s long and storied history. In the show’s original configuration, they existed as a foil to the Federation — the USSR to the Federation’s America.

Of course, Trek never expressed any idea quite that simply, and the Klingons were always humanized, even as they often opposed what the Federation was doing. You understood that they had their reasons, even if you weren’t always supposed to be sympathetic to them.

The Borg, in general, is a major menace to the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Operating as a hive mind with the goal of assimilating all other living things into them, part of the point of the Borg was that they were everywhere and nowhere.

That’s why many were so worried by the introduction of the Borg Queen, but they didn’t have any reason for concern. The Borg Queen totally works, in large part thanks to Alice Krige’s memorable, sensual performance in the central role.

Gul Dukat was the best version of the authoritarian mode of Star Trekvillain. A character so villainous and tyrannical that you wanted nothing more than his ultimate defeat, even if you also found him compelling.

A Cardassian war criminal who ruled over Bajor as a complete totalitarian, what made Dukat so remarkable was that you could understand that his actions were heinous, even as you found yourself drawn into his world. Many argue that Gul Dhukat is the finest villain Star Trek has ever produced, and we think that’s pretty close to being on the money.

A name memorably screamed not once but twice in Star Trek movies , Khan is most remembered today for killing Spock in  The Wrath of Khan , widely regarded as the best of the  Trek  movies for a reason.

Although Khan was just a villain-of-the-week in the original series, in Wrath of Khan , he is elevated to a devious mastermind, capable of taking down and outsmarting even Kirk, Spock, and their crew. Ricardo Montalbán’s performance made the role one of the most important in the history of the franchise. As for Benedict Cumberbatch’s reprisal of the character? Well, the less said about that, the better.

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The sci-fi genre owes much of its evolution to a myriad of television series that have shaped and redefined it over the years. These influential shows underscore the power of the small screen to captivate audiences, particularly through sci-fi's distinct combination of innovative storytelling and ambitious visuals. Whether viewers are fans of futuristic technology, extraterrestrial encounters, or dystopian futures, there's something for every kind of sci-fi lover among the genre's best entries.

From the groundbreaking brilliance of Star Trek to the modern masterpiece Black Mirror, the greatest sci-fi TV shows of all time have expanded the genre's horizons and left an indelible mark on pop culture in the process. They promise worlds beyond anyone's wildest imagination, with the mind-bending journeys they depict ending up being some of the most unforgettable adventures ever seen on television. 10. Black Mirror (2011-present)

The video game adaptation trend continues with Amazon Prime Video's Fallout, and Walton Goggins was among the hit streaming show's standout performers. His casting as the former Hollywood actor and mutated ghoul was pitch-perfect for the dystopic world's atmosphere and sardonic humor.

One of the best character actors around, Goggins typically specializes in morally ambiguous or outright evil characters. Aside from Fallout, the actor has played compelling roles across film and TV over the last decade. Check out these critically praised movies and TV shows if you're looking for more of the Fallout star's career highlights. Justified (2010-2015)

For most movies, the only cut that we get the chance to see is the one that's released in theaters. Sometimes, a Blu-ray release will include some deleted scenes, but it's rare for those scenes to be reintegrated into the film. On some rare occasions, though, we get a chance to see what a director would have done with a movie if they had been granted final cut. Usually, these director's cuts come from some of the best directors ever to work in Hollywood, and they're sometimes even directorial debuts.

Sometimes, these director's cuts aren't that different from the theatrical versions, or it turns out that those cuts are actually worse than the ones we saw in theaters. Other times, though, we get cuts that are genuine improvements on the original film. We've compiled seven of the best director's cuts that ever saw the light of day for this list and ranked them below. 7. I Am Legend (2007) I Am Legend (2007) Official Trailer #1 - Sci-Fi Thriller

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