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00:00Very few Star Trek foes are out-and-out one-note monsters. Most antagonists...
00:05tend to have at least one saving grace. Sometimes, however, the deeds of a character...
00:10organisation or even an entire species go so far beyond the pale that they...
00:15airlock any chance at redemption they may have had, probably along with a few of their victims.
00:20Well, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for Trek Culture and these are the 10 Most Irredeemable Star...
00:2610. The Augments
00:28Very much a product of their time...
00:30The Karnoonian Singh and the Augments, as they later came to be called, were Star Trek's exploration...
00:35of the 20th century's most destructive set of beliefs, eugenics. These particular villains...
00:40were the result of humanity's experiments with DNA re-sequencing. The double helix structure...
00:45of DNA having only been discovered about a decade and a half before Space Seed was first broadcast.
00:50In the late 20th century, the Augments conquered and enslaved the world. The resulting...
00:55eugenics wars between them and the regularly DNA'd had cataclysmic consequences...
01:00for Earth. An estimated 35 million people were left dead before the dictatorial...
01:05supermen were deposed. All remaining Augment embryos were put on ice and Karn and about...
01:1080 of the other over-ambitious Clark Kent's were sentenced to death. They managed to skip town...
01:15and the solar system, however, aboard the SS Botany Bay before execution day. The ninth...
01:2080s were wild, man. In 2267, Karn and co. made an ultimately unsuccessful...
01:25attempt to commandeer the Enterprise, but Kirk let them off with little more than a slapped wrist...
01:30tiny, tiny terraforming project and one Marla MacGyver's. Afterwards, neither Kirk nor...
01:35Starfleet stopped by for a SETI Alpha high-five and things went from bad to worse on the...
01:40planet. Karn, of course, would return to seek vengeance in the film that sports his name.
01:44In that...
01:45movie, and not before a lot of ear reels and Moby Dick, Karn and the other Augments went the way...
01:50story of the Old Testament. Knowing his death slash rebirth as a rock was coming, Karn's...
01:55solidified his status as irredeemable villain by using his last moments to quote Melville...
02:00relentless captain. From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my...
02:05last breath at thee. Naturally, a couple of members of the Soong family were also involved in all this...
02:10along the way, but more on that later. Number 9, Section 31. Perhaps the reason...
02:15Section 31 is so beyond redemption is that they have never really sought it in the first...
02:20place. More amoral than immoral, there is a certain unfeeling pragmatism to the...
02:25organization that just wants to get the dirty, but objectively necessary job done. Such cold...
02:30rationale and dubious use of Cicero can hardly hold water for long, however...
02:35rules in war and especially for peace. Chronologically speaking, the earliest we see of Section...
02:40Section 31 is through Malcolm Reed's involvement in the organization. However, the shady group's first...
02:45on-screen appearance was in Star Trek Deep Space Nine to spend time with Bashir on the holiday...
02:50Convinced the Doctor wasn't a Dominion spy, Director Sloan tried the recruitment pitch. Sure, it's...
02:55a super dangerous job, you'll have to lie to everyone you know and love and check your principals at the door, but...
03:00you get one of those cool black jackets just for signing up. Section 31 was an open secret once...
03:05and Starfleet Command didn't deny denying it. After the Inquisition, the group appeared in DS9...
03:10on a few more occasions. Oh, and there was that attempted genocide thing. I bet that'll never come up again...
03:15In Star Trek Discovery, almost everyone seems to have heard of Section 31. Far from operating...
03:20autonomously of no fixed abode, as in Sloan's day, in the 23rd century...
03:25Starfleet maintained at least a degree of oversight over Section 31, and the organization had its...
03:30own HQ. Starfleet Admiral submitted reports to Section 31's AI system control...
03:35its operatives sometimes served openly aboard Starfleet vessels, and they weren't shy...
03:40about showing off their fancy advanced technology, either. Ooh, comm badges! Section 31...
03:45one maintained its cruel streak all the same, hiring a former Terran Emperor and hunting down...
03:50Spock, just so they could scramble his neurons. Control almost wiped out all sentient life in the game...
03:55Galaxy, but that was probably nothing compared to what was on those pads, since Sloan slowly exploded...
04:00including Mind Palace. Soon, we'll be getting a long trek look at all the clandestine goings on in a movie...
04:05with Michelle Yeoh. Who else is excited for that?
04:08Number 8. Dukat. We were never...
04:10going to warm to the guy. He was the last prefect to oversee the brutal occupation of Bajor...
04:15before, much to his chagrin, Cardassian withdrawal in 2369. There aren't many...
04:20ways to spin it. If it walks like a fascist dictator, talks like a fascist dictator...
04:25then it's probably Mononymous Tyrant Dukat. And never forget, he killed Jadzia...
04:30in Cold Blood. It was in Deep Space Nine's Waltz that, just in case you hadn't twigged before...
04:35Dukat's true depravity was revealed for all to see. As he descended into the madness of evil...
04:40he ceased the slow dance around his feelings for the Bajorans. In the Season 6 episode, he...
04:45poured out his vile hatred to Sisko, saying...
04:48From the moment we arrived on Bajor...
04:50it was clear that we were the superior race. I hated them. I should have killed every last one of...
04:55one of them. I should have turned their planet into a graveyard, the likes of which the galaxy had never seen.
05:00In...
05:00In spite of this sickening diatribe, the character retained a surprising level of popularity amongst...
05:05fans. As related in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine companion, some fans on the internet...
05:10went so far as to defend Dukat's actions during the occupation, and this apologia for Jadzia...
05:15genocide shocked the show's writers and producers. They, as well as Mark Alaimo, who played him...
05:20tried to make Dukat a fully rounded character. But there should have been no room for ambiguity in the fact that...
05:25he was the despicable despot of the piece. By DS9's finish, Dukat had disguised himself...
05:30as a member of the species he so despised in order to curry favour with the next miscreant on...
05:35this list. Then, somewhat fittingly, he wound up in Bajoran hell.
05:38Number 7. Win Adal...
05:40Admittedly, this Ranjan, then Vedic, then Kai wasn't all bad. She had a few...
05:45things going on for her. During the occupation, she risked her life and was imprisoned for preaching...
05:50in her faith, and saved a number of lives. Once by bribing a Cardassian officer to divert...
05:55the transport of Bajorans headed for execution. Plus, perhaps, if the Prophet's presumably because they'd already...
06:00seen her entire career path, hadn't wanted her to end up siding with the Costa Mojin, they might...
06:05have not let it go to Celestial Temple voicemail every time she tried to call. Still, in spite of...
06:10the above, and after carefully considering her turncoat tactics in the fire caves...
06:15switching sides really only because Ducat had gained the upper hand...
06:18Win Adami remains a character...
06:20past the point of redemption. She stabbed poor Solber quite literally in the back for profit...
06:25sake, and did so in the more metaphorical sense to plenty of others who got in her way.
06:29Win shunned Sisko...
06:30So from the very beginning, unwilling to accept, until a lot later, that a non-believer could be...
06:35designated emissary of the prophets. She fought Keiko O'Brien for teaching science, which was...
06:40still just a ruse to try to assassinate Vedic Ryle, further connived her way to becoming Kai, took...
06:45credit where none was due, and sent in the militia over a few reclamators. Later, she interrupted the...
06:50Reckoning, and then nearly set Bajor and the rest of the galaxy on fire by attempting to release the...
06:55parades.
06:56Number six, the sphere builders. This video isn't using kill count as a...
07:00measure of everlasting evil, but still. This band of problematic aliens from another plane were...
07:05behind an attack on Earth that cost seven million lives, including the sister of one chief engineer.
07:10That's...
07:10That was just their warm-up act, however. The sphere builders had convinced the Zindi to finish the job of...
07:15humanity's eradication. Depending on how you think about time, none of this should have ever happened, but it did.
07:20One of the fiendish factions of the Temporal Cold War, the sphere builders had spied a future they...
07:25didn't particularly like, in which they were sent packing back to their realm by the Federation...
07:30in an alternate 26th century. As the crew of the NX-01 found out in the 22nd century...
07:35the species' goal was to transform space in our universe into their own trans-dimensional...
07:40playground, by using the gravimetric energy generated by a vast network of humongous...
07:45spheres. Had they not been stopped, the spatial transformations in The Expanse would have grown to encompass...
07:50hundreds of systems, with disastrous consequences for any inhabited worlds in their...
07:55path. You can't really get more irredeemable than an attempt at galaxy-level genocide just so you...
08:00can move into the neighbourhood. Number 5. A selection of Soongs. So far in Star Trek...
08:05essentially all we've seen of the Soong Dynasty is a succession of scientists. One more zany...
08:10than the last. In amongst the often endearing and inventive oddity lies the family's darkest...
08:15side. A couple of songs whose dastardly deeds are greater than Noonien's penchant for puns...
08:20The first of the long lineage we've met is Dr. Adam Soong in the early 21st century...
08:25In an alternate timeline where Rene Picard never brought back some clever bacteria from Europa...
08:30It was Adam who saved humanity from the effects of climate change with his flying force field...
08:35contraption. Nevertheless, he became a part of the sinister Confederation of Earth...
08:39and even invented...
08:40a safe galaxy is a human galaxy.
08:44In The Variant 2015...
08:45century, this Soong had statues erected in his honor. After the La Sirena gang arrived,
08:50in 2024 to fix the mess, Adam Soong teamed up with the still very resistance
08:55his futile Borg Queen Jurati, sent off some soldiers for assimilation, and then went to try to
09:00murder Renee, killing Talyn the Traveler instead. Plus, he had been holding on to a little something
09:05called Project Khan. Just over a century later, the Soong family produced another doctor of genetic
09:10of dubious ethics, Arikson. Taking up his ancestors' interest in augments, Arikson
09:15stole some of the embryos that had been on ice since the 90s from Cold Station 12 to make some
09:20modifications of his own, and raised the result as his children. As adults, these augments were-
09:25went on a murderous rampage to free the rest of their fellow Enhanced, and Arik caught up with
09:29them to lend a hand.
09:30Number 4, The Bluegills. They only ever appeared in one episode of Star Trek, aside-
09:35from a mention by those butt-bug conspiracy theorists in Lower Decks, but they've had us check in-
09:40the backs of our necks ever since. These terrifying nightmare-inducing parasitic creatures were-
09:45termed their way into the highest ranks of Starfleet Command, and turned dinner time into a horror show.
09:50An infected Admiral Quinn did get in some impressive high kicks, though, for his years, so perhaps-
09:55it's worth giving them a try. And, uh, Admiral? Bit embarrassing, but your stunt double is showing. Thoroughly-
10:00alien, it is the manner in which the Bluegills go about their villainy that makes them so irredeemable.
10:05They enter through the mouth, and take complete control of the victim's mind and body.
10:09Yes-
10:10still claim,
10:10we mean you no harm, we seek peaceful coexistence. Yeah, yeah, and we'll surpass-
10:15pacifist now. They also didn't hesitate to blow up an entire starship and crew once it's captured-
10:20captain was onto them. And let's spare a thought for poor old Commander Remick. He had to have their mother inside-
10:25him, only for his head and chest to be phased off. Picard and Riker must have been in therapy for months!
10:30It's tough to see these little and one large Bluebuggers ever changing their ways. Number 3-
10:35Maxwell and other Berks. Towards the end of the Star Trek Voyager two-parter Equinox-
10:40Captain Janeway walks down the line of remaining reprobates from the now-destroyed ship of the-
10:45episode title, citing their names as she strips them of rank. This time you'll have to earn-
10:50trust, she says. Dismissed. There are a few faces missing from this perp parade, however-
10:55most notably absent, for the purpose of this list, is a certain Commander with Lieutenant Pips.
11:00I stalk my exes halfway across the galaxy, Maxwell Meatball Burrito Burke.
11:05He was slimy and sly from the start, getting arsey with Janeway when she wanted to make-
11:10stand on Voyager and giving us full-on facepalm cringe during his reunion with-
11:15There was something just not quite right with this first officer. When his captain, Rudolph Rudy-
11:20Ransom finally decided to stop committing murder to rev up the warp engines and surrender to-
11:25Voyager, Maxwell mutinied and took a gaggle of fellow Barclays with him to the slaughter.
11:30In the end, the four-bridge insurrectionists try to escape to the Equinox's one remaining shuffle-
11:35but the aliens catch up with them. The last we see of Burke is his rapid desiccation de-
11:40death as the wronged interspatial lifeforms take their nucleogenic vengeance.
11:44Number 2-
11:45To be clear, and so as not to let Tendi down, we're not saying all-
11:50Orions are wrong-ins. Just the ones who are. There are certainly a lot of femme fatale stereotypes-
11:55out there about the species dating back to the first Star Trek pilot, and which have only recently-
12:00begun to be deconstructed. It's really the Orion syndicate and future rebrand that gives-
12:05the rest the bad space pirate name. The Orion syndicate was one of the worst, or at least the-
12:10most organised criminal gangs in the galaxy. By the 22nd century, when the NX-01-
12:15had a run-in with them near Klingon space, thanks to the handiwork of two of the other entries on the-
12:20This list, several members of Archer's crew were captured and auctioned into slavery before-
12:25or being rescued. If you'd like to poll though, you can always kick the syndicate in the Brussels sprouts.
12:30In the 24th century, the Orion syndicate had expanded its membership to include a smorgasbord-
12:35of criminals of different species. Notably, Chief O'Brien was once sent undercover by-
12:40Starfleet intelligence into a section of the syndicate on Fabius Prime to root out an inform-
12:45The consequences of this mission would follow the Chief, leading him a year later to investigate the family-
12:50of Ezri Dax, who had become embroiled with the nefarious organisation. In the post-
12:55Burn world of the 32nd century, the syndicate got a makeover and a nodding-
13:00name change to become the Emerald Chain. Much like their forebears of the 24th century, the-
13:05Chain was a multi-species enterprise, with a green lady at its helm, the Orion Osyraa.
13:10Thorn in the side of the Federation and the Discovery, Osyraa and the Chain relied on the most-
13:15brutal methods of control. Slave labour was enforced by explosive implants, and anyone who-
13:20tried to oppose or simply got in the way was either left without antennae or fed to an over-
13:25size worm. Osyraa did get her comeuppance, however, at the end of Michael Burnham's phaser rifle-
13:30and never insult a man's cat. She's a queen. Number one, the Borg Queen.
13:35Given the events of the final season of Star Trek Picard, we've already discussed the Borg Queen quite-
13:40a lot, but it would be difficult to do a list about irredeemable villains without including-
13:45her majesty on it. In season two of Picard, we got a semblance of a hint that the-
13:50rather a queen could mend her ways. Even then, it was only with the persuasive skills of Doctor-
13:55Agnes Girardi that this alternate timeline queen could be convinced a kinder collective was the-
14:00future. Moreover, in that queen's home universe, humanity was arguably the far greater villain. Back in-
14:05our regular reality, and as the role requires, the Borg Queen has always been quite open in-
14:10expressing just how awesome she thinks assimilation is. What makes the Borg and the Queen so terrifying-
14:15after all, is that psychopathic absence of empathy as they make you one of their own. We did-
14:20catch a glimmer of light for one incarnation of the Prime Borg Queen in the Star Trek Voyager-
14:25feature-length episode Dark Frontier. When Her Royal Highness Rumble's Seven of Nines attempt to-
14:30help a group of species 10026 escape assimilation, she at first tries-
14:35to recapture the fleeing vessel. Strangely, Seven's subsequent pleas for mercy don't fall-
14:40on deaf ears as the queen lets the ship go. This may simply have been a scheme to win over her-
14:45be protégé, or perhaps the spark of something a little deeper. Either way, for her return in season-
14:50three of Picard, the queen is all Borg business, seething with anger towards Starfleet-
14:55and the Federation, and ready to get some high-end revenge. And that concludes our list-
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