I feel like I’m one of the rare Star Trek fans always ready to defend the modern era, but even I will admit that villains have been something of a problem for the franchise in recent years. The classic shows and movies introduced droves of iconic bad guys like Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), and even entire races like the Borg and the Xindi. While Discovery kick-started a new age of Star Trek storytelling in 2017 with a brilliant villain twist built around Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), it’s been nearly a decade since the franchise last debuted a truly enthralling antagonist.

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