The bad guys (and gals, if 'guy' isn't a gender-neutral word to you. You're not limited to only binary-gendered species though, nor to beings that even have a gender.) of science fiction. You love them, or hate them, or love to hate them.

My nominations are Darth Vader, from Star Wars, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg, from The Fifth Element and Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, from Neuromancer.

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I suppose someone else is bound to nominate him, so I might as well get in there first. I nominate Mr Nasty from Doctor Who. (He's sometimes referred to as The Master.) But only the version played by Roger Delgado.

I hope nobody nominates Davros.

Colossus of the Forbin Project. Nasty!

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The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Don't know about "best" but my favorite is the Moties from Mote in God's Eye.

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(This final scene, I
I will not see to the end.
My dream is fraying.)

Quite, especially after the union with Guardian.

For me

That is, until they meet up with Warner!

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Ouch! Again. I was thinking of the Borg from Next Generation. The Borg were great initially, then they had to muck it up with a Borg Queen. They were much more interesting when they were a collective, inhuman force that couldn't be personalized.

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The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Absolutely. Perhaps we could have a poll for the most ill-conceived or lamest antagonist - or for the most diminishing development of a formerly impressive antagonist.

I'll vote for the Terminator, although he plays a good guy role for the second two movies he built the franchise as a bad guy. Maybe the nod should really go to Skynet.

Of course, even Darth Vader becomes a goodie in the end. So, I'll put in a word for his evil master Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine.

Although it's been ages since I've seen any of the Flash Gordon serials, I at least have to mention Ming the Merciless.

Davr.... no wait, not really, sorry Paul

Dr. Eldon Tyrell from Blade Runner

The Alien Queen from Aliens. Oh & Carter J. Burke while we're at it!

The Predator from the 1st film.

The Creature from the ID, Forbidden Planet.

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My favorite overall baddie is the Emperor Palpatine. He gave a great speech when he declared the beginning of the first Galactic Empire. He just looked so happy and so full of himself! Of course, I am also a big fan of Darth Vader, especially when he promotes subordinates or accepts appologies from them!

I do have to mention my favorite Star Trek baddie - Gul Dukat, from Deep Space Nine. He was great to watch. He so loved being bad; the speech he gave when he declared martial law was especially memorable.

Baron Harkonnen from Dune, Ash from the first Alien film, HAL, General Xinchub from the webcomic Schlock Mercenary (not widely known, but a great villain nonetheless).

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"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I can't believe noone has nominated Khan from Star Trek II.

AM, the all-powerful AI from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. I was a kid when I read that, gave me nightmares. Very creepy.

ADDED: Lex Luthor, back in his Silver Age mad scientist days.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

As long as we're including non-humans: Master Control Program from Tron.

Bingo.
Bingo²

Also, the Inhibitors from Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Space trilogy.

Does Heroes count as science fiction? I thought that Sylar was one of the better villains I've seen lately.

Bender.

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The Possessed from Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn

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Zoey, from Quantum Leap?

Yeah, my first thought was the Baron as well. I like Feyd, but half of that is the pleasure of seeing young Sting in leather briefs. Yum!

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

General Beauregard Darlington Winthrop III, from Rocheworld. Bester from Babylon 5.

Not sure about Sylar-- if we count him, we'll end up throwing in every supervillain ever made.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Bester is a great one. He had reasons for his actions. He wasn't a character that was "just evil."

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Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Maj. Howard(?) Devore from the Chung Kuo series. Now there was a baddie!

The cadaverous über-villain Scorpius from Farscape.

Although often in Darth Vader's long shadow I suppose some mention could be made of Jabba the Hut and Boba Fett as worthy atagonists.

The Operative (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in the movie Serenity.

Nasty piece of work. Should have been in the Best A.I. poll.

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Anybody still recall the off-beat and bizarre sci-fi cable series Lexx? I figure His Divine Shadow and his sucessor Mantrid probably deserve a mention as well.

If we're doing Futurama villains, Mom, The Giant Brain, the Robot Devil, and WERNSTROM!

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Alastair Reynolds is very good at creating villains, although I disagree about you picking Inhibitors. They are too much an impersonal force -- Berserkers with even less individuality.

But almost every character from Reynld's "Chasm City" has various degrees of villainy, and most of them are COOL. Especially the protagonist.

Actually, now that I think of it, Jack Tanner/Cahuella/Sky Haussmann probably IS the greatest (human) villain in science fiction. Of course, he cheats by having three very different personalities. For those who had not read "Chasm City" and the rest of Inhibitors series: Cahuella is an utterly self-centered, flamboyant, almost theatrical crime lord with a passion for hunting. Part Tony Soprano, part Jack Sparrow. Sky Haussmann is truly creepy -- brilliant, charismatic, and incredibly patient sadist and psychopath. Hannibal Lechter with political power. And Jack Tanner is not really a villain -- a very cold-blooded, but honorable soldier with almost supernatural combat skills. Brooding, and driven by what he knows is a hopeless vendetta. Part James Bond, part Elric of Melnibone.

And if you want to include utterly inhuman aliens among "best antagonist", I think you can't do better than MorningLightMountain in Peter Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" and its sequel. A hive intelligence similar to Borg or Inhibitors, but far better fleshed out. Hamilton managed to do what I really thought to be impossible -- presented the viewpoint of an intelligence so different as to find humans incomprehensible, and made the reader understand that viewpoint. Which makes MorningLightMountain even more terrifying.

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Curious thing about "Mote in God's Eye", Moties are consistently presented in a very sympathetic light. It takes an effort to remember that if they ever break out of Mote system, it is curtains for the human race. And Moties are not even "evil" by any reasonable definition, they just can't help their nature. Teddy bear Terminators.

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