Idris Elba: 8 Villains He Could Play In Star Trek 3

7. Commodore Matt Decker

The central character in what many believe to be one of the greatest Star Trek episodes ever aired (in any series), Commodore Matt Decker was the sole survivor of one of the greatest tragedies to befall the Federation in their early days of exploration. Finding their sister ship the Constellation floating adrift in space, the crew of the Enterprise investigate to find its commanding officer alone and traumatised. Having encountered a giant and menacing spacefaring entity, the Constellation had become all but driftwood and its captain, a seasoned Starfleet officer by the name of Matt Decker, had valiantly transported his crew down to the planet's surface so that he alone could face the horror in orbit. However noble, his plan backfired when the creature instead opted to destroy the planet, leaving Decker to do little but watch alone in horror. Discovered by Kirk and co in the aftermath, Decker is crippled by guilt and psychologically traumatised by what he's seen. Eventually losing his mind, exerting his seniority, and taking command of the Enterprise to track down the creature, the premise of the show was that the unbreakable human spirit could overcome the unimaginable terror of space's many unknowns - a premise Abrams has himself hinted he'd be interested in exploring in these films. Commodore Decker, although Starfleet to the core, unravels in the face of these forces and becomes a bigger threat to the crew than even the planet-eater. That sort of on-screen breakdown requires an actor with both subtly of emotion and intensity of delivery, which are two qualities Elba has in spades. Oh, there's the small issue of Decker being white though. But it's fair to say that if the rebooted series is OK with Benedict Cumberbatch, a man who is so English all his furniture is just stacked up crumpets, taking over a character originally played by Ricardo Montalban, a man who was once the greatest living Mexican, then it can handle Elba playing Decker.