Star Trek Beyond: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

Most of the reason that Krall works as a villain isn't the script, but rather Idris Elba's terrifyingly imposing performance and some jaw-droppingly good make-up work.

As a character, Krall is a fairly standard Trek baddie, and even when the full extent of his origins are made clear, it seems fairly by-the-numbers. That said, Elba makes him immensely menacing with his stature and his voice, while a number of physical changes to the character over the course of the movie do add up to make him more interesting than he initially seems.

Sure, he can't help but pale compared to Benedict Cumberbatch's Khan, but as a nod to the TV series' more conventional alien foes, Krall undeniably works.