10 Great Star Trek Performances That Made You Love Bad People

General Chang is one of the truly great baddies of the movies. He enjoys himself far more than many of the rest, revelling in his complete control over the situation. Plummer plays him with the certainty of power, speaking softly to steer the conversation, switching from Klingon to English on a whim and delivering one of the best legal performances in the Trek franchise.

His feigned sadness for the death of Gorkon leads into his passion for seeing Kirk and McCoy put to death. He counsels Azetbur to ignore the peace talks but is overruled and so begins another attempt to derail them. The battle for peace over Khitomer stands as a fantastic scene.

Chang stalks the Enterprise like a shark, taking small nibbles as he fires through the Bird of Prey's cloak. His smug relaxation fills the airwaves as he taunts the Starfleet crew, quoting line after line of Shakespeare to Kirk. He is like the cat who got the cream.

And it all vanishes in an instant. The reprogrammed torpedo shoots through space, lazily swerving in the arc to find the ship. Chang's eye opens wide and Plummer's delivery goes from smug to 'oh crap'. He knows that torpedo is going to kill them all. So what does he do?

There's always time for a bit more Shakespeare.

Although it would have been wonderful to bring him back in some way, Christopher Plummer delivers one of the most enjoyable villain performances in his few scenes, making the film better for it.