Star Trek Discovery: 10 Awesome Villains They Should've Used Instead

The Cardassians aren’t quite Trek’s most famous villains, but they have long been a symbol of ruthless duplicity. They’ve also played a pretty major role in franchise lore - in fact, Deep Space Nine’s Gul Dukat remains arguably Trek’s most complex, layered antagonist, and if not for a certain Khan Noonien Singh, would be an apt shout for the greatest.

So where exactly were the Cardassians 100 years before the era of Deep Space Nine? While they technically didn’t appear onscreen until The Next Generation’s “The Wounded”, Cardassians are known to have made first contact with the Federation considerably earlier, referenced in chronology as early as Enterprise.

While eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted a pair of Cardassian voles in Captain Lorca’s laboratory, an actual appearance by a member of the deadly race itself would be especially exciting for Trek fans. As their first appearance in this particular era, it would shed a lot of light on previously unknown and much-speculated details such as where the Cardassians are at in terms of technology, government and demeanour.

Through exposition, we’ve learned that Cardassians underwent a transition from peaceful, but impoverished to militaristic, and a glimpse into the early days of that transformation would be fascinating.

And if they can provide a character anything like the aforementioned Dukat, or Elim Garak, that’s an instant win for the show. One gets the feeling that their time on Discovery is coming somewhere down the line.