Star Trek’s 3 greatest prospects for Jean-Luc Picard’s individual nemesis

Jean-Luc Picard doesn’t have one obvious nemesis from Star Trek, so here are the three closest to being as such.

Jean-Luc Picard was the featured character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, serving as the captain of the ship and the series primary character. Picard’s entire Next Generation run is considered among the best in the franchise, even if some seasons were weaker than others.

Yet, the one thing Picard truly doesn’t have is a nemesis. Not one that is truly evil, anyway. Yes, there’s Q and we’ll talk about him later, but he doesn’t have a Khan Noonien Singh or a Gul Dukat. Heck, even Jonathan Archer had Future Man (aka himself). Yet, Picard is in a rare camp of characters in Trek, those like Kathryne Janeway, who isn’t tied to just one villain.

So if we were to find Picard’s true villain, his Khan, who would it be?

Well, let’s start with why it isn’t The Borg. This is the obvious answer, or at the very least, the Borg Queen is the obvious answer. Well, besides the fact the Picard series ruined The Borg, we have to point something out beyond that; The Borg aren’t a person. Yes, even the Queen isn’t an individual. The Queen is the collective Hive Mind given shape. They are an entity. Saying The Borg is Picard’s greatest nemesis would b akin to saying the Klingons are Kirk’s greatest enemy.

As a whole, yes, the Klingons have done more harm to Kirk than Khan ever could, yet as a singularity, a sole nemesis, no, The Borg don’t count.

So let’s look at the three candidates for Picard.

Picard’s three candidates for his nemesis

Q

Obviously, Q is getting consideration but he’s not going to get the job. Why not? Well, Khan wanted to kill Kirk, Dukat wanted to kill Sisko and even Future Man wanted to kill someone. Yet, Q? Q is a child. He’s a little brother. He’s simply messing with you because he can. He’s not vindictive; he’s bored. But he also has a point to make. While Q is an antagonist, he’s never been a villain. His goals have always been to make sure humanity can handle things, even if he doesn’t mind that they can’t. That’s not the sign of a nemesis, he’s just a jerk.

Admiral Alynna Nechayev

This is more like it, but still not exact. Admiral Alynna Nechayev is bureaucracy incarnate. She’s not a bad person, just a part of the script to cause conflict. Her side is rarely ever viewed as a favorable one, even if it is. Removing a colony from a potential war zone makes sense unless the good guy thinks it’s a bad thing. Though she was arguably the most combative person with Picard who never tried to kill him.

Commander Tomalak

While the Borg and Borg Queen are the top picks if we’re going with Picard’s greatest enemies (plural), Commander Tomalak is the only character I could think of that wouldn’t hesitate to kill Picard, didn’t like Picard, and was constantly on opposing sides of him. His episodes aren’t the most talked about and he was never given the chance to chew scenery like Marc Alaimo did as Dukat, but Tomalak was constantly trying to kill Picard in more than one episode; so he’s the winner by default.