Star Trek is a vast franchise, spanning multiple decades of TV shows, movies, books, video games, and other media. And in that long history, there have been some memorable and impactful supporting characters. Many of those characters have interesting backgrounds, or referenced stories that would be awesome to see on the big screen. Star Trek hasn’t typically done standalone movies that aren’t centered around a Starfleet captain. But such movies would be exciting to see, allowing the franchise to explore beyond the deck of a starship, and into some of the other fascinating worlds of Star Trek.
From the vast array of side characters, here are those that deserve their own movie.
7 Q
Paramount Domestic Television
Q is one of the quirkiest, most annoying, and most powerful characters in the Star Trek universe. He has definitely gotten quite a bit of screen time, across multiple different shows, including his memorable recent cameo appearances in the modern TV show Picard. In terms of supporting characters, he is definitely someone who we know more about than most.
But there is a lot we don’t know about Q’s species. They all call themselves “Q”, and live in the “Q Continuum”, a kind of dimension that is only accessible by their species, or as an invited guest. We know that their species disappeared in the 26th century, but it is not known why. Seeing Q’s beginning would tell us a lot about this species. Where they come from, what their motivations and interests are, and perhaps might even hint at what happens to them later. Their early origins would be different, for a Trek movie, but still worth exploring.
6 Weyoun
In the show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Weyoun (played by the excellent and underrated Jeffrey Combs) is one of the best villains of the entire show. His smooth, friendly demeanor is consistent over the course of his many incarnations as different clones, each with their own motivations, allegiances, and endings. Weyoun may be Combs’ best performance, and if he was willing to reprise the role, a movie that followed his story with the shapeshifters in the mysterious “Gamma quadrant” of the universe in the time before the events of Deep Space Nine or after could be interesting.
The changelings themselves would look better with a modern CGI upgrade. Exploring their beginnings and formation as the “Founders” would be neat, but to keep it more tied to our familiar section of the galaxy, a movie that took place after the opening of the wormhole in Deep Space Nine, and featuring relations between the antagonistic Dominion and the Federation, would be a fun revisit.
5 Khan Noonien Singh
Paramount Pictures
Khan Noonien Singh is one of the most infamous characters in Star Trek. He’s Captain Kirk’s greatest nemesis, and one of the best antagonists of the entire franchise. The movie that features him, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, is often considered the best Star Trek movie, full stop.
In that movie, Khan is bent upon revenge against Captain Kirk. Originally he had a kind of begrudging respect for Kirk, who could have sealed Khan and his people back up into cryogenic freezers for their crimes, or even have them executed. Instead, Kirk leaves them on a planet, to live out their lives, and build the civilization they want. But when a nearby planet explodes, their home becomes a barren wasteland, and many of Khan’s people die. Khan blames Kirk for not coming to check up on their exile in all those years, which might have saved some of them.
In many ways, Khan’s story has been told. But Khan’s original crime, and his involvement in the eugenics wars, are still unexplored. The topic of eugenics is a difficult one, but a modern take on it could be highly relevant, as well as show us the origins of Khan, his motivations and goals, and how he became the villain that we are familiar with today.
4 Wesley Crusher
Wesley Crusher isn’t exactly what you would consider a “fan favorite”. Widely considered annoying, the son of Dr. Beverly Crusher was often present with the rest of the crew during the show Star Trek: The Next Generation - though he doesn’t deserve the hate.
Wesley leaves for Starfleet Academy, reappearing in a couple episodes, until his time on TNG came to an end with the discovery of the “Traveler.” This mysterious being has the ability to warp space-time, and hops between different realities as a kind of trans-dimensional explorer, for the sake of curiosity. He senses something extraordinary in Wesley, and invites the boy to come with him and explore different realities. We don’t see Wesley again until the recent show Picard, where he reappears to recruit Kore Soong, and mentions that the Travelers are responsible for developing the “Supervisors”, a group that works to preserve the integrity of the space-time continuum.
Movies about bending space-time are not exactly easy to pull off. But Wesley’s untold story is worth the effort, and with modern hit success stories with low budgets like Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, it’s definitely doable.
3 Dax
Dax is a species called a symbiont. They exist in a mutual relationship with Trill, a species dedicated to being hosts of the much-longer-living symbionts. Each time a Trill dies, the symbiont bonds with another willing host. It’s a mutually beneficial and voluntary relationship, making Trill one of the most unique species in the Star Trek universe.
Jadzia Dax, from Deep Space Nine, is the most famous example of this species. But because Dax has had many hosts over various lifetimes, there are many eras of the Star Trek universe that we could see through Dax’s eyes. Seeing Dax in a story set centuries after Jadzia could involve them meeting descendants of past friends and familiar characters.
2 Sarek
Sarek is one of the best Vulcan characters, and has been a long time fan favorite. He is the father of Sybok, Spock, and foster father of the mutineer star of Star Trek: Discovery, Michael Burnham. He was unique in Vulcan culture for marrying a human (which he actually did twice), and spent his life in service as an ambassador.
Sarek is a diplomat, not a fighter. He was both a Vulcan ambassador to Earth, as well as a Federation ambassador to other planets, and he’s known as perhaps the most decorated ambassador in the entire Federation. His stories during his time as ambassador could easily make a movie. With the addition of the controversy around him marrying a human woman, adding a unique love story into the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for an interesting film. With the dedicated fans who would definitely turn out to see more of Sarek and of the planet Vulcan, a movie would be very likely successful.
1 Guinan
Paramount
Guinan is a highly underrated and interesting character. Part bartender, part wise counselor, and part psychic, Guinan was an underutilized character whose story, and species, could definitely be explored more.
Guinan belongs to a strange species called the El-Aurians, sometimes referred to as the “listeners”. They are extremely long-lived, and have the ability to “listen” beyond the perceptions of normal space-time. Guinan uses this ability a few times to get the crew of the Enterprise out of difficult situations, especially those involving the bending of reality. A long time ago, Guinan’s species were at war with the Q species, but they came to a peaceful resolution - over a bottle of liquor (which Guinan had in her possession). El-Aurians were present on Earth for perhaps hundreds of years before humans even went to space. Unfortunately, many of their kind were assimilated or wiped out by the fearsome Borg, leaving only handfuls of survivors scattered across the galaxy.
Because of how long El-Aurians live, we could view Guinan through the lens of the far distant past, or distant future, or at many important events in between. Of all the unique species, and interesting characters, that haven’t been explored enough, Guinan and the El-Aurians are the most under-utilized, and most highly deserving of a movie.
