Forgotten Villains: Klingon Kruge Star Trek 3

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

Commander Kruge arrived like a silent serpent slithering from under the heavy black shadows of the Enterprise crew’s grief over the loss of Spock at the end of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. The spectre of Genesis has already drawn Khan and now such a weapon with the power to bring life from lifelessness has caught the attention of the Klingons. To be precise, one Klingon in particular, one Commander Kruge. Played by Back to the Future’s Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd, you get a master class in how to be a calculating villain equally only by Christopher Plummer’s General Chang. However Kruge will leave Kirk with scars that will never heal in the fallout from Genesis.

Word of the top secret Genesis device created by Carol Marcus has somehow leaked and the ambitious Kruge wants it for himself. He has engaged fellow Klingon and lover Valkris to deliver information on Genesis to him. However she has opened the file and seen its contents which earn a regretful response from Kruge. She knows without him saying that her knowing about Genesis is a death sentence; so determined is he that only he knows about it that he sacrifices his lover. Such is her loyalty to Kruge she stands tall as his ship destroys the freighter she is on. Kruge knows the Klingon thirst for any advantage over the Federation only too well to trust anyone. In her final moments he vows she will be remembered with honour.

I would have to assume his crew are all aware of Genesis as one of his officers, Torg, sees what is coming through from Valkris yet is allowed to live. it may well be the crew have all been promised a share in the power once it is on Kruge’s hands so killing his lover never made sense to me.

He is the first Klingon we have met to have a pet Targ which stays by his side on the bridge. It is a reptilian dog like animal that he loves dearly. Maybe it is the animal’s unconditional loyalty to him that makes this pet so special.

Arriving at the Genesis planet, Kruge finds the science ship Grissom in orbit. Spock’s protégé Saavik and Kirk’s son, David are on the surface and discovered Spock alive again and aging along with the planet. He is but a child recently emerged from his coffin last seen being fired from the Enterprise at his funeral. Kruge wants prisoners but his gunner accidentally blows the Grissom up which earns him an execution from Kruge and being branded an animal. It is clear Kruge will swiftly take any advantage he can get especially a ship of Starfleet prisoners. But when he discovers that Saavik, David and the changing Spock are on the surface, he takes the upper hand again.

He beams down to find them and is ready to torture them in order to get the secrets of the Genesis torpedo. But when Kirk arrives in the stolen Enterprise, so begins a game of chess that will end in tragedy.

Kirk knows there is a cloaked Klingon ship thanks to Chekov and Kruge thinks he has the advantage. But Kruge is genuinely shocked when he decloaks and Scotty fires point blank damaging the Klingon ship and killing Kruge’s pet Targ in the process. He cradles the animal as he stares around him in disbelief which quickly turns to fury. Kruge roars at his crew to find on the Enterprise. Realising that Kirk is here and part of the Genesis programme, he trusts his instincts and knows Kirk threats are empty.

You can see from Kruge’s body language he is analysing the situation as he goes. With just the tilt of his head and slight lick of his lips, he calls Kirk’s bluff and uses the prisoners on the planet below. If Kirk doesn’t give him the Genesis secrets he will kill them one at a time. Kirk is at a complete disadvantage as he learns that not only is his son and Saavik there but that Spock is also back from the dead.

Before Kirk can do anything Kruge orders his men to execute one of them despite Kirk’s protests. Sadly it is David that is killed saving Saavik. it is only then a broken Kirk says “You Klingon bastard, you killed my son!”

Kruge couldn’t care less and orders him to surrender the Enterprise. Lloyd’s delivery here is so calm and emotionless it is perfectly alien. Any man that can sacrifice his lover will not care about another’s loss.

But as always Kirk gains the upper hand but having lost his son now must lose his ship. No Klingon has ever put him in the position where Kirk has been so helpless and lost so much. They manage to set the self destruct and beam to Genesis while the Enterpise blows up with Kruge’s crew aboard. Taunting Kruge to come down and face him in order to get aboard the Klingon ship, Kruge complies, getting his last remaining man to beam the humans and Saavik abroad but leaving Spock. Kruge has picked up on how insistent Kirk is about getting this boy aboard and reason she must be valuable. As they fight, Genesis begins to tear itself apart. The project is a failure so all of this that both Kruge and Kirk have each sacrificed intentionally and unintentionally has been for nothing.

Despite of the evidence around him, Kruge is happy to die in combat here as the planet disintegrates. Grabbing Kirk by the throat he stills demands Genesis. His dreams of the ultimate power are burning all around him but it doesn’t matter.

Hanging from a cliff above a fiery molten lake, Kruge clings to Kirk’s leg until he kicks him repeatedly in the face until he falls into the lava below allowing Kirk and Spock to escape. “I have had enough of you!” has gone down in Trek catchphrases, said to Kirk kicking Kruger in the face three times.

Kruge dies in the very place he once thought would be the throne room of his new kingdom. Lloyd brought something new to the Klingons in this movie combining his delivery and body movements to reflect his inner thoughts. You can hear mind working overtime to figure things out and his ability at reading people and seeing through their lies in situations gives him an advantage we have not really seen before in the Klingons. His only failing was he did not have all the information he needed. if he had known the Enterprise was knackered, if he had known who Spock was and if he had not rushed in then maybe he would have lived to return again.

In the end Kruge ripped Kirk’s soul out by killing David. Then the Enterprise was lost. He hurt him like no one ever has and although Kirk got Spock back, I am sure that everytime he looks at him, he realises, even if he doesn’t admit it, that the price was far too high because of one Klingon, Commander Kruge.