The speculations about what will happen in the next Star Trek movie has been running hard and fast all over the Internet. One particular object of interest is who will be the next bad guy to face Capt. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise.

The one thing we know for sure is that is will not be Khan Noonien Singh and, quite frankly, this writer is very glad of that fact. While I'm sure J.J. Abrams and his staff would have done a good job on a reimaging of the infamous villain, there are some performances that should not be revisited in any way.

Ricardo Montalban's two appearances as Khan, first in the episode Space Seed in the original series, and then in the movie Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan are performances that made that character his and his alone. It is hard to imagine anyone in that role but him, just like for classic movie fans, it is hard to picture anyone in the role of the King of Siam in The King And I other than Yul Brynner.

With Khan out of the running, and the word that the film will focus on a classic character, the question becomes, which classic bad guy (or gal) from Star Trek deserves to be re-imaged? Several websites have speculated, with one name coming up over and over, the infamous rogue of the galaxy and the ultimate con artist, Harry Mudd.

I've been talking to friends and fellow trek fans the last few days and several actors have been mentioned to possibly play Mudd. Two names mentioned are actors whose careers have taken a turn toward drama and away from comedy, Michael Keaton and Tom Hanks. A couple of friends of mine tossed out two other ideas, Jim Carrey or Jack Black. Either of those would be amazing choices for the character.

However, my wife, Jill Rayburn, has tossed out two names that would be absolutely incredible in the role of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. The first name she suggested was Christopher Lloyd who would bring a long track record of amazing character work to the role.

However, the name which caught my attention and, frankly, I think would be the best actor for the role would be Matt Frewer of television's Eureka. Having watched his work over the years, especially as Taggart on "Eureka" to which he gave performances that made the character so very unique to the show, he has shown the special skills and abilities to give an incredible performance in the role.

I would like to hear from my readers on this. Should the next bad guy be Harry Mudd, and if so, who should play him? Please leave a comment or e-mail me your thoughts. I'll write about the results in a future column here on Airlock Alpha.

So what do you think, folks? Let's hear from you!