Zurg, better known as Evil Emperor Zurg, is Buzz Lightyear's arch-nemesis, the most widely-feared villain in the galaxy, and the biggest threat to Star Command and the Galactic Alliance. His main goal is to conquer Star Command and rule over the galaxy. However, Team Lightyear continually thwarts his plans.
The moment everyone was waiting for...and it turned out to be a hoax.
Just as we know next to nothing about Commander Nebula's backstory, neither do we know how Zurg became an Evil Emperor. He owns a vastly powerful, sinister empire that constantly threatens the sanctity of the galaxy and the Galactic Alliance. It is also not shown what planets he possesses, but it is apparent that he owns several; such as the mining planet in "Shiv Katall". He claims to have had a mother named "Nana Zurg", who he mentions as being "pure evil".
In one episode, "Stranger Invasion", he told Buzz Lightyear that he was his father; however, this was a ploy to distract Buzz, which led to Zurg taking the upper hand. He was quick to pass off the claim as a "Made You Look" scheme.
Physical Appearance
Zurg is a very tall humanoid with a purple helmet showcasing red eyes and green teeth. He also wears long gray gloves with spiked fingers, and always wears the same purple armor with a fancy dress robe. Zurg has a "Z" emblem on the front of his cape. The emblem is a secret button which can, when pressed, activate Zurg's rocket boots allowing him to fly. Although not obvious at first, due to his long robes obscuring them all the time, he does indeed have feet, once stating that he owns a pair of rocket boots that he "got on sale".[1]
It is suggested Zurg's visible appearance is simply armor, as when he was reduced to a blob-like creature in The Crawling Flesh, he was shown to wear his helmet over a blob-like helmet with a newly visible mouth. Despite this, Zurg's supposed true appearance has never been seen, leaving the identity of his actual race unknown.
Personality
The Not-So-Evil Emperor Zurg
Evil Emperor Zurg is not your usual despicably evil supervillain. Despite being the most evil and nefarious villain of the galaxy for years on end and a constant thorn in the side of Star Command, Zurg has been known to take himself less than seriously, and actually seems to have a well-developed (if demented) sense of humor. He does, however, pride himself in his showmanship, making strong efforts to present himself as a fearful, intimidating Emperor.
His evil schemes are routinely less-than-stellar in design (such as one scheme to make children afraid to eat their vegetables so that years later they would be too weak to fight when he invades, a plan which only Buzz thought clever), and he is quick to shunt the blame for failures onto others' shoulders (usually his Grubs or Brain Pods). His main downfall whenever fighting against Buzz Lightyear, his nemesis, is the trademark error of every villain: the gloating monologue. Because of this, Zurg has never won out of the 3,247 times [2] he's tried.
He has a strange fear of being touched, mentioning something about "personal space" and "cooties" in the episodes "The Torque Armada" and "The Main Event". He is also somewhat picky about his schemes, claiming when politicians were being kidnapped that he would never do something "so obvious."
Abilities
Laser Vision: He has laser vision, but rarely uses it in battle, and seems to use it when losing his temper. Whether this is a species trait or an artificial enhancement is unknown.
He is also shown melting a military gun from a distance with no visible lasers, but with his eyes glowing, suggesting something more akin to heat-vision.
Ion Blaster: Zurg's signature weapon is a tri-barrel Ion-blaster, which configure around either of his gauntlets.
Master Combatant: Despite his preference for weapons of destruction, Zurg is also highly skilled at hand to hand combat and able to physically battle Buzz Lightyear unarmed, but he is unable to defeat him.
Zurg using his weapon gauntlet
Electricity Generation: In "The Adventure Begins" he has sharp talons capable of cutting through glass and was shown creating a ball of electricity from his fingers to torture the LGMs with.
The back box art of the Adventure Begins video also displays Zurg shooting lasers from his fingers, but this ability was never seen on the show.
Flight: Zurg wears a pair of unseen rocket boots under his robe to propel him through the air and space in the same respect as Buzz's rocket pack.
Super Reflexes: Zurg possesses highly advanced physical reflexes; for example, while invading Roswell, he was able to catch a missile with his bare hands.
Super Strength: Zurg has demonstrated above-average levels of strength, able to destroy machinery with his bare hands, although it is unknown if this strength is natural or the result of his armor.
"Hold your fire! Don't damage the HYPER DEATH RAY!"
Trivia
Zurg's species is a subject of much debate in the fandom, but there is canonical evidence that rules out him being a robot. He requests a glass of water,[3] eats popcorn, and is shown coming back from recently using the restroom. In The Crawling Flesh, he is affected by Brain Pod 26's gas and turns into to a blob, a sign that he is organic.
When enslaving the people of Roswell, Zurg states that he is an "equal opportunity enslaver", a parody of "equal opportunity employer."
A little-known fact is that Zurg is afraid of the dark.[5]
A few of his hobbies include videotaping Buzz's speeches for his personal entertainment,[5] and evil bowling (with the Grubs as his pins)
Zurg is voiced by actor and comedian Wayne Knight, who had previously portrayed Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2. In the same film, Zurg was previously voiced by writer Andrew Stanton.
Many episodes featuring Zurg often end with him loudly cursing Buzz Lightyear, even if Buzz was not the actual one behind his defeat.
Zurg telling Buzz he was his father is a reference to Toy Story 2 in which a Zurg toy told the new Buzz Lightyear toy the same thing which, in itself, is a reference to the famous "I am your father" scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
According to Santa Claus, Zurg is number one on the naughty list.
