I was just watched the episode again. I don't know if I like the 20 G deck plate trick to incapacitate the Gorn or not. Seems odd this trick was never used before in any of the shows or movies. I guess it was the only way to stop the Gorn. I have to admit, any creature that could take the acceleration from 1 to 20 G's without becoming green paste is impressive, let alone stay upright temporarily resisting such force which is staggering. The Gorn have to be the strongest species out there.
You're so right. I would bet their bones have a really high metal content; there'd be so much, creating metal filaments, that we're talking about practically living girders. And their muscles have to be incredibly dense. Skin too; it would have to be very dense too to have the tensile strength to hold everything together against such gravities (because complex alloy polymers and carbon tube structures are not too likely to evolve, but density would be easily adjustable by evolution in comparison to evolving such strong and lightweight but artificial products), and if it's that dense as a consequence of gravity, it might be strong enough to turn a knife. Gorn must be from a very high-gravity planet, maybe as much as 4-6 gs. Funny they'd move so slowly on Cestus 3--in-universe I'm going to suggest the atmosphere was maybe too poor in oxygen for them and further suggest that their homeworld is like earth's Carboniferous period was in oxygen content--at least 30% oxygen (modern earth is 21%).. A punch from a Gorn in a high-oxygen environment would be like getting hit with a wrecking ball. It'd be like a Terminator hitting you. Or at least Data. Klingons would be like, oh, FUCK. Wookies would be like oh, FUCK. I mean Gorn wouldn't just be super-strong--they'd be hyperdense and like padded metal/stone pillars. Remember in TNG the Dauphin when Worf is grappling with Salia's guardian, Anya, and there's actually a test of strength going on there? A Gorn would have ripped her arms off.
Variable grav plating like that would be about the most effective intruder control measure possible. Computer: "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" Uhura: "Captain, we have a disturbance on Deck 6, section 43B. Klingon boarding party, sounds of weapons fire." Kirk: "Seal off section 43B. Erect forcefields at junctions 43A and 43C. Spock, have you isolated the Klingon intruders on internal sensors?" Spock: "Yes, captain." Kirk: "Activate intruder control measures. Local gravity in section 43B to 5 G's, reduce oxygen partial pressure by thiirty percent. Pin 'em and knock 'em out. I want prisoners." Spock: "Aye, captain!"
I always thought Trek's gravity was shipwide and originated from one generator rather than being in each and every deck plate (which can be individually adjusted). I guess it depends on the writers and producers of the individual episode or movie.
I think that if they needed to go out to repair the under-hull they could probably turn on the gravity in and upside-down fashion in order to walk on it the same way they walk on the upper-side of the hull.
I thought they used magnetic boots to walk outside on the hull- both in Enterprise (Mine Field) and TNG (First Contact film).
It's strange that they would use such a primitive and inefficient way even in the time of TNG. Magnetic boots only work on iron and on ferromagnetic alloys, which are rare. I can't believe that in the 23rd century they'd still make hulls in iron. Entire ships actually, since in TUC we can see them walking around with these boots. Oh well..
In TUC, the Klingons kept calling them "magnetic boots," but the Starfleet folks kept calling them "gravity boots." Perhaps those were different colloquial expressions for a technology that was actually unrelated to either phenomenon! Kor
Gravity boots make more sense than the low-tech magnetic boots. I like the idea of boots generating their own gravity-field.
I am not a fan of "ENTERPRISE", but . . . I am a major fan of this episode. It is one of my favorite episodes from the entire TREK franchise.
It sounds like you have given their physiology and environment a lot of thought. I like the living girder analogy, it's how I always thought of them after Arena. The speed at which the car sized boulder hit the Gorn coming off the cliff would have been the equivalent of getting hit by a Mack truck and he just shook that off. The boulder he tossed 50 feet uphill at Kirk had to way 1000-2000 pounds. And withstanding an acceleration from a 1g environment to 20g in an instant and actually stay upright and resist momentarily is awesome. They are an incredible product of evolutionary development on their homeworld.
The CGI Gorn really looked like shit. Wouldn't it have been more entertaining to trot out an exact reproduction of the 60's Era Gorn-suit and set him loose? It's so terrible, really, how STAR TREK revisited TOS time and again, with half-assed "updates" to Classic Creatures, like the Gorn. I can just imagine it, had they revisited the mining colony from the episode "Devil in the Dark" and delivered a pizza-looking CGI Horta to our viewing screens. I can just see its blobs of pixeled colour sliding all over it, as it moved about, writing on the floor "No Kill I." Have some balls .... bring out authentic reproductions of the shit, if you're going to go back to TOS. "They" only want to revisit TOS to make fun of it, anyhow, so be honest about it ... you know? Bring on the Gorn-suit ... CGI enhance it, if you must. Add some lens-flare to its silvery, compound eyes, give him a forked tongue and all that ... but at the end of the day, he's gotta be a Man in a suit.
It's a good thing I can only click "like" once; because I would wear out the like button on this comment.
At least DS9's "Trials & Tribblations" was more honest about their just having a go at the datedness and shortcomings of TOS. Not in a mean-spirited way, but simply an acknowledgement that they're there and that they're even a part of the charm of The Classic Series. So, we see Julian and Miles with their bad hairstyles and baggy outfits. Jadzia, on the other hand, whatever their intentions were in melting her down and pouring her into that 60's uniform, who can know, but ... Mother of Mercy! seeing her with her hair up and in that mini, she definitely wore it well. Very well, indeed .... she made it look good!
"In A Mirror Darkly" was calculated to attenuate just such an effect, by putting the girls of ENT into those outfits, whilst the guys got to ham it up with their redshirts and green tunics. I suppose I'm in the minority, in that I do not care for the Mirror Universe. I like how it's very existence defies justification. That its sole purpose is to try to have fun with the characters by deconstructing their almost Greek Hero Mythology, in a sense. But ... it's, I don't know ... kind of lame, too. Again, I know I'm outnumbered, here, by those who love the MU, but I just find it overrated.