NuTrek's big, controversial premises

[Nerys Myk]

I'd be curious as how the Gorn were described in the pitch/plot/script. Was it slow moving and cumbersome with stiff joints?
@Maurice ?

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

The Gorn in Arena was ridiculous.

Physically, if not visually. Kirk could have outwalked him for a good 75 years with no trouble.

 

[Shawnster]

The Gorn in Arena was old and of a different variety than what was seen in SNW. Problem solved.

The Gorn captain kept his rollator in his quarters against his last doctor's orders. (He got a new doctor after spacing the last one for bringing up the rollator in front of the crew.)

KIRK: Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn... Large, reptilian... He can.. only shuffle as he... chases me. If I... continue to power walk, I should... be able to... outpace him... until he tires out, the Enterprise somehow arrives, or the Metrons... get bored... with their entertainment.

 

[Set Harth]

weaknesses: mallwalking

 

[DonIago]

Gorn Captain: Give me a break! I sprained my ankle last week. I assure you, I'm normally quite speedy. FEAR ME!!!

 

[HotRod]

His tail had recently fallen off and his balance was way off. Cut him some slack.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

The Gorn was slowed because of his twice annual molting which was interrupted by the Metron.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I heard he was a guy in a suit.

 

[Farscape One]

I heard he was a guy in a suit.

It suited him.

 

[Firebird]

The Gorn in Arena was old and of a different variety than what was seen in SNW. Problem solved.

The Gorn Captain talked a menacing game, but he sang a different tune once he got back to his ship's sickbay:

 

[F. King Daniel]

I heard he was a guy in a suit.

Consider: An SNW Gorn wearing a TOS Gorn costume

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

We have multiple Klingon makeup designs co-exist in the same universe.
We also already have multiple Xindi species from the same planet.
We have multiple Romulan designs coexist as well, remember that one line about "Northerners".

Why can't there be multiple Reptile designs all called "Gorn"?
What Kirk encounters later on will be a different type of Gorn from the one we see in SNW.
Problem solved.

 

[Nyotarules]

They need to pick a lane.

Kirk's Enterprise did not have holodecks or holographic communications, therefore Pike orders the comm ripped out and the holodeck idea shelved.

Meanwhile, let's totally reinterprete the Gorn and Chapel because art should not be constrained by what has come before.

Pick a lane. Either be true to the source material or do your own thing and tell the cannonistas to pound sand. Quit trying to eat your cake and have it, too.

TAS is calling....

 

[Nyotarules]

Just circles back to the idea that the new version of the Gorn makes “Arena” impossible in its original form.

Different Gorn in Arena, they were Northern Gorn, its cold up there.

 

[B.J.]

The end of SNW's "Terrarium" kinda gave us an out:
Metron: You won't remember me, and perhaps someday we may need to reset your perception of the Gorn as well.

 

[Ceridwen]

I just think of them as the Xorn. No muss, no fuss, no continuity hiccups.

Yeah, sure, no continuity weirdness around Xorn at all.

 

[Guy Gardener]

What about "what if we make it about one character instead of a crew"/what if the main character is not the captain"?

Make it about the ship's barber.

He or she is usually the only survivor every-time the ship is assaulted by pirates marauders or privateers, which happens three or four times a season, and then the barber has to adapt to the new circumstances and dress code as they work their way up from "food" if any one is really "that hungry" all the way to trusted ally.

 

[Maurice]

I'd be curious as how the Gorn were described in the pitch/plot/script. Was it slow moving and cumbersome with stiff joints?
@Maurice ?

Story Outline Oct. 10, 1966.

• p2. The first hint of their form are "splay footed reptilian footprints" on Cestus III.
• p5–6. Kirk and the Gorn captain on the asteroid "a wiry, glistening two legged reptilian man-like creature, with great musculature, a ridge of plates down his back, a face full of teeth..."
• p6. "It is immensely strong, though not as agile as Kirk"
• p7. Kirk finds "a knife, long and wickedly sharp"
• p8. Kirk attacks the Gorn with the knife, but finds it won't penetrate its hide, but the Gorn grapples it away from him and attempts to stab him, which Kirk barely avoids, but gets his arm cut (he's shirtless here), so the implication is the Gorn doesn't move in slow-motion, just not as quickly as a human can
• Incidentally:
  • When Kirk gripes to the Metrons about the weapon being useless to him, they telepathically tell him there's two weapons, and Kirk found the Gorn's weapon, not his own.
  • Kirk eventually finds a metal tube, sealed at one end but with a small "touchhole"?; so it's the same weapon as in the finished episode but more obvious than a bamboo tube.
  • The Metron representative appears much as in the final episode, but with two key differences:
    • 1. The Metron admits the test was a ruse, and they intended to destroy the ship of the winner, as they would be the bigger threat, and…
    • 2. When Kirk says his "mercy" doesn't extend to letting the Gorn ship get away with what it did on Cestus, the Metron does this: "He waves his hand. Then he announces that Kirk has his revenge. The Gorn ship no longer exists." Yowch.
  • Also, once Kirk is popped off the bridge, there's no mention of cutting back to the Enterprise until Kirk is returned.

First Draft Script, cover date October 18, 1966

• p10. INSERT. FOOTPRINT. A little larger than man-size, it shows four claw marks, and thin pointed heel.
• p12. back on the Enterprise, Spock says "There are rumors...almost space legends...about a race of sentient reptiles..."
• p28. "It is a lizard, who walks like a man...two-legged, two-armed, a thick glistening scaly hide, the size of a man with outstanding musculature...a wide mouth full of sharp teeth, a ridge of hard plates running down his back, even a prehensile, thick, strong tail. He is wearing a garment like a short robe, and carries nothing else He does not wear shoes of any sort."
• p30. "It moves slowly, awkwardly."
• Incidentally:
  • The script intercuts with the Enterprise through this
  • p39. The Gorn finds the metal tube, doesn't see it as a weapon, tosses it. Kirk finds it later, realizes what it might be.
  • The Gorn finds a stone club, which it hurls at Kirk at one point, hitting him in the small of the back. Like the outline, it then takes the knife Kirk found.
  • At the end, the Metron still nukes the Gorn.

So there you go. The Gorn was slowish in the outline, slooooow in the script.

 

[knightgrace]

I am Gorned.

 

[Rahul]

The thing that sticks in the craw about SNW's use of the Gorn is that it did not need, in any way, to be the Gorn. You could have literally the exact same scripts and even visuals but switch the word "Gorn" for, like, "Krelak" and nobody at any point would think they were even loosely based on the Gorn.

There was no reason I can see to not make a new species, other than cargo cult obsession with reciting words and phrases from scripts written by other people sixty years ago, and an inexplicable desire to turn a universe that should be a canvas for infinite possibility into something that constantly refers back to like ten fandom wiki articles.

...the DIS season 1 Klingons say "hi".