Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread

Those Northern Romulans..

Could be different "Tribes" or planets, may be different classes of Gorn, Solder, Leader, Brain Bugs etc. One in TOS/Enterprise may be a brain bug type, while those in SNW are more soldier, warrior types.

 

As it is now, Gorn biology as described in the Kelvin universe (having pregnancies, etc.) is inconsistent with SNW and the Kelvin timeline 2013 video game says that the Gorn described in the Kelvin movies come from another galaxy. So despite the game's lack of official canonicity as this is the closest explanation we have to differentiating the Gorn described in the Kelvin movies and the Gorn in SNW, that means there are already 2 types of Gorn, one who can get pregnant and others who implant eggs on victims like Hemmer.

 

Multiple species of Gorn. Why not? It is a Hegemony after all.

 

Here's a look at a typical Gorn family.

 

Burn it down.

 

Never thought I'd ever see this obscure archive family photo of then-Prince Charles with Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, William and Harry in such clear detail. They look so happy, as obviously human as any ordinary human family as they do their ordinary human activities like breathing oxygen and drinking water.

 

La'an will get a machine gun and go all First Contact Picard on these folks.

 

The Gorn weren't villains in TOS. The whole point of Arena is that the Gorn weren't evil, just caught up in a massive misunderstanding.

 

Earth precedent: some sharks lay eggs and others give live birth

Also, on a different subject:

 

Mmmmmm.... I don't know if I agree with that. Cestus III was set up by the Federation, ostensibly as a peaceful research outpost. One would think that if there was a Gorn colony there, or ANY indication of a non-Fed presence in or near the system, they would have kicked in first contact/diplomacy protocols immediately. Prior to the appearance of the Gorn in SNW, there was no indication that the Federation ever even heard of them until "Arena". We can probably easily assume that there were regulations in place against plopping a colony down on an already-claimed world by another power, unless prior permission was specifically given. There was no evidence of any of this happening, at any time.

So, either the advance Federation charting teams EPICALLY dropped the ball researching that area of space, or the Gorn claimed a completely uninhabited world, left behind no indications of such a claim, and got pissy when they discovered that someone else unwittingly moved in, leading to a MASSIVE war-level overreaction by the Gorn. Not to mention deep-faking outpost personnel messages to LURE the Enterprise in to blowing them away, too. That was not self defense - that was straight-up war-crimes murder, leading them quite handily into "villain" territory.

From Trek Transcripts:

I understand and appreciate the emotion of territorial protectionism, but being that way and NOT putting up a sign saying "GO THE HELL AWAY!", however (like what the Tholians and Melkotions did, for example), the onus is pretty much all on the Gorn for this one.

 

So as everyone knows Star Trek's been trying to find it's groove in the movies for some time, stumbling with Tom Hardy, redoing Khan, and not making as much money as they should've on that Idris Elba movie.

The answer has been in front of Trek for over 50 years. Gorn! Lots of Gorn! Just follow the Jurassic Park formula and you have your line of Trek movies.

Star Trek: Gorn Park
Star Trek: Gorn World
Star Trek: Gorn World Fallen Kingdom
Star Trek: Gorn World Dominion (in which rogue changelings decide to team up with the Gorn after their recent Borg teamup fell apart)

 

They kind of did that with the Voth in Voyager, which were literally evolved descendants of Earth dinosaurs.

 

Actually, that's not at all true.

The Gorn behaved savagely from beginning to end, motivated by their territoriality. The humans might have behaved differently had they known that the Gorn claimed that area, but even the Metron didn't suggest that the Gorn were anything but brutal - their captain "would certainly have killed" Kirk rather than shown him mercy, had their situations been reversed.

The Feds established a base in what they thought was unclaimed space. The Gorn massacred civilians, adults and children alike, then set up a sophisticated deception to lure a human military vessel into an ambush. They knew what they were doing.

Those are just the facts established in the story. That Kirk is capable of seeing the Gorn's point of view elevates him in the eyes of the Metrons. No such positive qualities or judgment are imputed or extended to the Gorn.

The moral equivalency of the Feds and the Gorn is something that fans have made up based on the general tenor of the "Star Trek philosophy" that has grown as a myth around the show in the years since - and, to be fair, based on Gene Coon's proclivities as a writer when he recycled this situation repeatedly in later Trek scripts.

 

Admittedly, it's a retcon from over fifty years later, but I did like the implication on Disco that Section 31 had been messing around with the Gorn on Cestus III, which would explain why Starfleet was unaware Cestus was already claimed and why the Gorn took an automatic aggressive stance against them.

 

When was that implied? Something about Lorca's Gorn skull?

 

Yeah, it can't be the skull because he was a Mirror Universe transplantee and anything he did to turn that Gorn into a TOS-style skeleton was done by him and most likely alone. I never got the impression that Lorca in Season 1 was working for Section 31.

 

Strange New World's new big Gorn villain:

 

A Gorn with Malcolm Reed's voice would be peak Trek.

 

Season 2, Pike and Leland talk about Leland's exploits with "alligators on Cestus III." Which I interpreted as a reference to the Gorn.

 

Maybe the ultraviolent Gorn seen in SNW are a genetically engineered Section 31 project gone wrong, and the TOS Gorn are the real Gorn.