Return of…the Gorn!
It was back in the 1960’s that we first encountered the Gorn in the Arena episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Who can forget William Shatner as James T. Kirk grappling with a hulking rubbery-suited reptilian creature intent upon killing him? Great stuff then, and a comic delight now!
The Gorn also appeared to fight with Captain Archer in the under-rated series Enterprise; he shot one multiple times, presumably to ensure that it was dead. Guess who won’t be joining The Federation any time soon? So it’s good to see the mean keen green guys revised, revamped, and updated for modern times, for the Gorn are classic Trek“ heavies…”
Unlike Kirk, the young Spock that we see in Strange New Worlds did not spare the life of an offending Gorn, but in all fairness it was either the Gorn or Spock and company who were going to be offed. Yes, the Spock of Strange New Worlds can go medieval when the situation calls for it…whoever would have thought?!
The Gorn have been reimagined, too, into a faster, far more nimble and ambulatory species reminiscent of the aliens which plagued Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. They even implant human hosts! Captain Pike, he of the uplifting hair, considers them “monsters.”
With the season cliffhanger ending with intelligent, space-faring reptilians descending on an outnumbered Enterprise, Captain Pike will have to pull something out of his hair to defeat the lizard horde.- – What a pity we have to wait to see Part 2!
(Command hair; not everyone has it!)
Tags: THe Gorn in Star Trek, The Gorn on "Strange New Worlds"
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
FOXSYLVANIA 
August 16, 2023 at 8:35 pm
The Gorn that Kirk battled in “Arena” would’ve been skinned alive by the Spock who underwent pon-fahr (“blood fever”) in the second season episode “Amok Time.” That guy was so hormonally super-charged by the old Vulcan mating urge, he crushed a computer video terminal to pancake-flatness with one clenched fist!
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 16, 2023 at 10:46 pm
“Jungle love, drivin’ me wild, making me crazy!” 🤪
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 17, 2023 at 11:53 am
Now if Captain Pike ever engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the reptilian alien, the episode might be called, “Hair today, Gorn tomorrow…”. 😸
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 17, 2023 at 9:09 pm
Only if that Gorn was piscivorous (a fish-eater).
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 18, 2023 at 3:37 pm
Now my grandmother referred to fish as “brain food.” This explains my stupidity as I don’t eat fish…
LikeLike
August 19, 2023 at 12:07 am
My mother used to make similar claims about eating carrots being good for my eyes. Always ending it with the same old joke: “Ever seen a rabbit with glasses?”
I finally got fed up with that joke, so–one day–I retorted: “Yeah! But, they’re bad for your hearing. Ever seen a rabbit with SHORT ears?”
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 18, 2023 at 11:11 pm
Hear about the reptilian who wanted to join Starfleet? His people thought that he had Gorn crazy! 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 19, 2023 at 12:09 am
But, it was really an elaborate ploy to make another attempt on Capt. Pike’s life. Hence, the sign on that reptilian’s office door which said (get that crash helmet ready): “Gorn fishing!”
LikeLike
August 20, 2023 at 2:25 am
OK! I should’ve used that line four places sooner. My apologies. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 19, 2023 at 1:48 pm
On a more serious note: I am getting further disappointed in the “experts” employed by Tony Harris for History Channel’s “The Proof Is Out There.” For the segment about a Brazilian fisherman’s motorboat being “attacked” by a “sea serpent,” his field researchers interviewed a marine biologist named Dr. Sheila Conger…who declared it was a leopard seal!
Now, even I know that leopard seals are mostly endemic to the Antarctic Circle. And the only specimens of such that might visit as far north as Brazil are vagrant youngsters in poor health. Which, I think, would include the inability to physically keep pace with a fast-going motor boat. Let alone, hyper-actively breach on a repetitive basis!
It was ultimately determined by a forensic video analyst named Michel Primeau that the footage had been doctored, using a digital _overlay_ of a leopard seal.
Just saying, Mr. Harris. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
August 20, 2023 at 2:24 am
Personally, I think the leopard seal footage was filmed by someone who was one of a Zodiac full of marine researchers, down in Antarctica, at night, before getting e-mailed to Senhor Pescador up in Rio Do Sul. The fisherman in question being a friend or relative of the smartphone’s owner.
“That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.”
LikeLiked by 1 person