Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 9 - "All Those Who Wander"
The Gorn return in terrifying fashion in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 9, but the revelations of the alien reptiles borrow too much from the Alien and Predator films. In Strange New Worlds episode 9, "All Those Who Wander," Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) leads a landing party to the frozen world of Valeo Beta V in order to investigate a distress signal from the USS Peregrine. The USS Enterprise's crew find themselves stalked by baby Gorn, who infected one of the survivors. The horror-themed episode ended with the tragic sacrifice of Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who killed himself to save his friends because there were Gorn growing inside him.
Strange New Worlds season 1 reintroduced the Gorn as fearsome adversaries to Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. Lt. La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) and her family were abducted by the Gorn when she was a child. The Gorn ate her parents and brother, but they allowed La'an to escape, expecting her not to survive. Instead, La'an was rescued by Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), who inspired her to join Starfleet. Even though La'an is also the descendant of Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), the Gorn has been the primary focus of La'an's tragic backstory. The Enterprise's Security Chief also became Starfleet's expert on the Gorn, who La'an aptly described as "monsters." Through La'an's memories, Strange New Worlds retconned the Gorn, who were only seen previously in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise.
The Gorn attacked the Starship Enterprise in Strange New Worlds episode 4, "Memento Mori," and it was a combination of La'an's knowledge of the reptiles and Captain Pike's tactical daring that allowed them to survive. However, the Gorn weren't seen in episode 4, and Strange New Worlds episode 9 marks the first time the rebooted Gorn have been sighted in canon in the 23rd century since Strange New Worlds predates TOS by about 7 years. While the Gorn have been retconned into a genuinely scary threat, Strange New Worlds' changes are also weirdly derivative of other sci-fi franchises.
How Strange New Worlds Changed The Gorn From TOS
Strange New Worlds episode 9's Gorn retcon borrows too heavily from the Alien franchise's Xenomorphs. The Enterprise crew discovers, to their horror, that baby Gorn gestate inside host bodies and then burst out, killing their hosts, exactly like young Xenomorphs due. One change is that the Gorn are natural chameleons that can evade Starfleet's tricorders and sensors. But once born, the baby Gorn are animalistic, mindless killers who climb walls and hide in ceilings like Alien Xenomorphs. The Gorn also quickly turn on and kill each other, battling for dominance until there's one alpha left. The Gorn can also see in the dark and their ability to sense heat signatures is extremely reminiscent of the Yautja in the Predator franchise.
Further, to infect other species and implant their young, the baby Gorn spits bile, which is also similar to the Dilolophosaurus in the Jurassic Park movies. The Gorn also chase their prey like Velociraptors. Hemmer was caught by the Gorn bile, which instantly infected the Aenar with Gorn eggs. The baby Gorn's growth process is also determined by the host; with some alien species it can take days, but in Strange New Worlds, the baby Gorn rapidly aged in a matter of hours.
Why Strange New Worlds' Gorn Change Doesn't Work
Strange New Worlds' Gorn retcons effectively turn the aliens into the horrific monsters that La'an describes, which made for a tense, action-packed episode 9. But in the grander scheme of how the Gorn Hegemony must operate, Strange New Worlds' Gorn retcon doesn't logically hold up. As they're presented in "All Those Who Wander," the Gorn are ravenous, animalistic creatures. But how, then, are the Gorn also capable of building starships and traveling through the galaxy? Perhaps the Gorn evolve in intelligence as they get older but how does their civilization thrive if, upon birth, they murder each other and deplete their population's numbers?
The Gorn warrior that Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) faced in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Arena," was a humanoid reptile who was intended to be a monster (in spite of the limited and laughable lizard suit from the era). But the Gorn Captain was also intelligent, capable of speech, was a skilled tactician, and had a code of honor. The Gorn Kirk fought in TOS is a far cry from the mindless animals in Strange New Worlds, and it doesn't entirely line up that they are the same species. Strange New Worlds episode 9 also blows the long-repeated mantra that "no human has ever seen a Gorn" out of the water.
There are certainly possible explanations for Strange New Worlds' Gorn discrepancies. The Gorn seen in Strange New Worlds' episode 9 could be a less evolved version of their species or the Gorn could be born very different depending on the races of the alien bodies they gestated in. It would be logical to assume that not all Gorn are alike and the ones Pike and the Enterprise crew faced in "All Those Who Wander" are a particularly horrible subset of the reptiles. As scary and effective as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 9 is, it's also hard to ignore how blatantly derivative the Gorn are of Alien, Predator, and even the Dilophosaurus and Velociraptors of Jurassic Park.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 1 Finale streams Thursday, July 7, on Paramount+.