Logline
When the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers
Directed by Maja Vrvilo
When the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers
Directed by Maja Vrvilo
I like the Gorn being legitimately scary, but to me it kind of retroactively highlights how silly “Arena” was. You can’t really compare modern TV with the episodes from the 60s, but stick one of these Gorn on the planet with Kirk and he would have been proper fucked. I can accept it easily enough and take it with a grain of salt that, if we assume they were going to re-shoot the episode today with Paul Wesley and modern cinema techniques that the fight scenes wouldn’t be these silly ponderous things and the episode would probably largely not have Kirk confront the Gorn at all, mostly running away until the big climax with the “cannon”. However, it is kind of an unforced error, where they could have simply introduced the aliens as a totally new species without really losing anything while also not highlighting how silly the rubber suit Gorn was.
No highlighting is necessary. No need to be a fan to instantly associate the rubber suit Gorn of Arena with the franchise.
The meme of Kirk in a ripped tunic fighting the rubber-suited Gorn with the Vasquez Rocks behind is one of the most recognizable images in pop culture.
Goldsman and Myers have my respect for their attempt to salvage it.
Kirk’s Gorn was the captain. Maybe he was old and feeble? Not suited for a fight, still pretty strong but no longer fast and agile. The Metrons chose the captains, not the best fighters.
I love this actually. Kirk, probably top 5% percent against the Gorn captain who happened to be some ancient, arthritic, half blind, one foot in the grave, and still beat his ass all over the paramount back lot.
My head canon is that there’s another stage to the Gorn lifecycle that we haven’t yet seen on SNW. It might be that with full maturity, the Gorn gain significant intelligence and brute strength relative to earlier stages, but lose speed and agility.
It’s also been suggested in the beta canon that the Gorn are made up of multiple reptile variants. The ones in SNW seem to be raptor based. It’s possible the less agile more tank like variants might show up later.