Discovery’s Captain Pike foreshadowed Strange New Worlds’ Gorn threat

Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Berg) made a candid comment about the Gorn on Star Trek: DiscoveryLittle did he know how much the hostile race of alien reptiles would impact his life Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Before Captain Pike and the USS Enterprise faced off, Chris was assigned as the temporary captain of the USS Discovery. in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, Pike’s mission was to lead an investigation of the Red Angel to learn how the time-traveling entity was tied to his science officer, Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), and Section 31’s malevolent, threat assessment AI, Control .

The first appearance of this yarn was in Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1’s “Arena,” which instantly made the humanoid reptile that fought Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) iconic. But not in a positive way. Gorn was clearly a man who was awkward in a rubber suit, and his battle with Kirk showed the limits of Star Treks budget and visual effects in the 1960s. Rendered by CGI, the Gorn returned nearly 40 years later Star Trek: EnterpriseAnd a complete skeleton is seen in Captain Gabriel Lorca’s (Jason Isaacs) laboratory in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1. This was all prescient for the significance that the Gorn would play in Star Trek: Strange New WorldsAnd their ties to Captain Christopher Pike.

Star Trek: Discovery foreshadowed the very threat of Strange New Worlds

“Alligators on Cestus III?”

Captain Pike inadvertently foreshadowed his future struggles with the Gorn by cracking wise about someone else facing the reptiles in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, Episode 5, “The Saints of Imperfection.” When Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) came aboard the USS Discovery and revealed her affiliation with Section 31 to Pike and Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), they were soon met by Captain Leland (Alan Van Sprang), Section 31’s leader. . Leland joked about his friend Pike’s graying hair and Chris said, “Last I heard, you were up to your ass in alligators on Cestus III.”

Captain Pike is, of course, referring to the Gorn, who had a problem with the United Federation of Planets establishing a base on Cestus III. The Gorn Hegemony considered Cestus III part of their space region and saw a Federation installation as a threat. Pike’s comment reveals that a decade before Captain Kirk faced the Gorn in Star Trek: The Original SeriesStar Fleet has already dealt with the foreigner “Alligators” on Cestus III. This too Foreshadowed Pike’s future conflict over Parnassus BetaA planet, the threads, thought in them Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2’s finale, “Hegemony.”

What Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Revealed About The Gorn

Strange New Worlds reinvents the world

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Made the Gorn the primary antagonists of the show while also recommending that Star Trek Previously established about the Gorn hegemony. While Star Trek: The Original Series introduced the Gorn as humanoid reptiles capable of space travel, Strange New Worlds‘ Revamp borrowed heavily from Alien In Redefining Gorn Physiology and Culture. Thanks to Strange New WorldsGorn now infect human hosts and lay eggs inside them. Baby gors are fast-moving and violent but can turn on each other. The Gorn eventually age into their humanoid forms as adults, but much of their culture is still a mystery.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, episode 4, “Memento Mori,” revealed that the Gorn kidnap people for food. In her youth, Lt. Lan Nonien-sing (Christina Chong) and her family were captured and consumed by the Gorns, who allowed Lan to survive and escape. Most people had never seen a Gorn, with La’n being a rare exception, before Captain Pike’s USS Enterprise crew battled the Gorn on the frozen world of Valeo Beta V. The Gorn infected Lot. Save his friends from the creeps. The Gorn then kidnapped Enterprise crew members, including La’an, into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2’s finale.

Another change made by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is this Captain Kirk’s fight with the Gorn is now predated By Spock, his best friend, and James’ older brother, Lt. Sam Kirk (Dan Jannotte). Spock and Sam Kirk fought the Gorn together on Valeo Beta V years before Captain James T. Kirk’s fateful battle with the Gorn. in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2’s finale, Spock and nurse Christine Chappell (Jess Bush) fought and killed a Gorn in zero gravity in the wreckage of the USS Cayuga’s bridge.

Discovery also set up Kirk Vs. Gorn in Star Trek: The Original Series

Cestus III is where one of his most famous fights started

Captain Pike Viking with Captain Leland about “Alligators on Cestus III” Also set up Captain Kirk’s famous battle with the Gorn Star Trek: The Original Series. A decade after Pike’s comment on Star Trek: DiscoveryThe starship Enterprise beams Captain Kirk and a landing party to Cestus III, initially for a dinner with Commodore Travelers at Starfleet’s Earth observation post. What Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and their team found was the base destroyed and still under attack by the Gorn. Space gods called The Metron then forced Kirk and the Gorn captain to fight each other.

Interestingly, Cestus III is not actually where Kirk fought the Gorn. Kirk’s famous melee with the Gorn captain was on an unnamed planet prepared for them by the Metron. (It was filmed in California’s Vasquez Rocks, a favorite Star Trek location.) Cestus III is often misidentified as the battleground of Kirk vs. the Gorn, even by Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) when he time-traveled and met Kirk in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5.

The Gorns have always been fascinating villains that are not fully realized by Star Trek For decades because of the limits of television visual effects budgets. However, Star Trek on Paramount+ now boasts motion picture-quality VFX technology. Cutting-edge CGI allows Star Trek: Strange New Worlds To bring the corn to life like never before. After these Interest in doing more with the grain was present earlier Strange New Worldswith Star Trek: Enterprise Doubling with CGI Gorn and Star Trek: Discovery Testing the waters with zero callbacks. In hindsight, Captain Pike taunts Captain Leland about the gorn on Star Trek: Discovery came back to plague him Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.