The SNW Gorn literally pulled the classic sitcom “stay on your side of the line” routine - basically the same motivation as “Arena”.

I know just the anomaly.

I prefer the goofy-badass-Gorn over the scary-quick-incubatin’-Gorn.

They’re iconic for a reason.

The recon is to the timeline and initial encounter with the species

Fair enough - I’ll backtrack slightly and say that if there’s a retcon, that’s where it is, rather than in the Gorn’s behaviour.

But there is a bit of wiggle room in “Arena”, I think. Kirk certainly seems unfamiliar with the Gorn, but they never really say it’s the first contact, and Spock doesn’t really say anything one way or the other (a very Spock-like thing to do in any situation).

They definitely have massaged that canon, but I don’t think they’ve really contradicted it.

“What I loved about the Gorn was it was an opportunity to retcon something into a real monster. What we do in Star Trek—and you’ll see we’ll even do it with the Gorn—is we start by seeing the other and often we end by engaging our empathy and understanding common ground. And that’s great, and it doesn’t mean that there isn’t real evil in the world. And so what we wanted to do with the Gorn was to give you a monster, and a monster that at least at first, seemed irredeemable.”

I find this statement a little aggravating, because in my opinion they really haven’t retconned the Gorn. In “Arena”, they slaughtered the entire Cestus colony, and the Gorn captain is utterly merciless.

“Arena” is about mercy, but the Gorn didn’t really earn it in the episode, which was really kind of the point.

Eh?

Jump 900 years into the past and do a period costume drama.

I always figured TAS was the final two years of the five-year mission…

I think Goldsman’s actual statement is pretty vague - he could easily mean a spinoff with the non-TOS cast. Just redress the sets and you’re off to the races.

He could also mean a movie, or…some third thing.

And in any case, he’s moving on with his career.

It’s cool that they’re excited about possibilities, but I remain very skeptical that there’s any actual traction there.

Heck, it was pretty much Goldsman’s pitch:

In the first pitch document that we sent to the network… we opened with a question asking, “What if we just did Star Trek?” And they said, “Okay.” Every day in the writers’ room, we try to imagine how would Gene Roddenberry and his team make The Original Series if they were doing it today?

Trek Movie: Early Review: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Returns With Added Adventure And Romance For Season 3

I just clued in that you’re visiting from a Mastodon server. In that case, it’s unfortunately two clicks - first the startrek.website link, then the Gizmodo link that goes to the actual article.

Federation is an imperfect beast sometimes.

If you’re interested in the article, you could try, y’know, reading it.

Edit: I was being a bit of a dumb-dumb.

Like the article says, the early seasons are often given short shrift due to what comes later, but there’s some great stuff in there.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, I think the Kurtzman era has been quite successful, but he’s had the job for quite a while now. It’s possible he’ll choose to move on once his contract is up.

But yeah, with Paramount in such a state of upheaval…nothing surprises me any more.

Paramount+ today announced that the fan-favorite original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fifth and final six-episode season ahead of the third season premiere this summer.

Huh…

But just imagine the “Doug Jones walks into things” gag reel…

In “The menagerie”, pt 1, Kirk explicitly states he only met Pike the once when he was made Fleet Captain.

I actually think this one is a fun way of playing with that established dialogue in an unexpected way. The actual exchange goes like this:

MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?

KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.

MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.

KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him. Spock served with him for several years.

It’s entirely possible that “when he was promoted to Fleet Captain” and “I took over the Enterprise from him” are two separate events. And if that’s the case, then you might as well sprinkle in some additional meetings in between. I don’t think it’s the original intent of the scene in “The Menagerie”, but it’s a valid alternative interpretation.

The Gorn thing is admittedly a bit tougher to explain, but I think it’s mostly a Kirk problem - Spock doesn’t really say anything to indicate whether the Gorn are familiar to him or not. And I don’t think Kirk has me the Gorn (yet) in SNW?

Batel Watch 2025: maybe she survived the Gorn?