which /Film’s Jacob Hall reviewed here), and, as you can imagine, there are plenty more instances of playing fast and loose with the “rules” of the world at this point in the timeline. It’s no spoiler to say there are holodeck hijinks and even more setup for “Star Trek: The Original Series” to come, but what about those pesky questions surrounding the alien antagonists known as the Gorn?
When “Strange New Worlds” first reintroduced the Gorn back in season 1, the famous villains from “The Original Series” were given quite the makeover for audiences these days. Gone was the slow, janky, man-in-a-suit silliness that William Shatner’s James T. Kirk had to contend with, replaced by fearsome lizards created with visual effects and obviously meant to take a page out of the Xenomorph playbook. To say that these changes were controversial would be an understatement, but there was always a method behind the approach.
That news comes straight from showrunner Akiva Goldsman, who recently indicated that he thought the series was the perfect opportunity to take one of the most beloved aspects of the original show and add a thoroughly refreshing twist to our conception of the property. To hear him tell it, this goes far beyond simply modernizing the Gorn — he wanted to add a unique thematic flavor to “Star Trek” and its typical approach to good versus evil.
