Strange New Worlds Retcons Star Trek: TOS' Gorn Timeline

The Gorn are a major part of La'an Noonien Singh's backstory on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which has retconned when Starfleet met the reptiles.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 1 – “Strange New Worlds”

The Gorn are mentioned several times in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 1, which retcons the timeline of the reptilian race’s First Contact with the United Federation of Planets. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ premiere begins a new five-year mission for the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). While Pike’s first voyage is a rescue operation on the planet Kiley 279, the Gorn loom large in the background thanks to the backstory of the Enterprise’s acting Number One and new Security Chief, La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong).

The Gorn were introduced in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, “Arena,” which featured the unforgettable fight between a Gorn and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) on Cestus III. Prior to Kirk coming face-to-face with the biped reptilian Gorn, no one in Starfleet had ever seen one, and Kirk’s encounter on Cestus III was considered First Contact with the Gorn Hegemony. Star Trek: Enterprise showed a Gorn even though the prequel was set a century before TOS but their workaround was setting this encounter with a Gorn in the Mirror Universe, in the episode “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II.” Otherwise, the Gorn have appeared several times in Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is set in the late 24th century. Yet in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ time, Starfleet isn’t supposed to be formally aware of the Gorn according to what was established in TOS.

However, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is going all-in on the Gorn because they’re a crucial part of La’an Noonien Singh’s backstory. In Strange New Worlds‘ premiere episode, Captain Pike reads a data padd en route to the Enterprise which describes La’an’s history with the Gorn. The data padd states “First Contact Reported: Species (Unconfirmed): Gorn.” Later in the episode, La’an confides in Pike that she was abducted by the Gorn as a child and she was the lone survivor who was released by the Gorn to die in space before she was rescued by Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley AKA Number One (Rebecca Romijn). Since La’an was a girl when she was kidnapped by the Gorn and Starfleet knows her history, they’ve formally known about the Gorn for well over a decade before Kirk fought the Gorn on Cestus III.

The “Unconfirmed” designation in La’an’s history is Strange New Worlds‘ wiggle room when it comes to breaking Star Trek canon. It’s possible that Kirk’s fight with the Gorn was what constituted Starfleet’s formal First Contact since he was a Starfleet Captain who met a Gorn. La’an’s case was a “reported First Contact” and the Gorn were “unconfirmed.” Since the young Noonien Singh, who is a descendant of Khan (Ricardo Montalbán) was just a girl when she met the Gorn, and it’s possible some at Starfleet don’t believe her story. This may be why La’an has a bit of a chip on her shoulder, in addition to the harrowing experience she survived as a child.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1, which occurred 3 years before Strange New Worlds, also fudged canon when it comes to the Gorn because Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) had a Gorn skeleton in his trophy room on the USS Discovery. However, Lorca was really from the Mirror Universe so it’s possible he knew the skeleton belonged to the Gorn but he didn’t disclose what species the reptilian skeleton on display was. The idea that “no one has seen a Gorn” still holds if La’an was the only one who lived to tell the tale but Starfleet didn’t formally recognize it.

Given La’an’s personal connection to the Gorn, Strange New Worlds may utilize the alien reptiles more than any other Star Trek series has before. The Gorn are much more prevalent in Star Trek video games and they are even playable characters in Star Trek Online. But in canonical Star Trek TV shows and movies, the Gorn are still a mystery in the 23rd century unless Star Trek: Strange New Worlds changes canon going forward.