Star Trek: Strange New Worlds channels Jurassic Park in latest episode

The post contains spoilers from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “All Those Who Wander.” 

We were warned. After the Enterprise was attacked by Gorn ships in the fourth episode of the series “Memento Mori,” Alex Kurtzman said the series wasn’t done with the aliens. So we knew they would return. We didn’t, however, know they would resemble something straight out of Jurassic Park.

These Gorn are nothing like the biped reptilian alien Captain Kirk fought in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Arena.” And we knew there would be changes. That Gorn from over fifty years ago was a man in a lizard suit. Movies and television have come a long way since then, and Kurtzman did say there would be a mix of CG and puppetry to bring the Enterprise’s enemies to life. What he failed to mention was how incredibly nasty these creatures would be.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes the Gorn where they’ve never been before.

On The Original Series, the Gorn was a slow-moving creature who had strength but not fast reflexes. These new Gorn, who haven’t fully matured, are small dinosaurs who sped across the walls and ceilings on four legs. They spit venom to impregnate their victims with their hatchlings and could see with thermal imaging. And they were so fast, they could kill before anyone saw them coming. The only Kryptonite these Gorn had was cold weather, and fortunately, this episode was set on an icy planet. So that helped the crew off the aliens but not without a devastating ending.

Episode writer Davy Perez told Iverse that he “felt that “Arena” offered a good amount of “wiggle room” in terms of what Kirk and Starfleet actually know about the Gorn.” So that allowed him to make the species into something more horrific onscreen. And seriously, the hatchlings burst out of the victim’s chest cavity when being born. That is straight-up horror. And the aliens the crew of the Enterprise were fighting weren’t even fully grown! One can only imagine what the adults are going to look like.

It wasn’t easy for the crew to battle the Gorn youngsters, and it cost the life of a member of their crew. So how will they fare against adult Gorns? That’s an episode that’s sure to be a lot bloodier and scarier.