Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has borrowed real life lore for the Gorn

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the Gorn are abducting people.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to layer the Gorn in a new and unique way. Originally just an alien race that looked like they belonged in a Godzilla film, they’re now a multi-layered species, that is just as scientifically advanced as it is soulless. It’s given them a unique presence in the Star Trek zeitgeist.

But their bloodthirsty and cold-blooded behaviors aside, it appears as though the creatives beyond Strange New Worlds are adding some real-world elements to the alien’s reputation. Abductions.

Now, whether you believe in alien life forms in the real world or not isn’t the point. The point is that no one can deny that one of the recurring stories involving alleged aliens in the real world involves being abducted; also known as “close encounters of the fourth kind”. Tales of being whisked away aboard alien spaceships are as common as they come when you engage in that area.

And while Star Trek has depicted aliens capturing members of our beloved Starfleet, rarely has an alien race been depicted as just abducting people. Though, unlike those other species, the Gorn abduct people to eat, and oftentimes use them as breeding incubators.

The Gorn weren’t the first aliens to mirror real-life tales of aliens but they’re among the best

The Next Generation dealt with the concept of abductions, specifically with William Riker being taken by the Solanogen-based lifeforms in the episode “Schisms.” It’s frequently cited as one of, if not the scariest episode in Star Trek history.

There are other examples, but not many that highlight the terrifying nature of such an event. In “Schisms” and any Strange New Worlds episode featuring the Gorn, the terror isn’t that you’re being taken, but by who. So it’s also fair to say that the Borg would qualify.

The Borg, Gorn and the “Schism” aliens all share a unique concept where being taken by them is a special level of scary. Other aliens like the Vidiians would cause harm to someone they took as well, but the terror isn’t the same.

The Gorn has taken a spot among the Borg and Schism aliens that no one else in the franchise has truly been able to prior to Strange New Worlds.