GORN: Cultural Index 

Let's be honest, the Gorn exist so that Kirk could show off his devastating "Double Slap" melee tactic.

I never really did like the way Gorn were portrayed in video games. I understand that the big, slow, plodding creature that they are in Star Trek: Online is largely consistent with their showing in The Arena, but that episode also makes *absolutely clear* that the Gorn, while different, are every bit as intelligent and capable as any federation species. The fact that they can grasp small, light infantry tactics using transporters to facilitate lightning strikes against designated objectives using light mortars should be proof enough that the depiction of the slow, ponderous, rock-chucking doofus is unfitting. If they are ever revisited again, I should hope that they will be more human-like than we have seen previously, showing that judging a book by its cover is a fool's errand.

I love the Gorn because their one of the few “aliens” that actually seem like aliens. Most “aliens” on the show look like humans with some facial changes.

"These mammals give me the creeps!" That comic panel!🤣🤣

The amount of "extended universe" content that was available to draw upon in the making of this video suggests that I'm not alone in thinking that space lizards have an instinctive, primordial appeal. They're just cool.

I don't mind the amount of Memory Beta content, mostly because you clearly label what is canon and what is from official, but noncanon sources. That's far more than most of the other larger channels will do and part of what makes this series, and channel overall, one of the best speculative fiction channels.

I wish Star Trek would do more stuff with the Gorn and stop with the "look exactly like humans but are aliens because of budget b.s." The Gorn and Tholians would be cool and scary antagonists.

I will never forgive TNG for not including the Gorn in at least 1 episode! Reptile discrimination. Never even got to see 1 Gorn Battle Cruiser. They look like dinosaur warriors. My favorite aliens of all time.

It'll be very interesting to see the updated version of the Gorn once this season of Strange New Worlds is finished. They definitely took the Gorn in a whole different direction than earlier Beta canon, and made the scariest race in Trek since the Borg.

My KDF character in STO is a Gorn and I chose the blueish grey scale colour, mainly because I thought it looked better, nice to see my character "Slythor Slyne", is highly regarded among his species for his colouring's ;op

The Gorn would make an interesting culture to have the Federation Associate with, and they'd be real easy to do a horror story around Imagine a visiting Gorn ambassador, or ambassadorial guard, they're about as rational and reasonable as your average human, though with some primal urges based around hunting. Suddenly the station gets beat up by some phenomena, and among other things the universal translators don't work. Now you have members of the crew who can't speak the same language, and among other things, there's a seven foot lizard that bench press the next 3 biggest humans running around, with one hand, he can't make himself understood, and when all you get is hisses and snarls, you start getting paranoid real quick

Just looking at the map, the idea that the Klingons would invade them post dominion seems plausible on the surface, since they share a border, but unlikely once you analyze the situation. The Klingon empire is weakened after the war thanks to Galron wasting ships for political rivalry with Martog, so the empire is not strong enough to mount an invasion (especially with the threat that the Romulans might get antsy on another border). Also Martog likes the Federation and humans (And is a popular leader which gives him the power to set policy unilaterally) and won't do anything to upset or provoke them. And invading a species on the Federation border, a species that joined them in fighting the dominion, would be a provocation to the Federation (a military campaign right next to Federation territory with a race that has peaceful diplomatic relations and a history of trying to maintain such) and would be seen as dishonorable and a betrayal by most Klingons. Also since the Gorns have been next to the Klingon empire for centuries and have not been invaded yet, the Klingons are obviously hesitant to attack them, and may have an understanding. The most likely outcome is that the Gorns will play nice with the Federation and maybe even start sending out Gorn specialist to interact with Federation citizens to examine Federation culture closer, to forge personal ties. They know that picking a fight with the Federation would be a losing proposition (And have known for centuries, also every alpha/beta quadrant power just had a demonstration of how tough the Federation really is when pushed) and that the Federation is the winning team and will play fair if you do. So the Gorns may well start to become Federation associates, as the best way to preserve their territory in the long run, since being good buddy's with the Federation will keep the Klingons at bay in the further future, post Martog and restored to full fighting prowess. When you're surrounded by two allied powers, if they offer to be your allies as well, accept.

Outstanding Love the Gorn Species! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I've also heard it say that their ancestors were from Earth and the reason they are so wary of Humans is they don't want them to find out (the DNA alternation helps hide this) and they were separated from the Herbivore Voth some time ago - perhaps by the Preservers. But I don't mind the extra Galactic origin - even if it is kinda like the Tholian's Origin too. It could be useful if we even move Star Trek forward to an extra Galactic setting.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds has some new mention of Gorn. They seem to have been barbaric slavers too.

Sprayed my drink out of my nose at "*Pictured: Diplomatic Relations". I loved flying Gorn in Starfleet Command. Their ships aren't exactly nimble, to understate something, but Gorn ships were just bristling with disruptors. Their firing arcs were unfair and awesome. Get behind a Klingon? Shoot him down. Outflank a Federation ship? Shoot him down. Outfly an underpowered Romulan? Shoot him down! Approach the Gorn from any angle at all? Get shot.

The Gorn are my favorite species in Star Trek and I am sad that they weren’t explored as much. But hey, Gorn to be Wild

I liked the info on the Gorn from the Starfleet Command games. That's where most of my knowledge of them comes from. In that, they have tanky ships packed with sophisticated technology. While not especially pleasing to the eye, they boasted robust shields & hulls, and a brutal arsenal of powerful phasers and plasma torpedos. They were not very graceful, but were highly effective in direct, no nonsense combat. The Gorn were known to be very able in the sciences, giving their ships plenty of utility when not bludgeoning foes for having the audacity to pick a fight with them. Interestingly, they were allies of the Federation during the time of Sulu & the USS Excelsior, at least in that story. Perhaps years of peace and trade allowed the Gorn in that setting to become proficient with cutting edge Federation technology, while maintaining their own independent standing outside the Federation itself. There's lots of interesting potential with the Gorn, and I would love to see them characterized as more than frightful, aggressive, and dangerous. I really do like the idea of such a race becoming a partner to the Federation and it's alliances.

Yes! A Kelvin Gorn reference! The group of good boy Gorn from the Kelvin comic are my favorites.

I very much appreciate all the information on them! What I find most interesting is the first meeting of the Klingons and the Gorn. The Gorn strike me as more honorable than a number of Klingons that we've seen.

And to think that Lurch from The Adams Family was in that Gorn suit all this time.

In JJ Abrams' Star Trek: Into the Darkness, Didn't McCoy say he helped give birth to baby Gorns and that they bite?

I love the design of the original, wish they would make a modern version retaining the classic look Instead of the one on STO and that Enterprise episode.

I knew there as a reason my first officer could make my xindi aquatic carrier do a aileron roll, gotta be the blue scales. Damn good helmsman!

The Gorn females hold the real power, and just send the males out to do the fighting. 😁

"These Bloody Words!" priceless. That's why I named mine Slaan. Not original, no. But, simple and to the point.

It is interesting to see how the Star Fleet Battle lore has been spun into the Star Trek Universe version of the Gorn to create this version of there society. The Gorn, despite there one appearance in TOS and one appearance in the Animated Series, were one of the original races in the 1979 version of Star Fleet battles. A rather detailed background was created in SFB for them, and has been expanded upon in both the War game, and in the RPG's that fallowed. In SFB, the Gorn developed on three different planets in three systems relative close to each other, but there is no fossil evidence of there existence more then 30,000 years old. They have legends of what translates to the "Dragon Kings' have placed Gorns on those three worlds. Two other worlds have intelligence live that shares genetics with the Gorn, one is non space traveling race on a planet within the Romulian Empire, and the other is a warp capable species that develo9ped away from the Gorn form, inducing have small vestal wings. They found fossils of Gorns on their world, and created legends around them being "demons", so as they went out into space they found their own "Demons".

Always good to hear some Gorn goodness. Fan of the Star Fleet Battles interpretation of Gorn ships here.

"Ones with a bluish yellow color" isnt that green?

Votes Beneath this Comment!

Thanks for doing a Gorn episode. Always wanted to know about them. Keep up the good work!

I dont mind I have been interested about Gorn and you gave at least good hypotesis about them.

I wish that STO would let us have 23rd Century Gorn Ships and 23rd Century costume options. The Rubber head just isn't enough.

I appreciate the work put into collating all this info. Trek canon is notoriously spread out and can be contradictory in some cases. These videos are almost as close to Starfleet culture briefings as I’ve seen. Thank you, sir!

I used to play Starfleet Battles (a table top strategy based on TOS with expanded content) where the Gorn were allies of the Federations. I loved playing them because they were a Plasma armed fed allied species.

one of my fave star trek aliens

My favourite star trek race. Mysterious, enigmatic and powerful. A slow breeding race filled with long lived experts that hide surprising intelligence behind that hulking reptilian form.

Pictured, "diplomatic relations" lol

New to your channel, but I'm enjoying this cultural index series and I plan to check out more of the channel.

I'd like to see BoS content Now that my vote is cast, yes the Gorn are amazing and it's a pity they didn't get more than a casual look in main canon.

Good video. I agree, I wish we knew more about the race, but with the limited amount we have this video was very enjoyable.

The Gorn would have made for some serious opposition for the Federation to overcome. Instead? All we, primarily, ever got was Klingons and Romulans. Those two races were always the primary opposition outside of the Borg and the Dominion, It would be awesome for the new series to deal with the Gorn more and in greater detail than previous series.

I thought the Gorn were supposed to be an ancient "fallen" race who used to own much more territory in a large Empire, and that their claims of territorial violations came from others settling on worlds they used to own previously. I was also under the impression that the radically different appearances was the result of isolated colonies evolving differently after they were separated from each other after the previously mentioned fall. I don't have any sources though, this is just stuff I remember(sometimes vaguely) from over the years, so don't take this as fact. The thing over the eyes is indeed technology, though. You can wear them in Star Trek Online.

Good to see the Gorn back in SNW. They seem to be the Big Bad in this series. I hope their second appearance in the series isn't the last. I don't think the Gorn who fought Kirk used to blink and fear the latest remaster of the original series may have included a "Lucasing."

I used to have these books they were written like official diplomatic manuals and they had profiles on every single Star Trek species. I had one for TOS and another for TNG, and they had a detailed backstory and descriptions of the Gorn in them,. Every species ever shown on both shows, actually. They were awesome.

I remember as a kid watching The Original Series in syndication I liked the Gorn I wish they could do more with the going of course you're going to have to use stuff it's not officially Canon like from novels and comic books even video games but you don't have much of a choice considering that not much was ever done with them outside of one episode that I believe they were mentioned in an episode of Deep Space Nine I may be wrong though

Who knew that the gorn actually existed in our galaxy....

Thank you so much this was a great refresher on the Gorn after watching last night's episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds.

Clearly, Star Trek needs to do more with the Gorn. I have a mighty need to see some Giant Lizard Women.

Considering the TNG-canon explanation for the origin of mammalian laterally symmetric bipedal body-plans, that is, of a seeding "predecessor race", makes any non-mammalian race instantly suspicious. Extra-galactic origins become far more likely when you have galactic caretakers, with some races (such as the Tholians) potentially avoiding interaction due to vastly different habitable planet requirements-if there's no conflict, there's no need to "prune the ecosystem". This only further encourages in my mind the idea both that they're extra-galactic, and came to our galaxy _after_ the seeding race had already disappeared.

Hey, nice, Deep Haze, love the song.

Hope you do a new cultural index again soon. Loved these videos

This was cool. Learned a lot about a group I didn't know before. Very cool! 💯

According to one source, Cestus III was jointly colonized by the Federation and Gorn, with each sticking to regions of the planet more suited to them. The Federation to the arable plains, the Gorn to the swamps.

Having played Star Fleet Battles as a teenager, I always thought it was a shame that so much of that universe died with the game(along with the races it included), however when I played it the Gorn where one of my favorite races. Interestingly in SFB they were the Federations closest allies

well done. I appreciate your mining non-canon sources. I also appreciate your clarifying which information is canon.

I can not help to notice the interesting parallels between the Gorn and Predators.

The Gorn were also a faction in the Starfleet Command games by Interplay and had very different ship designs. They were the counterpart to the Romulans, also possessing Plasma Torpedo technology, although it wasn't as developed as the Romulans.

Great stuff. I like your separation of canon and Beta information. Very interesting. In the related Star Fleet Universe the Gorn became one of the major empires and they have a lot of background information on them (I imagine that is where the 3 Gdhar worlds come from). Worth checking out if you are interested in a different non-canon take.

Voiced by Ted Cassidy, Lurch from the Addam’s Family.

fantastic! I loved this.

Thank you... I wish there was more about the Gorn too.. At least you know more about em, than any of the new Star Trek people do.. !!!!

I’ve always wondered about space mapping in Star Trek. How can you map four directions (up, down, right side, and left side)? Each direction goes on indefinitely. How can you declare territory when the boundaries know no limits in any direction?

I always liked the Gorn. They were my second favorite faction in Starfleet Command.

some speculation based off of your index. is seems like infanticide specifically male perpetrated infanticide is common. they likely lack formal martial relationships, instead holding harems or open breeding seasons, hence heavy competition and strong reason for infanticide. I think a lot of political centers are probably female run, basically middle and upper management are exclusively female. I could imagine a senate exclusively of females but and executive branch exclusively of males with males assigned to casts based on how they were modified beyond their parentage. I imagine the ratio of males to females is 3:2 with males having a respectively short lifespan for regularly engaging constant high risk conditions i.e. hard labor (even if very advanced), "training accidents" (gladiatorial fights/ 1v1 hunts), and exposing themselves to environment hazards for the purpose of exploration. I suspect the females are hyper territorial but are materially protective of males. while I would call them exclusively domestic it seems like the females dominate politics, bio-engineering (general science), and civics. using their attributes to dominate law making where as the males, being constantly competative are best suited to executive functions and require a strict cast system. this is all backwards to human logic because we are homogeneous and have a male dominated society by default, but it appears that this would be how they balance out their biological difference as the females are dominate by default and the males are very biologically diverse.

You will need to update this....

I hope we get to see more of the Gorn in Star Trek Picard. I suspect we havent seen much of them because they are hard to portray on screen without it seeming cheesy but that is part of the charm of the gorn... if indeed you can say they possess ANY charm. They ARE an intriguing race.

Time to revise this species. Can't wait to see what you do.

Another thing we can add to Prime Timeline Alpha Canon: Apparently they have weddings; and aren’t very fond of wedding crashes..

What I remember from the Starfleet Battle Games (definitely non canon) there the Gorn were allied with the Federation and this alliance was described as the only alliance based on trust rather than expediency (to the point where Gorn pilots would serve in federation ships and vice versa). Technologywise they were close to Romulans using plasma torpedoes as primary armament.

I always liked the Gorn ship designs from Starfleet Battles myself.

Eerily version of the 2282 attack on a UFP ship youve mentioned, which is similar to the visions of Laan Noonien Singh in SNW.

It's only a matter of time now, and eventually we will see Gorn, Starfleet officers, and/or crew, serving on Starfleet starships, even living on Earth (and elsewhere), and becoming a more active and commonly occuring character, and member of the "Star Trek" interstellar community. The studio execs and writers are aware, and if enough fans want to see it happen, it will happen. Let's get it on a T-Shirt! 🌎 ❤ GORN❗

Glad the gorn seem to be becoming more of a thing on Star Trek SNW. Them destroying the USS Puget Sound is actually one of the more concrete things we've ever got about them.

Imagine your aliens needing redesigns. This message is brought to you by the star wars fanbase

In the FASA sourcebook, Gorn understanding of physics was 'push hard until it moves.' ;)

I always wanted to go with the idea that the Gorn are Star Trek's counterpart to the wookies. Big strong powerful aliens that are scary but once you make friends you've got a friend for life. That alien spotlight comic is a great story.

I have a copy of "The Gorn Crisis" graphic novel and it was really good. I wish the lore and artistic changes made to the Gorn for that novel were kept in ENTERPRISE and beyond.

What would have been great is if they had tied the Gorn to the Voth from Voyager. Gorn could have come from the same original stock but crash landed on a different planet and developed differently

They also have Gornola Bars 😋🍫 Keep up the excellent work 👽

There needs to be a Star Trek series/miniseries that just deals with an individual alien species. Each episode having a standalone story involving a different alien culture.

I would be elated to see a series of Babylon 5 videos. the show really holds up. I would also like to know if anyone has a NY ideas for legends or societies to explore on STO?

The black powder cannon was a cool idea.

Check out startrek empires at war as well. Their Gorn ship design were some of my favorites

I really like the Gorn ship designs in klingon academy and starfleet command much more then what is showed in STO and other sources.

Any chance we'll ever see the cultural index for the Minbari?

"OH NO, GORN WEDDING!!!"

I love the gorn, thanks for making this. Did you make Tholians yet? If not, I'd vote for them.

Came here after episode 4 of strange new worlds.

There is a lot of information about the Gorn in Star Fleet Battles, which was considered canon prior to the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This is probably the only detailed information on the Gorn in all of Star Trek lore, but the Star Trek and Star Fleet universes diverge at ST:TMP and SFB isn't considered canon anymore, but was prior to the release of the first movie. So now there are really two different "Star Trek universes", and ironically the Star Fleet Universe is the "original" when it comes to telling the story of the entire galaxy. You actually had a little bit of SFB in this video... the triple Gorn homeworlds called Gdhar, that's the Star Fleet Universe version of the story.

I think the Gorn and Kirk fight was the basis for the Galaxy Quest line, "I see you managed to get your shirt off."

I wonder if the Gorn arent extragalactic, but merely an offshoot of the Voth, who would certainly have been able to make the trip long before the federation, Starfleet or Humans evolved.

This channel has Gorn awry!

Interesting.....I was a fan of the Star Trek Starfleet Command Series of video games by Interplay. In that series the Gorn were a featured race and there backstory was that despite initial hostilities with the federation they would eventually develop an alliance with the Federation. It was also suggested that the Gorn had a great deal of contact with the Romulans and in the game Gorn ships were outfitted with disruptors and Plasma torpedoes.

maybe the slow movements are the result of being cold blooded. so the would be lethargic in say 10 degrees centigrade but agile and quick if the temperature was perhaps 40 degrees centigrade. just a thought.

It'd be cool to have a series where the Gorn are a major player, like there's one serving as part of the bridge crew with the protagonists.

I would like to see cultural index videos on the Vidiian, Voth, and Swarm.

To be honest I am very intrigued to see what star treks Strange New Worlds does with them .

This might need a follow up video now

So, one thing that kinda gets me is the hatching idea. In Star Trek “Into Darkness” Bones talks about helping a Gorn give birth. I know it’s Kelvin Timeline but the biology wouldn’t change due to Spock’s interloping. More than that, it’s stickling but it’s kinda what we got.