gorn strange new worlds – Trekking with Dennis

Rating Your “Unpopular” Star Trek Opinions!

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for practically the entire Star Trek franchise, including recent seasons of Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and Starfleet Academy.

Later this year, Star Trek will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary – that’s six decades of sci-fi adventures, space exploration, and a wonderful fan community that I absolutely adore! Today, I thought it could be a bit of fun to look at some of the Trekkie community’s so-called “unpopular opinions” about Star Trek. If you read my piece about fan theories a few weeks back, I’m going to do something similar this time around: I’ve compiled a bunch of “unpopular opinions” from across social media, and I’m going to dissect them!

I went to Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, and other social media pages, scanning posts and comments sections, and I pulled out twenty-five “unpopular opinions” for this piece. And rather than just state them and share my opinion, I thought it could be interesting to try to answer two questions! Firstly, I’ll share whether I agree or disagree. And secondly, I’ll try to gauge whether the opinion in question could fairly be described as “unpopular.”

Still frame from The Enterprise Incident showing Spock and the scanner — I scanned social media to detect your most controversial opinions…

Here’s a couple of examples so we’re all on the same page!

Example #1: “Khan sucks as a villain because he’s lame and boring, and his evil scheme makes no sense.”

I would say I disagree (vehemently) with this opinion! But I would concede that it is a genuinely *unpopular* opinion within the fan community and with a wider audience. In fact, it’s such an unpopular opinion that I’ve never seen anyone genuinely express it!

Still frame from Star Trek II showing Khan — Khaaaaaan!

Example #2: “Captain Picard is the best Enterprise captain, better than Kirk or Archer or anyone else by miles.”

This one’s a toughie on the “agree/disagree” bit, because Kirk, Archer, and really every Star Trek captain across the franchise have plenty of their own strengths. But if I had to come down on one side or the other, I’d say I agree; Picard is a great captain. However, this is clearly not an “unpopular” opinion within the fandom – ask any group of Trekkies who their favourite captain is, and it won’t be long before you hear multiple people say “Picard!”

So… does that cover everything in terms of the format?

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 (Q Who) showing Q materialising next to Picard. — Who’s the best Enterprise captain?

It should go without saying, but everything we’re going to talk about today is *entirely subjective, not objective* – and it’s just one old Trekkie’s take, at the end of the day. If you hate my opinions, think I’ve got it completely wrong, or if I criticise a show or character you adore, please try to keep that in mind! There are a variety of opinions out there about this wonderful franchise, and I share mine with the Trekkie community in the spirit of light-hearted celebration in this landmark anniversary year.

Some of these “unpopular opinions” have clearly been shared in a tongue-in-cheek way (at least, I hope they have!) and I’m not planning on taking any of this too seriously. This also shouldn’t be interpreted as an “attack” or “hate” for any folks in the fandom who genuinely hold any of these opinions. This is meant to be a bit of fun, partly at Star Trek’s expense, as we move closer to the 60th anniversary.

With all of that out of the way, this is your final chance to nope out if you don’t want to get into some potentially controversial Star Trek opinions!

“Unpopular” Opinion #1:
Threshold is a great body horror episode.

Still frame from Threshold showing (mutating) Paris and Janeway

“Threshold” and “great” in the same sentence, eh? We’re starting off strong! I can see where this is coming from; Tom Paris’ gradual mutation into a salamander-like “hyper-evolved human” does have some genuinely disturbing moments, brought to life by some solid prosthetics during the sequences in sickbay. The idea of mutating in real-time, and not being able to do anything to stop it… that’s the same kind of idea behind classic body horror films like The Fly, only with a Star Trek flavour in this case.

I would say, though, that for whatever successes Threshold might have on the body horror front in the middle of the story, the ending really nullifies all of it. The CGI salamanders weren’t great to look at, nor were they frightening or disturbing in any way, and the typical episodic TV “reset” of Paris and Janeway back to their normal selves meant there were no lasting consequences for either of them. This comment is clearly a response to Threshold’s meme status, and I’m glad that Trekkies are willing to re-examine even the most disliked episodes! But for me, Threshold is still a weak story, and while there is some creative body horror-adjacent storytelling in the middle, it’s completely negated by the way the episode wraps up.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #2:
Spock and Chapel’s romance is too big a part of Strange New Worlds – and it sucks.

Still frame from Charades showing Spock and Chapel kissing

100% agree on this one – no notes! Chapel’s “crush” on Spock in The Original Series was cute. But it wasn’t a huge part of the show for either of them, and it didn’t need this kind of on-again, off-again storyline in Strange New Worlds to make sense. In my opinion, Strange New Worlds has been way too focused on Spock and putting him in situations which, frankly, are toe-curlingly cringeworthy. The Chapel-Spock romance is part of that. I had hoped that, with the addition of Chapel’s fiancé, we’d have seen the back of this storyline – but alas.

I think I could’ve stomached an episode or two in which this relationship existed and ran its course. But I agree with the original poster, here: it’s become way too big a part of the show. When combined with other “Spock comedy” storylines (which seem to be the only Spock storylines the producers are interested in or know how to write), it quickly became too much. Cringeworthy, unnecessary, and arguably treading on the toes of The Original Series, too. A bad combination all around! And, based on the number of likes and comments on posts like this, I think it’s a fairly common take among Trekkies, too.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #3:
T’Rul should’ve become a recurring character on Deep Space Nine.

Still frame from The Search Part I showing T'Rul

In The Search, which kicked off DS9′s third season, we’re introduced to the USS Defiant for the first time: the first Federation starship (officially) able to cloak. The cloaking device was loaned to Starfleet by the Romulans, and Sub-Commander T’Rul was the officer assigned to oversee it, and make sure it wasn’t being used in a way that violated Federation-Romulan treaties. However, after her first appearance, T’Rul disappeared from Deep Space Nine. Martha Hackett, who played the character, would go on to have a recurring role on Voyager as Seska.

I quite like this idea, to be honest. T’Rul would’ve added something different to DS9 during some of the episodes set aboard the Defiant, and it could’ve been fun to see a Romulan getting to know the crew and learning how to live with the Federation. There wasn’t a Romulan character like that through the entire TNG era, and it wouldn’t be until we met Elnor decades later that we’d get to spend more time with a Romulan. I can see plenty of stories where T’Rul could’ve played a role, and I especially like the idea of her trying to socialise with members of the crew, perhaps teaching us a bit about Romulan culture and customs along the way. Definitely a niche idea, though!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #4:
The first few episodes of Lower Decks were too “horny,” and this turned off potential viewers.

Still frame from Second Contact showing Boimler in an alien's mouth

Assuming the original poster meant “horny” as in “overly sexualised,” I have to say I don’t agree. Not that the first episodes of Lower Decks had a lot more sexual imagery and language than TNG-era Star Trek – they absolutely did! But I disagree that the early episodes are unique in that regard! I’ve only seen up to the first part of Season 3; Lower Decks is still a show I need to catch up on and finish watching. But I didn’t feel the tone changed or softened very much across the first two-and-a-bit seasons – which is basically half of the show.

In the run-up to Lower Decks’ premiere, I was a firm advocate for the fact that Star Trek can be funny, that Star Trek has always been funny, and that being an animated comedy shouldn’t matter as long as the show is good. I think the general response from Trekkies has been that Lower Decks is a solid addition to the franchise, even recapturing that episodic, TNG style which Discovery and Picard had moved away from. But did some of its crude humour or over-the-top moments mean some Trekkies switched off? Probably. In fact, almost certainly. Not every Star Trek show is right for every viewer, so folks who want to take the franchise seriously, and who don’t want a Rick and Morty-inspired take on Star Trek were probably never going to enjoy what Lower Decks had to offer.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #5:
Chekov was “useless” in The Original Series.

Still frame from The Trouble with Tribbles showing Chekov

I think I can see where this one is coming from… but I really don’t agree. Chekov was a late addition to TOS, joining in from Season 2. He only appeared in 36 episodes in total – less than half of The Original Series. But… none of that makes him “useless.” In fact, I’d argue very passionately that Chekov’s presence on the bridge alongside Sulu, Kirk, Uhura, and the others was a very powerful and symbolic statement: at the height of the Cold War, a mere five years after the world almost blew itself up over the Cuban Missile Crisis, here was a vision of the future in which Russians, Americans, and humans from all over the world were living and working together in harmony.

Like most of the cast of The Original Series outside of “the big three” of Kirk, Spock, and Dr McCoy, Chekov got fewer moments in the spotlight and fewer lines, and because he joined the show later, I guess that shows up even more. He was also absent from The Animated Series, due to the show’s tight budget. But he does get storylines and interesting moments across practically all of his episodes, and he stands in for Sulu at points in Season 2, as well. Not useless at all!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #6:
Discovery is overrated.

Behind-the-scenes cast photo from Discovery S5

I had to do a double-take when I saw this. “Surely,” I thought, “the original poster must’ve meant underrated, or maybe over-*hated*?” But no, this is their unpopular opinion! To be blunt, I don’t think Discovery is rated particularly highly by a large swathe of the fan community. It has its fans, of course – myself included for the most part. But “overrated” suggests that the show is held in high esteem when it shouldn’t be, when really I’d be arguing the opposite: that too many Trekkies wrote off Discovery without giving it a fair shake, and that Season 2, and parts of Seasons 3 through 5 all had good episodes, interesting moments, and more.

For something to be “overrated,” it has to have that acclaim within the fan community, and I just don’t see Discovery having that kind of reputation for the most part. I think it’s absolutely fair to criticise Discovery, as I’ve done on many occasions here on the website. And if the original commenter dislikes some or all of the show, then that’s okay. But I couldn’t say Discovery is overrated… because I just don’t think the fan community at large rates it very highly to begin with!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #7:
Captain Janeway did the right thing with Tuvix.

Cropped screenshot from Across the Unknown showing art of Tuvix

Tuvix’s controversial status lives on! One of the best things about Star Trek is that many episodes make you stop and think. They present complex issues with moral quandaries, and they don’t shy away from reckoning with them. And Tuvix is one such example. Do you kill a man you barely know while he’s pleading for his life in order to save two of your friends? Captain Janeway believed she had to, and even stepped in to do it herself when the Doctor refused.

I can understand her point of view. The mitigating circumstances are the unique perils of the Delta Quadrant, and Tuvok and Neelix’s skills in navigating it. But was it the “right” thing to do? The episode pulls no punches, and I’ve even heard some fans say it’s the worst thing Janeway ever did. I don’t agree on that front – wiping out an entire timeline and the lives of everyone in it has to take that prize! But yeah, it was a shitty thing to do. It was a tough situation, and Janeway made the call that she felt gave her ship and crew the best chance of making it home. And hey, if you disagree… play the new video game Across the Unknown and make a different choice!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #8:
Wesley Crusher is fine/underappreciated/good.

Still frame from The Dauphin showing Wesley

Things have changed a lot for Wesley over the years, I think in large part due to actor Wil Wheaton’s incredibly positive attitude and the great way he’s advocated for and represented the Trekkie community. But there was a time when Wesley was wildly unpopular; in the early days of Star Trek fansites, back when I was first getting started with the internet in the ’90s, hating on Wesley was one of the most common things you’d see. I never felt Wesley deserved all the hate he got; some of it crossed a line, really, into something a bit unpleasant or even sinister. We’re talking about a child, after all, or a teenager, and attacking a performer because you don’t like their character is just stupid.

However… I get where the original dislike stemmed from, especially in stories where Wesley could seemingly do no wrong, or was better and more competent than the trained officers around him. Partly, this came from Gene Roddenberry – Wesley was a bit of a self-insert character for Gene, even being named for Roddenberry’s own middle name. But Wesley did have weaknesses and flaws, even in The Next Generation’s first season. His inability to get accepted to the Academy being just one example. And when Wesley did make it to the Academy, the accident he was caught up in tested his loyalties and morality to the limit. Is he the best character in Star Trek? Arguably not. Is he better than folks give him credit for? I’ve gotta say yes.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #9:
The reboot/Kelvin timeline Enterprise is a beautiful ship.

Still frame from Star Trek 2009 showing the Enterprise

To this day, I know Trekkies who point-blank refuse to watch the Kelvin films. But… I think the out-and-out hate for the reboot has begun to fade, thanks to the passage of time. Practically everything about the 2009 reboot was controversial in some quarters of the fan community when the film was released, including the redesign of the USS Enterprise. The design took the original Constitution-class from TOS and changed a lot of things, with a different colour scheme, bulkier nacelles, a lit-up main deflector, and more. It’s certainly a different interpretation of the classic ship from four decades earlier.

I’m actually pleased to see opinions like this. There will always be holdouts – people who can’t get over the changes and who only want to stick to a certain design philosophy or a particular era of Star Trek. But as time passes and puts distance between us and the premiere of these designs, I think it’s nice to see more Trekkies revising their opinions, revisiting some of these elements of the reboot films, and coming away with a more positive impression. It gives me hope, quite honestly, for the future of the fan community in the years to come, and that some of today’s controversies may also be forgiven over time!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #10:
“Faith of the Heart” was a good song for Enterprise’s title sequence.

Still frame from the Star Trek Enterprise title sequence showing the show's title

This is another example of the passage of time smoothing things out, I think! I remember hopping online, circa 2001, to try to download Faith of the Heart – and then burning it onto a CD and a MiniDisc (remember those?) so I could listen to it on the go! Sure, it was different – the whole sequence, really, is a very “2000s” way to open a show, and it feels a bit dated today. But I’ve always enjoyed the song, and I certainly never agreed with folks who said it “ruined Enterprise,” or turned them off so completely that they wouldn’t even watch the show!

“Archer’s Theme,” the music heard during Enterprise’s end credits, is the track some folks argue the show should’ve used instead. And I get wanting Star Trek to revert to type; to have the ship warping over a starry background while an orchestra plays a piece of music. But did “Faith of the Heart” really change much about the series? It’s still Star Trek. And if you hate it… well, it’s never been easier, thanks to DVDs and streaming, to skip it! That being said, I think this is still a minority position within the wider fan community, even if the song’s reputation has recovered somewhat over the years.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #11:
Neelix and Kes were a good couple.

Promo photo for Star Trek: Voyager showing Neelix and Kes kissing

This one has to be trolling, right? I’d go so far as to say that, if Neelix’s relationship with Kes had been in focus in Voyager much more than it was, it could’ve been genuinely detrimental to both characters and even the entire series. As the setup for getting Neelix to help Janeway and ultimately join the crew, it tracks. But what it says about Neelix – a man in the Talaxian equivalent of middle age – falling in love with a girl who’s… one year old, and the Ocampan equivalent of, what? Seventeen or eighteen? It’s… really, truly icky.

Moreover, the relationship exaggerated some of Neelix’s worst qualities. In episodes like Parturition, we’d see him getting jealous and possessive over Kes in a way that, frankly, felt uncomfortable. A man who seems positive and happy-go-lucky on the outside seemed to have a dark, possessive, almost abusive streak, and if that had been brought up even once or twice more, it would make Neelix truly difficult to root for. Fortunately, this isn’t an opinion I’ve ever seen another Trekkie endorse, though!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #12:
Sybok was a fun and deep villain in Star Trek V.

Still frame from Star Trek V showing Sybok.

The Final Frontier has its issues. But is Sybok one of them? This commenter argues he isn’t, and that a religious zealot who belatedly realises that he’s wrong and he’s been lied to or manipulated gave Sybok a lot of depth. I’d add to that that the idea of exploring a Vulcan offshoot – someone who doesn’t care to suppress his emotions – was also something different. It was certainly unique at this point in the franchise, coming before the Vulcans got more development in episodes like TNG’s Sarek, and of course, through storylines in Enterprise.

The problem I have with this, really, is not so much in concept – I think the original poster is right about that – but in execution. Sybok’s best moment is arguably his final one, when he sacrificed himself to help his brother and the Enterprise escape. Prior to that… Sybok wasn’t *outstanding*, really. There is more to The Final Frontier than some fans give it credit for. And like most Star Trek characters, really, there are elements to Sybok, to the way he’s written, and to the portrayal on screen that worked or that hold some interest. And I will say, to the original comment’s credit, it’s not an argument I’ve seen before.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #13:
All of “Kurtzman Trek” sucks and should be considered a failure.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SFA S1 showing Kurtzman directing

In the time Alex Kurtzman has been in charge of Star Trek for CBS, then Paramount, and now Skydance, there have been more than 200 episodes (and a TV movie) produced and broadcast. Are you telling me, original commenter, that there’s absolutely no merit to *any* of it? Because I find that hard to believe! Even Trekkies who’ve hated most of modern Star Trek have enjoyed some projects – Picard’s third season, or perhaps Strange New Worlds. Alex Kurtzman was in charge of the franchise for that, and was executive producer on both shows.

I don’t think you can write off an entire era of the franchise, any more than you could say “Berman Trek” was bad, or “Roddenberry Trek” sucked. But even if someone is of the opinion that *all* of modern Star Trek is atrocious and without merit… we can agree to disagree without getting into personal attacks. I hope! Has Alex Kurtzman got everything right? No – and I think he’d admit that. But has there been some fantastic Star Trek on our screens since he’s been helming the franchise? I believe there has been.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #14:
Voyager focused too much on Janeway, the Doctor, and Seven of Nine from Season 4 onwards.

Composite of promo photos for Star Trek Voyager showing Janeway, Seven, and the Doctor

I was surprised to see this on one of the “unpopular opinion” posts – not because I disagree (I don’t), but because I’ve never seen anyone else share this opinion online before! For me, the back half of Voyager’s run felt swamped by one character: Seven of Nine. Seven would apparently “learn” some lesson in how to be human one week, only to seemingly forget it all in time for the next story. This led to several Seven/Janeway and Seven/Doctor episodes being so awfully repetitive that I sometimes mix them up. Voyager’s still a great show, don’t get me wrong, but taking some spotlight episodes away from Seven and redistributing them to neglected characters like Chakotay, Tuvok, or B’Elanna wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Picard rehabilitated Seven of Nine for me, though – I even went so far as to say that that series made Seven into an interesting character for the very first time! So this aspect of Voyager, while admittedly not great, doesn’t feel so bad in hindsight, I guess. And the issue isn’t really that most of these episodes are “bad,” but rather that they’re too narrow in their focus on one or two characters at the expense of other members of the cast. When I used to use Twitter and I shared a similar opinion about Seven of Nine being repetitive and boring, though, I got a fair bit of pushback! So I think this opinion can truly be said to be “unpopular” within the fan community.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #15:
The Maquis were right to leave the Federation.

Photo of the Maquis Raider filming model

This comment went on to lay out that, in the writer’s opinion, the Maquis had every right to reject the Federation and want to leave, regardless of whether they wanted to fight the Cardassians or not. This seems to come from a place of “popular sovereignty;” the political philosophy which states that people should be free to choose how they are governed – and whether they want to remain as part of an institution like the Federation. The right to secession, by definition, exists if popular sovereignty exists within the Federation – something we’ve seen a lot more of in Discovery and Starfleet Academy, to be fair.

So should the Maquis have been allowed to leave? I would say yes… in principle. But it also isn’t quite so straightforward. The Federation had to balance the rights of its citizens along the Cardassian border with the need to avoid war with the Cardassians – something that would have impacted Maquis colonists *and* the rest of the Federation. Sometimes, as Spock would say, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” If you’re one of the few, in that case… that kinda sucks, especially if it means you have to abandon your home. So it’s not quite as cut-and-dry as presented. But as a general rule, if Federation member worlds want to leave, even if they began life as colonies… they should surely be allowed to do so.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #16:
The Tellarites and Andorians deserve more screen time.

Still frame from Lower Decks Mining the Mind's Mines showing Jennifer

The four original founding members of the United Federation of Planets were humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and Andorians – yet only Vulcans have really been explored across Star Trek’s nearly six decades of history. Enterprise told more stories with the Andorians, sure, and we’ve seen Tellarites (and half-Tellarites) in Prodigy and Starfleet Academy. But these two races still feel underrepresented across the franchise as a whole. Partly, it must be said, that’s because of their almost complete absence from all three shows of The Next Generation era.

Since the turn of the millennium, Star Trek has made moves to address this. But it would still be neat to get a major Andorian or Tellarite character in the next live-action film or series. These two races are important to the Federation within Star Trek’s fictional history, so it is kind of odd, when you think about it, that they haven’t been seen more often. I would suggest, perhaps, that the more complex prosthetic makeup – when compared to the likes of the Vulcans, Bajorans, and so on – may have made it a bit more difficult or expensive in years gone by. Less of an issue today, though! It’s not an argument I’ve seen very often, and I think that, especially prior to Enterprise, a lot of Trekkies had more or less forgotten about both of these races, and didn’t seem to care much about them.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #17:
Jack Crusher was an especially bad character in Picard Season 3 because of what his existence says about Beverly.

Still frame from No Win Scenario showing Jack

This post argued that Jack Crusher’s “secret birth” storyline actively harms his mother’s characterisation. By essentially hiding Picard’s son from him, concealing the birth, and disappearing for decades, Dr Crusher – in this person’s opinion – committed an unforgivable sin, and it was also something that she wouldn’t have done based on the way she was in TNG.

For my two cents, I didn’t think Jack was the best part of Season 3. The storyline he was wrapped up in, while not his fault on his own, wasn’t all that great, and I found it hard to buy into the idea that the character was only twenty-one years old (since the actor who played him was in his mid-thirties). Further, giving this version of Picard a storyline about discovering he had a long-lost son didn’t feel right, either – it felt like a story better-suited to someone younger, which seemed to go against other themes in the season. However, on the specific criticism of Jack “harming” Dr Crusher’s character… I don’t think I agree. It was explained in the show why she did it – to keep Jack safe from the shenanigans that constantly swirl around Picard – and I actually felt that this version of Dr Crusher had a bit more personality than she did in most of TNG. It wasn’t a random thing; Dr Crusher didn’t decide to leave for no reason. And her reasoning made sense in the context of the show.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #18:
Strange New Worlds’ Gorn arc is good, and the Gorn make for entertaining villains.

Still frame from Hegemony Part 2 showing a Gorn

I didn’t really realise that this one was quite so controversial until I saw some of the comments under posts expressing this opinion! Personally, I’ve really enjoyed Strange New Worlds’ take on the Gorn – transforming them into almost Xenomorph-inspired “monsters” has definitely shaken things up. At the same time, though, leaning too heavily on the monstrous angle does raise questions about the Gorn’s sentience and ability to be a spacefaring race, so there probably are moments where it went a little too far in one direction.

Strange New Worlds had a bit of a challenge, I suppose, when it came to villains. Most Star Trek villainous factions are off the table: Discovery had recently done the Klingon war, DS9 has already done a big Cardassian war, there can’t be the Romulans in a big way due to the timeline, and returning to the likes of the Xindi from Enterprise wouldn’t have worked very well, either. So to pick a race like the Gorn – who have run-ins with Starfleet in this era – wasn’t a bad idea. And giving them a new, more frightening presentation has – in my view – worked pretty well.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #19:
It’s hard to get used to the way Avery Brooks delivers his lines.

Still frame from In The Pale Moonlight showing Sisko

This one’s a toughie for me, because I first watched Deep Space Nine in the mid-1990s when I was a wee bairn. I can’t remember ever thinking that the way Sisko speaks is weird or offputting, as this commenter suggests. In fact, all of my DS9 memories are positive from that period, and Sisko quickly became one of my favourite parts of the entire Star Trek franchise. His vocal delivery, cadence, and manner of speaking weren’t things I’d considered at all until I read this post.

I suppose, to be fair to the commenter, Avery Brooks might come across as a bit of a thespian; the way he speaks and emotes is at least partially inspired by acting in the theatre for a live audience. But the same is definitely true of Sir Patrick Stewart, in that case – and other Star Trek regulars, too. Many actors get their start in stage productions, and that’s not a negative thing at all. Obviously, the way any of us feel about an actor and a performance is going to vary, and I would never say that everyone “must” like Captain Sisko or the way Avery Brooks portrayed the character. But for me… this just isn’t something I ever remember feeling when DS9 was new, and I haven’t heard this argument before.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #20:
Bending the rules of “canon” is okay.

Every time a new Star Trek story touches on a character, alien, faction, or even an aesthetic or design we’ve seen before, some folks crawl out of the woodwork to moan about “violating the integrity of canon!” I’ve actually written about this subject before, and I tried to lay out that my position is a bit more nuanced than the black-or-white, “respect all canon” versus “I don’t care” debate that flares up, from time to time, within the Trekkie community! In short, I’d argue that the foundational building blocks of a fictional world and its key characters should be kept the same, but the minutiae can be changed.

As an example: warp drive works using dilithium, so future Star Trek stories need to keep that in mind. But if one episode says warp seven takes a week to reach Romulus and another episode says it takes three days… that kind of thing doesn’t matter. Nor does the fact that uniform designs look different from one show to another. So, yes, canon matters because basic internal consistency within Star Trek’s fictional setting is important if I’m to maintain my suspension of disbelief. But it isn’t the only thing that matters, and we needn’t sacrifice interesting narrative ideas at the altar of “canon purity” if there’s a fun story to be told.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #21:
A crossover between Star Trek and Star Wars is a great idea.

Still frame from Return of the Jedi showing Vader and Luke on Endor

As a kid playing with action figures, I already achieved this goal thirty-five years ago! Jokes aside, fans of both Star Trek *and* Star Wars have speculated about what a crossover might look like for decades. And who knows… with Paramount buying up everything in Hollywood, maybe it’s no longer the impossible dream that it once appeared to be!

There are some pretty big hurdles, though, just from a practical point of view. Both franchises are owned by competing companies, and both have decades’ worth of complicated lore and history. Then there’s the question of time and place – Star Wars famously takes place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” whereas Star Trek takes place in a vision of our future. Which characters would be involved? And how would Star Trek’s technology co-exist with hyperdrives, lightsabres, and the Force? As tempting as it might sound on some level, I don’t think I’d go for it if I were in charge!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #22:
The Prime Directive is unethical.

Still frame from Star Trek Insurrection showing the duck blind

Several commenters argued that the Federation’s Prime Directive is a fundamentally unethical policy, because it condemns whole civilisations to extinction just because they haven’t developed one specific technology. And, on the surface, that seems to track – stories like Pen Pals, Dear Doctor, and the beginning of Into Darkness quite clearly show Starfleet has the ability to intervene, but chooses not to, even when there’s an existential risk to an entire race of sentient beings.

The Prime Directive, fundamentally, is about not interfering with or altering the trajectory of societies that haven’t yet discovered alien life. And it makes sense, right? Think of the chaos it would cause to our own society if aliens descended from the skies – even if they had the best of intentions. We aren’t ready for that, and maybe we won’t be for a long time. The rigidity of the Prime Directive throws up some strange situations, though – but we often see our heroes finding ways around it, and the fact that they never seem to get in trouble suggests that Starfleet is okay with rule-bending, sometimes!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #23:
Too many people are related to Spock, best friends with Spock, falling in love with Spock, or revere Spock.

Still from YesterYear (Star Trek TAS) showing Spock

Spock has become a larger and larger part of Star Trek, over the years, even as we’ve moved further away from The Original Series. He and his father appeared in The Next Generation, Spock crossed over to the Kelvin timeline where he met his younger self, and Spock has had two long-lost siblings that he never mentioned: Sybok and Michael Burnham. Chapel falls in love with Spock, La’an falls in love with Spock, and all the while, Spock is betrothed to T’Pring. Characters like Boimler talk about Spock with reverence, too. Yeah… it’s kind of a lot, huh?

It can feel, sometimes, like Spock is too present and too big a part of the storylines he’s included in. I’d be totally fine with stepping back from Spock, for a while, and giving other characters a chance to be in the spotlight. The Burnham connection has been established at this point, and there won’t be any retconning or removal of that. But going forward… if we’re lucky enough to see more Star Trek entering production, setting Spock aside would probably be for the best – at least for a while.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #24:
René Auberjonois should’ve played Odo with an exaggerated French accent.

Still frame from What We Left Behind showing Odo

This one… I think it was entirely tongue-in-cheek! But I thought it was funny, and it’s my list so I’m including it. René Auberjonois played the French chef in The Little Mermaid, and his French accent is pretty iconic! It would’ve certainly shaken things up, with Odo becoming much more of a comic relief character, especially if Auberjonois really hammed it up. Would it have made DS9 *better*? Uh, probably not. Would some of his conflicts with Quark have been a lot funnier, though? Yes.

Look, this was just a bit of silly fun. I’m pretty sure no one’s out there seriously suggesting that giving *any* Star Trek character a comedy accent would’ve improved the show. But it’s fun, as fans, to think about these things sometimes. How different would episodes like The Die Is Cast have been if Odo were hamming it up, sounding like the French chef from The Little Mermaid? And, to the credit of the original commenter, it’s not an opinion I have *ever* heard expressed before!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #25:
Star Trek *should* change over time, and not simply re-make TOS or TNG for every new series.

Still frame from Vox in Excelso showing the cadets

As early as the ’70s, when The Animated Series entered production, Star Trek was changing. When Phase II was reimagined as The Motion Picture, and Star Trek went to the cinema for the first time, the franchise changed. Star Trek, like any long-running franchise, moves with the times. That means the way shows look and feel changes, it means the way characters are cast and handled changes, and it means the nature of storytelling changes, too. The entertainment industry is not a static, stagnant thing, and if the higher-ups at Star Trek tried to recreate The Original Series every time… well, the franchise probably would have died out a long time ago.

That being said, some experiments and changes work better than others. I’m firmly of the opinion, having seen multiple seasons of modern Star Trek, that the franchise *needs* the freedom episodic television brings, and that serialised stories need to be a much smaller part of Star Trek in the future… assuming there will be a future. It seems that Skydance, Star Trek’s new corporate overlords, are more interested in films than streaming TV, so that could be another change coming down the pipeline. But the original poster is correct – Star Trek can’t afford to be left behind as the entertainment industry shifts around it. Figuring out what to change, how far to take those changes, and what fundamentals need to be left in place, though… that’s a tougher set of questions, and modern Star Trek hasn’t always stuck the landing, unfortunately.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

So that’s it… for now!

Concept art of the USS Enterprise in Spacedock for The Search for Spock — Concept art of the USS Enterprise in Spacedock.

Stay tuned, because I have *at least* another twenty-five of these “unpopular” opinions that I’d love to write up one day.

I hope this has been a bit of fun. If I tore a hole in an opinion you agree with… please try not to take it personally! This is meant to be a bit of light-hearted fun, joining in with the Star Trek fan community in my own way, and not something to get too upset about or offended by. I tried to pick a mix of different opinions from across social media, touching on different parts of the franchise, including things I agreed with and didn’t agree with.

If you missed it, I have a two-part review of Starfleet Academy’s first season, which is now live on the website. You can find part one by clicking or tapping here, and the follow-up by clicking or tapping here. And there’s more Star Trek content to come as the 60th anniversary nears! I’ve got plans for re-watches, theories, and more, so I hope you’ll check back from time to time. Thanks for joining me to dissect these “unpopular opinions,” and Live Long and Prosper!

Most Star Trek films and TV shows discussed above can be streamed now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including all films, TV programmes, and other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance/Paramount. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 9: Terrarium

Fri 05.09.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series Season 1, The Search for Spock, The Next Generation Season 3, Discovery Season 2, and Picard.

Of all the main characters on Strange New Worlds, we’ve spent the least amount of time with Erica Ortegas. She’s been a presence on the show and has had some memorable scenes, but she hasn’t gotten a major storyline or a spotlight episode… until now. There are reasons for that, of course, and we don’t have to go over all of it again. But I know that a lot of Trekkies – myself included – have been waiting for an episode in which Ortegas would get her moment to shine.

And what an episode it was!

Terrarium was intense, dramatic, emotional, and just fantastic. It’s rare for me to sit down to write a review having taken no notes, but I was so absorbed in the story that I genuinely didn’t have a second’s pause to write anything. The only negatives I can find from Terrarium are total nitpicks; the kinds of silly things only the most detail-obsessed Trekkies might ever care about. The episode really was exceptional. One of the best from all three seasons of the show without a doubt.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing the crash site and Ortegas. — Uh-oh, Ortegas is in a spot of bother…

Because Strange New Worlds is a prequel, and because we know that several of the characters it includes will go on to have careers in Starfleet during The Original Series era, it isn’t always easy for the show to create a genuine sense of danger. We know Pike’s fate, we know where Spock will end up, and we know Uhura, Scotty, Chapel, Dr M’Benga, and others all have futures beyond the series. In the modern entertainment landscape, that can change how we perceive stories which put these people in the firing line.

In the aftermath of shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones – shows which use what I’ve termed the “disposable cast,” where any main character can be killed off at almost any moment – television storytelling has shifted. Being a main character is no longer a guarantee of safety. Star Trek has struggled to keep pace, with characters in Picard and Discovery almost all surviving even the most apocalyptic dangers (or being resurrected afterwards!) But Strange New Worlds has already been different – Season 1 saw the untimely demise of the brand-new character of Hemmer. Terrarium got me to feel like Ortegas was genuinely in danger of losing her life and being written out of the show in a way that stories like Shuttle to Kenfori simply couldn’t for Pike and M’Benga. And I think that shows the advantages, in this new media environment, of using brand-new characters as opposed to relying too heavily on legacy characters whose fates and futures are set in stone.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas right after the crash. — This genuinely felt like it could’ve been the end for Ortegas…

I said recently that I don’t like when Star Trek stories blatantly rip off what’s come before, but I appreciate it when they “rhyme.” And for me, Terrarium reminded me of The Next Generation Season 3 episode The Enemy, in which Geordi La Forge and Bochra, a Romulan, are similarly trapped together on the desolate planet of Galorndon Core. The barren, stormy world, the pairing up of a Federation officer with a member of an enemy faction… Terrarium uses these same elements in a similar way, but still feels like a totally distinct story. That isn’t easy to pull off, and the differences between the stories – the shuttle crash, the wormhole, the difficulty of communicating with the Gorn, and Ortegas’ hostility toward the Gorn as she still processes her trauma – are a big part of what makes Terrarium work.

If I might make one criticism that falls outside of nitpick territory, it would be the editing and pacing of a few of the scenes. In short, Ortgeas seemed desperate for food and water immediately after crash-landing, and the passage of time was not particularly well-communicated at first. Pike said, at one point, that they’d been searching for her for over two days, and by the time she was eventually rescued, even more time seemed to have passed. Ortegas might’ve spent a couple of days on the moon before encountering the Gorn. Or a week. Or a few hours. Or maybe she and the Gorn lived together for a couple of weeks before the rescue? Some of those scenes just felt a little… choppy, if that makes sense – particularly the sequence after Ortegas crash-landed, and the scenes in the run-up to her first meeting with the Gorn. I can’t help but feel adding a card or some text saying “48 hours later…” or something like that might’ve helped at a couple of points.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas on the shuttle, resting. — It wasn’t totally clear to me how much time passed in between some of these sequences.

Can I skip to the end and talk about that? Because the end of Terrarium was brutal. After working together, surviving together, and planning out an escape together… for Ortegas’ Gorn friend to just be gunned down by La’an and the redshirts was harrowing. Star Trek stories almost always present our heroes as being in the right – even if they do something bad or against the rules, it’s almost always for a noble reason. La’an and the security team just opened fire without warning against an unarmed opponent, killing her in cold blood. I was shocked – and I’m genuinely struggling to call to mind a similar moment anywhere in Star Trek, in which the death of a friendly character was handled with such ruthlessness by Starfleet personnel.

The writers took a narrative necessity – that the Federation couldn’t have a Gorn just hanging out aboard the flagship years before the events of Arena – and turned it into a truly shocking twist ending for this kind of “let’s all learn to live together in peace” storyline. Ortegas is probably the second character, after La’an, to have held such genuine fear and hatred for the Gorn, and it seemed as if Terrarium was trying to echo Arena and similar Star Trek “morality plays” with a story all about overcoming hatred, finding common ground, and learning to work together. All of that was ripped away with seconds to spare – after Ortegas and the Gorn had risked everything to achieve rescue. It was… well, it was brutal. There’s no other word for it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing the dead Gorn. — Shocking and brutal.

Ortegas still learned a lot, of course. She overcame her fear and hatred for the Gorn, and as the Metron told her at the end of the episode, that was real and she’ll be able to retain all of that knowledge and those feelings. She’ll also be able to convey to Starfleet that the Gorn can, under the right circumstances, be dealt with, reasoned with, and communicated with – which, hopefully, are things that could set the stage for dialogue in the future. So those “morality play” ideas are still present, they still matter, and they’re still a big part of the episode’s story. It feels very “Star Trek” in a way that not every modern episode has done!

But the ending is straight out of the modern entertainment playbook! Arena ended with Kirk injuring the Gorn, but refusing to kill him. The Enemy ended with La Forge and his Romulan counterpart being rescued. But Terrarium went for the twist ending, the shock of seeing Ortegas’ new friend gunned down right at the moment of victory. Betrayed by Starfleet – unintentionally, perhaps, and even arguably understandably – but that doesn’t make it feel better.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing La'an firing her phaser rifle. — La’an firing her phaser rifle.
*(Colour/brightness tweaked for clarity)*

If anything, I’d say this kind of ending ramps up the “morality play” angle. Terrarium is different from the likes of Arena and The Enemy, which got happier, or at least more positive endings. But the final act of Terrarium hammers home its message about bridging cultural divides, working with someone from a different race, and finding comradeship with an enemy. Ripping that away so coldly, and for no good reason, shows us how far Starfleet and the Federation still have to go – and how the “good guys” can still make mistakes or be too quick to anger.

This is what Star Trek has always been about – just updated with a more modern style. What was the point of The Enemy, if not learning to see an enemy as an equal? Or Arena – that “the other” is not a monster, but a person? Kirk starts his battle with the Gorn by talking of the revulsion he feels for the reptilian monster, but stops short of killing him at the end. Terrarium builds from the same narrative foundation, but twists the knife right at the end. Ortegas may have learned to let go of her fear and her hate… but Starfleet is still too quick to reach for the phaser.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing a close-up of the Gorn. — Ortegas came to see the Gorn as a friend.

Despite feeling like she was genuinely in danger the entire time, I’m glad Ortegas lives to fight another day. The opening act of Terrarium, which showed Ortegas with Spock and Uhura, felt comparable in tone to how Discovery set up Airiam’s death, or how, earlier this season, Ensign Gamble was sent on the away mission that claimed his life. That kind of setup, knowing what we know of modern Star Trek, has an almost eerie feel, so when Ortegas’ mission went wrong and she crash-landed, I really did feel like she was in danger.

Given that Strange New Worlds has been adding to its roster of legacy characters, fleshing them out, and even trying to set up a “Year One” spin-off focusing on the likes of Kirk, Spock, and Scotty… I wondered if Ortegas might be about to be brushed aside to bring someone like Sulu on board. But I’m very glad that didn’t happen (or at least, it hasn’t happened yet) because she’s someone we’re still getting to know – and she’s such a fun character. Ortegas is cut from the same cloth as Voyager’s Tom Paris insofar as she’s a genuinely passionate pilot, not just a helmsman. Having that kind of person in the pilot’s seat – both of the Enterprise and in shuttlecraft – is a ton of fun, and I can feel her passion for the role every time she takes the helm. Shuffling her out of the way to make way for Sulu (or another legacy character) wouldn’t sit right with me.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas piloting her shuttle. — Ortegas is at home in the pilot’s seat.

Speaking of piloting… what do we make of Captain Pike taking the helm? I absolutely loved it – and I think Terrarium is a great episode for Pike, despite him not being the centre of attention. I wrote last week that, across the three seasons of Strange New Worlds that we’ve had so far, several episodes saw Pike transformed into a different person, recreated as a hologram, or just… behaving out-of-character. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like it’s almost a refreshing change of pace to see Pike as the upstanding, decent, honourable Starfleet captain that we remember – the character who, as Trekkies, we were so desperate to see given his own show.

Pike taking the helm also reminded me of another Next Generation Season 3 episode: Booby Trap. That episode sees Picard – to the shock of everyone on the bridge – take the helm to guide the Enterprise-D out of a sticky situation, and Pike’s turn at the helm definitely brought up echoes of that story for me. I would’ve liked to see Pike take his seat, perhaps… but maybe that would’ve been too similar, I don’t know. Either way, it was a really great moment, and it drew on Pike’s history as a Starfleet test pilot, which Strange New Worlds has brought up on a few occasions. I like that this is an ongoing aspect of his character and wasn’t newly-invented for Terrarium; these consistent story threads make a series and a setting feel so much more real.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Spock in the captain's chair with Una and Pike at the helm/navigation console. — Captain Pike at the helm.

Pike’s side of the story also brought up the weight of command and the difficulties of making command decisions. This is something we know weighs on the captain – in The Cage (and The Menagerie) Pike spoke about how he felt the burden of command and how being responsible for the ship and crew was taking a toll on him. In Terrarium, Pike had to balance the needs of the many with the needs of the one (to quote a future Mr Spock), wanting to do everything in his power to search for and save the wayward Ortegas – but having a time limit to deliver vaccines to a colony world.

I loved Pike’s line to Uhura that he knew she “fudged the numbers,” and he would’ve undertaken the rescue mission regardless. I think that says a lot about the kind of captain he is, and the way he handles his ship and crew. Pike was confronted with a genuinely impossible situation, but he stayed calm, he did everything he could to buy his crew as much time as possible to look for Ortegas, and his role this week reminded me exactly why I was so keen on “the Captain Pike show” back in 2019!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Pike looking at Uhura. — This was a great episode for both Uhura and Pike.

Did you spot a reference to The Doomsday Machine? Decker – a commodore by the time of The Original Series – was in command of the USS Constellation, the ship Pike and the Enterprise were set to rendezvous with in Terrarium. I just thought that was a neat little reference. It doesn’t need to be expanded into something massive, with the Constellation and Commodore Decker being shown on screen next week, but it was a cute little nod and wink to Trekkies – and another reminder that all of these stories are taking place in a shared setting. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was neat that the writers went the extra mile, instead of saying that the vaccines were to be delivered to Captain Bob of the USS Whatsisname.

Terrarium was also a fantastic episode for Uhura. Her empathy and love were on full display as she supported Ortegas ahead of her first solo mission in months, then became the strongest advocate for searching for her, even when Spock seemed (perhaps a little too keen) to throw cold water on her plans. We’ve seen Uhura grow in confidence across Strange New Worlds so far, and as Pike remarked, bending the rules is a new frontier for her! But it came from an understandable place, and had been set up incredibly well earlier in the episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Uhura on the bridge, happy. — Uhura at the episode’s climax.

Uhura has had several “moments” across the first three seasons of Strange New Worlds in which she becomes more confident, solidifies her relationship with Starfleet, or just grows in some way. And Terrarium was another great example, building on storylines like visiting the comet, bonding with Hemmer, and inspiring the crew to sing their way out of trouble. The notion that Uhura would do anything to help a friend in need… that’s a core part of the character we remember, and seeing her bend the rules, thinking that was the only way to help Ortegas? It sets up Uhura joining Kirk’s mission to steal the Enterprise in Star Trek III, as well as countless other examples of her going out of her way to help her friends.

Spock was, perhaps, a little too quick to dismiss some of Uhura’s ideas – but this was never really presented as a conflict; more so a hurdle for Uhura to overcome. And Spock, despite his initial predictions of failure, didn’t come across as being a jerk for the sake of it. He even stayed with Uhura, continuing to help her work on her simulations, which I think also says a lot about how far he’s come across the show so far. After so many “Spock comedy” storylines – something I talked about at length last week – it’s nice to see Spock in a more familiar and straight-laced role. It’s also nice to see Spock contributing, but taking a back seat to other characters. This side of the story mostly looked at Uhura and, to a lesser extent, Pike. Spock played a role, but he doesn’t always have to be centre-stage.

Combo of two still frames from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Spock and Uhura in the science lab. — Uhura and Spock.

So let’s return to the main part of the story: Ortegas and the Gorn.

I really liked the moon that Ortegas crashed on. It made fantastic use of the AR wall, and just felt like such a barren and desolate place. Seeing the wind sweeping across the surface of the moon, with nothing but dust and rocks in sight, with occasional quakes and rumbles shaking the ground… it made for a very unnerving place to have crash-landed; very lonely, very bleak. The addition of the flaming blue gas giant in the sky obviously added a huge sense of impending danger, which was intimidating. The camera work on the surface of the moon, combined with the AR wall, actually led to a really great effect – something Paramount hasn’t always been competent at if you look back at some other recent Star Trek projects, like Discovery’s fifth season.

And this sense of being lost, alone, and trapped in a desolate, barren wasteland was really hammered home by the presence of the wormhole. I don’t think we ever learned exactly how far away the wormhole’s terminus was from where the Enterprise was situated – but, as Spock said, it could be basically anywhere in the universe. That added so much to the sense of isolation and abandonment compared to, say, an episode like The Enemy, in which the Enterprise-D was still in orbit, even if for technobabble reasons it wasn’t possible to beam out Geordi right away. Again, that sense of genuine danger – that we might be about to lose Ortegas from the series entirely – was ramped up by just how badly wrong this mission was going.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing the USS Enterprise wedged in a wormhole. — The Enterprise in the wormhole.

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I was worried that Ortegas’ injury and trauma from the beginning of the season hadn’t been picked up in a big way, and that if it did come back, it would be harder to pull off effectively after having seen her “back to normal.” And I stand by that to an extent – I think if, instead of Terrarium, we’d gotten a Discovery-style “let’s all talk about our feelings” story, it would have been difficult to put Ortegas into that after several episodes had passed in between her injury, her insubordination, and her apparent recovery. But because of the way Terrarium approached it – putting her face-to-face with a Gorn for the first time since the end of Hegemony, Part II – it actually worked incredibly well.

Ortegas’ character arc built on her earlier encounter with the Gorn and the lingering trauma it caused her without feeling like we’d missed a step. By throwing her into this tense survival situation, we got to see her going from “just kill me already you alien monster,” to “okay, we can be friends.” And Terrarium built this up slowly and carefully, taking us from Ortegas’ shock at spotting the Gorn, trying to hide, fearing for her life, and eventually coming to terms with the fact that they’d have to work together to have any chance of escape. It was incredibly well written – and given that Melissa Navia was the only one to actually have any dialogue on this side of the story, incredibly well performed and emoted. Having to act out an incredibly intense and emotional storyline against a person in a Gorn suit can’t have been easy – but she made it look easy! This is why, for almost three full seasons, a lot of us have been champing at the bit for a proper Ortegas episode!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas inside the shield dome. — Melissa Navia absolutely excelled.

We got to see Ortegas run the gamut of emotions. The elation of her mission and the piloting challenge, the anxiety and loneliness after the crash-landing, the sheer terror of her first Gorn encounter, a slowly-developing friendship which culmintaed in board games, and the abject grief at her new friend’s utterly brutal execution. And Melissa Navia had to do all of that (well, almost all of it) on her own, with no other actor to bounce her lines off of. It’s an incredible solo acting performance, one which really encompasses a huge range of different emotional states across a dangerous and nearly fatal away mission.

After Strange New Worlds has reimagined the Gorn to be closer to Alien’s Xenomorphs or other horror movie monsters, it was incredibly refreshing to see a different and softer take this time. We got to see a Gorn – for the first time in the entire series, really – not as “the other,” or a monster, but as a person. This Gorn showed Ortegas – and by extension, us as the audience – that the Gorn are more than just mindless killing machines who see humans as food. They have a complex language, a culture, they enjoy playing games, they can get sick and injured… again, to tie into the theme of Star Trek stories as “morality plays,” we’re seeing the Gorn – through Ortegas’ eyes – as people… basically for the first time since they were re-worked for Strange New Worlds. This only makes the brutal killing of the Gorn at the end of the story hit so much harder and feel so much worse.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas on her knees. — Ortegas at the end of the story.

May I nitpick? If you know me… you know I must!

If you can transport down to a moon, it stands to reason that you can also transport up from a moon, right? So why did La’an have to beam down to search for Ortegas? And why did La’an beam down with a squad of redshirt tactical officers for a rescue mission, instead of – oh, I dunno – a doctor? The “we have to deliver these vaccines on time” added an extra source of tension to the episode, but it felt a bit exposition-y – mostly because of the timing of its introduction. If the episode had begun with Pike saying, “we’re en route to deliver these vaccines, but we stopped off briefly to study this unusual phenomenon,” I think it would’ve worked a lot better than Una springing it on us after Ortegas had already gone missing. The “scanning ability” percentage wasn’t really explained, and I could’ve entertained a brief line of technobabble discussing it, especially given its importance to Uhura and Pike’s storyline.

But, as I said, all of those are incredibly minor points, and none of them detracted from the finished product. I include them here because, well, I’m a Trekkie – and as Trekkies, we love nothing more than to pick at the tiniest little details in Star Trek, sometimes!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing the away team beaming down. — The rescue team beams down.

Terrarium joins Shuttle to Kenfori and Through the Lens of Time as one of my favourites from Season 3. It was fantastic all around, with great moments for Pike and Uhura, as well as an incredibly intense story for Ortegas.

I loved this completely different way to include the Gorn. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve enjoyed Strange New Worlds’ reinterpretation of the Gorn, by and large. But I also think we were beginning to come up against the limits of the “alien monster” idea, so to show a softer, more personable side to the Gorn – and to put Ortegas, who had suffered so severely at their hands, right in the middle of it – was a fantastic storytelling decision, and one that was executed incredibly well. Melissa Navia got her first major spotlight episode – and rose to the occasion, overcoming a difficult acting challenge.

I really can’t heap enough praise on Terrarium, as you can probably tell! It truly is an outstanding episode, one that harkens back to the likes of Arena and The Enemy from those older shows, but puts a completely different spin on a familiar setup thanks to a brutal ending. I’m not sure I’d have chosen to include Arena’s Metrons; I’m just not convinced that brief scene at the end added an awful lot or that the story really needed it. But doing so helps to square a circle, perhaps, while hinting at a “different” take on the Gorn by the time of Kirk’s encounter in Arena.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09: Terrarium, showing Ortegas and the Gorn playing chess. — Playing chess with a Gorn.

So that was Terrarium. Absolutely fantastic. No notes – literally, in my case!

Season 3 has been pretty good, overall. Strong episodes like Terrarium are a nice balance after a weaker offering like Four-and-a-Half Vulcans last week, and I’m rooting for an excellent season finale to close things out with a bang! Can you believe Season 3 is almost over, already? I’m actually feeling pretty sad about that.

The final episode of the season will be titled New Life and New Civilizations. So far, there’s been nothing released – no promo photos, no blurb, no trailer. Something big could be hiding under the surface, then! Check out my latest theory about Captain Pike and Captain Batel, if you’re interested – you can find it by clicking or tapping here. And join me next week for the final episode review of the season. Oh, and if you missed it, I met Martin Quinn (Scotty) over the weekend at a Star Trek convention here in the UK. Click or tap here to check out my write-up of the events of the day. Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance and/or Paramount. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 1: Hegemony, Part II

Fri 18.07.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation Seasons 3-4, Deep Space Nine Seasons 4-6, and Discovery Season 5.

After a frankly ridiculous two-year wait, Strange New Worlds is back! Hegemony, Part II is the conclusion to last season’s excellent cliffhanger, picking up right where we left off with the Gorn attack on the non-Federation planet Parnassus Beta. And, as always, I have a lot to say – so buckle up, this could be a long review!

The tl;dr is this: Hegemony, Part II wrapped up its key storylines… but perhaps didn’t have quite enough time to do so flawlessly. The episode was good, unquestionably, and I think the two parts of Hegemony form one of the show’s strongest and certainly most explosive and action-packed offerings. But as the credits rolled and the Enterprise set course for Earth, I couldn’t help but feel that an extra ten minutes or so would’ve been necessary to really achieve what this episode’s writers and director wanted. There were a few moments that were just a little too short, that needed a bit more explanation, or where we could’ve spent just a tad longer lingering on key characters. Maybe a fifty-five-minute cut of the episode would’ve been better than the forty-five-minute version we ultimately got.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captain Pike standing in front of the viewscreen, with two stars on the screen. — Captain Pike and the crew are back!

Before we go any further and get into the meat of the review, I’d like to give my usual disclaimer! Everything we’re going to talk about today is the entirely subjective opinion of just one Trekkie. If you detested Hegemony, Part II and think I’m rating it far too highly, or you love it more than I did and you feel I’m being unnecessarily harsh… that’s okay. There’s plenty of room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and polite discussion. I share this review with the online Trekkie community in that spirit.

We waited two years with the cliffhanger ending to Hegemony, and a massive part of that was the question of what would happen to Captain Batel. Would she survive her Gorn infection… and what would it mean for Pike if she couldn’t be saved? Batel was a great character to endanger; as a brand-new character, she could easily be killed off, and as someone so closely connected to Pike – whose future is set in stone – their relationship is doomed one way or another. We also saw, in Season 1, how deadly a Gorn infection could be with Hemmer’s untimely death. So again, to reiterate that: it was a fantastic storytelling decision to place Captain Batel in this incredibly dangerous position.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captain Batel in sickbay. — Captain Batel was infected at the end of last season.

So why, then, did the absolute fucking morons who’ve somehow managed to waddle into Paramount’s marketing department completely spoil Captain Batel’s survival weeks ahead of Season 3’s premiere? It completely ruined that storyline, undermined some genuinely tense sequences, and rendered some great performances by Anson Mount, Jess Bush, and Ethan Peck completely impotent. Thanks to her appearance in two trailers and photos released ahead of Season 3, we could tell that Captain Batel was going to survive. And while I concede that for a more casual audience that would be less of an issue (folks who don’t follow Star Trek on social media would’ve been less likely to see these spoilers) I still don’t think that excuses it.

This cliffhanger had been simmering away for two years, and while we knew Melanie Scrofano would be back as Captain Batel in Hegemony, Part II… her status in the rest of the season could’ve easily been kept under wraps. As soon as I saw her in those trailers, I knew she was going to survive, because those clips were clearly taken from after the Gorn conflict. And the photos released for subsequent episodes just hammered that home even more. There was absolutely no reason for this; there were other clips that could’ve been chosen, or Batel could’ve even been edited out of the clips in which she appears. Why go to all the bother of setting up this otherwise fantastic and engaging storyline, which was performed beautifully and emotionally by all involved, and keep it under wraps for almost two years… only to blow it with a few weeks to go? Paramount is utterly useless, which is why Star Trek as a whole is probably going to be disappearing before the end of the decade. But things like this are such incredibly basic mistakes that I cannot fathom how they were allowed to happen. Knowing Captain Batel would survive significantly harmed my enjoyment of this storyline in Hegemony, Part II – and there was just no need for that to have happened.

Promotional photo for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3. — Captain Batel’s survival was spoiled ahead of time for anyone who follows Star Trek on social media or who was paying attention to the ad campaign for the new season.

The sad thing about all of this is that, episode-ruining spoilers aside, Captain Batel’s storyline gave us the episode’s best and certainly most emotive performances. We got some fantastic moments with Anson Mount, as he beautifully portrayed Pike struggling with Batel’s condition, and Jess Bush, who took us through Chapel’s strengths and vulnerabilities when facing a traumatic situation. Ethan Peck showed off a softer side to Spock, here, too, picking up last season’s relationship with Chapel. We’ll get into that a bit more later – because Spock and Chapel have kind of run their course for me – but again, it was a solid performance and a new situation for Spock.

Melanie Scrofano spent a lot of Hegemony, Part II lying asleep on a table or bed, but when she was awake – both before and after her experimental surgery – she also contributed to some of the story’s most heart-wrenching moments. Asking Chapel to “take her out,” if there was no solution, and in those final scenes with Pike, we saw Captain Batel at her best and her most vulnerable simultaneously. That’s not an easy thing to communicate, especially with limited screen time, but it was utterly fantastic. It’s such a shame that this entire storyline was spoiled ahead of time for no good reason.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captains Pike and Batel in sickbay. — Pike with Batel at the end of the episode.

In The Original Series, there was a suggestion that Nurse Chapel had “a thing” for Spock. Strange New Worlds took this bare-bones idea and really expanded upon it, pairing them up in a romantic way. However, if Spock is to continue his character arc – one which should bring him more in line with the character we’re familiar with – then I think this relationship has run its course. And in Hegemony, Part II, I didn’t feel this side of Spock and Chapel’s story really added very much. It wasn’t as bad as anything Discovery did with its forced drama, but there were moments that came close, as Spock and Chapel seemed to lose focus on the task to talk about their relationship. I don’t think this otherwise-interesting story needed to be interrupted by relationship drama, and both characters seem to be on different trajectories right now. That’s for the best, and while their entanglement was occasionally fun and could be called back to in the future, keeping them as friends will, in my view, work a lot better going forward.

With Dr M’Benga missing in action, it fell to Spock and Chapel to perform Captain Batel’s life-saving treatment – and this was interesting. We could absolutely nitpick and say surely a ship the size of the Enterprise has at least one other doctor (as evidenced by Dr M’Benga’s original appearance alongside Dr McCoy in The Original Series), but for the sake of the story, I think it worked well! Spock and Chapel made a good pair in this kind of environment, tackling a problem neither of them was fully-qualified to solve and being forced to think outside the box. The callback to Una’s Illyrian heritage was good, and a creative way for the episode to technobabble its way to a resolution by relying on something which been set up all the way back in Season 1.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Spock and Nurse Chapel. — With Dr M’Benga nowhere to be found, it fell to Spock and Chapel to save Captain Batel’s life.

If you recall the episode Ghosts of Illyria, where we learned about Una, we also discovered that the Illyrians’ penchant for genetic engineering left their people particularly resistant to disease and infection. I love that Star Trek – and Strange New Worlds within its own story – has this depth of lore. A technobabble miracle could’ve always been found to save Captain Batel, but referencing events and characters from earlier in the show’s run strengthened this significantly, and gave Spock and Chapel’s plan a truly solid narrative foundation. It worked great – and it connected to Una’s backstory in a way I’ve been hoping Strange New Worlds will continue to do.

The only part of this that I felt was rushed was the surgery itself. While Chapel’s hand was literally on the scalpel (alright, the weird techno-device with blinking lights), Spock intervened and suggested changing their entire plan. That’s already a bit flimsy, in my view, and it came without much setup. A longer episode could’ve dedicated just a minute or two more to Spock and Chapel working out ideas, and stretched out this moment a bit longer, which I feel would’ve strengthened it. The idea of flipping the problem around was creative, but the explanation just felt a bit rushed in the moment, and I would’ve happily enjoyed seeing them actually enacting some part of their new plan.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing the surgery on Captain Batel. — This was not the ideal moment for a total change of plans…

Speaking of things that were rushed: Scotty and Pelia’s explanation of how the Enterprise could fly into the binary stars. It felt like Scotty came on the bridge, sat down, and worked out this incredibly complex plan in the span of just a few seconds, when he hadn’t been briefed or known anything about what was going on just a moment earlier. The prior sequence with Scotty and Pelia was great, and it did something I really hoped Strange New Worlds would do – give Scotty room to grow, showing us that he isn’t quite the miracle-worker from The Original Series just yet. That was communicated incredibly well, and I really hope we get more with Scotty and Pelia, building on their difficult history together and their somewhat antagonistic working relationship.

But the moment on the bridge needed more. We needed to see Pike, Pelia, and Scotty slow things down and figure out their plan at a more reasonable pace. Pacing of these technobabble ideas in many Star Trek episodes can feel rushed, so this isn’t a unique issue by any means. However, that doesn’t make it less of a problem here, and considering this scheme was the lynchpin of the entire operation to stop the Gorn… I just think we needed to arrive at it a bit more slowly to allow it to sink in. Could you even explain what Scotty’s idea involved? It was so rushed that I don’t think I could off the top of my head.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Scotty and Pelia on the bridge. — Scotty’s plan was explained a bit too fast for my liking.

As the apparently-final act in Strange New Worlds’ multi-season Gorn conflict story arc, I would’ve liked to have spent a bit more time on this moment. Planning, scheming, coming up with different ideas… kind of like we saw Rom, Dax, and O’Brien doing in the Deep Space Nine episode Call To Arms. That episode saw the characters trying to come up with a way to stop Dominion reinforcements coming through the Bajoran Wormhole, but the scene was just the right length, and we saw the characters talking through several different variants of the plan before settling on the one they ultimately chose to enact. The circumstances of the conflict are different in Hegemony, Part II, but the complexities of the situation involving Gorn hibernation rituals, stellar flares, and the engineering challenges of the Enterprise’s shields and hull still require some discussion and debate.

After I’d written in my notes that Strange New Worlds was doing exactly what I wanted to see with Scotty – showing that he isn’t perfect, that he has room to grow – this scene kind of undermined all of that. Scotty leapt into action, coming up with the perfect plan on the spot in a matter of seconds. And the plan was creative and interesting! I liked that Strange New Worlds, once again, is connecting back to story threads that had been set up in earlier episodes with the Gorn using light to communicate and having sensitivities to light. But again, I feel a fifty-five-minute episode could’ve communicated this at a better pace.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing the computer simulation of Scotty's plan. — I wanted this sequence to be a bit slower-paced.

Speaking as we were of Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War, I felt echoes of another fantastic episode in Pike’s desperate attempt to stop the Gorn. Sacrifice of Angels sees Captain Sisko, on the Defiant, making a last stand against an encroaching Dominion fleet, and Pike’s attempt to warn Starfleet and stop the Gorn invasion as their ships swarmed definitely reminded me of that moment. When Pike gave the order to open fire, and Una replied incredulously, reminding him they’re facing an entire armada… again I felt echoes of Sisko and Dax on the bridge of the Defiant. It was really impressive moment – in both episodes!

And we can kind of compare the resolutions to those stories, too. The Prophets intervened in Sacrifice of Angels, removing the Dominion fleet. Pike and Scotty’s solar flare plan to “put the Gorn to sleep” likewise averted the attack without actually turning it into a large-scale battle or a wider war. Star Trek has a knack for finding technological or engineering solutions, even to what seem on the surface to be military problems, and that’s been a core tenet of the franchise going all the way back to the beginning. Using the knowledge they’d gained about the Gorn in this way, the crew was able to turn back the tide and avert a wider invasion. That’s kind of a neat idea, even if parts of the buildup to it weren’t flawless. You could also compare this plan to Picard and Data putting the Borg to sleep in The Best of Both Worlds.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing the Enterprise approaching the Gorn armada. — Oh look, it’s the Battle at the Binary Stars…

In my review of the Hegemony, Part I, I noted what I consider to be a particularly significant plot hole, and unfortunately, Part II doubled-down on it. In brief: Admiral April asserts that the Federation doesn’t want to become involved in a wider war with the Gorn, effectively ceding Parnassus Beta to the Gorn Hegemony. Because Parnassus Beta wasn’t a Federation colony, and April was choosing to prioritise Federation worlds, that was a sacrifice he was okay with making. But that doesn’t make sense in-universe.

The attacks on the USS Cayuga and the USS Stardiver by the Gorn are, in effect, declarations of war against the Federation. Parnassus Beta may not be a Federation world, but those starships are both Starfleet vessels crewed by Federation citizens. April’s argument makes no sense when he has that information, and the losses of the Cayuga and Stardiver were known to him by the time he boarded the Enterprise to debrief Captain Pike. Everyone was acting as if the only attack was on Parnassus Beta – but the attacks on not one but two Federation starships prove the Gorn’s wider militaristic intent. I could have happily entertained a storyline about appeasement, about not reacting emotionally when provoked, or anything along those lines. But for April, Pike, and everyone else involved to just ignore what happened to the two ships, and not even mention those attacks as a reason for or against taking certain actions… it rubs me the wrong way. I don’t think it makes sense based on what we know of April, of Starfleet, or even of Captain Pike himself. While I didn’t really expect Part II to completely change this angle based on what we saw last time, I’m a bit disappointed that the writers doubled-down on this mistake. It makes Admiral April look either uncaring to the point of sociopathy or totally incompetent, and I think Pike’s failure to bring up the attacks on Starfleet ships to support his case doesn’t do wonders for his characterisation, either.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Admiral April consulting a map of Gorn space. — Admiral April completely ignored the attacks on the USS Stardiver and USS Cayuga.

The final part where I think a slightly longer episode might’ve been beneficial was with La’an and the captured members of the away team. This is less important than Captain Batel’s treatment or Scotty’s plan, as I felt these scenes were generally pretty great. But spending an extra minute or two, spread across those sequences, might’ve allowed for a couple of things – Ortegas having to figure out how to pilot the Gorn ship and La’an taking a bit longer to locate the Gorn warship’s transporter codes. Both of those points seemed to be blitzed through quite quickly, and while they didn’t not work, I think they could’ve been improved with a slightly slower pace.

Think about it: you’re hacking into a totally alien computer system for the first time ever. And Strange New Worlds has gone out of its way to really emphasise the “other-ness” and truly alien nature of the Gorn, with no universal translator or even any real communication at all. So you hack into this computer, and just instantly scroll to the transport frequencies like you were finding your favourite song in Spotify. It took me ages to get the hang of Windows XP after I’d been used to Windows 98… do you really believe La’an is gonna hack the Gorn in an instant? She’s a security officer, not even an engineer or tech expert. I just think this could’ve benefited from another few seconds, even, showing her scrolling, taking wrong turns, or getting locked out and having to work around it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Dr M'Benga and La'an aboard the Gorn vessel. — I found it hard to buy La’an’s perfect hack of the Gorn computer system.

Likewise with Ortegas. Ortegas’ story at the end of Hegemony, Part II is basically summarised in the line she repeats to herself: “I fly the ship.” But… it’s not a familiar ship. It uses a weird interface (that reminded me a little of Mr Garrison’s bike invention in South Park (if you know, you know)), it’s in an alien language, and frankly… “I’m a pilot, so I can pilot anything” is a bit of a flimsy excuse when you’re dealing with a totally different kind of technology. I would’ve liked to see her struggle, just for a moment, with figuring out the controls – and that could’ve actually added to the tension as the away team attempted to escape the Gorn while under fire.

I don’t think either of these are particularly egregious, but since we’ve been talking about moments that felt a little cut down or where we could’ve seen things expanded, I felt it worth including them.

Sticking with Ortegas for just a moment, Strange New Worlds really succeeded at convincing me that she was in danger. When the adult Gorn attacked her as the away team made their escape, I genuinely feared for her survival in a way that I didn’t with practically any of the others. I mentioned this in Part I in relation to Chapel; I tried to explain that Chapel was an awful choice for the kind of “death fake-out” that the story went for because she’s a familiar character and this is a prequel series. Ortegas has no known future – so the thought that she could genuinely be killed off was right there, front-and-centre.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Ortegas losing a fight with a Gorn. — Ortegas seemed to be in big trouble…

Obviously I’m glad that Ortegas seemingly lives to fight another day! We haven’t spent that much time with her, one-on-one, across both seasons of the show so far, and I think there’s a ton of potential in her character as a really enthusiastic pilot – something Star Trek doesn’t always have in its helm officers! But the way Hegemony, Part II signalled that she was in danger was done incredibly well. This is a series that has already killed off one main character, something Discovery and Picard refused to do, and I just think that adds to the stakes. Putting these new characters in danger, when they aren’t guaranteed to survive, ups the tension and drama and keeps me on the edge of my seat.

The injuries to the away team – and Ortegas in particular – were pretty gruesome and horrific, at least by Star Trek standards. I was reminded of Mass Effect 2′s “Collectors” in the depiction of the Gorn prison/feeding chamber, and the acid dissolving their skin, Ortegas’ injured hand, and the general slimy and grotesque feel of the place all added to that sense of the Gorn being totally otherworldly and alien. Star Trek’s depictions of humanoid aliens – the “nose and forehead” types – don’t always convey how truly different alien life might be, but this new take on the Gorn really does – and I like it!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Ortegas' injured hand (with two missing fingers). — Ortegas’ injury was pretty brutal by Star Trek standards.

As I said either last season or in my write-up of Season 1, Strange New Worlds’ depiction of the Gorn is clearly influenced by the likes of the Xenomorphs from Alien – with a dash of Jurassic Park’s velociraptors thrown in for good measure! The acid, the slime, the ooze – all of that really adds to the kind of monstrous presentation of the Gorn that the show is going for, and it feels like a real masterstroke to take this under-explored alien race from classic Star Trek and reinterpret it, while also going into way more detail. I recently re-watched The Original Series’ Season 1 episode Arena, where the Gorn made their first appearance, and while the two shows have very different takes on the Gorn… I don’t think they’re a million miles apart. The DNA of Strange New Worlds’ Gorn is still present in Arena, and while there are different designs and there are clearly limitations to the older portrayal, the core concept of a reptillian monster remains.

Click or tap here to check out my write-up of Arena, if you’re interested.

Last year, I criticised Discovery’s fifth and final season for some pretty slapdash and amateurish uses of Paramount’s expensive AR wall! There were several places in that season where the AR wall was just not well-integrated with the physical props around it, and the effect looked cheap. Not so in Hegemony, Part II, where the AR wall stage was thoroughly transformed to become the Gorn prison. It was such a horrifying setting, and the AR wall helped bring it to life in a way that a static background arguably wouldn’t have. It’s one of the best uses of the AR wall I’ve seen so far, and proof that – at least sometimes – Paramount does know how to properly use the things it spends all its money on.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing the Gorn prison. — This was a well-constructed set.

Another area where Hegemony, Part II excelled in the visual department was its presentation of the binary stars. The CGI for the stars was fantastic, but what was even better was the cinematography at the episode’s climax, showing Pike and others on the bridge as they flew close to these binary stars. Parts of that reminded me of the film Sunshine (co-starring a certain Michelle Yeoh) which depicted a mission to the sun. Well worth a watch if you’ve never seen it, by the way! But that film also had characters in close proximity to a star, struggling with the radiation and bright light. For my money, Hegemony, Part II did a great job here.

The visual of the infant Gorn growing in Captain Batel’s body was also gruesome – and also inspired, perhaps, by Alien. The wriggling, pulsing creature under her skin was a horrifying thing to see – and I think it was so much better done as a physical prop than it would’ve been if it had been CGI. CGI is great, and it’s better today than it was when, say, Enterprise used it to create its take on the Gorn some twenty years ago! But I still enjoy physical special effects, especially in a franchise like Star Trek, so this proto-Gorn/Gorn foetus… thing was so much better for being created that way!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captain Batel's Gorn-infected back. — Captain Batel’s Gorn infection. Yuck.

I will be curious to see whether Strange New Worlds follows up La’an’s story from this episode in future. She was clearly struggling with being back in Gorn captivity, having flashbacks to her childhood. I don’t think we need a Discovery-style “let’s all sit around and talk about our feelings” kind of thing, but if La’an is meant to be suffering with PTSD from her Gorn experiences, I hope the show doesn’t just completely drop this idea going forward. If we have truly seen the last of the Gorn in Strange New Worlds, she might not have to come face-to-face with them again, but there could and arguably should be some kind of follow-up to what she went through.

La’an and Una have established a strong bond, so perhaps Una could be the one she turns to at first, if indeed she’s struggling. There is value to good and well-written depictions of mental health, and while modern Star Trek hasn’t gotten this right a lot of the time, I’m willing to give the franchise another chance. At the very least, there’s a strong foundation for that kind of story to build on if the writers want to take La’an down that route in the future.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing La'an with a corpse. — I’ll be interested to see what comes next for La’an after this.

Captain Pike is also seemingly not at his best, with the toll of command and stress about Captain Batel clearly weighing on him. It was agonising for Pike to have to entrust Batel’s treatment to Spock and Chapel while he remained on the bridge, and you could see that etched on his face. His moments of hesitation also hammered home for me how he might be struggling – and feeling the heavy burden of command is something we know Pike feels. His first introduction – in The Cage – shows him talking to Dr Boyce about this very issue. Perhaps the Gorn conflict has exacerbated that for Pike, or maybe it was just the stress of Captain Batel’s condition. Either way, I think we got a complex and nuanced depiction of Pike in Hegemony, Part II, as he seemed to waver and hesitate, perhaps second-guessing himself, while also having moments of firey passion and intense vulnerability.

As I said above, this was a fantastic performance from Anson Mount. I’ve said this before, but I was sceptical of the decision to bring back Pike when he was announced as a character in Discovery’s second season – but I was so very wrong about that! This complex performance, taking Pike through the wringer as he had to balance protecting his ship, the wider Federation, and Captain Batel… it was a masterclass, truly.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captain Pike in the captain's chair, with his face in his hands. — Pike went through all of the emotions in this episode.

Martin Quinn has also been a joy to watch. Yes, there are issues with Scotty’s way-too-fast plan near the climax of the story, but his earlier conversations with Pelia showed a different side to the character, and Quinn brought that to life in a way I wasn’t expecting. Scotty is suffering after the loss of the Stardiver, and being forced to go toe-to-toe with Pelia again, listening to her berating him for not documenting his work, it was definitely something I think we needed to see. Scotty’s emotional reaction, storming out as he reiterated that his crew and commander are dead… it was heartbreaking stuff.

Here’s a question: does Captain Batel’s treatment and survival undermine Hemmer’s sacrifice in Season 1? Hemmer’s name was mentioned, albeit briefly, in Hegemony, Part I, but in Season 1 his act of self-sacrifice was presented as a brave decision. Not only did he spare himself a horrendous fate, he prevented new Gorn from being spawned and saved his shipmates. But Pike was right: Hemmer didn’t give them a chance to save him. It seems now, based on what we saw with Captain Batel, that there might’ve been a chance to save Hemmer’s life.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Pike and Batel in sickbay. — Could Batel’s treatment have worked for Hemmer, too?

This comes just a few episodes after All Those Who Wander (thirteen episodes later, if you’re keeping score). We’ve seen two characters suffer the same infection not that far apart, but only one of them was able to be saved. At the very least, I’d suggest this paints Hemmer as reckless or hasty; at worst, perhaps his death starts to feel like a bit of a waste. I like Pelia, and as a replacement for Hemmer I think she’s been a lot of fun. Her relationship with Scotty is interesting, too, and there’s a lot of potential there for both fun moments and some deeper conversations, perhaps.

But Hemmer was unique. He was Star Trek’s first ever Aenar (or Andorian of any kind) to be a main character, the first since Enterprise to revisit the Andorians and their Aenar sister race. I felt his death came too early in the show’s run; Hemmer had only been present in six episodes before his demise. As a result, we didn’t really get to know him particularly well, nor was there much of an opportunity to explore what an Aenar officer might be like. Hemmer’s visual impairment, pacifism, and even his relationships with most of his colleagues were things the show touched on but never got the chance to really delve into. I’m glad Captain Batel is still around, and having spent some time with Pelia, I think she’s been a fine addition to the cast, too. But this treatment for the Gorn infection, while clearly dangerous and experimental, kind of brought all of that back for me, and emphasised again how Hemmer departed the show a little too hastily.

Okay, enough about poor Hemmer! He wasn’t even in this episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Scotty walking away from Pelia. — Hemmer was replaced by Commander Pelia – and now Scotty has joined her.

Assuming that Hegemony, Part II is the culmination of Strange New Worlds’ Gorn conflict storyline… how do we feel about that? This is something that was set up early in Season 1, picked up steam in the wonderful horror-tinged All Those Who Wander, and that came back in a big way at the end of Season 2. Don’t get me wrong: I love that Pike and the crew found a scientific, non-violent solution to the Gorn threat. But given the buildup and the way it played out in the episode… was it good enough? Or was it maybe a little anticlimactic?

That word, “anticlimactic,” is what I put in my notes about the way this storyline wrapped up. I just can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed that, after two seasons of buildup, scarring backstories, a main character’s death, and a two-year-long cliffhanger, the Gorn basically being sent to bed without any dinner, like they were misbehaving toddlers, is the right way for this story to end. I think it also raises questions about the nature of the Gorn; if they’re really so easily manipulated, how did they invent things like warp drive in the first place? If they’re able to be triggered into hibernation by a few flashes of light… how did they ever make it to the stars? This version of the Gorn seems animalistic, not intelligent, and while we can see that they clearly possess spaceships and technology… I don’t think that gels with how the Gorn themselves are presented on screen. Had there been a different ending to this story – perhaps involving communication – I think that feeling could’ve been averted.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing a close-up of a Gorn's face. — You can’t eat Lieutenant Ortegas, you naughty little rascal! Now, off to bed with you!

I’m all for non-violence and peaceful conflict resolution! Some of the best Star Trek stories involve diplomacy, negotiation, and compromise. And even after Strange New Worlds reinterpreted the Gorn to be these kinds of animalistic monsters, I still felt it was possible we could’ve sat down with the Gorn leader and hammered out some kind of deal. Captain Pike and Admiral April would’ve been great at that, and I think we could’ve seen a very conflicted Captain Pike trying to negotiate a peace treaty while Captain Batel was fighting for her life. That could’ve been really interesting.

But this trick of the light – using the Gorn’s sensitivity to solar flares against them – I dunno. Perhaps because that part of the puzzle was resolved quite quickly, as discussed above, it just feels a little… underwhelming. Pike and the crew were staring down an invasion fleet one minute, then the next the Gorn just turned around and went home to take a nappy-nap. It… I’m struggling to find the right words, to be honest. I think “underwhelming” and “anticlimactic” are in the mix, though.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing Captain Pike on the bridge. — Pike and the crew tricked the Gorn… into going back to sleep.

Star Trek has always been a franchise that sought out scientific answers, even to the toughest questions. But something about the way Pike and the crew basically tricked the Gorn into abandoning their invasion plans isn’t quite sitting right. And if this is to be the Gorn’s final appearance in the series – which Pike implied it could be as the Gorn retreated – I wonder if that’s good enough. As a resolution to this two-part story, I think it works. But as the ending of a multi-season arc involving numerous characters across several episodes, which has been Strange New Worlds’ biggest ongoing story thus far? Hmm. I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed.

I don’t think Strange New Worlds would’ve benefited from an ongoing war. We’ve seen that in Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Discovery in different ways – and some of those worked well. But for the kind of episodic, exploration-focused show that I’ve loved to see so much, a long-running war would’ve completely changed the tone – and not for the better, in my view. So in that sense, I’m glad Hegemony, Part II wrapped things up with the Gorn. But the pacing of Scotty devising the plan, and even the implementation of this attempt to trick the Gorn into going beddie-byes… it just doesn’t seem to quite fit with all of the dramatic moments that led up to it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing a Gorn roaring. — An adult Gorn.

The space battles were tense and exciting, and the way the Enterprise moves in space feels much more responsive and three-dimensional than it did in years gone by. The design of the smaller Gorn ships felt like something right out of The Original Series with its three-spoke design, and it felt like a bit of a cool throwback in that sense. In Arena – the original version, not the remaster – there is no Gorn ship, but if there had been, I can absolutely picture it looking like Strange New Worlds’ Gorn vessel! Oh, and I loved the sequence as the away team escaped – the cutting back-and-forth between their ship and the pursuing Gorn was great, and it reminded me a little of Star Wars’ famous starfighter dogfights and the trench run!

The larger Gorn ships are truly spectacular! The closest thing in Star Trek I could think of was either the huge Dominion battle cruiser from DS9 or the massive Breen warships from Discovery’s fifth season. There was something, again, very “alien” about this design; it seemed like something from another sci-fi property – like Warhammer 40K, perhaps – rather than Star Trek! And I think I mean that as a compliment; this version of the Gorn needs a warship that embodies the same traits and the same design philosophy – and I think we got that both inside and out.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01: Hegemony, Part II, showing a Gorn warship. — The Gorn warship.

So that was Hegemony, Part II. I think the cliffhanger was wrapped up reasonably well, and if my biggest complaint isn’t actually to do with the story itself, but rather Paramount’s amateur-hour, cack-handed marketing… well, that’s not really the fault of the episode! I stand by what I said, though: a slightly longer cut, giving just a couple of extra minutes each to Scotty, La’an, and Chapel across their storylines would have been to the benefit of Hegemony, Part II.

So… roll on Wedding Bell Blues! It’s a bit of an oddity to see two episodes premiere at once, but it’s not unheard of in the current streaming landscape. With the Enterprise bound for Earth, and a wedding seemingly on the horizon, the next episode seems like it’ll switch things up and be a nice change of pace. I think we need that after two quite intense war stories!

Be sure to join me in the days ahead for a review of that. Until then, I hope this has been interesting!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Re-Watch: Season 1, Episode 18: Arena

Sun 06.07.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1, 2, and 3, Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4, and Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1.

It’s been more than five years since I set up this website. In that time, I’ve written hundreds – literally hundreds – of articles, essays, and reviews all about Star Trek. But this’ll be the first time I’ve written up a full re-watch of an episode of The Original Series. I must be the first Trekkie in history to write up a re-watch of an episode of The Animated Series before The Original Series! But this catastrophic failure of Trekkie-dom comes to an end today, as we sit down together to watch the classic first season episode Arena.

I’m going to split this article into two parts. We’ll talk about Arena on its face, including some of the episode’s production history – and the reason why the creator of the iconic Gorn costume went uncredited and unknown for almost a decade after the episode aired – and then we’ll talk about the Gorn themselves in a bit more detail. Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched Strange New Worlds and still plan to, but the Gorn appear prominently in that show. That’s actually part of the reason why I wanted to re-visit Arena ahead of the third season premiere!

Still frame from a TV advert for the Star Trek video game circa 2013 showing William Shatner and someone in a Gorn costume. — The Gorn and Captain Kirk…

Arena is an iconic episode – and the Gorn captain has to be one of The Original Series’ most recognisable villains. In fact, I was a little surprised not to see Arena on the list when I did my recent recap of IMDB’s top-rated Star Trek episodes – according to that site’s users, Arena ranks a measly 19th out of The Original Series’ 79 episodes! I think I’d have put it a fair bit higher than that; it’s gotta be a top ten episode, at the very least! It has a strong story, expanding our understanding of the Federation, while also containing enough of that esoteric sci-fi “weirdness” that makes Star Trek the franchise we know and love.

It’s also best-known, of course, as “the Gorn episode,” introducing the famous reptillian species to the franchise. But Arena is as much about another alien race – the Metrons – as it is about the Gorn. The Metrons feel, with the benefit of decades of hindsight now, almost like a prototype of what would become the Q Continuum – millennia ahead of the Federation, considering themselves to be enlightened, but not above a bit of interference in galactic affairs. The Metrons have never returned to Star Trek, though, and I can kind of understand why: for a “morality play” like Arena, they work well as a somewhat neutral arbiter. But as the franchise has expanded, we’ve seen fewer of these kinds of stories. Modern Star Trek in particular lends itself much more to the inclusion of the Gorn than it does the Metrons!

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing a Metron. — An unnamed Metron from the end of the episode.

Because the battle at Vasquez Rocks is so well-remembered, it can be easy to overlook the first part of Arena – but the away mission to Cestus III is one of the first season’s most tense combat sequences. Drawing on war films for inspiration, with an unseen enemy and whistling noises reminiscent of World War II-era mortars, the entire away mission to the destroyed outpost is – for the time, anyway – really exciting stuff. This is also one of the first away missions to be shot on location – i.e. not on a sound stage or backlot. Following the previous episode, Shore Leave, which was also shot in the Los Angeles area, Arena took the cast and crew to a set near Vasquez Rocks which had been built a few years earlier for a different television series.

I think I’m right in saying that it’s this away mission sequence in Arena, which used several pyrotechnic explosions to create the effect of the Gorn attack, that led to both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy suffering from tinnitus – a condition that causes ringing in the ears and can be painful. The Original Series used pyrotechics throughout its run, but this battle sequence pushed the performers to act in close proximity to these explosive devices. Knowing the impact the sequence had on the actors, that does taint how we view it. Because as exciting and intense as the Cestus III mission was, no television scene is worth suffering from life-long after-effects.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Kirk being flung into the air by an explosion. — One of the explosions on Cestus III.

The first part of Arena, it could be argued, plays out similarly to Balance of Terror, which would’ve premiered just a month or so earlier. The attack on a Federation outpost, pursuing a powerful but unseen enemy… it starts the story in a familiar way. But the episode soon takes a completely different turn with the intervention of the Metrons. What begins with a deadly raid and an attack on the away team seems to be building up to another starship battle – but just as the Enterprise seems to be catching up to the Gorn vessel, the Metrons rebuke both ships and crews for their violent nature.

The Metrons are an interesting addition to the story. Rather than just another enemy encounter or a straightforward action story, their intervention puts a different spin on things. Kirk, who seemed hell-bent on revenge at first, is forced to confront the way he handled the interaction, and this idea of revenge at any cost – mutually assured destruction, perhaps – is thrust into the spotlight in an uncomfortable way.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing the crew on the bridge. — Spock, Kirk, and the crew on the bridge while the chase unfolded.

That’s part of the context behind Arena, this idea that seeking revenge isn’t healthy and is, in itself, a violent urge. But there’s more to it than that. The revelation that the Gorn considered Cestus III to be one of their planets, and that’s why they attacked the outpost, reframes things for Kirk, Bones, and the rest of the crew. The Federation may not have been aware of the Gorn claim, but either way, they settled an outpost on a planet that someone else considered to be their territory. There’s another analogy here that I think is particularly interesting.

The Original Series draws inspiration from the western genre. The idea of space as a new “frontier” conjures images of the wild west, and in Arena itself, Kirk refers to himself and the Enterprise as the only lawmen in this region of the galaxy. The Gorn, therefore, are this story’s metaphorical Native Americans, having a pre-existing claim to the land and attacking the Federation settlers who’d moved in on their territory. Maybe that wasn’t exactly how the story was written, but I think that reading is there, just beneath the surface. And for the 1960s – when the western genre was still riding high at the box office, with films like El Dorado, Ride in the Whirlwind, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – that’s kind of a progressive idea. To make the point that, in this case, the Federation may have been in the wrong… that’s a pretty neat inversion of the typical western-inspired frontier story.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Dr McCoy. — Dr McCoy put it best: “we could be in the wrong.”

Vasquez Rocks has become an iconic location within the Star Trek franchise, and that really began here in Arena. The filming location, which is just inside the famous “thirty-mile zone” around the film studios in Los Angeles, has appeared in The Next Generation, Voyager, Enterprise, Picard, and two of the Kelvin films as well as The Original Series and The Voyage Home. It was a great choice for Kirk’s battle against the Gorn commander, and even though I’ve criticised some modern Star Trek productions for re-using the same filming locations too often, I think Vasquez Rocks is such an iconic spot that it gets a pass!

I absolutely love the original Gorn design, and even though it might not be as “realistic” as the updated variant seen in Strange New Worlds… I think there’s something special about the original costume. I always compared the Gorn to a Tyrannosaurus Rex – but that’s because I first watched Arena after having seen Jurassic Park in the mid 1990s! The design draws inspiration from real-world reptiles like the komodo dragon, using reflective, almost insect-like eyes and needle-sharp teeth to complement the monstrous design.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Kirk and the Gorn captain's first encounter. — I just love this costume.

Wah Chang designed the Gorn costume as well as many other iconic Star Trek props. The tricorder, the flip-open communicator, and tribbles were all his creations – but he went uncredited for all of it, and was unknown until members of the Star Trek fan community uncovered his role in the 1970s. Chang seems to have been commissioned by Desilu – Star Trek’s production company – in a weird legal grey area; director and producer Bob Justman wanted to use Chang’s work, but Chang wasn’t a member of the prop-makers union. In a kind of workaround, Desilu would “purchase” items from Chang, but he was never credited on screen for any of his creations.

This is another great example of the early Star Trek fan community pulling together! Chang’s role was eventually uncovered in the 1970s by Trekkies, who were keen to find out more about some of the show’s iconic props and designs. It’s one of those fun little stories that, were it not for the dedication of fans, would’ve simply never come to light. Chang’s contributions to Star Trek – not only the episode Arena, but really across the entire first season – helped to define the look and feel of this vision of the 23rd Century. Who knows where Star Trek would’ve been without him?

Two set photos from Star Trek: The Original Series showing the Gorn costume. — The original Gorn costume.

There are some great moments between Kirk and Spock in Arena, as they wrangle with the aftermath of the Gorn attack on Cestus III and what it could mean. In the context of Arena itself, disregarding any other Gorn stories, we can see both points of view. Kirk argues that the attack – which seems, at first, to be completely unprovoked – could be the precursor to a wider invasion, and as the only ship in the area, it falls to the Enterprise to prevent that. But Spock is also correct – without more information about what happened, who perpetrated the attack, and why… Kirk is kind of jumping to conclusions. His line about seeking revenge hits particularly hard.

We’ll get into this more in a moment when we discuss the Gorn, but this is one area where more recent Star Trek productions – and Strange New Worlds in particular – arguably re-frame this conversation. As a veteran of conflicts against the Gorn while serving under Pike’s command, Spock is acutely aware of how bloodthirsty and vicious the Gorn can be, and how single-minded they are when staking their claims to planets that the Federation already occupies. There is wiggle-room here, and nothing in Strange New Worlds explicitly contradicts Arena (at least as of the end of Season 2). But it does change how we perceive these conversations – which, it shouldn’t need to be said, supposedly take place a decade or so after the events of that show.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Kirk and Spock in Kirk's cabin. — The conversation in Kirk’s cabin.

Kirk’s hand-to-hand battle with the Gorn captain is a ton of fun. The lumbering monster reminds me of the titular Creature from the Black Lagoon with its heavy rubber suit and somewhat clumsy movements, and I just really love that kind of old-school style of creature design. The rubber suit may be old-fashioned compared to, say, the new dinosaur-inspired Gorn depiction from Strange New Worlds… but I think it’s light-years ahead of the awful CGI rendition that we got in Enterprise! The very “sixties” fabric used for the Gorn captain’s uniform just adds to the charm.

The fight has its tense and serious moments. Kirk’s two-handed attack, which we’ve seen him use to great effect across the show’s first season, has absolutely no impact on the powerful and muscular Gorn, which was interesting. We also see the Gorn’s own ingenuity as he devises a trap – Kirk ends up injured and seemingly about to be impaled… just in time for the ad break! But the fight also has moments that, almost sixty years later, seem almost cartoonish or campy. The obviously polystyrene rocks – which look even less convincing in HD on a large television set – are part of that.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing the Gorn captain using a communicator. — The Gorn captain.

Then there’s Kirk’s “Wile E. Coyote” moment! Sneaking up on the Gorn captain from atop Vasquez Rocks, Kirk plans to drop a very large boulder on his opponent. And look, I get it: it’s a smart move given the circumstances. But the way this sequence is framed and shot makes it look like something straight out of the old Road Runner cartoon. It’s a ton of fun, but perhaps less tense or serious to a modern audience than it was intended to be in 1966!

The fight ends with Kirk choosing to show mercy to his defeated and injured opponent, impressing the Metrons and showing that, despite his earlier feelings about the attack on Cestus III, Kirk has learned something from the experience. His final conversation with Spock suggests that Federation diplomats might be able to contact the Gorn and peacefully resolve the Cestus III dispute. This resolution was clearly successful, because according to Deep Space Nine, Cestus III had a Federation colony again in the 24th Century… though we never saw this on screen for ourselves!

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Kirk and a boulder. — Captain Kirk’s plan was clearly inspired by the great tactician Wile E. Coyote.

With Strange New Worlds’ third season coming up, I want to talk a little bit more about the Gorn, and how Arena still has relevance to Star Trek today.

The Gorn have become Strange New Worlds’ most important villain, filling a role that the Klingons arguably did in The Original Series, the Borg did in The Next Generation, or the Cardassians and Dominion did in Deep Space Nine. Gorn stories have had profound impacts on Pike and the crew, from La’an’s tragic backstory, through Hemmer’s untimely death, and ultimately leading to the attack on Parnassus Beta, the infection of Captain Batel, and the abduction of Ortegas and many surviving colonists.

Strange New Worlds took the barest of outlines of the Gorn – a race who, since Arena, had only made a couple of other appearances in Star Trek – and changed them into a genuinely intimidating and threatening villain. Strange New Worlds’ depiction of the Gorn blends together the likes of Jurassic Park’s velociraptors with Alien’s iconic Xenomorphs. The new series takes the foundation established by Arena – that the Gorn are kind of monstrous reptillians – but pads it out with newer inspirations from the horror and sci-fi genres.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 episode Hegemony showing Captain Batel and a Gorn. — An updated depiction of the Gorn from *Strange New Worlds*.

If you take a straight reading of Star Trek as a whole, from the point of view of a “canon purist,” then I guess I can understand why this change might not work. It *is* a change, at the end of the day, and with Strange New Worlds being a prequel, the fact that a major conflict against the Gorn happened just a few years earlier – involving several of the same characters – arguably gets close to treading on Arena’s toes. I’m not a “canon purist,” though, and I’m perfectly happy to enjoy both of these different depictions of the Gorn on their own terms.

I wish I had the photoshop skills to bring Arena’s Gorn captain into Strange New Worlds! I think that would be a really funny visual, and would make a great little Star Trek meme. Highlighting the differences in these depictions would be fun, and much of that would come from how different they appear to be – even though, I would argue, in terms of how they’re depicted, the Gorn aren’t actually all that inconsistent.

Still frame from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 trailer showing a Gorn. — A Gorn from the *Strange New World* Season 3 trailer.

Think about it: the attack on Cestus III and the total destruction the Gorn wrought isn’t far off what we see on Parnassus Beta in Strange New Worlds. The Gorn captain still makes the same kinds of horror-inspired “monster” noises, emphasising how different this life-form is to our familiar characters. The differences are really twofold: the limitations of the visual effects of the time compared to a more modern production with a higher budget, and perhaps more importantly, the limitations imposed on broadcast television at the time in terms of how graphic and horrifying visuals could be. For the mid-1960s, the Gorn captain is pure horror – and I think we can forget that because of how much time has elapsed and the kinds of things television shows today can do that they couldn’t do back then.

All that being said, I still adore the original Gorn design. I think it was incredibly creative, and Arena is just a fantastic episode all around, really. I think the parts we tend to overlook – the mission to Cestus III, the spaceship chase, and the involvement of the Metrons – are arguably the story’s most interesting parts, and to reduce Arena to Kirk and the Gorn squabbling in the desert is incredibly reductive and does Arena a huge disservice.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode Arena, showing Kirk firing his cannon at the Gorn captain. — Captain Kirk fires his makeshift cannon.

So that’s it for now. The Gorn are coming back, though… and soon! Strange New Worlds’ third season is just a couple of weeks away at time of writing, and I’m really looking forward to the resolution of the cliffhanger from Hegemony last season. I’ll do my best to write up reviews of Hegemony, Part II and the rest of the episodes in a more timely fashion this time around!

I hope this has been a bit of fun. I’ve been wanting to do a full write-up of an Original Series episode for ages, but I kept putting it on the back burner for one reason or another. Stay tuned, though, because I’ll definitely return to Star Trek’s roots before too long! I’d love to tackle one of my favourite episodes next: The Doomsday Machine! I have no idea when that’ll be… but one of these days, for sure.

Live Long and Prosper!

Star Trek: The Original Series (a.k.a. Star Trek) is available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The series is also available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including The Original Series, Strange New Worlds, and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.