They turned the Gorn into a cheap Aliens ripoff. They made the Gorn uncessarily vicious too. Such a parasitic life form would not have developed space travel and advanced tech.
Not to be too “what if”-y, but if them planting their eggs in hosts allows them to gather some knowledge the host has, couldn’t that be a possible explanation for the Gorn to develop advanced tech?
I was thinking maybe the Gorn have ancestral memory where hatchlings already have a lot of knowledge from their ancestral line, including how their society works, lots of technology, etc. Possibly due to having memories of previous Gorn, maybe hatchlings don’t view their current individual identity in the same way as other species, and have a very different ethical viewpoint about killing other Gorn, interacting with other races, etc.
It’s an interesting race, and I’m looking forward to how they might be used.
Imagine that TOS episode with one of these Gorn. That would have been entertaining.
I don’t know that I particularly object to the aliens rip-off as science fiction is nothing but a collection of borrowed ideas. How those ideas are used is what matters. I appreciate that the author is pointing out that while Arena demonstrates that understanding and compromise are always possible, this new take on the Gorn demonstrates that not everyone will be interested in understanding and compromise. That is in keeping with how the Gorn originally conducted themselves.
It is additionally valuable in how we deal with real world “monsters”. People often try to seek understanding and compromise with ruthless aggressors and that’s not always possible. Putin and the war in Ukraine being the most salient recent example.
Whether such an aggressive species could develop technology isn’t really important for me. I saw a comic the other day about the Klingon that developed warp drive and the artist playfully makes a similar claim about them. Maybe the Gorn have a caste system, maybe they’re half of a symbiotic relationship (I particularly like this idea, given their parasitic nature) or maybe they just stole it from the unwary.
I think these Gorn raise interesting questions and, if we allow it, theorize about interesting new ideas. That’s exactly what science fiction should do.
Gorn, but not forgotten.
