Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Harnesses A TNG Classic To Reinvent The Gorn

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3, episode 9.

The "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" team proposed that the show's most underused lead character, Enterprise pilot Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), would get more focus in season 3. The season's penultimate episode, "Terrarium," is indisputably an Ortegas-focused episode, albeit one that takes her out of her element. 

In "Terrarium," Ortegas is piloting a shuttle that is pulled through a wormhole; she crash-lands on a barren moon of a planet on the other side of the wormhole. While the Enterprise tries to locate her, Ortegas must survive... but not alone, because there's another stranded pilot on the planet. A Gorn pilot, specifically, but one that proves surprisingly willing to cooperate with her new neighbor. No one is more surprised than Ortegas herself. 

Up to this point, "Strange New Worlds" has depicted the Gorn as borderline monsters – ravenous predators without mercy or compassion. The series even revealed that the Gorn reproduce by laying eggs inside other sentient beings, Xenomorph-style, and they power their half-organic ships by melting and feeding their prisoners into them. But "Star Trek" has always been a series about bridging differences, and understanding an individual can't be judged solely by the group or species they belong to.

Next to La'an (Christina Chong), who was kidnapped by the Gorn as a child, Ortegas is probably the one who hates the Gorn the most. She was captured by them back in "Hegemony" and had half her hand melted off in one of their feeding chambers. It thus makes sense for her to be the one who learns this lesson that the Gorn can be communicated with.

The episode alludes to the original Gorn episode, "Arena," where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and a Gorn captain (played in costume by stuntmen Bill Blackburn and Bobby Clark, voiced by Ted Cassidy) are locked into single combat on a desert world. It was all a plot by the Metrons, advanced aliens that wanted to study humanity and the Gorn. "Terrarium" reveals near the end that Ortegas and the Gorn's meeting, too, was an earlier Metron experiment to observe if two races could interact in peace.

However, another episode that "Terarrium" invites comparisons to is "Darmok," one of the most beloved episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

"Darmok" is the second episode of "The Next Generation" season 5, but it's one of the best introductions to what the show is all about and the highs it can reach. (It was the first "TNG" episode that I saw, and look at me now.)

The episode follows a first contact event between the Federation and the Tamarians, a race for whom the universal translator doesn't suffice. The Tamarians communicate only through allusions to stories that describe situations at hand. The translator turns their words into English, but the sentences still sound nonsensical and irrelevant. The Tamarian captain Dathon (Paul Winnfield) recognizes communication is getting nowhere, so he has himself and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) beamed down to nearby planet El-Adrel. They'll learn to understand each other through actions and then, hopefully, language comprehension will follow.

The episode title "Darmok" comes from one of the Tamarian phrases: "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra," or a story about two strangers who meet on an island and become friends as they work to survive together. The pair of captains wind up reiterating the story as "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel," though sadly, Dathon is killed by an alien beast on the planet.

"Darmok" itself is something of a more diplomatic riff on "Arena," which is one of the most remembered "TOS" episodes. At one point, when Dathon throws a dagger at Picard, the captain thinks that the Tamarian wants the two of them to battle as Kirk and the Gorn did. In reality, Dathon wants them to fight the beast together. 

In turn, "Darmok" has been echoed by later "Star Trek" episodes just as it echoed "Arena." "Dawn" on "Star Trek: Enterprise" featured Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) crash-landing on a moon, stranded with the alien who shot him down, Zho'Kaan (Gregg Henry). With no universal translator on hand, they can't communicate. 

That brings us back to "Terrarium," where the Gorn's words are heard only as growls and hisses. Ortegas whips up a rudimentary translator, but it can't infer exact words, only whether the Gorn agrees or disagrees with a statement. But it's enough. Ortegas and the Gorn aren't mere allies of convenience, they become true friends. The Gorn shares her meals (even if she's confused that Ortegas takes her meat cooked), Ortegas teaches the Gorn chess, etc.

While Ortegas wants to escape, the Gorn is less compelled. Unlike humans, the Gorn leave their wounded behind, so she has no home to go back to and also doubts she'd be accepted in the Federation. She's sadly proven right. The Enterprise eventually discovers Ortegas so La'an and a security team beam down to rescue her. La'an thinks the Gorn is moving to attack Ortegas and shoots her dead.

Back on the Enterprise, Ortegas discusses what happened with Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). Both La'an and the Gorn are her friends, Erica muses, "[but] I don't know what to do with that." "Arena" only happened because humanity and the Gorn were still enemies. Ortegas and her friend crossed an important bridge, but it'll take time for the rest of their peoples to follow them.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is streaming on Paramount+. The season 3 finale is scheduled to debut on Thursday, September 11, 2025.