Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Strange New Worlds season 2 - SPOILERS
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 9099199" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>I just watched "Arena" to check. And... the damage to continuity isn't that bad, imho.</p><p></p><p>The Enterprise is sent a message to come to an outpost world, where the crew could be given some shore leave. When they arrive, they find a world that's been decimated by an attack. There are aliens still on the world, and they bombard the away team. The team never sees the aliens.</p><p></p><p>The crew of the Enterprise in orbit explicitly don't get in range of the Gorn ship for visual contact. What they get off of sensors, they don't recognize. That's entirely fine - between SNW and TOS, the Gorn develop new ships that don't look like their old one on long-range sensors. This is a non-issue.</p><p></p><p>After Kirk blows up the aliens on the ground, the aliens ship takes off. Questioning a survivor, Kirk discovers that the outpost never sent an invitation. Kirk recognizes that the aliens must have lured them to the planet. He muses on why, and comes to the answer that the Enterprise is the only Federation ship in the area, and this is prelude to invasion!</p><p></p><p>(In retrospect, Kirk is being dumb here - or, more accurately, the writers are being dumb, because they needed to fabricate a reason for the Enterprise to be here. If the aliens <em>know</em> there's only one ship in the area, there's no need to lure the Enterprise in - an invasion fleet would paste the one ship anyway. We, with SNW, can surmise that the Gorn lure the Enterprise in because they freakin' HATE the Enterprise.)</p><p></p><p>Kirk gives chase to the alien ship, and eventually both the Enterprise and the aliens are caught by the Metrons, who set up the Arena thing. And this is where the first (and pretty much only) canon violation happens.</p><p></p><p>The Metrons use the word, "Gorn," and Uhura, Scotty, and Spock, who are on the Bridge at the time with Kirk, do not immediately go, "Oh, crap, Jim, we know these guys, we are in deep kimchee!"</p><p></p><p>Kirk is then whisked away to fight the Gorn Captain. Kirk has not (so far, iirc) been part of the SNW Gorn episodes, but it is hard to believe that Sam Kirk wouldn't have mentioned them, unless the Gorn become classified. So his ignorance is a bit of an issue. But it doesn't really change the <em>plot</em> of the episode.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, but "launch an interstellar offensive and notify alien governments to stay the heck out of the way" is not an <em>instinctive</em> response.</p><p></p><p>I have a current No-Prize explanation for the Gorn behavior, until they give me one. The basic answer is in one term: Life stages.</p><p></p><p>I surmise that the majority of the Gorn we have seen are young, non- or barely-sentient. It is this stage in which they are extremely competitive, violent, and weirdly, breed. The young stage are the ones who are so strongly bound by instinctual responses. </p><p></p><p>The Gorn Captain we see in TOS, and maybe the one we saw in the spacesuit, are mature specimens, possibly past breeding age, sentient, and no longer so strongly bound by instinct. These mature specimens are the ones who maintain Gorn culture, build ships, and so on. They are brutal, but can make plans and choose to act to avoid full-scale wars and such.</p><p></p><p>So to explain the finale - There's a coronal mass ejection where Scotty was. That sends the <em>young</em> Gorn into a frenzy. The mature Gorn say, "Well, our kids are going to consume each other unless we give them a target," so they drop them off on the colony world and let them hash it out. They message the Federation to stay the heck out of the way, because a full-scale conflict isn't something the adults want at this time, and they don't want the Federation to figure out their behavioral patterns like this, lest it be exploited.</p><p></p><p>At the colony, we see a couple of young Gorn <em>choose</em> to not attack humans. This one has already fed and bred and matured to the point where it isn't entirely driven by instinct. It is on its way to becoming a mature, sentient individual. I don't know any other reason for that scene except to telegraph that there are changes as Gorn mature.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 9099199, member: 177"] I just watched "Arena" to check. And... the damage to continuity isn't that bad, imho. The Enterprise is sent a message to come to an outpost world, where the crew could be given some shore leave. When they arrive, they find a world that's been decimated by an attack. There are aliens still on the world, and they bombard the away team. The team never sees the aliens. The crew of the Enterprise in orbit explicitly don't get in range of the Gorn ship for visual contact. What they get off of sensors, they don't recognize. That's entirely fine - between SNW and TOS, the Gorn develop new ships that don't look like their old one on long-range sensors. This is a non-issue. After Kirk blows up the aliens on the ground, the aliens ship takes off. Questioning a survivor, Kirk discovers that the outpost never sent an invitation. Kirk recognizes that the aliens must have lured them to the planet. He muses on why, and comes to the answer that the Enterprise is the only Federation ship in the area, and this is prelude to invasion! (In retrospect, Kirk is being dumb here - or, more accurately, the writers are being dumb, because they needed to fabricate a reason for the Enterprise to be here. If the aliens [I]know[/I] there's only one ship in the area, there's no need to lure the Enterprise in - an invasion fleet would paste the one ship anyway. We, with SNW, can surmise that the Gorn lure the Enterprise in because they freakin' HATE the Enterprise.) Kirk gives chase to the alien ship, and eventually both the Enterprise and the aliens are caught by the Metrons, who set up the Arena thing. And this is where the first (and pretty much only) canon violation happens. The Metrons use the word, "Gorn," and Uhura, Scotty, and Spock, who are on the Bridge at the time with Kirk, do not immediately go, "Oh, crap, Jim, we know these guys, we are in deep kimchee!" Kirk is then whisked away to fight the Gorn Captain. Kirk has not (so far, iirc) been part of the SNW Gorn episodes, but it is hard to believe that Sam Kirk wouldn't have mentioned them, unless the Gorn become classified. So his ignorance is a bit of an issue. But it doesn't really change the [I]plot[/I] of the episode. Yeah, but "launch an interstellar offensive and notify alien governments to stay the heck out of the way" is not an [I]instinctive[/I] response. I have a current No-Prize explanation for the Gorn behavior, until they give me one. The basic answer is in one term: Life stages. I surmise that the majority of the Gorn we have seen are young, non- or barely-sentient. It is this stage in which they are extremely competitive, violent, and weirdly, breed. The young stage are the ones who are so strongly bound by instinctual responses. The Gorn Captain we see in TOS, and maybe the one we saw in the spacesuit, are mature specimens, possibly past breeding age, sentient, and no longer so strongly bound by instinct. These mature specimens are the ones who maintain Gorn culture, build ships, and so on. They are brutal, but can make plans and choose to act to avoid full-scale wars and such. So to explain the finale - There's a coronal mass ejection where Scotty was. That sends the [I]young[/I] Gorn into a frenzy. The mature Gorn say, "Well, our kids are going to consume each other unless we give them a target," so they drop them off on the colony world and let them hash it out. They message the Federation to stay the heck out of the way, because a full-scale conflict isn't something the adults want at this time, and they don't want the Federation to figure out their behavioral patterns like this, lest it be exploited. At the colony, we see a couple of young Gorn [I]choose[/I] to not attack humans. This one has already fed and bred and matured to the point where it isn't entirely driven by instinct. It is on its way to becoming a mature, sentient individual. I don't know any other reason for that scene except to telegraph that there are changes as Gorn mature. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Strange New Worlds season 2 - SPOILERS
Top