“Memento Mori,” episode four of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, debuts on Thursday. And now there is a new clip.
It’s the Gorn!
This week’s episode of Strange New Worlds sees the USS Enterprise face off with an enemy that is well known to security officer La’an Noonien-Singh:
While on a routine supply mission to a colony planet, the U.S.S. Enterprise comes under an attack from an unknown malevolent force. Pike brings all his heart and experience to bear in facing the crisis, but the security officer warns him that the enemy cannot be dealt with by conventional Starfleet means.
Now check out a clip featuring La’an convincing Captain Pike of the threat (via Cinemablend).
“Memento Mori” debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, May 25.
Previously released clip:
The latest episode of The Ready Room includes a clip of a landing party finding an empty colony [at 26:00]. [Also available internationally at startrek.com]
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., Latin America, Australia and the Nordics. The series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. In New Zealand, it is available on TVNZ, and in India on Voot Select. Strange New Worlds will arrive via Paramount+ in select countries in Europe when the service launches later this year, starting with the UK and Ireland in June.
Yeeesssss, finally! The Gorn are returning! All right! I’m all for this, man!
I absolutely love the Gorn 💖and I can’t wait to see their return tomorrow! My TOS Gorn Captain MEGO figure is so happy 😃🙂! Live long and prosper, Trekmovie 🖖
Ha! I used to have one of those, loved it!
Thanks 👍! Yeah, he’s next to my Salt Vampire MEGO and I absolutely love them both 🙂💖. They’re just awesome to look at. Live long and prosper, Danpaine🖖.
I’m excited too.
Glad someone else is here to bring some positive energy and anticipation.
Thanks for your positive feedback 👍, TG47! I love the Gorn ❤️! I don’t know if you read the Star Trek books but in them the Gorn is part of an alliance called the Typhon Pact (the Typhon Pact consists of the Tholians, the Gorn, the Tzenkethi, the Kinshaya, the Breen, and the Romulans. This group exists in the TNG-era.) and I would so be down for a show about the Typhon Pact. Anything to get the Gorn and the Tholians more screen time is good for me 🙂.
Also they already told us that the Gorn were gonna be coming back in the first episode when La’an revealed that she survived a Gorn attack and they mentioned the Metron’s too in that episode. On the PADD that Pike is reading, it says that a bunch of ship captains were talking about being in one part of Gorn space one minute and then winding up in a completely different part the next. That was foreshadowing, all day, the eminent arrival of the Gorn. So I’ve been looking forward to seeing them.
Just like we’re gonna see my other favorite race on here soon too probably – the Tholians. They foreshadowed them in the Captain Pike Short Trek. A lot of people have forgotten about the use of foreshadowing in storytelling. The majority of people think everything is an Easter egg nowadays but it’s not.
Sometimes these writers do foreshadow what is to come, such as the Gorn being foreshadowed in episode 1, and foreshadowing is definitely not an Easter egg. I’m just excited to see the Gorn again and yeah, people are gonna be mad about it but nobody has even said if Captain Pike runs into the Gorn himself. Everybody’s just assuming that. We could see the Gorn through a flashback that La’an has to the Gorn boarding party that attacked her ship when she was a kid.
Nobody knows what’s gonna happen yet but a lot of people are upset for what? Just sit back and enjoy the episode first, let the writers tell the story, and then decide whether you liked it or not. It’s the Enterprise ❤️ so that right there should make people happy no matter what. Live long and prosper, TG47🖖.
Yes, I’ve read the Typhon Pact books and most of the Relaunch Litverse.
It sounds as though showrunner Henry Alonso Myers has read a lot of Treklit, besides being a true fan of the onscreen franchise. He definitely is familiar with Number One’s Litverse instances.
It will be interesting to see what more he will bring into onscreen canon.
First off, looks exciting! But just preemptively I’m going to add below what I said earlier today on the older thread for this episode:
Arena is up there in my Top 5 TOS episodes, and I’ve watched it dozens of times (and counting). There’s no way I’m buying SF previously encountered them. Especially Kirk, whom Gary Mitchell called a “…stack of books with legs..” when he was in the academy, there’s no way he’d just ‘not know’ about the Gorn if they were documented. And Spock would definitely remember. Arena was a first-contact situation with the Gorn in TOS, no doubt in my mind. I’m enjoying SNW so far, but the show will likely be replete with violations like this – I’m just resigned to it (and to it taking place in another timeline :). I plan on enjoying the show anyway, from what I’m seeing so far.
That said, looking forward to tomorrow’s episode! Cheers.
100%
“Violations”? I didn’t know Star Trek canon had the force of law. And let’s face it, TOS (the one I’m most familiar with) is full of internal inconsistency. For example:
I know a lot of this is the result of the natural evolution of the series. Stii, I try not to get too hung up on it.
You’re comparing stuff to the first few years of a new show that was still trying to find its identity versus a 50 year old established franchise and where canon has become a vital part of it.
Not the same thing.
You’re right, Tiger.
Canonistas are criticizing “violations” based on single lines of throwaway dialogue written when nobody thought the show would last a season, let alone 50. Please please please, people, get over it. They are rewriting canon, not violating it.
They’re not suddenly making Pike a woman, they’re tinkering with some very minor stuff so they can tell awesome stories.
I honestly wish I could brain melt canon-obsessed fans with a button. Oh what a bridge function that would be!
My concern is that these canon nitpicks from the TOS old guard fans, or even more a flat refusal to be flexible in interpretation of what was shown in TOS, are off putting for new viewers.
First this view about the sanctity of Prime Universe canon (and long held interpretations) isn’t held by all the old fans like me who saw TOS on television in first run, who lined up on opening day to see the TOS movies from TMP on, or who went to the early cons and belonged to the fan clubs.
I don’t feel that way. My mum-in-law doesn’t feel that way. My spouse who first saw Trek when the syndicated reruns started in the 70s, doesn’t care about whether and why Kirk didn’t know enough about the Gorn to identify them with reports from the Metrons. My spouse is most concerned about whether Hemmer’s antennae will move the way Shran’s did.
At the same time, gatekeeping fans who have their own strict idea about the sanctity of TOS have been an issue since groups of them took out full-page newspaper ads to try to stop TAS from airing and similarly campaigned against TNG – which basically saved the franchise from dying out and brought Trek into mainstream popular culture in the 90s.
While I always find TrekMovie the best place for franchise news and discussion, and there are many fans here that know their trek in detail, I do find that as a group we can take the discussion too negative. When we do that, I feel that we cross from appreciating and sharing to – as a group – sending an overall message or subtext of gatekeeping, even if individual comments don’t cross that line.
SNW is bringing back the joy of Star Trek for many long-time and casual fans while attracting new ones.
Without new fans, many of whom report on other social media that they find TOS unwatchable for the most part (despite giving it a sincere try), the franchise won’t continue. So, bringing back many of the legacy characters and aliens in a prequel that is watchable for younger viewers is a laudable goal that I can get behind and tolerate some creative interpretations, minor violations and stretching of canon to make possible.
Could we stick with the joy and excitement a bit longer please?
I agree with all of this. There is definitely going too far with it and yes it is usually with the more old guard TOS fans. And I was a TOS fan first from the late 70s on. For the record all fans are picky, regardless. But then there are those fans (and to be fair they do seem to be the minority here) who put TOS on some bizarre pedestal to the point if it’s contradicted or not followed in a more direct way by other shows or films, especially the new stuff, then it just doesn’t count. as true Trek
I think it’s fine for people to argue and debate issues of canon as long as you don’t become obsessed over it to the point you can’t even enjoy it. I have made my issues known and I come here because it’s fun to discuss it. But I have never once said a show isn’t ‘canon’ to me, that it just exist in an alternate universe or of course the biggest eye roll, it isn’t ‘real’ Star Trek (and I hear that one across the spectrum by some fans of any of the old shows). I have stated even with my issues of Discovery for example it’s still A. 100% Star Trek and B. completely canon to everything else because it is just fiction. It’s healthy to say why you have issues with a show without trying to wipe it out of existence at the same time.
But people who want to just sideline an entire show over it gets ridiculous. If you just think the show sucks, period, that’s fine. But if you can’t just accept its a show being made in a more modern time with a different tone or for different audiences because the new Enterprise doesn’t have the same control panels or because they hired a new actor to replace an old one due to age or something, then its time to take a step back.
Glad to see we’re still thinking alike on the big things Tiger2.
I also would like to add one more point. The more the conversations here are all negative, the less influence they have on the franchise and the fewer new voices are attracted to join the conversation.
Sometimes I check in on the reaction to TrekMovie articles posted to Reddit and am surprised how much more positive the subReddit comments discussion is on balance.
I do wonder if some of the important messages and major points of constructive criticism get lost here.
In my view, there is an enormous difference between the critique of a increasingly small part of TOS fandom, such as that the Gorn (one of the most memed species in the franchise) shouldn’t appear in a prequel, or critiques about major market targeting errors.
What do I mean? What do I see as an example of a major critique that I don’t want drowned out by nitpicks?
Picard had the same potential and promise to bring back the mainstream fans of the 90s while building a new base. It’s done reasonably well in streaming demand, but it didn’t achieve what SNW has already.
Beyond my own exasperation with the incoherent plotting and character arcs, Picard also poisoned the waters for some younger and prospective fans.
The Iceb torture scene in the abattoir is just not where some fans and potential fans were willing to go and it means they are risk averse in trying other new shows.
One of our teens has watched the trailer for SNW, and is curious, but flatly and absolutely refuses to try the show out until the season is done. Their rationale is that they need to know that SNW got through a whole season without that kind of graphic violence and torture before they are willing to get invested. They feel that the first three episodes of Picard were good but sold a different thing than what was delivered and don’t want to be fooled again.
So, that’s my “big deal” critique.
I know many here love Arena, but as many of us feel that building on that is showing the love as there are those who want to lock TOS in a hermetically sealed box that will soon become socially and culturally incomprehensible to my kids generation.
“Sometimes I check in on the reaction to TrekMovie articles posted to Reddit and am surprised how much more positive the subReddit comments discussion is on balance.”
That’s exactly why I post there. One, its way more people so you get a diversity of views. But mostly because people are just more positive and love the entire franchise. And they seem much younger there and most probably grew up with the TNG era unlike some of us oldies who were fans prior to that period. I love TM and I think most people are civil and balanced. But yes there are a few that takes this a little too seriously lol. Some so bad I have stopped communicating with them.
But people are very honest there too. The new shows have been generally mixed although I think Discovery fares better there than here. But Picard season 2 was basically roasted there like it was here. People complain about canon and all of that too. But again it’s just more balanced.
As for SNW and the canon issue, I have said it, overall I think most people won’t care, including here as long as they enjoy the show. It mainly depends how far they go with it. I just hate people who can’t enjoy the show BECAUSE of the canon problems. That definitely happened with Discovery. Not for me. I definitely had issues early on, a lot of them lol, but it was ultimately the story that was the real problem. Those issues are now resolved IMO and I’m still having trouble with it.
I don’t think SNW will be that problematic, mostly because it DOES feel like TOS and the other shows. And I don’t think it’s going to be as graphic like early Discovery and Picard ended up being. I understand how your kids feel but I think that was another lesson they learned. Notice there was none of that in season 2. So I think SNW will be fine, but I understand why they feel that way.
The Icheb torture scene was directed by Frakes, incidentally.
Well, all of this stuff in SNW, including the Gorn (Season one, episode 18), is based on the first few years of a new show.
Canon, schmanon.
Canon only became a thing years after TOS because there were so many inconsistencies.
That said, I just watched Arena again and don’t see any significant inconsistencies here. The colony didn’t know who attacked it, that doesn’t mean nobody in Starfleet/the federation knows who the Gorn are.
The difference being TOS had no other show or movie to play off of being the first; SNW does. And yes that can be a big hindrance telling its stories. But when you make a prequel, that’s the dice you roll.
As far as the Gorn, we’ll agree to disagree on that.
Gorn? Using colonists as bait? Well I never!
at least they got that part right
They got everything right. This was the best episode of Trek since “In the Pale Moonlight.” By a country mile. Time to stop treating mediocre TOS like it’s Mozart. It’s landmark, iconic, sci-fi, but it’s not the Holy Bible. Move on!
So… now we’re just remaking Arena? And Spock is in on the conversations about the Gorn? I’m hoping there is an explanation as to why Spock doesn’t say anything to Kirk about this in Arena. Otherwise, this makes Spock look really bad in about 6 years.
Spock doesn’t seem to talk about anything. As it’s been said the guy is very, very private I guess. And it explains why he never talked about about having a sister in Starfleet, or that he actually worked and knew Kirk’s brother, that he actually worked and knew a Noonien Singh and on and on and on. Come to think of it, Uhura is also a pretty closed book. ;)
As for Spock though, by the time this show is over, we will probably realized he never talked about having children, best friends with or his relationship with the Organians either. ;)
It’s almost like..he’s a different person! Or this is a parallel reality! :)
I don’t know if you remember the discussion we had in the thread promoting the trailer for the show but I remember saying to you I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw just as many canon breaking issues as we saw on Discovery. And so far it’s really looking that way lol.
Dude we’re not even FOUR episodes in yet and a lot of it so far is pretty questionable in terms of canon. Yes, they are (barely) treading the line in areas, but as said we’re only four episodes in. Imagine what this show will look like by episode 40?
But this show will obviously be breaking canon; it’s just a question of how seriously? And while some things you can frame it in a certain way where it doesn’t look like you are outright just breaking canon, it’s still pretty disingenuous in other ways. The T’Pring one being the biggest example so far. I can buy that her and Spock actually did see each other after their first meeting; but what I can’t buy is that no one would know about it who has been serving with the guy for years if they are having a real relationship. In Amok Time, it was obvious no one knew Spock had a relationship with anyone, much less married. But we have to somehow buy it. And my guess is every episode she appears in will make that less and less realistic.
Again, it’s pretty funny the show has barely started and they are already going full throttle with this stuff.
I’m very glad they are. The more canonista tears the better. It’s time to move on from 50 year old detail-obsessed fans. Time to make TV that’s far better than that little kiddie show from 1960-whatever.
And I am 100% OK with that, but you have to make it clear. Are you sticking with canon or doing your own thing? If they say the latter GREAT but you have to be upfront about it, that’s all.
I have been wanting them to reboot the franchise the day Discovery was announced. It only made sense to do it, especially after first season lol.
But they seem to think fans will cancel their subscription if you tell them that. I don’t really get it, but whatever.
Yes, exactly. Just say it, showrunners – Reboot. And these conversations are done.
I can’t totally tell if you’re refuting my comment or if you agree. But if I’m understanding you correctly, Spock believes in privacy over duty. If he were my first officer, I’d get him off my ship ASAP.
No I was being sarcastic. ;)
I always thought the excuse why Spock didn’t mention Burnham in TOS was because he just doesn’t talk about family was total B.S. And guess what so did the producers and why they decided to make it some bizarre Starfleet policy her name would just not be mentioned again or it’s treason or something (man…Discovery).
And even if you somehow believe Spock just loves to keep his mouth shut, there is a reason why they make Captain and ship’s logs. The Gorn and any previous encounters with them would be well documented, especially the way La’an goes on about them.
But yeah, this is the problem with prequels when you have writers who just don’t want to make an actual prequel. They want the allure of doing a Pike show and being back on the Enterprise, but it’s also just a back door TOS show end of the day too.; hence why half the cast are TOS characters and Kirk showing up next season. And we don’t need stuff like Khan or the Gorn on this show at all. There are still tons of things they can cover without stepping on TOS toes. And the thing is, they aren’t just treading into the water like the way Enterprise did showing the Ferengis or even the Borg, it’s obvious some of this stuff will be overarching story lines on the show. Maybe we will only see the Gorn once in this episode but I have a feeling they will be a reoccurring species if they are shown this soon. Either way, they are already breaking canon with them.
Ah gotcha haha. It’s frustrating, because I really want to like this show. I just get tired of dumb writing. I want this to be prime timeline despite the visual changes. But it’s tough when dumb situations occur when audiences know how things pan out.
Yeah so far I’m really enjoying it, but I’m not surprised this was going to happen either because based on Discovery they just can’t help themselves. You have to remind people it’s still the same people who wrote for that show writes for this one too. I assumed it would be better in terms of visual canon (which it is) but frankly with story canon it looks to be doing exactly what Discovery did it’s first two seasons and just kind of hand wave over any of canon issues that occurs in it.
Of course Discovery go-to solution was just classify everything lol. Mirror universe? Classified! Returning to Talos IV? Classified! Spore Drive? Classified! Burnham’s entire existence? Yep, that too, classified!
But then the biggest plot twist is Section 31 themselves which oddly ISN’T classified lol. They are just part of the fleet for some reason.
So it’s not really a shock but it is a shock how fast it’s already cropping up. I thought they would try to avoid some of the more OBVIOUS stuff like this until later at least. Or maybe they will do some of that stuff here too; Section 31 will show up at the end of the episode and classify the Gorn. I’m joking, but…
And for the record, I’m not really bothered by it, but I still don’t understand why it needs to be done either? Why not introduce something new or just another known species we haven’t seen much that you can bring in earlier without canon issues like the Breen or something?
Yup Tiger you know what they say about great minds thinking alike. I was in fact also thinking maybe the Breen would have been a better choice here but they basically wrote themselves into a corner by making Laan have history with the Gorn so that they could find an excuse to use the Gorn in the show. Having said this I think canon issue is also doable without really braking it too much, its actually not as difficult as people make it out to be. I mean take a look at both Star Wars rogue One and even the remake of Battlestar Galactica. Ron Moore managed to put in the classical cylons in his modern show without violating what came before and for all their cheesiness made it work. I can understand when people say yeah Rogue One is a movie, its different, but then how are they gonna explain away the original cylons in the Battlestar Galactica remake. It can be done if someone really puts their head into it.
After watching the episode NO SPOILERS I thought it was a fantastic episode overall, my favorite so far and treaded the idea of the Gorn nicely. But you really can’t pretend it’s not breaking canon either. And I will also say you can basically substitute any other species you want in the episode and it still works fine, especially how they structured it. I mean the Breen would’ve perfectly been suited for this story in fact.
But it is what it is at this point. I think most will just accept the show is going to go it’s own way on some of this stuff. But as long as its good and sticks to the amazing tone of old Trek, I don’t think most will care. That was Discovey’s downfall first season IMO.
But SNW is bringing me back to classic Trek in the way LDS and PRO did. So it’s working!
Welcome to Strange New Retread.
Only fools care about such stuff. Just sit back and enjoy fantastic new Trek stories.
La’an is obviously very affected in her duty by her trauma with the Gorn. I suppose this is also gonna be a character-driven episode and sense some similarities with Worf and the romulans, Picard/Borg, Kirk/Klingons and Trip/Xindi.
Don’t forget O’Brien and the bloody Cardies! ;)
I wonder when their will be a tribble episode.
probably in season 2 lol
Right after the cone shaped planet killer episode.
While I am liking SNW, I am kind of disappointed they aren’t taking the opportunity to expand the TOS frontier instead of remaking TOS episodes. You have a whole unexplored frontier now that is dangerous. Get to it!
Thinking about the Gorn more and I submit that they should instead call whoever does Star Fleet Battles and if you don’t want to do the Kzinti with drones then do the Lyrans with expanding sphere generators, Hydrans with fusion beams, fighter craft and gatling phasers, Interstellar Concordium with plasmatic pulsar torps, maybe have an Andromedan with tractor repulsor beams and transport capability, displacement devices. Hell, make it the remnants of the Vegan Tyranny which once destroyed all races in the region. Have it where they beam landing parties and invade you with robots or something. Orion Syndicate, have the Orions join the Federation but separatists wage a pirate war.
Why not invent the enemies of the Gorn and have it name dropped? Or make them lizards but different lizards?
Have them join the Feds later on or end up gone then no canon issues.
But let’s mix things up, get some new weapons that open the door for Balance of Terror strategy, etc.
This isn’t TNG, combat can be different and last more than 30 seconds.
A question: What does Pike say before she says “It’s the Gorn”, and everything goes silent? He’s saying something like it’s rare and they’ve never ventured into federation space. I couldn’t make it out. Who’s he referring to before she cuts him off?
“Confirmed sightings are rare and hey have never ventured into Federation space.”
Was he referring to the Gorn? She hadn’t mentioned it to him yet that it’s the Gorn, only to get the hell out of there.
I would guess he’s referring to the Gorn. Presumably she proposes it’s them earlier in the episode, after they find the colony attacked.
So….a remake of Arena. How surprising.
It sounds as though it owes more to Balance of Terror and the Hunt for Red October.
But we’ll see.
I can see the Gorn looking like the ones from TOS than the monstrous versions from Star Trek Online.
Has anyone mentioned that the phrase Memento Mori is Latin for “remember that you must die”?
As a teacher of latin I would have mentioned it, but I thought the meaning was clear. 😉
DaveCGN, nobody likes a captiosus asinus. :-)
The only problem with this series is Captain Pike knows his future, so when he orders the ship near a black hole he knows the enterprise will pull free
It’s funny because… knowing your future is a total cheat on “having faith.” Having faith can lead to a lot of bad decisions. I’m with La’an.
I think there is a way around this problem which would be that he cannot escape his fate *if* he lives that long in the first place.
But that doesn’t seem to be how they’re handling it.
Also he doesn’t know that the Enterprise won’t be destroyed as the Gorn capture him and he then somehow escapes, or some other scenario. And several of his crew are killed.
Just finished the episode. I quite enjoyed it. Why did it take this long for us to get a decent Trek series like this? Is it the greatest? No. It is however very decent Star Trek and the best of all the series so far. There are still some issues with the science and the writing overall but it’s a vast improvement.