Star Trek: 10 Dropped Plot Threads We'll Never Get The Answer To

3. Why Didn't We See More Of The Gorn? - "Arena"

Have you ever seen Kirk fight? Dropkicks, double-fist hammer-strikes and judo flips form part of this character€™s repertoire of fighting skills. In this episode, the Enterprise responds to an attack on a distant outpost on Cestus III by a mysterious alien species. The outpost is destroyed and Kirk pursues the fleeing enemy ship into an unknown region of space. However, both ships are immobilized by another advanced alien species known as the Metrons. They are displeased by the intrusion into their space by two savage, warlike and inferior species. They deposit the captains of both ships on a nearby planet to allow them to duel and thereby resolving the matter efficiently and with as little bloodshed as possible. After being instantly transported to the planet€™s surface, Kirk discovers that his opponent is a seven-foot tall reptilian humanoid known as a Gorn and is physically superior to his €œKirk-fu€. However, through careful observation, Kirk notices that the planet has an abundance of loose chemical and other elements that he gathers and uses to construct a primitive gunpowder weapon. With his new advantage in weaponry, Kirk incapacitates the Gorn captain and spares his life €“ a trait the Metrons were not expecting. They instantly teleport the Gorn back to his ship to receive medical attention and eventually, Kirk, to the Enterprise. What€™s not to be entertained by a giant reptilian with warp technology? In the 1980€™s there was a strategy game put out by a company called FASA called €œStar Fleet Battles€. The back story of the game is pure Star Trek and suggests that the Gorn are compared very closely with the Federation in spirit, if not in physicality. The Gorn Hegemony and the United Federation of Planets are close allies in this game after resolving the issues at Cestus III. However, this has been the only mention of the Gorn Hegemony since the 1968 episode. It wasn€™t until 2005 when Star Trek: Enterprise featured a Gorn in the mirror universe episode €œIn a Mirror, Darkly€ who gets killed by Captain Archer. Talk about history repeating itself. But this is a race that had so much potential plot fodder in terms of possible allies for the Federation (as suggested by the FASA strategy game). Their technology was equivalent and their hand-to-hand combat abilities offered possibilities of great fight sequences. Can you imagine the officer exchange programs the inclusion of this race could have offered? For thirty-seven years, this race has languished in insignificance, forced to sit on the sidelines when it could have been used in a time where the special effects could have created an awesome monster ally for the Federation. Again: what a waste.