Battle Analysis!! Star Trek: Arena- Animated Breakdown!

Their mean, green, and one of the most neglected opportunities in the Star Trek franchise - the Gorn!!
Let's break down the classic Star Trek episode arena, and dive deep into a tactical analysis of the orbital battle and chase thereafter. Star Trek Arena (1968) established many firsts that help to build out the world of Star Trek.
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[@sebwilkins]

Your redesign of the Enterprise is a faith modernisation of the classic design and one I would have preferred to see in Discovery.

[@scpguy1381]

I honestly think it might get a refit to be more faithful. Why? Well you see a more faithful interpretation of the Constitution with different naccel among other thing right next to the Discovery variant, this was in SNW.

[@lynngreen7978]

All the changes made to the engines over the next few seasons do have an impact. In The Enterprise Incident, Kirk orders Warp 9, and Scotty gives it without blinking.

[@resurrectedstarships]

Oooh I almost forgot about that, thinking about talking about the Stormbirds and breaking that episode down.

[@lynngreen7978]

@@resurrectedstarships Ooh! Yay!

[@zap265]

yeah but that doesnt mean it worked? btw, would you let scotty set your watch?

[@Gigas0101]

@@zap265 It'd be risky, but he'd get er done!

[@patrickginther8527]

I think that the Gorn plan was to reduce the the Enterprise's reaction time by getting the most competent tactical officers to beam down to Cestus 3. That way they 'd have the few crucial seconds of confusion that they'd need to fire on the Enterprise's while it's shields were still down and disable it. This failed because Sulu was an experienced combat officer and was able to raise the Enterprise's shields before the Gorn ship could fire. The subsequent attack on the away team was primarily to cause the Enterprise crew to panic and lower the shields to beam the away team back on board. It would explain the apparent inaccuracy of the Gorn landing party's fire. They weren't trying to kill them, they were trying to scare them. This failed because Kirk put the safety of his ship before his own and ordered Sulu to do what had to be done to safeguard it. Once Sulu broke orbit to take on the Gorn ship seriously and Kirk had inflicted casualties on the Gorn landing party with the photon grenade the situation from the Gorn perspective had degenerated into an impasse. With no longer having a clear advantage the Gorns decided to retreat and regroup. I suspect that they were going somewhere they could get reinforcements to tip the balance in their favor once more but I have no proof of that.

[@resurrectedstarships]

If this video does well I will more or less be back to making more of these types of animated videos, so share and like however you can if you want that!

[@26th_Primarch]

It's an entertaining format for videos. Also I sort of headcanon that the Gorn ship in Arena was not originally a Gorn ship but one the Gorn crew had previously captured from an unknown species at some point prior to the events of the episode.

[@chriscummings4206]

I'm old enough to remember ordering through the mail the original Gorn ship blueprints (I graduated in 1991) and always thought that starship was rather non Star Trek looking, it did have some rather interesting aspects to it. I pretended it was a patrol ship, a frigate, or perhaps an armed exploration vessel thus it probably had a small crew. If 3 or 6 Gorns were on the planet surface, wiping them out meant the ship couldn't handle losing more crew members but the ship's durability was a factor in its survival. Over the years I have grown to like it but I do love the FASA ships. I do miss going to the mall whenever there were those collectable/card shows (my mom and I called them 'Star Trek' shows) where vendors would sell comic books, trading cards and those little pewter Star Trek ships, as you know. Yes, my shelves are filled with those things all throughout the 90s.😂😉🤔 As well as just about anything new from Star Wars.

[@obsideon1343]

I recall that Sulu refers to shields in TMP after the first V'Ger attack.

[@leonwalls5064]

When the ship is at warp, Deflectors are used to protect the ship from damage from rocks or asteroids in the ship's way. Screens are used to protect the ship from attack.

[@ToothlessDragon536]

I love the effort you make on your videos. You could just use images from the series and chat over it. Not only that but you made a modernized connie that looks so good.

[@davebignell773]

Very interesting video - a really thoughtful analysis of what the Gorn were up to on Cestus 3. I'm thinking that maybe another reason for the Gorn to want the senior tactical officers on the ground would be so that they could try to capture them - just in case the Enterprise was destroyed during the attempt to cripple and then seize her? After hitting the outpost and mopping up the survivors, its not impossible that the Gorn had picked up on certain clues regarding the ranks and roles of Starfleet personnel based on their uniform colours and rank stripes - so maybe they knew that they could afford to eliminate certain members of the landing party as they were lower ranked, whilst other more senior personnel would be viewed as being more valuable as living prisoners. I'm more familiar with the SfB/SfC Gorn than other versions, and if i recall correctly a part of the lore in that setting does suggest a reason for them to simply attack at Cestus 3 instead of trying to talk first - in that version of the lore, the Gorn and Romulans had been fighting almost continuously over the very limited number of habitable worlds in their area of the galaxy for a very long time. Just imagine the impact on a species mindset when the only advanced alien species they've encountered is the Romulans! Under those circumstances, its understandable for the Gorn to assume hostility from an intruding species and behave accordingly.

[@entropy11]

Lower Decks has also shown Gorn on a couple of occasions. Here's hoping we get something good in Strange New Worlds. Great modeling and animations on this vid!

[@vortega472]

The Gorn were a cool race to use in Star Fleet Battles.

[@TheRealNormanBates]

What is funny is that even the new FX on the special editon TOS episodes screw up the location of where everything comes from. The TOS Enterprise had 3 phaser banks: a front facing set on the lower saucer, and 2 side banks on the upper saucer. The 2 holes that are forward facing on the command bubble are the locations of the photon torpedo tubes. 11:25 "Allll of youuu humanoids look all the ssssame to ussss"

[@komradewirelesscaller6716]

There is no visual evidence in the original fx for Star Trek TOS that the 2 holes that are forward facing on the command bubble are the locations of photon torpedo tubes. That is something that is purely the invention of Trek fandom!!

[@buzzinpoa]

Thank you for your video. It's very enlightening. I agree with you that the Gorn should have been better used. Best wishes!!

[@edgarplummer6750]

We know from Star Trek Enterprise that civilian cargo ships are willing to attack, take hostage and even enter alien space and attack their ships and bases. Maybe something like this happened with the Gorn and they now view Humans as a hostile aggressive invader species?

[@jinsetayinsei4146]

I really like the FASA designs for 22nd century Gorn ships. STO ships look really good for the most part, but I think Gorn ships would be more distinct and interesting if their ships evolved to having no nacelles or at least no pylons.

[@heresjonny666]

I'm glad Strange New Worlds has given the Gorn some expansion! It's cool to have a species that is utterly alien to Humans, to the point that they can't even see us as something worth talking to, just as prey and hosts for their offspring.

[@apotheases]

The only real time the Gorn were mentioned was in DS9 when Sisko mentioned that the Dominion had signed a non-aggression pact with them.

[@shadekerensky3691]

Which honestly didn't make sense, imo, because they would know that the Dominion would happily subdue them once the Federation was gone.

[@michaelbenjmitchell1]

@@shadekerensky3691 On the other hand we have no idea how the Gorn have advanced tech wise since Arena in the near century since then. Their ships may be more powerful than the previous century and since the Dominion quickly signed a Non-Agression pact with the Gorn the Gorn may have actually kicked their butts pretty easily in both Ship to Ship combat as well as ground combat.

[@tyranusfan]

@@michaelbenjmitchell1 Perhaps, but that doesn't sound like the Dominion's MO. They always seemed fairly secure in their superiority against other races. It's possible the Gorn were just buying time, trying to see who would have the advantage, the Dominion or the Federation. They might have easily taken sides later if they wished.

[@michaelbenjmitchell1]

@@tyranusfan The Gorn are superior to the Jem'Hadar in terms of strategy and brute force as seen with the superior strength of the Gorn as a species. Their ship designs are a balance between speed and firepower and their defenses can handle Federation photon torpedos. With the Dominion MO being subjugating systems what if they came in to gauge the threat the Gorn pose to them only to find the Gorn outclassed them all together. Would it not be prudent for the Dominion to sign a non aggression pact than to be their enemy and lose. Besides like the Wookies you don't want to piss off the Gorn either.

[@irregularassassin6380]

​@@tyranusfan The Dominion were secure in their superiority. They entered the war assuming their supply line to the Gamma quadrant would remain open. If it had, they likely had the power to beat almost any power alliance the Alpha/Beta quadrant powers could reasonably put together. Rom really was a hero. However, for essentially the entire duration of the war, they were cut off from their Gamma quadrant reinforcements. They were constructing ships locally, breeding Jem'Hadar locally, and heavily utilizing Cardassian assets. Even still, they were confident that they could win, and rightly so. However their strategy had changed from overrunning everyone, to dividing and conquering. This was made easy by an incredible grasp of local politics and the best espionage campaign the Alpha/Beta had ever seen. I think the Gorn probably believed the same thing the Romulans did. They had to have known they couldn't destroy the entire Dominion, so their goal must have been to sign the pact in the hopes it would be enough to keep their territory. We know the Romulan leadership was overconfident. I imagine they believed that if the pact was hollow, they could still make it infeasible for the Dominion to attack into them after the war's conclusion. I bet the Gorn thought the same.

[@charlesbard2331]

When I was a kid I saw the pictures on the side of model box I have always thought the interplanetary UFO was a Gorn ship... and I think it would have worked as a gunship...

[@spockboy]

Also designed by Matt Jefferies.

[@samallan6616]

I have always wondered what or who the people of the First Federation were (Corbomite Maneuver-TOS) and how the UFP's relationship with them eventually worked out. They seemed pretty amicable in the original series.

[@asvarien]

The Federation must have worked something out with the Gorn because Cestus 3 gets repopulated. If I remember correctly Cassidy Yates was from Cestus 3, and they had a baseball team.

[@luispanaderoguardeno3306]

I agree with you view point about the Enterprise versions. What you used, works right and looks really nice. Also, It's sad how some stuff of TOS was forgotten and not revisited on later series. Another example are the First Federation. These guys have HUGE ships that can be controlled by a single guy and are far more older that the Federation. I would loved to see a First Federation ball ship against a Borg cube... and instead we have a little reference to the orange drink on DS9

[@Zeithri]

You can sorta visit them in STO. Sorta. Their borders is the only borders in space surrounded by spinny cubes which block you from going there. Still, pretty nice to see the spinny cubes and re-enact the corbomite maneuver, at least in your head.

[@SubduedRadical]

Tranya. :)

[@Julian_Pepper]

I think the Gorn attack on Cestus III was so brutal because of what you mentioned: possible earlier incursions by hostile powers, namely the Klingons. If the Klingons invade your space, you need to react quickly and with great force. Seeing that a sizeable group of Klingons in this era still look very human-esc (which is confirmed as a canon thing in the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations"), it would be very easy for the Gorn to accidentally mistake the Federation outpost on Cestus III as the vanguard of a Klingon invasion, and act accordingly.

[@tyronehamilton588]

The Gorn are right next door to the Klingons. No dought the Gorn have had a history of horrific encounters with just them alone!

[@matthewdavies2057]

I dig the Gorn silver sunglasses.

[@hemaccabe4292]

I would point out that in Balance of Terror, Sulu is the one who is most concerned about the possibility of Enterprise being defeated and destroyed. That Sulu is cautious again with the Gorn ship shows good character consistency as well as good judgement and prudence. Thank-you for pointing this out. I hadn't noticed this tiny detail before and I love tiny details.

[@Automatik234]

Wow! Your videos are getting better and better! I love the cinematic shots!

[@hemaccabe4292]

I do like the idea that the Gorn ship may be leading the Enterprise into another trap. That makes a lot of sense and reflects a lot of pre-aircraft carrier naval tactics. The entire Battle of Jutland is essentially both sides trying to lure the other into an engagement with a larger force by holding out a smaller force. Good analysis.

[@randallsherman1309]

I've said this elsewhere, prior...but the reason that the Gorn attacked the Federation outpost on Cestus III with such savagery is easy to explain. The Gorn had indeed, as you surmise, suffered previous incursions and subjugation by the Romulans, having fought several wars with the Romulan Empire by the time the incident at Cestus III occurred. Unfortunately for the outpost, it's nature and mission was scientific - and because of that, there were a large number of Vulcans present at the base. The Gorn, observing this, mistook the Vulcans for Romulans...as has been noted, the physiology of the two races is very similar. Since as far as the Gorn were concerned, Cestus III was part of the Gorn Confederation, and owing to the long history of hostilities between their respective races, the Gorn decided that this was a more stealthy incursion than usual, and since no ship was in orbit for them to compare against their database of known Romulan ship types, they decided to smash the base entirely. Only the intervention of the Metrons and Kirk's decision to spare the Gorn Captain after defeating him prevented the situation from devolving into a war that surely would have been disastrous for BOTH sides.

[@antwan1357]

your enterprise is amazing I love what you did with it ,

[@shornk]

Agreed on the ship design preference, FASA MA-12 is my preference for Gorn design. Stocky, solid and sleek.

[@davidedens6353]

TOS - Unlimited comic: "Dying of the Light" while not cannon it may hold the answers you seek

[@sergioleone3583]

Great video/analysis! I enjoyed the one you did on Balance of Terror, and enjoyed this one as much as well. Looking forward to more like this!

[@draco-amercon]

It was that very episode that William shatner suffered a catastrophic damage to his hearing which left him with tinnitus for the rest of his life. the exploding tricorder or the explosion itself was too close to his head.

[@shadowpoet4398]

"I mean it's not as good as Balance of Terror" Yeah... Yeah, beautiful painting Mr. Van Gough, but it's no Da Vinci!" XD

[@James-lh7rj]

I'm really loving these TOS episode breakdown/analysis/speculation you've been doing the last few months you really brought these episodes to life please keep them coming I would love to see (The Enterprise Incident) next

[@jacobfoster9185]

I really enjoyed this but I find it...interesting? When people attempt to use battle/tactical debrief as one would of an actual military event and the difficulty dealing with the fact that the writer of the episode likely put little or no similar effort at the time of creation. Thank you for this ! Very enjoyable.

[@shadekerensky3691]

"It's a crying shame." No, it's an outright crime that no one has EVER given us another Gorn-centric episode again.

[@SCSuperheavy114]

FASA designed Gorn ship is I think the best choice and you have done a great job with this video! I think the natural repulsive reflex humans have with reptiles is one of the reasons why the writers veered away from developing them further. That and special effects costs. I think giving the time period of the show making villains human like especially totalitarian, makes the viewer relate more to the story. One of themost underdeveloped race in the Star Trek universe IMO.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

Great breakdown of a fantastic episode. Coincidentally, I was reading the James Blish novelisation of Arena only this morning! It has some interesting additions to the story.

[@dboymax1]

Any links to reading or purchasing the novelization?

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

@@dboymax1 KZbin tends to delete posts with links in, sorry! What I can tell you is that James Blish wrote abbreviated versions of all the episodes and published them in compilations in the 1960s and 1970s. "Arena" appeared in the second of these volumes, entitled "Star Trek 2". It is long out of print but second hand copies are easy to come by on eBay and similar sites. Hope that helps 👍

[@shipmaster9501]

Honestly if the Gorn had reached out to Starfleet before attacking the Federation would have likely just left. Or even helped the Gorn.

[@B9M3]

NCC-1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D. Great job!

[@Boneworm852]

I'm also a big fan of the Gorn. The trope of "looks like a monster but is just a different kind of person" fits so well in the ST world. As for the brutality of the attack, I'd imagine it came from a shock and awe military doctrine, trying to cow a potential adversary with a display of force.

[@hemaccabe4292]

I listened to your Gorn apologia. It's all . The initial attack on the base may have been based on fear of an outsider, though even this reflects a failure to engage in even the most modest communication. Further, the Gorn likely observed the base for some time so I find it hard to believe they were not aware of it's purpose. After the Gorn destroyed the base, to make their trap, they had to have learned what the base and the Federation were up to. The Gorn's continued duplicity does not reflect well. The Gorn's excuse does not justify their conduct.

[@TomMcD71]

Another awesome video and great visuals

[@sonofaredshirt8329]

A very enjoyable video you do great work please keep it up!

[@ilejovcevski79]

Speculation: as illustrated in The Balance of Terror, warp speed superiority is a huge thing in TOS battles. Getting out of orbit may be interpreted as a solid tactical move by Sulu, even if the Enterprise isn't directly outgunned by the Gorn. A ship in warp has more options, both on the offensive and on the defense then a ship in orbit. On top of that, the Gorn may have similar top work speed as the Enterprise, but it's warp "agility" may be lower. Unreliable narrator: it may be my old brain failing me, nut i have a vague recollection of either a TOS episode, or some expanded universe lore, that mentions screens and deflectors as separate entities. As in screens on, deflectors charged, or something along those lines...... i could be wrong though....

[@mustlovedragons8047]

Yes, Deflectors are a forward facing repulsor beam that clears micro-debris out the way ahead of the ship. Screens/Sheilds surround the ship and protectit from weapons damage.

[@ilejovcevski79]

@@mustlovedragons8047 that was clearly defined in TNG and it manual as navigational deflector. This may have been a much earlier case. Or maybe i'm just imagining things

[@mustlovedragons8047]

@@ilejovcevski79 Yes, I omited the word navigational. In TOS they played faster and looser with terminology. But from TNG on it was more nailled down.

[@donovanbradford8231]

Very correct because I know from the documentary Chaos on the Bridge, there is a recounted story of Roddenberry and one of the major writers getting into an argument and Roddenberry shouted the writer didn't know the difference between shields and deflecters, when not to long later they would be one and the same.

[@jamieolberding7731]

Resurrected Starships 46K subscribers The Gorn in my opinion are one of those awesome Alien races that really needs to have a more major onscreen role in Star Trek more often. They do appear at least a few times in Star Trek: Lower Decks (but mainly in flashbacks and even background cameos.) It's also a shame we might never get to to see any of their amazing, bulky, durable and super tough Gorn Starships (like the iconic MA-12 Light Cruiser, which is my Number 1# Favorite Gorn starship that I just yesterday built it out of LEGO's, using your CGI model as a blueprint to follow on for, because the Gorn really need more onscreen appearances and attention, especially their awesome starships too. ).

[@4thdoctor284]

From various sources I've read that by the TNG era the Gorn have an allegiance with the Federation and there is peaceful interaction and cooperation with Starfleet some being joint exercises with their respective ships.

[@juandeaustrias2233]

Hello there, am so delighted with this breakdown episode, that is my new personal favorite of your entire channel, along with the four years war and balance of terror breakdowns. Not just that, am profoundly impressed with the new graphics and effects, they are brighter and describe better the action, best of all is Warp speed, I always regretted that in the original movies never had enough of the warp effect. Here is in glorious stand with anything seen so far in films and series alike. Moreover, the Gorn ship is perfectly detailed and described in its capabilities and I like the idea of them setting a haniballic-style ambush tactic employed by them in space, which to be fair is, not just quite clever, is pretty logical in its conception, for those who know about naval themes, Jutland would be familiar, those who not search for the 1916 naval battle. On the other hand, as much as I love the FASA content, I think that the remastered version of the gorn ship is good for a TOS-era ship, or at least for TAS, though I agree that it seems too nimble to represent the species, but I would amend its design by classifying it as a scout ship, maybe a small cruiser or destroyer, otherwise I see and like your reasoning of choosing for the ship design presented here. On the other hand, I would like to make a request, if you could make a review of the fabulous re-imagined Connie designed by Madkoifish?, which in all honesty, I love and if could use it in some breakdown video. Keep the great job.

[@SubduedRadical]

Ah, the classic Nebula-class Fed Cruiser vs the Lizard Class Cruiser of the Lizard Alliance. Just the Lizard commander only put NovaDrive 5s on all their ships to save money and the LCC had 1% damage from taking over the planet the prior Turn. Obviously. Which is why they couldn't use their cloaking device. :) Love the ships and the models, man! Hoping to see Crystal and Robot models soon. Didn't know you did these as well. This is awesome! :D One note is that between TOS and TNG, the Warp scale was adjusted to be an exponential scale (Warp 10 being "instant teleportation", basically), aside from All Good Things where the future Enterprise goes "Warp 13".

[@autocon2002]

And now we have official on-screen Gorn ships in Strange New Worlds and guess what? Literal monsters. At least they keep to their tactic of laying traps. I liked that detail.

[@StoneyBrownTV]

Love these batlle breakdowns like this. I still love the balance of terror breakdown.

[@fractalelf7760]

I always felt the FASA design just utterly captured Gorn designs.

[@JTeam45]

Missed these kinds of videos! Keep up the great work!

[@apotheases]

The Gorn have appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks as well.

[@drewjohnson-85]

Speak not of that abomination, if Star Trek was healthy they might have been able to pass it off as a fun Parody of Star Trek but unfortunately it’s both not a parody and Star Trek is not healthy, so instead it’s just another wound to Star Trek’s already dead corpse, just let us fans remember what it used to be.

[@apotheases]

@@drewjohnson-85 As someone that considered themselves a die-hard trek fan growing up, I was all against anything put up by Secret Hideout and Kutzman. But after I decided to give Lower Decks a shot I found it rather entertaining and humerous. The writers of that show obvious know star trek and the call back and references are spot on. Also I'm thinking you're a doomcock fan too. While I enjoy his work and reporting, I'm old enough to make my own opinion on things.

[@apotheases]

Also Star TrekL Prodigy is turning into a really well done entertaining and mature take on Star Trek too.

[@drewjohnson-85]

@@apotheases Thanks for the information, I’ll think about giving it another look but no promises, aside from my overall problems with the female lead’s portrayal I’m not really into that kind of humor, I’ve been told I’m way too picky about what comedies I like.

[@drewjohnson-85]

@@apotheases I’ll make sure to give Prodigy a chance before I Decide that it’s clearly the anti-Valiant and reject it’s cannon.

[@starmnsixty1209]

Fine video! "Arena" was based on a short story of the same name by author Frederic Brown from the early 1940's. The adaption took a more humane tack at the conclusion than the short story. Brown's tale is well known, and I recommend it highly. The Gorn as portrayed there are much more alien, but 1960's special effects couldn't have begun to show them as Brown portrayed them. I agree the Gorn haven't been used as they should have been to-date. Maybe the current various Trek series will correct this mistake.

[@rmcdudmk212]

I think it's a shame that the Gorn haven't gotten more screen time since TOS

[@sci-figeek9192]

same here I think both next gen and ds9 should had episodes with the Gorn , I think the Gorn should have join up with the other races too fight off the Dominion in Ds9

[@rmcdudmk212]

@@sci-figeek9192 the Gorn joining the fight during the Dominion war would have made the whole thing a bit sweeter

[@donovanbradford8231]

While the game is rough in many areas I still enjoyed playing the Kelvin timeline game on PS3 as the Gorn are the main villians and come is all shapes and sizes making for a fun shoot em up.

[@donovanbradford8231]

I very much enjoy not only Arena but this breakdown as well. As far as the battle tactics are concerned I do feel you are correct in that the Gorn created some type of sensor shadow to hide the damage to the base as well as faked a message to the Enterprise to get its captain, major senior officers, and tactical officers to the planet surface. I believe the plan was a two pronged attack hit the landing party and Enterprise at the same time in the hope of taking them out. However both attacks only damage the two Federation parties. At this point the battle plays out with the landing party being at a disadvantage but I believe the battle between the Enterprise and Gorn ship are more evenly matched with both vessels taking damage but neither being able to deal a divisive blow. On the ground however, Kirk and his party have taken losses and are pinned down with the only hope being if the armory is still intact they could survive or even repel the Gorn. Once found we see a difference in weapons for the first time, Kirk finds a Federation grenade launcher while the range is similar to that of the Gorn as stated by the only remaining tactical officer the damage is far greater given we clearly see a photon grenade. It's at this point the Gorn chose to leave fearing the Federation vessel might have superior weapons on its vessel also. Given the tactics used by the Gorn either the Gorn captain or the race prefers sneak attacks, given that they used surprise on the Federation outpost and Enterprise. I do agree Cectes III was probably the very edge of Gorn space at this point with no clear way of the Federation knowing it was claimed space. The Federation has a habit of blundering into other races territory without checking all info and just asks forgiveness if any race is offended by the territory violation. We see this a few times in early Trek the best explain up to this point is with the First Federation from Corbimite Maneuver. As far as the reasoning for the aggressive nature of the Gorn for out right attacking a Federation base without warning I do have a theory for this given other examples of Gorn in Trek. Now both in the Mirror and Kelvin universes the Gorn are aggressive races. The Enterprise series the Gorn show their aggressive nature and in the Kelvin timeline video game the Gorn seem to be a conquering race. So even if this the prime universe I would say the Gorn felt that part of the galaxy was still their territory. I also feel the plan was send a message to the invaders this is our territory and you aren't welcome, this seem to be working with the total destruction of the outpost but failed with the attack of the only know Federation vessel. I don't feel the Gorn were leading the Enterprise into a trap but full on making a tactical retreat, more than likely to their main territory. This breakdown was alot of fun and brought many great points it is also one of my favorites from TOS not just because of the message but also the action through out the episode.

[@jimmiegiboney2473]

1.2K Thumbs Up + Mine! 👍 You're welcome! ✌️ Thanks for another fun, digital video recording! 🎬😎🤓🤠 Notes: Weren't they referenced often enough in, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", as having participated in those various wars? 🤔 In answer to your questions, I never thought about any of that. 🤨😕😉

[@komradewirelesscaller6716]

Great vid. Thanks for actually showing the Gorn ship. It was very disipointing in the remastered episodes that they did not actually find a way to show the Gorn ship upclose. Something they could have done somehow if they had really wanted too. And which only would have taken just a few seconds to do!! I hope someday, unless you have already done it and I have missed it somehow, that you do a battle breakdown for Ellan of Troyius! On the subject of warp factors they were mentioned first in The Corbomite Maneuver.

[@anthonylowder6687]

One of the biggest mysteries of the episode for me is about how the Gorn were able to reproduce Commander Travis voice and that it was the Enterprise that was visiting Cestus III. Also since they were faking Commander Travis’s voice how did the Gorn know who commanded the Enterprise and that Kirks nickname was Jim?

[@donovanbradford8231]

I'm gonna wager the Girn kept enough of the base intact to probe its memory banks for strategic information including defense patrol information and info on its personal. As far as faking Travers voice I feel while we only talk to the sole surviving Lt. several officers including the base commander might have called up during the attack and was able to figure which voice was his as they had a full day to prepare for this attack.

[@robmckee5295]

The Gorn might lose their coolness if given too much screen time. Better to keep them a mystery.

[@RonW4684]

Just like certain bounty hunters...

[@Sargonarhes]

My idea on why so many different designs of ships is the Gorn tried so many different designs and form follows function. FASA's Gorn ships were built like a brick and could take massive amounts of punishment, the TOS ship looks like a hot rod or a fast and agile raider. Which it's a surprise it can take more punishment than one might think. Starfleet Command by Amarillo Design Bureau makes the Gorn ship to be like a balance of the two, even though this version of the Gorn ship has been around for much longer. The Gorn tried all these designs and just never stopped using any of them, because why throw away something that works so well? The Gorn are a very practical race after all.

[@CodexRegius]

Is it conceivable that the Gorn had actually believed they were dealing with Romulans on Cestus III, then realised that what they had got was not Romulan at all, and packed and ran because they couldn't assess their opponent's potential power?

[@carolheward6479]

They said they could not fire through deflectors in one episode. Also when nomad fires at enterprise the impact of the bolt has the force of 90 photon torpedoes and the shields hold to take about 4 hits too. Sulu might not have had to raise the deflectors as they switched on automatically when a threat was detected. Thats a good idea i think.

[@m3w]

Super insight - well done!

[@wahoo236]

I can’t speak for the original series, but there is at least one spot in the motion picture where Checkov, says “shields and deflectors up.” so shields were a term before Star Trek II.

[@commandosolo1266]

The Gorn have made several appearances in the animated Lower Decks. They're still around, but evidently don't want much to do with the Federation.

[@erikvonerik]

Arena was a Star Trek (OS) adaptation of the well-known award-winning 1944 science fiction short story “Arena” by Frederick Brown. You should read it and do a follow up to this video, as the Star Trek adaptation is surprisingly faithful to the original, but only made appropriate window dressing changes to adapt it to the Star Trek context. So, many of the Star Trek musings are actually irrelevant from the entertainment industry aspect, but the origin of the story line explains your questions as to why the Gorn weren’t followed up on or more fully developed- the answer is, because the Gorn were disposable one-offs - a means to an end to use the already-existing story in the context of Star Trek. Arena was one of several popular science fiction stories to be used, though I think it is the least changed from the original, but I’m no expert. Maybe others have more insight into the story origins of other episodes.

[@kingsman8475]

In Star Trek The Motion Picture! The words, screens, deflector and shields are used!

[@rodrigocoelho643]

The one thing I never noticed about Trek until now is that TOS seems to be(although not the only one)the one series where they just don't care about captain's safety protocol and Kirk straight up goes to every away mission -Also,although set in the Kelvin Timeline,I really enjoyed the portrayal of the Gorn in the Star Trek game for Xbox 360.Its a shame they weren't used more in Trek,that game showed they could be as important villains as the Klingons and Romulans,specially during the TOS era.

[@Zeithri]

Noooo! The best Gorn is in the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline game ( _Star Trek 2013_ ) where they are huge as expected and SUPER CUTE! Their first appearance in the game is memorable as heck too with you trying to open a hatch, only to have the Gorn rip it open from the other side and a sort of spiritual remix of Amok Time starts playing. Man I really need to play through that game. Sooo many games on the backlog.. Also I love ENT Gorn. It's not the best but I liked them. Very cute. This was a great video! I, do not agree on the Gorn ship nor Gorntelligence. Also don't think the Enterprise's shields were failing but more the inexperience yet good decision of Sulu to have caution over pride. I think it was more that the Gorn had sent their message of slaughter to the Federation and were satisfied enough to escape now, especially since they had deprived the Enterprise of it's captain and had that opening to escape. Gorn doesn't strike me as a backstabbing surprising race, but rather one of brute strength. We even see this in STO with the Gorn repeatedly coming back to attack you over and over during the return to Cestus ( _Agents of Yesterday_ ), where we also see that Gorn ship. STO's bulkier Gorn ships are the closest ones we get to the FASA one and speaking of that, pretty sure that ship is in Star Trek Tactical Assault ( _PSP / NDS_ ).

[@sartainja]

Excellent presentation. Though, who wants to play nice with a bunch of cold blood lizards? Maybe, Picard and Data needed to make a break through with the lizards in TNG?

[@georgeherod4252]

I don't know if you already have done this one. But I would love to see a breakdown of the Corbomite manure episode

[@noivern666]

Underrated channel

[@hoffenwurdig1356]

If the Gorn are not warm-blooded creatures, they may have limited physical endurance and a psychology that favors using planned traps to avoid exhaustion from protracted struggle. This would support your postulate that Gorn favor using traps. I remember FASA material characterizing the Gorn as monarchist, leading me to think that their culture interpreted the presence of the non-permitted Federation outpost as a form of blood insult, lese-majeste, or sacrilege committed by the mammalian creatures.

[@Hans_Niemand]

Wouldn't mind hearing more of your thoughts on the Gorn. There's also a lot on the Tholian race in the Vanguard novel series.

[@singletona082]

While I think your enterprise hull is a bit too metallic and shiny? I like that you give it Juuust enough extra detail without going overboard.

[@For_The_Horde]

I bet you're loving strange new worlds! They have featured the Gorn a lot.

[@tyranusfan]

A deleted scene from ST: Nemesis mentions that the Gorn ambassador attended Riker's bachelor party. Perhaps this means that Picard's Enterprise (one or the other) had dealings with the Gorn at some point (sadly off screen).

[@chrisbritt4266]

I like your redesign of the Enterprise and I played a lot of Star Trek Online when it first came out I'll play it that much anymore cuz I never have time anymore but my understanding of the Gorn comes a lot from the FASA game as well I used to play that with lot of friends back in middle school and some of the things I've read that aren't Cannon have suggested that perhaps the Gorn use that planet for something to do with possibly mating or could even have been using that planet for raising children I've heard and read about but I never really understood that I think it's most likely that the Gorn have been losing a lot of battles with Outsiders and I think you're right about running into someone like the Klingons and assuming that humans become mammals are basically the same that makes a lot of sense I wish they could have done more with the Gorn and the original series maybe something in DS9 other than a single mention and maybe something in Next Generation would have been nice

[@Analog_Mind47]

Great Video, I'd like to see more Breakdowns of Original Series Space Battles (Journey to Babel comes to mind)

[@leeforeman3656]

Good analysis. I know it's not star trek cannon. There is a three part fan production of the lead up to the arena episode. The Gorn imperative, on KZbin. 👍

[@tjf7101]

The FASA design does make sense. I admit I like the Star Fleet Battles version too.

[@michaelt.lancaster9776]

I know it's awhile since this video premiered, but check out Strange New Worlds. The Gorn returns in this new Star Trek series.

[@CZ350tuner]

Although not seen shooting in TOS, port, starboard & aft phaser banks are heard (over internal comms) to report in frequently, when the Enterprise goes to red alert. Never any mention of an aft torpedo launcher though.

[@vmlinuxz]

The gorn are terrifying now that they are like aliens critters.

[@tech83studio38]

" Continue to fire ! All banks !" - Captain James T. Kirk

[@LancetFencing]

@resurrected_starships I want you to do a breakdown of Ellan of Troyius so that people finally realize that in Star Trek phasers work at warp speeds as well as photon torpedoes. in the Federation universe the ships fight and maneuver at super luminal speeds; it happens in every episode with combat in space that is featured. Star Trek ships fight at relativistic speeds and this episode especially because Kirk talks about having to get out of the solar system because he needs room to room maneuver is absolutely indicative and proves that super luminal combat is Canon in ST which, incidentally, settles the ST v SW debate in favor of ST

[@sciguyjeff]

Add to your questions - how did the Gorn get such a perfect imitation of the base commander and know who to ask down for a meal? The survivor said that they sent no message so the Gorn had to. How did they knoew what they did?

[@jhallam2011]

Love these videos! 👍 thanks!

[@JeanLucCaptain]

it would be ironic if the Gorn got real screen time and were shown to use a shop that looked like a Battlestar. HONESTLY can you think of a ship design that makes more sense for the gorn??? its LITERALLY described as having an Crocodile or Alligator head so just put some warp nacelles on it, remove the flight pods and replace the weapons with blasters LOL.

[@michaelbenjmitchell1]

Well Gorn weapons are supposed to be similar to the Romulans with the use of Plasma torpedo's and disruptors..

[@billlyell8322]

I think that strage new worlds did the worst take on the gorn. They hatch a set of eggs then fight to the death until there is only one left. Hell that is a self extinction strategy. 1 surviving is not even self sustaining.

[@rts3763]

What do you think about the way strange new worlds took the Gorn? I liked the way they took the gorn, as a terrifying race that would be nearly impossible for the federation to get along with, but it differs from your take here quite a bit.

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

The plot I heard was that the Gorn had never met the Federation but they did know the Romulan Star Empire all to well. They thought that all humanoids were sneaky and underhanded backstabbing no goods.

[@ThatsMrPencilneck2U]

I still prefer the Star Fleet Battles Gorn aesthetic. Those were built around disk shaped hull modules, but the Gorn's disks were far more substantial than the disk of the Enterprise. The warp engine nacelles were along the center line, one over and one under, trailing the ship. Some later mods for the Star Fleet Command series had the SFB idea, but the disks were elongated into an egg shape. These were very, very pretty, but they also started to look like space alligators, which fails on an intellectual level.

[@DanBen07]

Gorn ships where also in the video game Star Trek tactical assault.

[@gordondavis6168]

The original ending of the episode had the Metron admitting to Kirk that the Metrons would have destroyed the ship of the winner of the contest, since the winner would pose the bigger threat to the Metrons.

[@wapperjaw8282]

TU on video! Anyway ... I need to watch this ep again. I thought this was their first encounter with the Gorn. In the Enterprise series, they have an encounter. and so far in Star Trek Strange New Worlds by the 9th episode, they had 2 encounters. And they are basically intelligent monsters. They merely reproduce by spiting on their victims turning them into incubators that pop out with many Alien-like Xenomorphs in the movie Alien. Kind of hard to believe that these creatures can be intelligent enough to produce a culture with space travel. At any rate it appears they are the new boogie man ...

[@ukmediawarrior]

My main issue with this great episode is that the Federation managed to build the entire outpost on Cestus 3 without hindrance from the Gorn. Why didn't the Gorn attack sooner, or stop the construction altogether?