St Tos - Blog Posts
Everyone say hello to dragon grandpa!! I’ve really missed drawing and thinking about my Gorn Trek OC :)
The Gorn have been done dirty in the new Trek shows. The concept of Star Trek, at its most basic, has always been to teach tolerance by example. Every time there has been a “villain” species, we are unequivocally shown that they are neither a monolith, nor are they evil.
The Klingons may be proud and brutal, but they also have a rich culture, and by learning to understand them and treating them with the dignity they seek (and perhaps deserve in many cases) they can be passionate allies and friends.
The cardassians tend towards corruption and their culture encourages oppression of others. They conquer, pillage, and kill, but through the actions of individuals, we see that the Cardassians are a people broken by their own systems, not a people innately morally evil. And the actions of those individuals within their corrupt institutions have helped many who suffered under Cardassian tyranny, even if only a little.
The Ferengi are another example of a people trapped by their own systems. Their culture encourages greed, overindulgence and profit while avoiding all the consequences possible. But once more, individuals within this system are shown to be more moderate, or become more moderate, and this begins improving the state of their empire. They are capable of change, and that change is being influenced to become more equal, less destructive, and more cooperative without promise of reward.
There are no true evil species in Star Trek’s prime timeline (unless they come from the mirror universe, and even that is debatable). So… what the hell happened to the Gorn???
The only thing we knew about them from their first appearance was that they wanted to defend their space from invasion by aliens, and they were stubborn about it to the point of being unreasonable. We also learned that at least their captain was a brutal and dangerous warrior who seemed to enjoy the challenge of fighting Kirk man to man. How is that any different from the Klingons, whose species started out as literal space terrorists in TOS, but were later developed into a rich and beautiful warrior culture? The basic premise has the potential to build a narrative of a people who have spent the last centuries defending their space from the Klingon Empire’s expansion, having to fight tooth and nail against the galaxy’s most formidable species. Of course they’re paranoid and reactive when another civilization comes barging into their territory! They must be ruthless if they want to survive in this galaxy. And their story could be about their xenophobic culture slowly adapting to the climate of the kinder galaxy that the Federation has created, and learning to be allies with an enemy whom they have demonized for literal centuries. That would be an extremely poignant and topical story for us in the modern political climate. Especially in America!
Why were the Gorn turned into irredeemable monsters? Because it’s easier. Because producers and film companies no longer trust their audiences with nuance. Because a political message about compassion for an enemy that we’ve feared for centuries undermines the narrative that the US government and media have spent centuries crafting about the Middle East. Because tolerance for anyone is not welcome in our current political climate, and I’m not just talking about tolerance for those who lean towards liberal ideology. I mean tolerance for everyone.
I try not to get political on this blog, because it’s about art. It’s supposed to be fun and sometimes educational. But Star Trek is very dear to my heart, and seeing it being funded, written, and directed in ways that betray its essential nature hurts. It hurts in a way I don’t really know how to express. And I needed to vent.
Anyway, the Gorn will always be one of my favorite concepts from TOS. I love them, and you can pry the original idea of them from my cold, dead fingers, Paramount.