In 1967, two different stuntmen — Bobby Clark and Gary Combs, outfitted in a lizard costume created by Wah Chang — rolled around with William Shatner at the Vasquez Rocks. In this moment, the iconic Star Trek enemy, the Gorn, was born, and promptly burned into the brains of countless science fiction fans. Since “Arena” aired, the menacing alien lizard species has gone through two major revisions. Twenty years ago, in the prequel series Enterprise, a Gorn appeared in the episode “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II,” and it didn’t look like its 1967 counterpart. More recently, on Strange New Worlds in 2022, the Gorn got another dramatic makeover.
But which Gorn is the real one? After two decades of shifting Gorn visages, a dynamic new episode of Strange New Worlds has offered a sneaky explanation: maybe the Gorn that Kirk fought didn’t really look that way. Spoilers ahead for Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 9, “Terrarium.”
