Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is being credited with a striking reinvention of the Gorn, one of the Star Trek franchise's oldest alien species, through its early episode "Memento Mori." Rather than simply bringing back a familiar creature for nostalgia's sake, the show used the episode to recast the Gorn as a genuinely frightening threat, contributing to what the article calls one of modern Star Trek's most successful updates of a legacy alien race since the series began in 2022.

In "Memento Mori," security chief La'an Noonien Singh, played by Christina Chong, recognises the hallmarks of a Gorn attack after helping colonists take refuge aboard the USS Enterprise, which is then besieged by three Gorn warships. The episode heightens the horror by never showing the Gorn themselves, relying instead on their predatory, ship-based attacks, while La'an reveals she is the only known survivor of an encounter with the species, reinforcing the sense of the Gorn as an almost mythic, unseen menace.