Unnamed Gorn

The following is a list of unnamed Gorn:

Captain
The Gorn Captain was an officer in the military of the Gorn Hegemony in 2267. He commanded a Gorn starship comparable to the Starfleet's vessels, as well as a detachment of ground assault forces. The Captain made first contact with Humans in forced personal combat with James T. Kirk.

Assault on Cestus III
The Federation's establishment of an outpost colony on Cestus III, was regarded as an invasion of Gorn territory by the Hegemony, and the Gorn Captain was tasked to respond to the threat. Approaching at space-normal speed in the manner of a friendly vessel, the Captain opened fire at close range, destroying Cestus III's phaser batteries. Defenseless, the outpost offered to surrender, but the plea went unheeded or unheard. The installation was promptly destroyed, resulting in the death of nearly all inhabitants. He remained in the system after the assault, and monitored the approach of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), the Federation's key military asset in the sector.

The Gorn Captain's ability to mimic Starfleet communications fooled his new opponent, Captain James T. Kirk. Expecting a warm welcome from the Cestus III base commander, Commodore Travers, Kirk's landing party beamed into an ambush, surrounded by Gorn ground forces and pelted by disruptor artillery fire. Simultaneously, the Gorn starship quartered-in on the Enterprise while she was locked in orbit. The ships were evenly matched for firepower and deflector screens. Unable to maneuver the Enterprise from her position, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu was forced to break orbit, temporarily stranding the landing party.

His ingenious counter-strike to the (perceived) Federation invasion was foiled by an inability to secure or destroy the Cestus III armory. Kirk managed to liberate a grenade launcher and pushed Gorn ground forces back, forcing them to retreat to their ship. With his planet-side forces repelled, and the Enterprise now free to maneuver, the Gorn's early advantage evaporated. He set his ship on a course for home at high warp. Enterprise retrieved Kirk from the outpost ruins and began pursuit, intending to destroy the Gorn starship.

Battle with Kirk
The chase brought the vessels through a sector overseen by the Metrons, an advanced and powerful species that abhorred violence unknown to the Federation at the time. Whether the Gorn Hegemony, a stellar neighbor, was aware of the Metrons and their likely response to belligerents in their territory, is unknown. Offended by the incursion, the Metrons disabled both the Gorn starship and the Enterprise.

The Metrons declared the two commanders would face each other in single combat, rather than wreak havoc in a space battle. The surviving Captain and ship would be allowed to depart, and the dead Captain's vessel and crew would be forfeit. In a blink, both captains were transported, disarmed, to the surface of a desert planetoid for their appointed battle – the first known face-to-face contact between Human and Gorn.

After a brief initial grappling that proved the Gorn Captain's physical superiority and Kirk's relative agility, the conflict escalated into a battle of wits. As they jockeyed for position around their rocky arena, both captains fashioned traps from available materials that countered their opponent's advantages. In pauses between attacks, the Gorn eavesdropped on Kirk's reflective monologues, via a recording-translating device provided by the Metrons.

Eventually, the Gorn Captain tired of tracking the human's scurrying back-and-forth movements. He implored his prey to give up, and insisted his killing blow would be mercifully quick. At last, the human lingered in one spot, frantically working on a hollowed log that would make a poor club. The Gorn approached, oblivious to the coming explosion and the diamond projectiles that would imbed themselves in his chest.

Kirk moved in to finish the kill, but coming to understand that the Gorn was merely acting in the defense of his territory, he protested the Metrons' arbitrary rules and refused to murder his erstwhile enemy. A Metron recognized Kirk's compassion, and returned both captains alive to their ships. 

The battle of the two captains was well remembered over a century later. When Captain Benjamin Sisko had the opportunity to meet Kirk in a time-travel incident that sent the USS Defiant (2370) to 2267, he wistfully said, "I'd like to shake his hand and ask him about fighting the Gorn on Cestus III."

Background
The Gorn Captain (the "Gorn") was played by Bobby Clark, Gary Coombs (both uncredited in the rubber suit), and William Blackburn (who only wore the Gorn head for close-up shots), and voiced by Ted Cassidy. The Gorn's costume was designed by Wah Chang, who also created the M-113 creature (aka the Salt Vampire).

The Gorn's ability to destroy a Federation outpost without raising alarm, drawing in Kirk and the Enterprise into an ambush, and quickly fashioning sophisticated weighted-net traps from available plant fibers and boulders, all proved he was a sophisticated, critically-thinking being on par with the most advanced humanoids. But his Gorn senses, technological history, or a small gap in his education left him unaware or unable to exploit the unique combination of minerals (sulfur, coal, potassium nitrate, and diamonds) and materials that littered the Metron planetoid surface.

Councilor
A Gorn served as member of the Elysian Council on Elysia in 2269. 

Liste von Gorn Gorns