Breeding planet

Breeding planets, or planetary nurseries, were planets used by the Gorn to breed their hatchlings. They periodically deposited captured humanoids on these planets to be infected with eggs or eaten alive by the hatchlings.

Gorn towers were often used on breeding planets to block signals and transporters, to prevent inhabitants of the world to escape or call for help. They may have also been used to lure passerby's from other starships. (SNW: "Hegemony")

In the 2230s or 2240s, the SS Puget Sound was captured by the Gorn, and the passengers and crew were deposited on a breeding planet. La'an Noonien-Singh was the last survivor of the Puget Sound, having witnessed the deaths of her parents and her brother, Manu, and the Gorn – following one of their customs – sent her back into space aboard a Mark IV liferaft rather than kill her. She was rescued by the USS Martin Luther King Jr..

In 2259, she shared the experience on the breeding planet to Captain Christopher Pike, and later with Spock via a mind meld. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds", "Memento Mori") Later that year, the USS Peregrine rescued three refugees from a breeding planet, two of whom turned out to be infected with Gorn eggs. (SNW: "All Those Who Wander")