The Lath were a subgrouping of the Gorn civilization. Resembling the Ssessekh, the Lath are characterized by ruddy skin color, and spiky black crest hair.
At some point in history, the Lath were encountered by the Worthy of Karimea. After being saved by the Worthy, the Lath considered themselves in the Worthy's debt, and wrote legends of the encounter. In particular, Catalano of the Worthy remembered saving members of the Lath group from the bug-beast of Traal.
At some point in his career, Captain James T. Kirk made the acquaintance of a Lath commander, Raaskaa. He recognized him when Raaskaa's starship attacked the USS Enterprise-A demanding a stop to joint scientific experimentation between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. (TOS - The Return of the Worthy comic: "Great Expectations!")
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Background[]
The character of Commander Raaskaa was intended to represent the Gorn captain from TOS episode: "Arena", but the licensing office at Paramount Pictures requested that the reference be removed from TOS - The Return of the Worthy comic: "Great Expectations!". The character was recolored as a scarlet lizard, and spiky black hair was drawn onto it. The editors intended for this to change the species, and several pieces of dialogue were altered to call the scarlet Gorn a "Lath". However, the word "Gorn" was included in the issue several times as the editors had missed several mentions that were supposed to be altered.