Let's Discuss the Romulan Bird of Prey!

Discussion in 'Trek Tech' started by Albertese, Jun 1, 2013.

  1. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2012
    Location:
    Republic of California
    The Romulans still need to be considered a viable threat in the TOS era. Having them restricted to a very small area of space with sub-light drives is really a non-threat to the Federation, or even any Federation allies if it would take a decade or more to get to the nearest non-Romulan system.

    Having lower powered FTL drives is fine. Even if they are only up to Enterprise era warp factors, they could at least be a threat to the surrounding area.
     
  2. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2009
    Location:
    North Wales
    I knew this sort of thing had been discussed before, but I didn't realise it was on this very thread - and almost a year to the day, at that!

    It's great to see that the original script supported the "single system" Romulan Star Empire model. It matches well with the "Earth / Romulan War" remarks in the dialogue as being fought between two space faring species.
    However, even by the time that the famous schematic was produced, this idea seems to have dropped by the wayside - the RNZ is less of a circular permiter and more of a wobbly line between two superpowers - which is handy for future stories!
     
  3. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2012
    Location:
    Republic of California
    If they had been a one used enemy, Romulus as a cut off world after Earth's victory might make sense. But is still would make the lack of knowledge about just who the Romulas are even more odd if Starfleet has been sitting right inside their home system for the last 100 years. Their sensors tend to have good enough range for that sort of thing.

    Also the concept of the Nuetral Zone seem more like a draw happened, rather than a total victory one might expect to cut off Romulus from the galaxy. From the "known" galaxy would allow for a simple curved border that goes away eventually as it reaches unknown space. Though this also leaves the other side of the Star Empire "open"
     
  4. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2010
    Location:
    publiusr
    That makes sense.
     
  5. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2003
    Dunno - after all, apparently only one side of the Zone has outposts monitoring it!

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  6. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2012
    Location:
    Republic of California
    Didn't Spock say something about suspecting the Romulans had something similar on their side of the Zone? Though in all fairness it seemed like the Federation had very little knowledge of what was beyond the Zone.
     
  7. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2005
    Location:
    Real Gone
    No, he did not. TNG introduced that idea in "The Neutral Zone".
     
  8. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2009
    Location:
    North Wales
    With the original premise of the episode (the RNZ existing to isolate Romulus from the rest of the Galaxy), bases on only one side would be consistent. However, with the revised interpretation (the RNZ as a "space wall" between two superpowers) it just makes sense that there would be Romulan bases as well - cloaked or otherwise.
     
  9. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2003
    Isolation could be achieved around multiple star systems, too - although probably not with a chain of asteroid outposts so few that a random selection only shows us numbers 1 through 8, rather than, say, 23909588 through 23909596.

    Would the goal of the isolation be withering of the empire locked inside? This might work with a single star system (it probably takes interstellar trade for any civilization to evolve to such a high level that they can ultimately sustain themselves by exploiting their own star system only), but not with a "prison" or "reservation" encompassing dozens of star systems.

    Or would the goal simply be postponing of further conflicts by providing a formal excuse from attempts to exploit the same resources? The RNZ might be of mutual benefit in that case; even if only one side had the actual guardtowers, the other would also enjoy the symbolic protection of the barbed wire, until time was ripe to have conflict again.

    The invisible ship might have been intended as the WWI tank, a novel means of breaking through the RNZ, after which the war could proceed with conventional means and the cloakship would become useless. In such a case, the ship probably wouldn't even need a warp drive. But if the RNZ always was more a symbolic than a concrete obstacle, then the cloakship probably was designed as a means of waging the actual war and triumphing over Earth this time around.

    Timo Saloniemi