I don't know, she looks a bit like the freshly graduate gorgeos young woman who are so much too perfect that they are annoying. But it this case, it's like your explaination: she's clearly not a big shot of the Romulan diplomatic. And of course, placating the two other ambassadors is surely more diplomatically relevant than Nimbus III itself. Especially since the Romulan empire doesn't even bother to send an has-been.
There just wasn't anything about her that made her stand out as a Romulan. Granted, I'm not sure how the Romulans had been developed at the point that TFF came out, but from what we saw of her, she could have just as easily been a human.
She sounded the same to me but I was never a good one for picking dubbed voices. The scene is quite illuminating about the whole 'failed experiment' aspect of Nimbus III. The powers clearly all see it as being something of a courtesy, rather than a hot-spot of diplomatic relations, and it's heavily implied that all three of the ambassadors are there because they pissed somebody off back home. Caithlin Dar is shown as the enthusiastic rookie, but we are left in little doubt that before long she would have become just as jaded as Talbot and Koord are about the whole venture. It all ties in to Shatner's more cynical, satirical viewpoint of the Star Trek universe. 'The Planet of Galactic Peace' is the kind of idealism that could have been borne in TOS's 1960s heyday. Regrettably, we have the misfortune to actually visit there decades later, when those early dreams of a possible peace have instead led to a Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy, which virtually nobody (certainly not the galactic powers themselves) expects to ever actually amount to anything. Hence, the diplomats they send there are hardly the cream of the crop.....
Not a name I was overly familiar with in 1989. I'm willing to bet more people were reading Dr Spock, than watching Mr Spock.
I worked with a Kira two months ago. (Also, there is a fictional character named Kira from a a childhood nightmare of a film called "The Dark Crystal").
WoW. I had to run the name together, Caithlindar. Obviously she was a Belf lol. I tried to get the name recently in Guild Wars II as you can have spaces in that but it was taken
Indeed! Not even cheesey costumes and over-the-top make-up could hide the fact that underneath it all was a stunner ...
I thought she was OK, I liked that she was traditionally Romulan enough while also being fairly different and, as others have said, it makes sense that a fresher, more unique ambassador would want or be assigned to a unique but struggling, if not intended to fail, planet. It was also interesting although underdeveloped that she grew close to Talbot and weird that by the end none of the characters were "deprogrammed," suggesting there actually wasn't much manipulation going on, yet none of the Enterprise crew is facing trouble for their actions.
The character does create an interesting problem for the film, the pre-credits sequence depends on the idea of a laughing Vulcan being a shocking visual... But with the planet also colonised by Romulans what skanky bald man should have said at the start was "Oh, you're a Romulan, cool". So the film gives her these darling ear mufflers to try and hide the fact there's an emotional alien that would otherwise look just like a Vulcan hanging about in the movie.
Nice point Inflat! On the other hand, the Romulan ambassador in STVI had a plausible appearance for a Romulan ambassador...and it was better than North Koreanish Romulans introduced in Unification. Korrd had a military uniform instead of having a similar outfilt to the Klingon ambassador in STIV and VI, but he was a soldier before a diplomat and he was at his daily job, so he didn't need to follow a ceremonial protocol. Korrd was also an easier job, because Klingons had already TMP, Search for Spock and Voyage Home. Excluding TNG of course and Saavik, it was the first live-action appearance of a Romulan since The Enterprise Incident, so STVI succeeded where STV failed, but it wasn't so easy.
Regarding Inflatabledalek's excellent point, I have to bring up that Romulans aren't famous for laughing much, either. They may be openly emotional, and they may smile a lot, but laughter from one of them might be as unexpected as from a Vulcan - and perhaps the very last thing you will ever hear... Anyway, in order for that rationalization to work, we would have to assume that "You are a Vulcan!" is a traditional way of saying that somebody is from the general Vulcanoid stock that includes Vulcans, Romulans, possibly a few brands of Rigelians, etc. () Timo Saloniemi
But that's just it: Other than Benjamin Spock, have you ever heard of anyone else on Earth with the name Spock? I've heard of tons of Caitlyns (or Katelyn, or Catelynn, or however you want to spell the name that sounds the same).