Romulan Change in Appearance
- Thread starter the vet
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Remans have ridges, don't they? Maybe the ridged Romulans we've seen are actually part Reman.
For what it's worth, in the novel Vulcan's Heart, Saavik is undercover on Romulus when she's going thru Pon Farr and a Romulan man who tries to seduce her recognizes what's happening with her and tells her it's an atavistic trait that some Romulan women still have.
I don't have a problem with the make up change, but it does fall apart when Spock didn't have a problem with not having the V.
I don't have a problem with the make up change, but it does fall apart when Spock didn't have a problem with not having the V.
I didn't know that an alliance was never actually stated but I got the impression that one was implied and it looks like that was the intention when "The Enterprise Incident" was written. Source.
I'm liking that theory of Romulan/Klingon interbreeding. Remember how Worf, of all people, was a compatible blood donor for a Romulan in TNG - while the Vulcan crewmembers on the Enterprise weren't?
Interesting theory, but if I remember correctly, the Romulan agent's final scene was through the Enterprise viewscreen, while aboard the Romulan ship. If a transporter can de-age Dr Pulaski, it's totally possible that the ridge was added to the Romulan agent during transport.
Or, what if the Romulan ancestors interbred with a species that also interbred with ancient Klingons? That could account for shared blood types between 23\24 century Klingons and Romulans, too.
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So do Ruffles! And they are delicious!
No, and it was such a ridiculous change. TNG's forehead of the week is probably my biggest gripe with the show.
The way they tried to address the forehead changes for Klingons was fairly ridiculous. Instead of trying to link it back to diseases or surgery, I always thought it would've been easier to take the Klingons as metaphors for the Soviet Union to its ultimate end -- the "Klingons" in TOS should've just been "Klingons" from one of the many planets that had become part of the Klingon empire. Though they may not have been genetically Klingon, they still would have spoken Klingon, and become assimilated into Klingon culture, the way many countries/states absorbed by Russia into the Soviet Union did. But... no.
^Right. As far as anyone knows, Klingons apparently only conquered Klingon planets.
Might be interesting to see a more diverse and volatile Klingon Empire - and also just a little curious how the Federation could make peace with a conqueror. Would they have made peace with the Cardassian-Occupation of Bajor?
Because we only saw Post-Kruge Klingons in the 24th century, that salient little oppression issue never came up. Klingons became "honorable" (but not even. Blustery, more like).
I liked the fleshing out of their culture, sure; but they were also interesting - like the Ferengi at first - as wildcards.
BTW this imperial stuff also goes for the Romulan Haircut "One Bowl Fits All" Empire.
Might be interesting to see a more diverse and volatile Klingon Empire - and also just a little curious how the Federation could make peace with a conqueror. Would they have made peace with the Cardassian-Occupation of Bajor?
Because we only saw Post-Kruge Klingons in the 24th century, that salient little oppression issue never came up. Klingons became "honorable" (but not even. Blustery, more like).
I liked the fleshing out of their culture, sure; but they were also interesting - like the Ferengi at first - as wildcards.
BTW this imperial stuff also goes for the Romulan Haircut "One Bowl Fits All" Empire.
I always understood the "need" for having Romulans look different. And I would be OK with the forehead, as is, even though it does look cheesey, to me. But it's that horrific wig they all have to wear and those shoulder pads and all of that ridiculousness. Bob Blackman was probably a really easy-going costume designer, who was very efficient and timely with his output ... good for the TNG production team ... bad for the fans. I hated everything he ever did on TNG.
The easiest explanation is that both ridged and non-ridged individuals exist among the Romulans. After all as many people have mentioned in this thread, most of the Romulans in TOS were wearing helmets. Also, Nero's crew hailing from 2387 is mostly ridgeless but the lighting aboard his ship wasn't very good, leaving room for ridged Romulans to exist in his crew.
Look at it this way: IIRC there was never a single Vulcan played by an actor of African descent in TOS. But I'm not going to go with any theory that Tuvok's skin coloration and hair texture is the result of some major biological change between the TOS and TNG eras.
Look at it this way: IIRC there was never a single Vulcan played by an actor of African descent in TOS. But I'm not going to go with any theory that Tuvok's skin coloration and hair texture is the result of some major biological change between the TOS and TNG eras.
This actually the same concept I came up with a long time ago. I think it makes the most sense.
BINGO!
The change to Romulans in TNG just followed naturally with what the TMP did with the Klingon look. But whatever, double standards huh. Vulcans in TNG were almost non-existent, and the Romuans first on screen appearance was only at the end of an episode that was talking about them the whole time.I hated the change to the Romulans. It came down to the studio thinking viewers were too stupid to tell Vulcans and Romulans apart.
You might be thinking of ST09 so perhaps post that observation of "stupid viewers" in the relevant forum.
I find this concept of the Romulan boner intriguing.
In all seriousness its not a bad explanation, especially given the more emotional nature of Romulans. It also ties nicely with the young Spock doing his werewolf bit on Genesis.
Perhaps the smooth headed Romulans are 'out of season' or some similar biological occurrence. Taking it back to humour, perhaps there is Romulan Viagra or even artificial bumps for those embarrassed by such a thing.
It's actually pretty much the only reason I would like to see a proper R rated Trek (18 to me of course) because the biological sexual dynamics of the alien races in Trek would be fascinating sci fi, and an area not touched on outside of fan fiction (which can be incredibly entertaining if mentally scarring in that regard. Trill with anenome like fronds is kind of cool and imaginative, Cardassians with..pointy bits..not so much. Logically of course anything that gets red on a human should get blue or green on vulcans, Andorians and Orions. Except those pesky mouths and eyes on our human actors may disregard that.)
Ignoring the sexual side of things, sewing the trek races simply nude would be interesting to look at the biomechanics...we know jadzias spots go all the way down, but what about Cardassians? Is their military armour modelled on the shape of their body the way our early armour was? Is the shadow in the spoon on Cardassian females an echo of sexual arousal signifiers the way human women apply blush or red lipstick?
What does this mean for their art work? Their literature? Is holding hands a massive taboo between certain parts of vulcan and Romulan society, with an illicit snatch of a touched fingertip the ultimate erotic frisson in their trashy novels?
Can someone just give me a contract to write a novel with all this crap in, I don't write fan fiction, I feel like a cheat when I try. (a personal hang up lol.)
What do we know?
1) Spock walked around Romulus unnoticed without the ridges.
2) Ridged Romulans show'd up in the years the Romulns disappeared after the Treaty of Algeron. In ST:VI, Ambassador Nanclus had no ridges; in TNG, they did have ridges.
3) If you want to count ENT, earlier Romulans had ridges as well.
My guess is that it could be either of two things:
1) There were multiple Vulcan races before the Sundering, and a mix of ridged and smooth "Romulans" left the planet. Over the millennia, different races vied for power succeeding at different periods. Post-Algeron, there was a massive socio-political realigning, and the ridges took over and built some mighty big warbirds. There may be some ridged Vulcans on Vulcan as well.
2) Ridged Romulans are a mix of "the old imperial" Vulcans and the Remans they encountered upon arriving at their new homeworlds. The predominance of the smooth Romulans that existed since the disgrace of the ridged ones after the loss in the Earth-Romulan War, ended with their own disgrace after the Treaty of Algeron. Decades of sociopolitical revolution (similar to the French Revolution) later, and they. Were. Back. (Treklit's Algeron tale.)
I don't think it was disease or genetic modification because they already laid that egg on ENT.
I don't think it was Klingon mix-breeding because there's mostly nothing Klingon about the ridged Romulans. Trek has tons of forehead aliens and the ridged Romulans look like they could be a cross between some them and the Vulcans more than they do the Klingons and Vulcans. Plus, as Tal mentioned upthread, the Klingon-Romulan mix we saw in "Birthright" looked much more mixed than just a couple of forehead ridges. Furthermore the change is ubiquitous throughout all Romulans we see in ENT and TNG-on, while there's no change in any Klingons during these periods.
Finally, there may be even other different-looking Romulans out there. If you look closely at the ridges, they changed over the years too. In TNG, they tapered and ended at the top of the nose; in NEM/ENT, they literally just curved and formed a V. Could there be more drastically different Vulcano-Romulan races? We may want to just chalk it up to make-up though. With the Klingons too, they went from ENT heavy foreheads, to TOS human ones, to TMP single-row of ridges, to heavy foreheads, to ST:VI moderate ridges, back to heavy foreheads.
1) Spock walked around Romulus unnoticed without the ridges.
2) Ridged Romulans show'd up in the years the Romulns disappeared after the Treaty of Algeron. In ST:VI, Ambassador Nanclus had no ridges; in TNG, they did have ridges.
3) If you want to count ENT, earlier Romulans had ridges as well.
My guess is that it could be either of two things:
1) There were multiple Vulcan races before the Sundering, and a mix of ridged and smooth "Romulans" left the planet. Over the millennia, different races vied for power succeeding at different periods. Post-Algeron, there was a massive socio-political realigning, and the ridges took over and built some mighty big warbirds. There may be some ridged Vulcans on Vulcan as well.
2) Ridged Romulans are a mix of "the old imperial" Vulcans and the Remans they encountered upon arriving at their new homeworlds. The predominance of the smooth Romulans that existed since the disgrace of the ridged ones after the loss in the Earth-Romulan War, ended with their own disgrace after the Treaty of Algeron. Decades of sociopolitical revolution (similar to the French Revolution) later, and they. Were. Back. (Treklit's Algeron tale.)
I don't think it was disease or genetic modification because they already laid that egg on ENT.
I don't think it was Klingon mix-breeding because there's mostly nothing Klingon about the ridged Romulans. Trek has tons of forehead aliens and the ridged Romulans look like they could be a cross between some them and the Vulcans more than they do the Klingons and Vulcans. Plus, as Tal mentioned upthread, the Klingon-Romulan mix we saw in "Birthright" looked much more mixed than just a couple of forehead ridges. Furthermore the change is ubiquitous throughout all Romulans we see in ENT and TNG-on, while there's no change in any Klingons during these periods.
Finally, there may be even other different-looking Romulans out there. If you look closely at the ridges, they changed over the years too. In TNG, they tapered and ended at the top of the nose; in NEM/ENT, they literally just curved and formed a V. Could there be more drastically different Vulcano-Romulan races? We may want to just chalk it up to make-up though. With the Klingons too, they went from ENT heavy foreheads, to TOS human ones, to TMP single-row of ridges, to heavy foreheads, to ST:VI moderate ridges, back to heavy foreheads.
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We also know that the Romulans aren't big on racial mixing (nor are the vulcans) because of things like the prison camp in Birthright and to an extent Sela. Sela herself seems determined to be 'more Romulan than romulan' because of the hurdle of her mixed heritage, in much the way Worf overcompensates for not being raised Klingon.
Oh, uh, just one more thing...
The Remans we saw may not have been the original Remans. If you look at the makeup, they have similar ridges to the TNG Romulans and pointed ears and whatnot. Even if they supplied the ridges to the Romulan gene pool, it'd be more likely the Romulans supplied the ears to them. So if the Remans we saw were Romulan-Reman mixes as well, what did the original Remans look like? Round-eared bats?
Maybe the original Remans were't even humanoid at all. Maybe eventually the Romulans got rid of them entirely, exiled their least-Vulcan looking subjects to slavery, and kept the ridged Romulans as a kind of middle-class. Maybe there are still a few of the darkness-loving, non-humanoid Remans still hiding in the deepest cracks of the Reman planetary crust.
The Remans we saw may not have been the original Remans. If you look at the makeup, they have similar ridges to the TNG Romulans and pointed ears and whatnot. Even if they supplied the ridges to the Romulan gene pool, it'd be more likely the Romulans supplied the ears to them. So if the Remans we saw were Romulan-Reman mixes as well, what did the original Remans look like? Round-eared bats?
Maybe the original Remans were't even humanoid at all. Maybe eventually the Romulans got rid of them entirely, exiled their least-Vulcan looking subjects to slavery, and kept the ridged Romulans as a kind of middle-class. Maybe there are still a few of the darkness-loving, non-humanoid Remans still hiding in the deepest cracks of the Reman planetary crust.
