The Romulan War: the biggest 'problem' in Trek canon?

[Jedi Marso]

It all starts in Balance of Terror in TOS- the statements which sort of bind up everything that comes after in terms of the Romulans:

1. The notion that the Earth-Romulan war was fought with sublight ships and atomic weapons.
2. The notion that visual communications didn't exist at the time, so neither side ever saw what the other looked like.
3. The establishment of the Romulans as an ancient offshoot of the Vulcan culture.
4. The notion that 23rd Century Romulan ships are powered by 'simple impulse.'

If the Romulans had been a one-episode footnote in Trek history, one of these tidbits would have ended up meaning a hill of beans. Obviously, that's not how it played out.

Fast forward to Enterprise, where almost every notion established in Balance of Terror is shot to pieces.

1. The notion that the Romulan War was fought with sublight vessels doesn't hold up no matter what. Without warp drive, interstellar war is impossible in the Trek-verse unless you possess some other, even more 'magical' means of traversing interstellar distances. So this one can be discarded pretty easily.

2. No visual communications: I think Enterprise discards this notion in the pilot episode, which happens a full decade before the Romulan War. The series develops several plot elements to prevent the good guys from physcially seeing the Roms, but at the same time you have Romulans abducting Andorians and planting agents on Vulcan to subvert Vulcan culture. In the novels, Trip is surgically altered to pass as a Romulan and spy on them- so how then does Earth not know in the 23rd Century exactly who and what the Romulans are?

Points 3 and 4 tie into 1 and 2.

It seems like instead of twisting plot points like pretzels and bending over backwards to preserve the illogical 'canon' as established in TOS, it would have been far easier for writers and so on to simply discard the original episode that introduced the Romulans.

How do you feel the whole Romulan issue SHOULD have been handled, if the collective Trek-verse had it to do all over again? (Pre-supposing there is no change to Balance of Terror)

 

[Jedi Marso]

On a side note: the Vulcans having been infiltrated by the Romulans in S4 was one of my biggest (if not the biggest) problems I had with S4. The Romulans are violent, devious, and passionate, while the Vulcans were reserved, pacficistic (theoretically), and immersed in logic. I think they would have wound up being exposed faster than mirror-Kirk and his cohorts wound up in the brig in the 'prime' universe in mirror-mirror.

 

[Kor]

I don't see what's wrong with no visual communications.

What we see in Trek in general, with computer and communications platforms from completely different worlds always interacting with no problems whatsoever, almost borders on magic. Did technical representatives from all alien worlds get together at some point in a galactic version of ISO and decide to use common technology and protocols, or what?

Kor

 

[Jedi Marso]

I don't see what's wrong with no visual communications.



Kor

Exactly. And it was one of the first things ignored by the Enterprise writers- visual comms available from day one!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

To be fair, Spock's line doesn't necessarily mean that there was no such thing as visual communication. It could also be explained away as the Romulans simply refusing to USE it. If they won't let anyone hail them visually, it's the same result.

And it is obvious that the Romulan ship in 'Balance of Terror' is moving at FTL speeds anyway, so the line about 'simple impulse' is worthless on the face of it.

(Besides, as we would later learn, Romulan ships use artificial black holes as power for their warp drive. If Scotty didn't recognize this for what it was, maybe he assumed their ships didn't have warp drive, when it's obvious that they do.)

 

[TwoJakes]

1. The notion that the Earth-Romulan war was fought with sublight ships and atomic weapons.

Never got the idea that they were sublight, that it was a interstellar war negates this possibility. And I'm fine with them switching from low powered photonic warheads to massive fission/fussion warheads. Why screw around with the little stuff in a real war.

2. The notion that visual communications didn't exist at the time, so neither side ever saw what the other looked like.

Put that down to communications security, Starfleet was ordered by their command not to attempt contact. Perhaps worried that a BSG computer virus would be sent.

3. The establishment of the Romulans as an ancient offshoot of the Vulcan culture.

Okay.

4. The notion that 23rd Century Romulan ships are powered by 'simple impulse.'

Certainly the ship they encountered in BOT was. There was a lot of conjecture in early fan fiction that during the Romulan War (and before) starships were powered by fusion reactors and not matter/antimatter. That came later.

So the ship in BOT could have been powered by impulse (fusion) and still have been capable of warp.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Rather than defend how it's been handled (or not), how would you handle it if the original series episode still existed but the Romulans in Trek were a blank slate other than that?

 

[TwoJakes]

^ Would have kept/made the Romulans a small but powerful threat, not a empire of near equal size to the Federation.

 

[uniderth]

1. The notion that the Earth-Romulan war was fought with sublight ships and atomic weapons.

I would imagine not all ships would have atomic weapons equipped. In really inert guided slugs can do just as much damage as an explosive warhead so for small scale conflicts I could see inert slugs as the standard compliment. However during the war the "big guns" would come out.

2. The notion that visual communications didn't exist at the time, so neither side ever saw what the other looked like.

My interpretation of this has changed over time. I used to be in the camp of no visual communications at all. However, I think this could simply refer to no visual communication between Romulans/Allies and Earth/Allies. As pointed out by Kor, formatting of video signals here on earth is complex enough. It would be increasingly difficult with alien species. So while visual communication is possible, it probably wasn't done between the two indicated groups.

3. The establishment of the Romulans as an ancient offshoot of the Vulcan culture.

While we the audience, having seen Balance of Terror, know this in order to maintain the impact of the story any prequel should not include this information. Nor should a Romulan ever been seen by us the audience in any prequel. The whole point of the never before seen shtick was to maintain the dramatic reveal of the Romulan's appearance. So not even the audience should see what they look like before this.

4. The notion that 23rd Century Romulan ships are powered by 'simple impulse.'

At the time the intent was probably that the Romulans were sublight. However there is enough wiggle room to mean that their ftl drive was impulse powered. This still has to relate to speed though, because the reason Scotty mentioned "simple impulse" was to show that the Enterprise could outrun the Romulans. Perhaps an impulse powered ship doesn't have the acceleration nor top speed of a matter/anti-matter ship.

 

[TwoJakes]

Nor should a Romulan ever been seen by us the audience in any prequel

I disgree, i can see the show switching back and forth between the Earth warships and the Romulan ones, somewhat like what went on during Balance of Terror. The sequels respective crews never see each other, but the audience sees both.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Starfleet was ordered by their command not to attempt contact. Perhaps worried that a BSG computer virus would be sent.

Which, as ENT showed, is a realistic fear for Starfleet to have. Look at what happened with the drone ship - it was controlled by remote. Starfleet probably assumed that if the Romulan fleet could control one of their OWN ships that way, they could do it to someone else's.

Spoiler: novelverse

And that's exactly what happens in the novels - the Romulans have a way to take over other ships' computers and do whatever they want with them.

 

[fireproof78]

Which fits in with the concept that they are a little more remote in their war efforts, rather than relying on traditional troops and ships. Drone ships could indicate that those were the primary means that the Romulans used in the war.

Also, "no visuals" can be hand waved away quite easily. They never tried to establish them. GIven what we learn about how secretive and manipulative Romulans are, that isn't surprising.

Atomic weapons-if anti-matter was more valuable for warp drive and the Romulans used an artificial singularity, then atomic weapons may have been more practical or easier to come by.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Which, as ENT showed, is a realistic fear for Starfleet to have. Look at what happened with the drone ship - it was controlled by remote. Starfleet probably assumed that if the Romulan fleet could control one of their OWN ships that way, they could do it to someone else's.

Spoiler: novelverse

And that's exactly what happens in the novels - the Romulans have a way to take over other ships' computers and do whatever they want with them.

Origin of the prefix codes ala WOK?

 

[uniderth]

I disgree, i can see the show switching back and forth between the Earth warships and the Romulan ones, somewhat like what went on during Balance of Terror. The sequels respective crews never see each other, but the audience sees both.

That's fine, but it ruins the reveal in Balance of Terror if we (the audience) already know what Romulan's look like. The switching back and forth between ships only happened after the reveal of what Romulan's looked like. I can see why people would just want a cut back and forth. But for me, I would rather maintain the integrity of the reveal. Additionally, I think having the Romulans as a faceless enemy could be much more terrifying than doing the traditional cut back and forth.

I also feel the same about the Star Wars prequels. The prequels should not have shown us Anakin turning into Darth Vader. What we should have seen needed to be consistence with Obi-wan's "certain point of view." This would preserve the impact of the "I am your Father reveal." Additionally, we shouldn't have seen Luke and Leia as twins, thus preserving the "Leia's my sister reveal.

Prequels must be able to blend into the existing narrative chronologically.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Meh. Enterprise should have just disregarded the whole "We don't know what Romulans look like and that they are related to Vulcans" bit from TOS. That would have solved everything.

 

[Commander Richard]

The switching back and forth between ships only happened after the reveal of what Romulan's looked like. I can see why people would just want a cut back and forth. But for me, I would rather maintain the integrity of the reveal. Additionally, I think having the Romulans as a faceless enemy could be much more terrifying than doing the traditional cut back and forth.

I also feel the same about the Star Wars prequels. The prequels should not have shown us Anakin turning into Darth Vader. What we should have seen needed to be consistence with Obi-wan's "certain point of view." This would preserve the impact of the "I am your Father reveal." Additionally, we shouldn't have seen Luke and Leia as twins, thus preserving the "Leia's my sister reveal.

Prequels must be able to blend into the existing narrative chronologically.

I agree with these.

Enterprise could have handled the Romulans the way Signs handled the invading aliens or the way Space: Above and Beyond handled the Chigs. They had the protagonists up against a faceless enemy. Dramatically, that works well too.

 

[TwoJakes]

but it ruins the reveal in Balance of Terror if we (the audience) already know what Romulan's look like

Umm, we the audience already know what the Romulans look like, we have for nearly fifty years. The "reveal" is a done deal.

 

[Commander Richard]

^ I still think it's a nice approach. The protagonists won't see the enemy or have any meaningful interaction, so why not make it a story about them versus a faceless monster?

 

[uniderth]

What it boils down to for me is that If I'm going to do a prequel I want to to flow with the rest of the story as if it had been there since the beginning. Knowing what we know about Balance of Terror, and back projecting that, it is clear that the best choice for narrative consistency is one which maintains the reveal of the Romulan appearance until Balance of Terror. It doesn't really matter if any given viewer already has seen all the rest of Star Trek. If a viewer hadn't seen Star Trek and watched the franchise from the beginning (starting with a hypothetical prequel); showing the Romulans in the prequel would ruin the Balance of Terror reveal. In the framework of the story, Balance of Terror would be the result of the hypothetical prequel, not the cause of it. Thus narrative consistency demands that a prequel, even though it is produced later, must be consistent with Balance of Terror.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Prequels aren't actually meant to be watched before the stories they are prequels to (whatever George Lucas has dubiously claimed). The hint there is that they get released to an audience after those stories, often long after.

ENT shows that the Romulans were making use of remotely controlled unmanned drones, which might explain a lot.

(Also, big can of worms I know, but let's not forget that ENT's history may not even be exactly the history of TOS in every detail, considering the Temporal Cold War.)