Do you think the Picard Series will revitalize the Romulans?

Do you think the Picard Series will revitalize the Romulans? Of all the major Star Trek civilizations, the Romulans seem like the least explored of them. All the other civilizations the Klingons, the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Ferengi, the Dominion, and heck even the Borg have more major characters in the franchise then the Romulans.

The Romulans were interesting in their first appearance, but the Klingons took the role of the honorable enemies and by the TNG era, they just became generic bad guys who would do something underhanded, got caught and creep away. I think one problem is the Romulans are kinda just Space Romans, with a Proconsul, Praetor and Senate and an alien civilization that is just a copy of an Earth civilization is kinda dull and lazy. To me, the more interesting thing about the Romulans is they shared heritage with the Vulcans. They were the most reoccurring villains in TNG, but did not get much in the way of major characters or development on the screen (I do not think Sela or Tomalak is on the same level as characters like Garak or Dukat, for example). Star Trek Nemesis was supposed to be a Romulan centered film, but the spotlight ended up going to the Remans and a Picard clone in that film.

However, the destruction of Romulus finally gives the Romulans a new take, that could revitalize this civilization that has become stale in terms of storytelling. A major civilization that has completely lost its homeworld to a natural disaster is somewhat unique in Star Trek and the Romulans being more nomadic could be interesting. We see a Romulan character as one of Picard's crew and with the Romulans seemingly experimenting with Borg tech and having more reason to be bold due to their desperate circumstances, maybe we could see a truly menacing main Romulan villain, along with some sympathetic Romulans. Really I think most of the hanging plot threads from the TNG era Star Trek involve the Romulans.

 

Yes.

 

Yes indeed.

 

We're seeing Romulans that aren't part of the military, which I think is great.

 

Yeah, I think this will go a lot deeper into the Romulans than we have before.

 

I like "Balance of Terror" but "The Enterprise Incident" is one of my favorite TOS episodes. Either way, Romulans in TOS were a big deal. They weren't as common place as seeing the Klingons became.

In TNG, that gets watered down a lot. They had to be used more out of necessity. The Ferengi bombed as villains, the Klingons were (sort of) on the Federation's side now, and you couldn't use the Borg all the time, so the Romulans became the go-to adversaries. In the third season, "The Enemy" and "The Defector" were great Romulan episodes but after that, the next great Romulan episode didn't come until "Face of the Enemy" in the sixth season. The rest of the time, they were just someone who was there when the Federation needed an adversary. At least until the Cardassians were introduced.

I too am hoping the destruction of Romulus shakes things up enough so it that puts the Romulans into a place they weren't before. Co-opting Borg tech and having to hustle now that they've lost Romulus would put them into a situation where they're a lot more willing to take risks than they were before when all they did was play the long game, waiting for someone else to make the next chess move. They've been shaken out of their complacency the same way the Borg and Dominion shook the Federation out of its complacency.

 

I agree with all of that. I think both the Romulans and the Borg had been played as villains, giving the devastating power of Borg tech over to a group of Romulans known for their schemes and treachery, combines the most menacing aspects of both groups into one. The Romulans became stale because it looked like they were just going to play the long game forever, they cannot do that anymore, circumstances dictate more bold action for Romulans who support the old ways.

 

I guess they weren't seen that often cause they're hiding on purpose. They remained hidden for decades before they appeared on TNG, and mostly work in the shadows anyway. It's nice to have a mysterious culture left after all those you mentioned were explored in detail

 

I really hope so. I love the idea that the Romulans are basically f*cked and have to resort to experimenting on Borg & Borg tech for them to survive. And I like that it seems their culture has split a bit, like how some of the Romulans on Picard's crew are against what their current government is doing. Intriguing stuff. Also, what I really hope we see is "what happened to all the races the Romulans subjugated in their empire?". Did they revolt? Join the Romulans in their plans? I could do without seeing the Remans ever again but the Romulans had a vast empire with many races under their thumb. We should absolutely see some of that.

Can't wait for all of it.

 

We've already seen more Romulan haircuts in the trailers than all of TNG/DS9 combined so, yes.

 

The big mistake that TNG made with the Romulans involved the episode Ensign Ro.

What's that you say? No Romulans? That's the problem.

Originally the Bajorans were supposed to be recovering from the Romulan occupation. While the episode was in development, Berman decided the Romulans had been used too much, remembered the Cardassians from the one-off episode The Wounded in the previous season, and decided to change the antagonists. DS9 ultimately sprung out of this choice.

One could easily imagine everything in DS9 working just as well if the antagonists were Romulans. The Romulans and Cardassians are both brutal authoritarian nations where there are rouge intelligence agencies which wield enormous power after all. Some of the details might have been a little different, but in general I think that almost all of the traits that DS9 ascribed to the Cardassians could have been ported over.

 

Imagine how much time in the make up chair Alaimo and Robinson would have been spared!

 

Yes

 

Fair enough, but I think that would changed a lot of things, the Cardassians being a second rate power is a big reason why they joined the Dominion and ''In the Pale Moonlight'' would have been different if the Romulans played the role the Cardassians played in this series. I think ulimately things worked well for DS9 with the Cardassians as the villains.

Really the Bajorans are the most explored examples of the victims of imperialism in Star Trek, with the Klingons we only see them subject the Organians and Kriosians and neither of them are as developed as the Bajorans and the only subject species we see from the Romulans were the Remans and that was only in Nemesis, way after TOS and TNG and really was for only one movie (and they were made to be evil monsters). There was nothing stopping the writers from having some of the subject species of the Romulan Empire appear on a show or movie before Nemesis, they just didn't want to put the work in with the Romulans.

That being said since most of the hanging plot threads from TNG era Trek involve the Romulans, they are the ones ripe for being explored more. The Cardassians are already well explored and after the Dominion War, I doubt they would ever be in the mood to pick a fight with the Federation, sure there could be some terrorist groups like the ''The True Way'' that could cause problems, but I think most Cardassians would see the Federation as allies after the Dominion War.

Not so with the Romulans, their planet was destroyed by a natural disaster, not devastated due to decisions made by their government. I think some Romulans would see the Federation as saviors if Picard did indeed evacuate their system, but others would be bitter, think the Federation intentionally failed to save them to see them done away with and want to regain the glory days of the Romulans. The Romulans and Cardassians are in 2 different places now and I think the Romulans could still pose a threat to the Federation, but not the Cardassians. The Cardassians were a defeated people devastated by their own decisions, the Romulans were devastated by some freak accident, the Romulans will not feel defeated the same way the Cardassians will. After DS9, the Cardassian's story is mostly finished, but there is still a lot of room for stuff with the Romulans.

 

Quite so. Leave the Cardassians alone.

 

I find the Cardies much more interesting. But the Romulans joining the Dominion and Sisko tricking the Cardies to join them is also an interesting concept...

 

I always thought that Romulans were most interesting when they weren’t just ‘enemies.’ The Defector and The Enemy were instructive of this, as was their (self-serving, but risky) willingness to loan a cloaking device to the Defiant, and their showing up to help the E against the scimitar. Even the Romulans showing up in The Die is Cast and joining the Starfleet/Klingon task force at DS9 worked on that same level.

I actually wish they played the same prominent role in DS9 that the Klingons had from season 4. There would’ve been more shades of grey in that relationship than just ‘Khitomer Accord: yeah/nah?’ The Romulans always have the capacity to surprise and intrigue me. Klingon Klaptrap does not.

 

I also always found Romulans intriguing because they inadvertently added another facet to the Vulcans. The Romulans left Vulcan because they disagreed with Surak's teachings and therefore never adopted logic as a ball and chain to their high passions, so Romulans are the closest look we can get on what the Vulcans left behind. Delving deeper into the differences between them would be really cool, especially if we get sympathetic, non-violent Romulans showing an alternative to suppressing ones emotions.

 

IMHO the Romulans were by far the most interesting in Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels than anything that appeared on TV/film.

 

Oh, I know. I still have to read the last one.