How did Kirk know they were Romulans?
- Thread starter Anticitizen
- Start date
I don't recall him doing so, but you'd think that he'd have Romulan markings on his ship and be speaking Romulan.
Come to think about it, why did they need Uhura to translate Romulan? Don't they have universal translators that do that by now?
No, but Kirk and Pike knew it was a Romulan ship that attacked the Kelvin, even before they met Nero.
Well to be fair I assume a mining vessle wouldn't look much different than a war ship. To the untrained eye a modern-day-in-real-life cruise ship probably doesn't look that much different than a battleship.
All Seeing Eye
Admiral
Because ships give off identification beacons and even warp signatures can be identified as they are unique to each space faring race. Warp signatures are given off even when ships arn't at warp or haven't been at warp.
One of the bridge crew was asked to pick out any Romulan transmissions but the guy couldn't discern the difference between Vulcan and Romulan transmissions because they are very similar so that's why Uhura was brought into it.
You can't pick out a transmission if it's all translated to English, the guy needed to look at the transmissions un-translated to find the Romulan transmission and THEN translate them.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
The Narada had feathered bird of prey markings on it, meaning it was a Romulan ship, not a Klingon warbird. 
That's c0p to you!
I just picked up Alan Dean Foster's novelization, and it's even worse: during the Kelvin incident, it's clear that either a) the writers (Orci & Kurtzmann are credited as such, with Foster being the novelist) didn't know or didn't care that this was unknowable information or b) somehow the timeframe changed long before the Narada ever appeared, because George Kirk states very positively after they are hailed that these must be Romulans, who are the "closest known genetic cousins of Vulcans." 
He also states that their body markings point to them being Romulans, as well.
How did he know any of this, if at that time no human had ever seen a Romulan, at least not so that the knowledge survived him to reach Starfleet?
He also states that their body markings point to them being Romulans, as well.How did he know any of this, if at that time no human had ever seen a Romulan, at least not so that the knowledge survived him to reach Starfleet?
I just picked up Alan Dean Foster's novelization, and it's even worse: during the Kelvin incident, it's clear that either a) the writers (Orci & Kurtzmann are credited as such, with Foster being the novelist) didn't know or didn't care that this was unknowable information or b) somehow the timeframe changed long before the Narada ever appeared, because George Kirk states very positively after they are hailed that these must be Romulans, who are the "closest known genetic cousins of Vulcans."
How did he know any of this, if at that time no human had ever seen a Romulan, at least not so that the knowledge survived him to reach Starfleet?
I just read that first chapter last night. It was very disturbing.
The explanations offered in this thread are great, it's disappointing that the writers seemed to think there was no need for explanation. At least in ENT they used Romulans and had them disguised as Vulcans.
Could be that deliberate bit of heresy which was referred to all the way back in October with the EW feature article?I just picked up Alan Dean Foster's novelization, and it's even worse: during the Kelvin incident, it's clear that either a) the writers (Orci & Kurtzmann are credited as such, with Foster being the novelist) didn't know or didn't care that this was unknowable information or b) somehow the timeframe changed long before the Narada ever appeared, because George Kirk states very positively after they are hailed that these must be Romulans, who are the "closest known genetic cousins of Vulcans."
How did he know any of this, if at that time no human had ever seen a Romulan, at least not so that the knowledge survived him to reach Starfleet?
TrekMovie excerpts it here.
Page four of the EW article here.
Probably because Nero was speaking Romulan and not English.
I just picked up Alan Dean Foster's novelization, and it's even worse: during the Kelvin incident, it's clear that either a) the writers (Orci & Kurtzmann are credited as such, with Foster being the novelist) didn't know or didn't care that this was unknowable information or b) somehow the timeframe changed long before the Narada ever appeared, because George Kirk states very positively after they are hailed that these must be Romulans, who are the "closest known genetic cousins of Vulcans."
How did he know any of this, if at that time no human had ever seen a Romulan, at least not so that the knowledge survived him to reach Starfleet?
They could have just said they figured it out because when they talked to them the UT translated the unknown caller's language from Romulanese.
Orci and Kurtzmann might have just decided that the whole not knowning what a Romulan looked like was ridiculous. It seems insane that despite fighting a war with the Romulans that Earth never managed to get their hands on a Romulan corpse. People seem to be constantly been sucked out of their ships to perish in the cold hard vacuum of space during battles.
Auto Self-Destruct may be the most important component of Romulan ships.
And they used crewless drone ships during the war. There wouldn't be any corpse to examine.
OH YEAH!! Duh, I did read ENT relaunch..
Can't remember though, is that anywhere in canon?
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