I love the Romulans because...

[Arpy]

I'll start:

I love the Romulans because they have such great ships. I love the green of their later ships. Anyone know what the color's called? Emerald? To them it might be "blood green".

The D'deridex warbird is one of the greatest Trek ships ever. It's a wonderful mix of the familiar cultural bird motif and a so intriguing alien otherness. It's at once bold and mysterious, beautiful and scary. And it's so cool overall that we didn't care that it was basically the only Romulan ship for decades.

The shuttle is also beautiful, the scout's no slouch, the BoP is a raygun classic, the ENT BoP one of the few things that I really liked from the series, and some of the paintjobs on the Romulan-owned Klingon battlecruisers are mighty pretty.

 

[Unionized Elf]

The awesomeness of the D'deridex certainly makes up fot the lack of Romulan ships in the 24th century. Although the Valdore from Nemesis is kind of nice too. Even if it looks llike a cross between a Klingon BoP and a Son'a ship.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I love the Romulans because someday, some writer is really going to capitalize on the potential they've always had, but has never been realized. They are a buried treasure waiting to be uncovered.

Cmon writers. Get to it.

 

[Surfin' Santa]

I like the Romulans as they were conceived in Trek TOS -- the "good" bad guys. Warlike and ruthless, yes. But they had admirable qualities like honor, integrity, dignity and stoicism. (And cool-looking helmets.) The Klingons, OTOH, were originally supposed to be the REAL nasties.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm okay with the Rommies and Klingons changing places in terms of which is the honorable foe and which is more likely to stab you in the back. Just as long as we have one of each.

I think there's a place in the Trekverse for development of an even sleazier villain (maybe the Ferengi were supposed to be that), a space pirate/crime gang/thug type organization with no ethics at all, not even among themselves. The Orions would be a good candidate, or just have the Terran Empire establish a permanent foothold in "our" reality instead of always needing to go back home (why, when there's such easy pickins?)

 

[T'Grinch]

I like the Romulans as they were conceived in Trek TOS -- the "good" bad guys. Warlike and ruthless, yes. But they had admirable qualities like honor, integrity, dignity and stoicism. (And cool-looking helmets.) The Klingons, OTOH, were originally supposed to be the REAL nasties.

Same here. I hate that the Klingons took their place and their good qualities. The Romulans were turned into cardboard character villains.

 

[Nero's Shadow]

I love the TOS romulans loved how they race is so cunning but also secret. They always been good villains. Even in TNG they were good. I also liked how there tech and ships were powerful and large. The cloaking device also made them sneaky pity we never saw the romulan war it would have been great !!!

 

[Starbreaker]

I love the Romulans because I don't want to get banned from the boards.

 

[Avon]

i love giant romulan shoulderpads!

 

[Santa Kang]

Not sure I've ever bought the idea of Romulans having "honor" as a defining characteristic. We saw some honor from the BOT Commander, but he was shown to be a relic from an earlier age and not in step with the rest of Romulus. The Commander from RI isn't exactly a paragon of honor with trying to turn Spock through seduction and bribery. (Though Kirk and Spock are equally unhonorable in their actions) Alls fair in Love and war I guess. Cunning and sneaky define the Romulans more than honor. Too bad the "Trouble With Tribbles" didnt feature the Romulans as the bad guys. The sneaky Darvin and the slippery/charming Koloth work better as Romulans than Klingons.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I like the Romulans as they were conceived in Trek TOS -- the "good" bad guys. Warlike and ruthless, yes. But they had admirable qualities like honor, integrity, dignity and stoicism. (And cool-looking helmets.) The Klingons, OTOH, were originally supposed to be the REAL nasties.

Same here. I hate that the Klingons took their place and their good qualities. The Romulans were turned into cardboard character villains.

The Romulans need development, the way the Klingons and Cardassians were developed. To get that development, they need some unique identity (just being "honorable foes" isn't enough.) My favorite notion is that logic is to Vulcans as xenophobia is to Romulans: the way they manage to have a coherent social structure.

 

[T'Girl]

How much more screen time do they need to become "developed." Romulans were prominate in the last two movies and have been featured in a quite a number of episodes. They are what they are, cookie cutter, cardboard gernaric "enemies." That is the function they serve in-universe.

There's nowhere to go with them short of wiping the board clean and either starting from scratch (in which case they won't really be Romulans) or we could what?

The last thing I would like to see is to make them "more Human." You know, so we can better understand them and their perfectly understandable motivations.

The Romulan really aren't that bad once you get to know them ... yap yap yap.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The TV Romulans bore me. Hideous bowl cuts, stupid shoulder pads and one dull episode after another.

Diane Duane's Rihannsu, on the other hand, are fantastic. The novels My Enemy, My Ally, The Romulan Way and the rest gave the Romulans a depth and nobility that the TV writers could never hope to match.

I thought Nero, his band of thugs and the Narada were awesome. Romulans with variety! Romulans without bowl cuts! Romulans in a ship that wasn't painted green! Romulans that, rather than scheming and plotting endlessly, actually went out and wiped their Vulcan cousins from the face of the galaxy! The Romulan military must be the most inept in the quadrant. Put the miners in the warships and watch the galaxy burn!

 

[Paradon]

I'm not sure why they made the Romulans like nerdy type of aliens if they are supposed to reflect the Roman cultures. I think they are supposed to act more like the Brene and the Romulans we see in the new movie that just recently came out. They are supposed to be intelligent warrior culture...not some scaredy cats who hide behind diplomacy all the time. They are supposed to have a lot of gumption.

 

[Anji]

I love their cool arrogance. You know they have the potential for real evil but they never show it. To me, that is more frightening than actually don't something really, really bad.

 

[seekertwo]

Diane Duane's Rihannsu, on the other hand, are fantastic. The novels My Enemy, My Ally, The Romulan Way and the rest gave the Romulans a depth and nobility that the TV writers could never hope to match.

Agreed...the Romulans were better-handled in novels than on-screen...

I've thought the difference b/t the Romulans & Klingons are like those b/t vampires and werewolves...the Romulans were the civilized, cunning enemy while the Klingons were the barbarian savages...hope nuTrek does them better than TNG did....

 

[Temis the Vorta]

H

ow much more screen time do they need to become "developed."

It's not the amount of time, it's the quality and content of the stories that counts. They need to have the right kind of stories. Trek XI for instance had Romulans but they could have been any group of aliens (or even new ones invented for the movie) because there was nothing about them that needed to be Romulan, and we learned nothing new of substance about Romulans. Which wasn't the point of the movie, so that was fine by me, but all the Trek XI type stories in the universe won't move the Romulans off square one.

Just compare how the Romulans have been handled during all of Trek to how DS9 developed the Cardassians during seven years - the Rommies need what the Cardies got.

They are what they are, cookie cutter, cardboard gernaric "enemies." That is the function they serve in-universe.

Cookie-cutter enemies is lazy and unimaginative writing - not exactly what I expect from Star Trek. And I'm certain they can do better. I can think of ways they can do better, so professional writers shouldn't find it an insurmountable obstacle.

There's nowhere to go with them short of wiping the board clean

Just because you can't think of where to go with them doesn't mean there isn't anyplace good to go with them. BTW, I wouldn't make them more human. That's boring. I'd go the other way.

I love their cool arrogance. You know they have the potential for real evil but they never show it. To me, that is more frightening than actually don't something really, really bad.

Yeah, this is the right direction. The Romulans should challenge Trek's assumption that all aliens are cuddly and nice once you get to know them, and we're all the same underneath the funny foreheads. Klingons, maybe, but the Romulans won't ever play nice with the Federation. They don't want to. They can't.

 

[JRoss]

Awesome ships, great performances, cool society.

 

[milo bloom]

I thought Nero, his band of thugs and the Narada were awesome. Romulans with variety! Romulans without bowl cuts! Romulans in a ship that wasn't painted green! Romulans that, rather than scheming and plotting endlessly, actually went out and wiped their Vulcan cousins from the face of the galaxy! The Romulan military must be the most inept in the quadrant. Put the miners in the warships and watch the galaxy burn!

Excellent comment, even though they didn't get a lot of character growth in XI, it was nice to see Rommies used as the baddies to make up for their horrible showing in Nemesis, and especially nice to see them without their forehead bumps.

And I also have to agree with the ship comments. Just beautiful designs and that wonderful green color. Personally I've always been partial to that scoutship design seen in the episode where Geordi and Ro are out of phase.

Would really like to see a writer put some meat into their race's characterization, and then actually get to see it onscreen. The books are great, but sometimes you want to see someone bring it to life.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Not sure I've ever bought the idea of Romulans having "honor" as a defining characteristic. We saw some honor from the BOT Commander, but he was shown to be a relic from an earlier age and not in step with the rest of Romulus. The Commander from RI isn't exactly a paragon of honor with trying to turn Spock through seduction and bribery. (Though Kirk and Spock are equally unhonorable in their actions) Alls fair in Love and war I guess. Cunning and sneaky define the Romulans more than honor. Too bad the "Trouble With Tribbles" didnt feature the Romulans as the bad guys. The sneaky Darvin and the slippery/charming Koloth work better as Romulans than Klingons.

Honor works fine for describing the Romulans, if you think of it in terms of the Romans. Honor is a matter of supporting your home, your family and respect for ancestors. Also, it is in creating and fostering alliances and patronage so as to advance ones career in society. The Romans didn't feel any honor was impinged on by stabbing enemies in the back, that is more in lines with a chivalric code. They aren't operating on a medieval concept of chivalry, where one is expected to oppose ones enemy on equal terms or avoid lies and deceit.