Ugh- I agree. While I wouldn't have had a problem with a Star Trek movie that involved that time period and conflict, that story idea just sounds silly.
Question about the Earth-Romulan War
- Thread starter ColeMercury
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Ugh- I agree. While I wouldn't have had a problem with a Star Trek movie that involved that time period and conflict, that story idea just sounds silly.
Personally, I never had any problems with the idea that the Earth-Romulan War was fought with no Human ever seeing what a Romulan actually looked liked. I always thought that it was a war fought entirely in space, with no prisoners taken on either side because Romulans never allowed themselves to be taken prisoner and didn't believe in sparing any Humans during combat. Those old ships may have been less advanced than the NX-class and probably would blow up if you breathed on them wrong anyway...
Human scientists probably did take samples of DNA left over from destroyed Romulan ships, but all it told them was that Romulans were similar/compatible to several races, including the Klingons, the Rigelians, the Vulcans, the Debrune...
Human scientists probably did take samples of DNA left over from destroyed Romulan ships, but all it told them was that Romulans were similar/compatible to several races, including the Klingons, the Rigelians, the Vulcans, the Debrune...
my fan-fic of the Romulan War has only two surface-side incidents: one is the massacre of the Starfleet personnel building the starbase on Berengaria and the other is the capture of a Romulan base on Romii. the Romulans in both cases wear helmets which completely cover their heads and the two people who see one take his helmet off die.
the Romulans on Romii basically abandon the base and flee.
most of the war is conducted by Romulan fleets making surprise attacks on planets and being beaten off and Earth, Andorian and Tellarite forces searching for the Romulans across several sectors before finding Romii and then battling a Romulan fleet at Charon and handing their asses to them.
the Romulans on Romii basically abandon the base and flee.
most of the war is conducted by Romulan fleets making surprise attacks on planets and being beaten off and Earth, Andorian and Tellarite forces searching for the Romulans across several sectors before finding Romii and then battling a Romulan fleet at Charon and handing their asses to them.
Good point. But we can take it even further. Suppose human scientists found traces of Romulan DNA. Hell, suppose they found a Romulan body. What would they conclude from that? Would they say 'Hey, these guys are identical to the Vulcans, they must be an offshoot'? Or would they say 'Hey, this is the body of a Vulcan?'
I think the latter is more likely. Of course, this would then raise questions about why the apparent Vulcan was present on the Romulan ship. But it does mean any Romulan bodies found would not be recognized as such.
But were the clones actual of Romulans? Or were they of a alien bounty hunter the Romulans were using for DNA?
Humans were encountering alien species all the time who resembled homo sapiens, now finding a species that resembled Vulcans in a similar manner might not have rung any bells, especially if what was being recovered was random body parts and mangled freeze dries corpses. I understand a rapid transition from sea level pressure to hard vacuum can be "damaging." So there's your "no one know what a Romulan looks like."
Plus (one), add on that Star Trek holds that most intelligent life in the Milky Way Galaxy possesses near identical DNA (which is why they can all have babies together), how would the "authorities" make a connection between Vulcans and Romulans?
Plus (two), if the Romulans were using the Remans as ground troops and perhaps also as crews aboard their ships, AND the Romulans did the same with other species within their Empire, then bodies from dozens of species might have been recovered, so which one were the Romulans? Who were the bosses? Shinzon, a one time Human slave in the mines, rose to be a officer in the Romulan military (according to Starfleet records), so even if you could determine who (body/corpse) was in command of a particular ship, they still might not have been a "Romulan," madding yes?
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...That would've sucked.
It was a space war, so it is possible there were never any ground battles. Romulans don't surrender, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe they don't accept surrenders either. And as we saw in Balance of Terror, when defeat seems obvious, the Romulans self-destruct their ships. It's not really that hard to rationalize no one ever seeing each other.
Both sides wore armour which concealed their faces. They knew each other to be humanoid, but knew no specifics about their appearance. Problem solved, give me the No-Prize.
Blegh! Looks like we dodged a real wallbanger there!
Though I certainly no fan of Abrams Trek XI, I do recognized it as the lesser evil. Star Trek The Beginning would have been total crap on a scale so grand fandom would be re-evulating Nemesis and determining that it's not so bad after all.
They tried that in "Space: Above and Beyond" and even there the sides found out their true appearances after less than 2 years.
Don't you start!
No-Prize for mentioning the No-Prize!
Wow, that takes me back...
But it is, of course, the only way to be sure.
Do you seriously think Enterprise effed up with a view screen? Web cams have been around since the 1990s. heck, the original mercury and apollo missions sent telemetry video back to Earth in the 1960s, during the time of TOS, if you want to get real picky. Do you really think having a view screen should be beyond a star ship's technology in the 2150s?
Rewatch balance of terror and you will see they just mention treaty was done by audio only. They don't say anything about not actually having a view screen. This can be taken to mean (as Enterprise depicts) the Romulans did not want to show their faces to the enemy, due to their secretive nature.
And this remains true of ENT, TOS and TNG: Romulans don't communicate unless it is for the purpose of obfuscating or gloating, and there would have been relatively little of that in wartime. That is, if the Romulans obfuscated, they probably triumphed. And if they triumphed and gloated, then the Earthlings would not survive to tell the story.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
Reread my post and you'll see I didn't say no screens anywhere at all; just no one big theatrical screen up front. It was something that made Enterprise "just another Trek show," no different than the rest, with scene after scene of Archer standing there jabbering at someone's image on the big screen. I'd have liked to see something different instead of the same old shit. Maybe a smaller comm screen at Hoshi's station for when visual was available; some audio-only comms for long-range that made us think "Hey, they're waaaaay out in space, and have a ways to got to advance to TOS-levels of communications!"
It would have been nice to see something really primitive in ENT, yes. Say, virtual reality controls requiring those silly helmets and gloves. Or retina projection displays with gooseneck emitters at each console. Perhaps a robot or two, to indicate the low standards of automation aboard. And all sorts of blinking gadgets hanging from the uniforms, for inelegant communications and sensing from an era that precedes fliptop communicators and tricorders.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
This (one fans point of view) simply wouldn't have worked when you consider canon. A century later Earth and/or the Federation were still maintaining a "wall" between themselves and the Romulans. Why? Because of a week long battle against a foe who basically disappeared a century before?
In order for the Neutral Zone to be maintained for so long, the Romulan War must have been a horrifying series of events, likely a protracted war of years, if not a decade of more.
It would be like America a hundred years later maintaining a wall around Germany because we were still worried about The Kaiser.
Problem is, Spock never said that there were no viewscreens. He said "Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication." And that plus no human, Romulan, or ally (to his knowledge) has ever seen the other is all he said on that matter.
Nothing about the lack of a big flatscreen in the front of the bridge.
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