Re: Are there any non-fiction books detailing the history of the Romul
The easiest explaination might be that the large separation was deliberate. From the start of their journey the intent wasn't just to travel to the next nearest star system with a suitable planet, but to get as far from Vulcan as their technology would allow them.
While undoubtedly possible, I wonder if this is a realistic scenario. The protagonists in BSG were forced to leave their home because it had been devastated and rendered uninhabitable. Here we'd have irrational and, IMHO, aristocratic Vulcans that were boxed up in a spaceship for a probably considerable amount of time. Would they have embarked voluntarily on such a long spaceflight and given up their home that easily? And they probably weren't forced to do so at gunpoint as that would have been somewhat incompatible with the teachings of Surak.
But when the Enterprise encounters their "flagship" it only has "impulse power".
Like more than a few fans, I take Scotty's description to mean the ship's warp drive was powered by fusion reactors, and not matter/antimatter reactors.
Admittedly, most tech fans that participated in the Romulan BoP felt that way, but how does the majority of fans think about the issue as "impulse power" was usually presented as a synonym for "sublight speed" throughout the various incarnations of Star Trek.
If the producers just intended "impulse power" (sublight speed), which I think is the case, we'd have to invoke the "burning bridges" or "burning ships" scenario on behalf of the Romulan "exodus" and open another can of worms.
For the mutineers of
HMS Bounty the main reason for burning their ship was to get rid of evidence that could have attracted unwanted attention from other ships passing Pitcairn island.
Other than that I find these scenarios, as presented in nuBSG or
WALL-E rather unrealistic, especially since you seem to have plenty of asteroids and comets in the Romulan star system.
The Romulans during the Earth/Romulan war could not have been a credible enemy without a FTL propulsion of some kind.
Admittedly, that's the suggestion of "Elaan of Troyius" but that takes place 100 years in the future. Whether Earth and its allies (including Vulcans?) used or could have used FTL vessels (asteroids and comets?) is inconclusive from a strictly TOS point-of-view.
Spock:
As you may recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels.
And as an analogy I'd like to mention the practical use of the first jet fighter during WW II, the Messerschmitt ME 262. While it was faster it usually overshoot the allied bomber formations or enemy fighters. And it bought speed at the expense of fuel and range limitations, not exactly an advantage for Earth ships operating far from home in the enemy's territory.
In the Romulan BoP thread, it had been mentioned that the "impulse powered" BoP may have been launched from an FTL carrier ship (though admittedly somewhat odd for their "flagship"). What had not been mentioned is the possibility that it was actually Earth that used FTL carrier ships (WW II aircraft carrier analogy) to deploy smaller ships during the Earth-Romulan War,
"primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives."
Bob
