ENT and the Earth-Romulan Conflict

[T'Girl]

I would not have minded a cold war on Enterprise with a few skirmishes, but not the actual war, which could've been done with a movie trilogy. DS9 did the war. No need to do another war on a weekly series.

It has to be a war that results for a century in the Earth/Federation maintaining a "wall in space" separating the losers from the winners.

IMHO it has to be a hot war, really a fairly large one too.

As far as the Dominion War on DS9, I'm a pretty hard core Trek fan, and I've never seen many of the war episodes, partly because DS9 became my least favorite series. By the time the Dominion War was center stage, a large block of Trek fans (and the general audience) had already walked away from the show.

So a "Earth/Romulan war" could have been depicted in a couple of seasons of Enterprise (or a new series) and not subject the viewers to something they've already seen, because most of them never saw the seasons of DS9 that showed the Dominion War.

 

[2takesfrakes]

They really shouldn't have let the Romulans show themselves in ENTERPRISE and yes, a very "hot" war with Earth was in order. I never understood, either, why the Romulans were never allowed to be cool, like they finally were in STAR TREK '09. When I saw Nero and his posse, I'm like "YES!!! FINALLY!!! The Romulans are done right, at last!" And there were a couple colourful Romulans in TNG, but only a couple. Their shoulder pads, nappy wigs and rubber heads are very hard to take seriously. Add to that, the passion was gone. I always understood it to be that Romulans were very passionate, which I would've rather enjoyed - especially if they were allowed to look cool, as well. But the Romulan War should've been an awesome spectacle and right on this show, too, with the CGI to do it right.

 

[Timo]

It has to be a war that results for a century in the Earth/Federation maintaining a "wall in space" separating the losers from the winners.

To me, a wall as the conclusion suggests a David vs. Goliath fight where the poor shepherd got trampled and sat on by the giant. In order to be held back by chicken wire, the opponent would have to be puny - much like Cuba is imprisoned in chicken wire erected around Guantanamo Bay because the nation isn't a credible military threat warranting more.

Yet it's a bit difficult to imagine anybody punier than the Earthlings in the 22nd century...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

Yet it's a bit difficult to imagine anybody punier than the Earthlings in the 22nd century

As the saying goes, it isn't the dog in the fight - it's the fight in the dog.

The Romulans didn't realize who they were dealing with (Humans) and got their asses handed to them.

 

[ChristopherPike]

This propaganda style poster artwork, found in the Federation 100 Years book is interesting.

As with Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica, having the enemy be among us already is the approach I'd have liked to have seen.

It's perhaps more likely they'd be Vulcan though. Or then again, too obvious given what we know...

Stiles remarked on how there might've already been spies onboard during "Balance of Terror". A bit of a random conclusion to jump to, given there had been no contact for a century. A potentially known tactic and espionage might account for a 23rd Century Bird of Prey seemingly having Starfleet inspired nacelles.

 

[T'Girl]

... a 23rd Century Bird of Prey seemingly having Starfleet inspired nacelles.

Other than being a cylinder with a forward dome, similarities are very much absent. The aft end of the Romulan (presumably) warp engines are missing the aft dome (or grid work). There are no radiators (or whatever) running down one side. And the forward dome is never lit, and certainly doesn't have the swirling lights of the Enterprise.

 

[ChristopherPike]

... a 23rd Century Bird of Prey seemingly having Starfleet inspired nacelles.

Other than being a cylinder with a forward dome, similarities are very much absent. The aft end of the Romulan (presumably) warp engines are missing the aft dome (or grid work). There are no radiators (or whatever) running down one side. And the forward dome is never lit, and certainly doesn't have the swirling lights of the Enterprise.

In 1966, maybe they just didn't have the money to spend on a ship only supposed to be in one episode? Compared to a hero one, stock shots of which got to be in 27 others? No swirling lights at the front because they couldn't afford it?

If ENT did retcon, what colour would the nacelle caps have been? Romulans surely like their greens.

 

[T'Girl]

maybe they just didn't have the money to spend on a ship only supposed to be in one episode?

Debatebly it wasn't used more often because somehow they managed to lose the studio model.

And through reused footage it did appear in one additional episode.

 

[ChristopherPike]

It's tempting to imagine how the Romulan War could've been covered in the way Star Trek Axanar does so with Garth's exploits.

Have the series finale centre around the Birth of the Federation, and what led up to it, done like a visual report being put together by an historian. He or she goes over recently declassified logs, that hadn't been common knowledge during "Balance of Terror" and interviews with what surviving eye witnesses remain. Before that, just hearsay and rumour enough to inform a certain amount of continued bigotry towards Vulcans. The type of thing virtually inseparable from the reaction a number of humans had around them during ENT anyway.

If Drones (seen in "Babel One"/"United"/"The Aenar") were to be how this war played out on a massive scale between Earth and coalition ships, then a maybe a select number of Starfleet missions happened involving the faster and able to traverse further NX tracking them back to their source. Face-to-face engagements between the type of Birds of Prey (seen in "Minefield") occurred there and subsequently classified. Meanwhile attacks on cargo vessels, and support ships that only do warp 2 never see the enemy... while certain Starfleet crews do and kept quiet about the Vulcanian race they faught. Although inevitably something is passed back to their families. Enough to foster attitudes in men like Stiles. But by enlarge, official silence to give the Federation a chance and avoid increasing Terra Prime membership.

 

[T'Girl]

... and subsequently classified

I've considered that the true identity of the Romulans, or just that they are some kind of Vulcanoids, was know to the allied "brass" and that efforts were made to withhold this information for political reasons.

It could have been policy for Romulan survivors from engagements in space not to be picked-up/rescued. Spock did say in his briefing that no quarter was allowed, no captives.

Have the series finale centre around the Birth of the Federation, and what led up to it ...

While it might be interesting to have the "Birth of the Federation" way way in the background, the occasional mention, having this in any way be the center of the show would be incredible boring. Star Trek has had politics in the mix, more so in some episodes, but never a primary theme in any of the series.

 

[Solariabsg25]

The Romulan war books were fair. The whole "taking control of your ship" thing was a clever way of shoehorning the story into the facts stated in TOS. But those facts create major story telling issues for a more in-depth look at the war. And the way the books deal with the answer to Romulan hacking is pretty lame. "Let's just dumb down everything". Pretty lame.

That also sounds way too much like the NuBSG Cylons..