Does anyone know why this TNG character was reused by DS9 but recast with a much older actor? It's not a big deal but is somewhat odd.
From an old AOL chat with Ron Moore: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Memory_Alpha:AOL_chats/Ronald_D._Moore/ron129.txt And here is how Neral is described in the teleplay: My guess is that the producers felt Norman Large was too young to portray Neral as described in the script.
A hard life as Romulan Praetor aged him considerably over the years since "Unification". There is also the chance the actor may not have been available or wanted to return to the role. The epsiode did also see the far more recently introduced Senator Cretak recast because Megan Cole was unavailable (which is a shame, as I far prefered her).
I didn't realize that the Praetor in "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" is suppose to be the same character as the Proconsul in "Unification", until I read this thread. Frankly, I wasn't even aware of the name of the character in either episode, other than the character's titles. Anyway, this is an interesting tibbit. In TNG, he had the position or title of Proconsul. So, he must have climbed his way to the top spot since TNG. Apparently, his failed unification ploy didn't hurt his political career. I remember he was a slick devious politician in TNG, but a rather dull underwhelming character in DS9; especially for a Praetor, I expected a more dynamic character. Hard to believe the two are supposed to be the same guy. Maybe he won a hard fought power struggle after Shinzon's reign, and that aged him. It might make for an interesting backstory; perhaps someone could write a novel to could explain it. About the Senator Cretak recast, I was pleasantly surprised to see Adrienne Barbeau in a Star Trek role.
If I recall some of the novels did explain the change in Neral, why he was much more dour and older looking by DS9. He was out of power by the time of Nemesis though. Hiren was the praetor seen murdered by the thalaron device in Nemesis. I think one of the novels explained Neral was assassinated between "Inter Arma...." and Nemesis, which took place after the Dominion War had ended. (being a novel, that's not canon of course, but it makes sense, you can imagine few praetors die of 'old age' in the Empire).
I feel embarrassed for not knowing they were one in the same character. I guess the recast hid it a little, even though I rewatched TNG and DS9 recently, and I've rewatched them multiple times at that. The recast I did notice in Inter Arma was Senator Cretak, and it wasn't for the better.