24th century Romulans...why the different look?

[gastrof]

This is NOT a question about production decisions.

I'm talking about IN THE TREK UNIVERSE.

We'd already seen a couple Vulcans during the first season of TNG, so why did we see the "different" Romulans at the end of the season?

It seemed a significant thing during TOS that the Romulans looked IDENTICAL to Vulcans. Even that later TNG episode where it turned out a Vulcan dignatary was actually a Romulan had HER looking just like a Vulcan, and yet others alongside her didn't.

With the Klingon differences having been explained by ENTERPRISE (and not in all that hard to accept a way, either), could there be something similar with the Romulans? For example, could the 24th century Romulans actually be Romulan/Reman hybrids, the result of the two races intermarrying, and we just never saw much of it before?

Maybe by Picard's time something had happened that led to all (or most) of the "pure" Romulans dying off?

 

[trash80]

They probably couldn't stand the fact they looked like Vulcans so had their DNA altered.

 

[JD]

I've always assumed that enough time had passed that the Romulans were able to start to split off and evolve slightly differently.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Well, prior to Nemesis, it could have been explained that there were two races within the Romulan Empire--one from Romulus and one from Remus, and that one achieved dominace over the other following the Tomed Incident and the period of isolationism that followed.

That may still work, except for the part about different types of Romulans from Remus. Instead, we could have it that one type of Romulans are more closely linked genetically to Vulcans than the other...

 

[gastrof]

I've always assumed that enough time had passed that the Romulans were able to start to split off and evolve slightly differently.

Hard to believe it happened in about 100 years, tho'.

By the way...

'I've always felt there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe."

 

[drasche]

It's been explained somewhere that the "Vulcan type" exists on Romulus as a Romulan subspecies. In TNG: Unification, you can see Spock walking in the Romulan city without any suspicion.

 

[Mysterion]

It's been explained somewhere that the "Vulcan type" exists on Romulus as a Romulan subspecies. In TNG: Unification, you can see Spock walking in the Romulan city without any suspicion.

Maybe it's somesort of racial variation that also exists back on Vulcan. Perhaps this racial group made up a large part of the group that packed up and left for Beverly....ummm, Romulus. Meanwhile, back on Vulcan they are a minority, and thus not seen there too often (or in terms of the TV series: not at all).

 

[Alidar Jarok]

That tends to be what I believe (that ridged and non-ridged Romulans exist). Don't forget that the vast majority of Romulans in the original series had helmets that blocked their foreheads (so you can't even tell if they have ridges or not).

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^^
Oh, good point, that! Hadn't even crossed my mind.

Also, recall we only saw Romulans in two TOS episodes, hardly a representative sampling. And very few Vulcans, for that matter.

 

[Good Will Riker]

^^^

What???

Then, how do you explain in TOS:

1.) Mr. Spock
2.) "Amok Time"
3.) "Journey to Babel"
4.) "The Savage Curtain"

We've seen plenty of Vulcans in TOS.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^^
Okay, so that's Spock, Sarek, T'Pau, T'Pring, Stonn, a fake Surak, and few guys at the wedding who may well have been reletives for all we know. Again, this is hardly a representative sampling of Vulcan racial types.

 

[Good Will Riker]

^^^

Well, they didn't have CGI back then to show a mass Vulcan crowd at a planetary scale.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^

Well, they didn't have CGI back then to show a mass Vulcan crowd at a planetary scale.

Right, so we do not have any conclusive proof that there were not Vulcans or Romulans in the 2260's with forehead bumpy thingies. They were apparantly standing just off camera someplace for all we know.

 

[Ah Forgive!]

Most of the classic romulans wore helmets, so we have no way of knowing what the majority of them looked like.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Not just 24th Century Romulans, the ENT Romulans have that look also.

And in Star Trek 6, the Romulan in the movie had the old look despite this movie being filmed when TNG was running.

 

[Unicron]

There are a couple of possibilities. It's also worth mentioning that from the limited views we've had of Romulus, there's nothing to suggest it's volcanic like Vulcan is. It presumably still has some similarities because the two races still share a lot of genetic traits, but there may be major differences in the environment.

Personally I've always liked the ridges as a distinguishing mark, as I think without them the Romulans would always be thought of as "evil Vulcans" rather than a unique race.

 

[Cephas]

Look at the variety on our own planet. Point anywhere on the map and you'll hit a region populated with a people group with features unique to the area. We see hints of similar variety on Romulus. The lovely Caithlin Dar in Star Trek V appeared to be of Romo-Asian descent.

 

[Unicron]

Actually, she has some human lineage according to the TFF novelization. Her grandfather was human, which is why she has a human name.

I agree with you, though. And we've seen plenty of variations within the Klingons, just in terms of their ridge shapes.

 

[igrokbok]

I'm not sure what was worse, those hideous frankenstein brows or the ridiculous "SPock" style wigs that they slapped on everyone. Hopefully the new movie will get the Vulcan sister race back on track.

 

[Unicron]

The Beatle wigs will never go out of style!