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Did anyone like the bald Romulans?

Nick086

Captain
Captain
I guess they were trying to make the Romulans look different from the Vulcans, but I don't remember seeing any ridges on their foreheads.
 
As a lifetime hater of the retarded TNG Romulan bowl cut/shoulder pads look, I was thilled to see Romulans with some variety in STXI. I thought they looked very cool. The odd bumps and lumps on some of the background ones was a neat touch, too. Half- and quarter- breeds among the lowly miner rabble, possibly? Also: First black Romulan!

About the hair - not all the Romulans were bald. Nero had a dreadlocked woman on his crew (who had the TNG brow, IIRC), and the Romulan leaders Spock Prime met with had the Nemesis look, without the foreheads.

I also loved the tattoo backstory for Nero and crew in Countdown.
 
I, too was glad to see Romulans who simply weren't "cookie cutter" aliens, all looking alike with the same haircuts, etc.

As for the first black Romulan, that distinction goes to the Romulan from the TNG episode, "The Pegasus." Although that one also had Moe Howard's haircut.
 
First thing my friend said to me upon leaving the theater was..."I loved the Romulans". I think a lot of people found them to be a revelation.

RAMA
 
I didn't like the bowl cut hair style for the Romulans either, its to bad they didn't do anything for the Vulcans.
 
Since Star Trek 09 was the first time I'd seen a Romulan, I liked it. You could tell they were related to Vulcans by the ears but they stood out as their own race. It wasn't until I saw episodes of TNG and whatnot that I realized how radically different the Romulans looked in the movie. I still like this movie's version better. I get easily confused by TNG Romulans and think it's a bunch of angry Vulcans for the first couple of seconds.
 
TNG Romulans look like they have the worst splitting headaches ever! No wonder they are always such jerks. I'd be in a bad mood, too.
 
All the Romulans being bald and tattooed made it impossible to tell them apart. I could accept it if they wanted the bald with a tatoo look for Nero (stupid though it looked), but they should have gone for a different look for everyone else.
 
Yes. Loved the look, which was much better – and more appropriately badass – than the Romulans we'd had in the past.
 
I have to admit that I really did sort of like The Abomination's working-class Romulans. I really needed the Countdown comic book backstory to fully appreciate them.
I keep mentioning it, but they reminded me of the "My Bloody Valentine" remake's killer.
Blue-collar peril from beyond the stars.
I was okay with that.
 
I, too was glad to see Romulans who simply weren't "cookie cutter" aliens, all looking alike with the same haircuts, etc. ...

I will take KingDaniel's word for the existence of some variety in hairstyles among Romulans, but I only noticed that the "bad guys" all looked like skinheads and you can't get much more "cookie cutter" than that. Of course quite a bit of the "culture" of this movie has obviously been lifted form 20/21st century western earth, rather than being "alien", futuristic, or even very different.

Say what you will about the bowl cut brigade, and I accept they weren't exactly "fashion forward" ;), but at lest they didn't appear to be so obviously stereotypical. Weren't there enough cliches in the movie as it was? Or is being so "familiar" part of the formula to produce an emotional buy in from audiences, irrespective of whether it makes for good SF (as opposed to popular Sci-Fi)?

I get easily confused by TNG Romulans and think it's a bunch of angry Vulcans for the first couple of seconds.

Isn't that pretty much what Romulans are? ;) I wouldn't have thought 1600 years was enough for them to become a significantly different species. Culture is another matter of course so I suppose having Romulans use "Vulcanish" hairstyles doesn't make much sense. Maybe TOS did it right after all?
 
I have no problem accepting that this bunch of Romulans decided to shave their heads. I can see it as some kind of "club" type thing.

OTOH, should an audience have to rely on background information that isn't in the film, or make up its own explanaitions of things?
 
I'm glad they changed the Romulans a bit, because they never looked threatening. But I think Nero looked too much like a generic goblin or like Nosferatu. But I suppose the details didn't deviate too far from Vulcans to still be plausible, so it's not a big issue to me.
 
It's the first thing I thought. Throughout TV Star Trek the Romulans failed to be even remotely believable as baddies because of their ridiculous appearance. As soon as Eric Bana came on screen I thought this is what they should have looked like all along, although I appreciate it's a very contemporary look. The tats were completely in keeping.
 
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