Did the Romulans have beam weapons in the 2360's?
- Thread starter Vulcanian
- Start date
What connecting border? Where are you getting that from?
They had cannons? wha?
Aren't the 2360's right around the TNG era?
Perhaps I'm a little dense, or maybe I just missed something. Or maybe a little of both, but I don't remember it ever being said that Romulans didn't have beam weapons. It was stated that during the Earth/Romulan War, they didn't, but acording to the show, neither did Earth. TOS time is 100 years later, so there would have been ample time to improve weaponry.
The D-7 cruisers only fired pulse type disruptors and torpedoes on TOS, the same type the Romulan Warbirds had in TNG, although they may have starting using beam disruptors later on DS9, I'll have to rewatch some of those battles on DS9 to be sure. Can anyone name an episode where Romulan ships are actually shown firing beam weapons? Their hand disruptors were definately beam weapons equivalent to Starfleet hand phasers though so presumably they would be capable of fitting bigger versions of those on their ships.
I believe that in terms of the "audience timeline", the first time we see a Romulan vessel fire a continuous beam is as late as TNG "Face of the Enemy". After that, though, the DS9 ships fire both continuous green beams and green pulses with abandon, both typically from the same forward "forehead" emitter.
"Balance of Terror" says the war back in the (roughly) 2160s was fought with (by 2260s standards) primitive atomic weapons. This doesn't mean beam weapons would not have been used - only that atomic weapons were the most important, probably most destructive ones.
In terms of the internal timeline of Trek, ENT "Babel One"/"The Aenar" already shows Romulan vessels firing green beams at their enemies. It should perhaps be noted, though, that these vessels pretend to be foreign ones, in order to cause confusion and political unrest. Perhaps their weapon is also an atypical one, optimized for creating the false signature of foreign weaponry?
Finally, it should be noted that beam weapons can be "atomic" as well. In fact, during the golden age of science fiction that laid the foundation for "Balance of Terror", atomic weapons typically were beams - sidearm blasters, gigantic starship cannon, things of that nature.
Timo Saloniemi
"Balance of Terror" says the war back in the (roughly) 2160s was fought with (by 2260s standards) primitive atomic weapons. This doesn't mean beam weapons would not have been used - only that atomic weapons were the most important, probably most destructive ones.
In terms of the internal timeline of Trek, ENT "Babel One"/"The Aenar" already shows Romulan vessels firing green beams at their enemies. It should perhaps be noted, though, that these vessels pretend to be foreign ones, in order to cause confusion and political unrest. Perhaps their weapon is also an atypical one, optimized for creating the false signature of foreign weaponry?
Finally, it should be noted that beam weapons can be "atomic" as well. In fact, during the golden age of science fiction that laid the foundation for "Balance of Terror", atomic weapons typically were beams - sidearm blasters, gigantic starship cannon, things of that nature.
Timo Saloniemi
If I remember right - "Where Silence Has Lease" was the first time anyone saw a TNG Romulan Warbird fire a weapon - it was a green torpedo.
Next time was "Contagion" - the Haakona used a green phaser-type beam to destroy the Iconian probe.
After this was "The Defector", I think - the Warbird chasing Jarok's scoutship through the Neutral Zone, firing green pulse-type disruptors as it went.
Might be wrong though, its been a while!
Oh, right, "Contagion" did have the first-ever Romulan beam, not "Face of the Enemy"... Even though for some reason, the multi-bolt effect was the one most often used.
The big fleet in DS9 "The Die is Cast" has nice shots of Romulan ships firing both types of green weapon, bolt and beam. Apparently from the same "forehead" location both. (The ship on the foreground is in the process of firing bolts, while the one on the upper background fires a distinct beam.) Seems that the Romulans themselves consider the weapons to be of equal worth...
Timo Saloniemi
The big fleet in DS9 "The Die is Cast" has nice shots of Romulan ships firing both types of green weapon, bolt and beam. Apparently from the same "forehead" location both. (The ship on the foreground is in the process of firing bolts, while the one on the upper background fires a distinct beam.) Seems that the Romulans themselves consider the weapons to be of equal worth...
Timo Saloniemi
The both come from the Beta Quadrant.
It was a mistake, thanks for geting on my case!
Yes but that's just fan speculation. Not that I disagree with it. And yes by beam weapons I mean phasers and disrputors, etc.
Those were a prototype of a secret project by the Romulans. They were never used by the Romulans again in that century. Also in the Earth-Romulan War there was never any visual contact, so they couldn't use them even if they did. See my Earth-Romulan War fan fiction in the "Fan Fiction" forum.
What they meant by "no visual contact" was that there were no viewscreen communications between the two sides so no Earth or Eart Ally ever saw a Romulan face to face or vice-versa. There was nothing saying they never saw each other in ship-to-ship combat. If they didn't then how could Stiles have known about Romulans painting big birds on their ships?
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Which begs the question, if Starfleet never saw a Romulan Warbird of that era fire a torpedo (and there's no reason to assume they had prior to that), then how would Nagilum know what one looked like? Was it based on archival data the Enterprise had of older Romulan vessels? Detailed scans the Enterprise took in THE NEUTRAL ZONE? Experiments on Romulan ship? (if so, why would "death" be such an odd concept to Nagilum?)
I demand a thorough explination!
I vote experiments on an actual Romulan ship. Nagilum wouldn't have time to do much analysis on death then, because the Romulans would blow themselves up halfway through his first question.
Of course, Starfleet had seen Romulan ships fire green bolts in the TOS era (say, "The Enterprise Incident"), and could be assuming that the old enemy wouldn't have given up on that tech.
And Picard need not be the only skipper in the Fleet to meddle in the affairs of the Romulans, who are quick to anger. By the time of that ep, there could be tons of authentic stock footage in Starfleet archives of being in the receiving end of Romulan bolts-o'-death.
Timo Saloniemi
Of course, Starfleet had seen Romulan ships fire green bolts in the TOS era (say, "The Enterprise Incident"), and could be assuming that the old enemy wouldn't have given up on that tech.
And Picard need not be the only skipper in the Fleet to meddle in the affairs of the Romulans, who are quick to anger. By the time of that ep, there could be tons of authentic stock footage in Starfleet archives of being in the receiving end of Romulan bolts-o'-death.
Timo Saloniemi
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