Event alluded to by Bryan Fuller.

[Nerys Myk]

Well it takes place (if it turns out to be correct) between the Romulan War and TNG. See last paragraph.

But there is no mention of the Romulans being "occupied" between Balance of Terror and The Tomed Incident. They are active on the "Galactic Stage" until something calls them away after the Tomed Incident, just 50 years before TNG's first season. (2311) So it's unlikely to have connection with something that happened circa 2255.

When you say 'it', what do you mean exactly? I'm not sure to what extent you were responding to my theory, but anyway......the Borg can't be the "matters more urgent" as Tebok distinquishes between the two (matters more urgent caused our absence, now witness the result ... outposts destroyed). I've had a thorough google and can't find anything solid for what these matters were. It can't be the Tomed incident itself, as that involves the Federation and wouldn't really be an absence.

I don't think they ever established it. Mostly because the Romulans once again became "secondary" to the Klingons and the Cardassians. Romulans are woefully underused.

 

[DaveSumm]

But there is no mention of the Romulans being "occupied" between Balance of Terror and The Tomed Incident. They are active on the "Galactic Stage" until something calls them away after the Tomed Incident, just 50 years before TNG's first season. (2311) So it's unlikely to have connection with something that happened circa 2255.

There's no mention of them being occupied, but does that rule it out?

WORF: Romulans.
PICARD: That's the assumption.
RIKER: There's been no direct contact with the Romulans since the Tomed Incident.
PICARD: The question is, why now? What's their objective? For fifty years there's barely a whisper out of them, and now for no apparent reason they seem to be back with a roar.
RIKER: Everything we know about them is based on rumour or conjecture.

Picard points out that there's barely a whisper for fifty years, but doesn't comment what their status was before the Tomed incident. In fact, if all they know is still based on "rumour or conjecture" that would seem to point to an isolationist period before this incident. As far as I can work out, we have the NX-01 encounter in 2152, then the OS encounters in Balance of Terror and The Enterprise Incident in the 2260's (as I said, BoT could be viewed as a rogue commander and Enterprise Incident was the Enterprises fault for entering the Neutral Zone), then Picard's encounter with Tebok. I can't find any other evidence for them being active on the galactic stage, for all we know they were completely distracted by these 'matters' for this time.

I mean, I'm certainly not suggesting this was intentional when The Neutral Zone was written, just that there's a huge period where we know nothing about them. There's room to fit this theory in. And it seems odd to me that nobody can come up with a convincing event from around the period, so it felt like some more outlandish theorising was needed.

 

[Myko]

There are active political Romulans in Star Trek V and VI.

 

[DaveSumm]

Ah, forgot about the movies to be fair.....I'll have to rewatch and desperately contort my theory around those events then.

 

[Kemaiku]

Having Ambassadors on Earth, even ones who meet with the Federation President for tea most days, doesn't mean much.

There's a Tholian ambassador mentioned in most series (and shown in the novels) on Earth, and we all know how badly they get along with the Federation.

I'm just wondering if it was the events of TOS that prompted them to normalise relations and have a representative on Earth, or did something else happen in the 2269-2293 period between season 3 and TUC.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

WORF: Romulans.
PICARD: That's the assumption.
RIKER: There's been no direct contact with the Romulans since the Tomed Incident.
PICARD: The question are, why now? What's their objective? For fifty years there's barely a whisper out of them, and now for no apparent reason they seem to be back with a roar.
RIKER: Everything we know about them is based on rumour or conjecture.
…
DATA: Since we have no contact with the Romulans for fifty three years, seven months, eighteen days, [2311] we must consider that the information we do have, is out of date.
…
RIKER: Amazing. I never thought I would ever see a Romulan ship. Not this close.
LAFORGE: The last time we encountered them was decades ago. Cost thousands of lives.

Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Neutral Zone"


2311:
A conflict between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire, known as the Tomed Incident takes place, the outcome of which led to the Treaty of Algeron. The treaty redefined the Romulan Neutral Zone, and as well, ended all Federation research into cloaking technology. Afterward, the Romulans go into a period of complete isolation. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "The Pegasus"; ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

Source: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/2311

 

[F. King Daniel]

Remember, you're worrying about lines completely ignored by "Yesterday's Enterprise" two seasons later. Romulans attacked and captured the Enterprise-C 22 years before TNG.

 

[DaveSumm]

Again.....none of that tells us anything about the period before the Tomed Incident, just that that was the last anyone had heard from them.

 

[DaveSumm]

Sorry that was aimed at CotUSSA (can you not edit posts here...?), that's an interesting anomaly....

 

[Kevin Wolff]

Sorry that was aimed at CotUSSA (can you not edit posts here...?), that's an interesting anomaly....

once you are out of newbie status you will have edit capability.

 

[thribs]

We still don’t know what the event is.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Remember, you're worrying about lines completely ignored by "Yesterday's Enterprise" two seasons later. Romulans attacked and captured the Enterprise-C 22 years before TNG.

They attacked neranda 3, the C just got in the way.

Did they capture the ship? I got the impression it was destroyed, with lifeboats having some of the crew (including Tasha)

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

We still don’t know what the event is.

Probably when Fuller left many things changed, and what it said is no more valid

 

[Phoenix219]

Having Ambassadors on Earth, even ones who meet with the Federation President for tea most days, doesn't mean much.

There's a Tholian ambassador mentioned in most series (and shown in the novels) on Earth, and we all know how badly they get along with the Federation.

I'm just wondering if it was the events of TOS that prompted them to normalise relations and have a representative on Earth, or did something else happen in the 2269-2293 period between season 3 and TUC.

They must have normalized relations *very* quickly after Balance of Terror to even come close to fitting in the "Planet of Galactic Peace."

 

[Agony_Boothb]

They must have normalized relations *very* quickly after Balance of Terror to even come close to fitting in the "Planet of Galactic Peace."

There could have been a change in leadership on Romulus to a party that was more open to the Federation. Or it could be that the Romulans had some elaborate plan and part of that was opening diplomatic relations. Maybe the Romulans wanted someone to get close to the federation president, either to influence policy, gain intel or to commit an assassination.

 

[Tomalak]

Détente can happen quickly. After the catastrophe of the BoT incident, the hardliners in the government may well have been pushed out in favour of a more outward-looking regime.

Nimbus III probably coincides with a possible short-lived Romulan-Klingon alliance, and the Organian treaty between the Federation and the Klingons. Obviously this initiative doesn't last long and the three governments more or less abandon it.

The Federation and the Romulans seem to continue to have reasonably cordial relations for a while longer, with the Romulan ambassador apparently a close confidante of the Federation President at the time of the Khitomer summit.

I'm guessing the unmasking of Nanclus's part in the conspiracy lead to a breakdown in Federation-Romulan relations, and a possible round of regime change, returning the hardliners and isolationists to power.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

It's the story about how the Vulcans in the Mirror Universe rise from being a subjugated species of the Terran Empire to being equal partners of the Terrans.

I guess it happens through Lorca replacing Georgiou as the Emperor.

 

[BillJ]

Eight years is quite a compressed timeframe for that to happen.

The human xenophobia is a creation of the later shows. It was never in evidence in "Mirror, Mirror".

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I can't believe that Mirror Spock would be able to become a Commander and later even Emperor if the Society stays the same as it was shown in Enterprise and now in Discovery.

There must have been a big change.

 

[BillJ]

I can't believe that Mirror Spock would be able to become a Commander and later even Emperor if the Society stays the same as it was shown in Enterprise and now in Discovery.

There must have been a big change.

There is... it is a reboot.