Because… they were pals? 
Kelvin Timeline all but confirmed
- Thread starter captainkirk
- Start date
They should be careful not to go too far into "small universe" territory. The show-runners have already mentioned they plan on having a bunch of cameos. Too much and it could push the boundaries of disbelief suspension.
They need to stay away from reset buttons, too. 
If they already know how the Romulans look like then that suggests Kelvin timeline.
In the Kelvin timeline they knew the Narada was Romulan when George Kirk died. If they haven't heard from the Romulans, then it's not KT.
Can we please just forget that whole thing about Starfleet never having come face-to-face with a Romulan? Didn't really make sense back then – what with them having fought each other in an outright war and all – and doesn't make much sense now. It's more or less a throwaway line to make one plotline in one episode more dramatic. What it shouldn't be is a burden for storytelling that comes half a century (!) later.
Personally, if it's for the good of the story, I'm fine with ignoring these ridiculous bits of history like no one ever having seen a Romulan's face. Looking at this from the perspective of someone in the 1960s, the idea of a war being fought and only communicating via radio makes sense. But really, just hanging on to this notion because ¡TEH CANON! says so is pretty silly.
We have the ability to communicate via video on phones we can put in our pocket (and lets face it, are more powerful than what we SEE from the Enterprise 1701 computer... please notice I didn't say more powerful than the Enterprise computer). And if you're going to go faster than light, it doesn't make a ton of sense that you couldn't or even wouldn't communicate via video. (Particularly when data and message rates don't apply.)
I can buy that the Romulans disappeared for some time between the war and "Balance of Terror." If you have to have some explanation to keep ¡TEH CANON! pure, I can buy that Starfleet Intelligence covered up any visual records of Romulans because of their connection to Vulcans. But not seeing them in a war? Where I'd imagine ground battles were fought too? Eh, not so much.
The Ferengi, the Borg, holodecks, all that other stuff? Those were just dumb ratings stunts.
We have the ability to communicate via video on phones we can put in our pocket (and lets face it, are more powerful than what we SEE from the Enterprise 1701 computer... please notice I didn't say more powerful than the Enterprise computer). And if you're going to go faster than light, it doesn't make a ton of sense that you couldn't or even wouldn't communicate via video. (Particularly when data and message rates don't apply.)
I can buy that the Romulans disappeared for some time between the war and "Balance of Terror." If you have to have some explanation to keep ¡TEH CANON! pure, I can buy that Starfleet Intelligence covered up any visual records of Romulans because of their connection to Vulcans. But not seeing them in a war? Where I'd imagine ground battles were fought too? Eh, not so much.
The Ferengi, the Borg, holodecks, all that other stuff? Those were just dumb ratings stunts.
It's possible the Romulans themselves didn't wish to be seen. The idea that video communication didn't exist during the Romulan war is silly of course, but they could have chosen not to use it to keep their appearance a secret. If there were any ground battles, there may have been no Federation survivors. Not that ground battles make much sense most of the time in a setting where starships can kill ground targets with near pinpoint accuracy or just blow everything up completely.
To be fair, going faster than light will make communication bloody difficult. You would get there in time for tea, before they knew you were coming.
IDK - It worked in ENT - IE We (and the characters DID see Romulans) - they just thought they were Vulcans.
And as we saw from "Balance of Terror", Romulan characters can simply wear helmets which disguise their ears (and therefore their origins).
Also, what would be the rational for them not wanting to be seen?
My point is just this, why should all later Trek treat what was said in “Balance of Terror” as sacrosanct when the original series itself didn't abide by its own canon on a lot of occasions?
My point is just this, why should all later Trek treat what was said in “Balance of Terror” as sacrosanct when the original series itself didn't abide by its own canon on a lot of occasions?
Being pedantic for a moment - well, at least that long - aside from the writer wanting to do a submarine warfare story the genesis of the idea that we might fight wars with aliens in a long-range way was a fairly well-established trope in the pulp science fiction stories where Trek found much of its material. Being able to detect objects far, far away and launch projectiles or beams at them, taking them by surprise and so on and so on - it makes perfect sense, and works fine for a one-off story.
It's an amazing episode of TOS. I can't deny that for a second. But when you add a lot of layers upon layers in storytelling over 50 years.
That's why they invented subspace radio in the series. Defeats that whole problem.
It did and it didn't work badly by any stretch. I just can't see how a sustained conflict would go without both sides seeing the other. And the Romulans have been portrayed as tracherous and secretive but honorable. They may destroy their own ships before being captured but maybe I'm forgetting an episode but I can't see them just flat out murdering prisoners of war. It wouldn't seem right. In fact "Yesterday's Enterprise" shows they didn't.
And I can't imagine Earth just letting POWs not be part of the cease fire. Unless the victory by Starfleet is less certain as we've been let on to believe. History, after all, is written by the victors.
That's why they invented subspace radio in the series. Defeats that whole problem.
It did and it didn't work badly by any stretch. I just can't see how a sustained conflict would go without both sides seeing the other. And the Romulans have been portrayed as tracherous and secretive but honorable. They may destroy their own ships before being captured but maybe I'm forgetting an episode but I can't see them just flat out murdering prisoners of war. It wouldn't seem right. In fact "Yesterday's Enterprise" shows they didn't.
And I can't imagine Earth just letting POWs not be part of the cease fire. Unless the victory by Starfleet is less certain as we've been let on to believe. History, after all, is written by the victors.
But the problem is they say its "Prime", if its "Prime" then you take what's there for good or ill. How much do they change and fans still buy it being "Prime"? They've changed the look, if they start changing details then it really can't be what they are saying it is.
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