Lost Opportunities

[Arpy]

When thinking of the Romulans, I often think of the end of TNG's "The Neutral Zone":

Romulan Commander: "Matters more urgent caused our absence. Now, witness the result. Outposts destroyed, expansion of the Federation everywhere. Yes, we have indeed been negligent, Captain, but no more...Do you understand my meaning, Captain? We .. are back."

What a great setup.

And then...nothing.

The series, the franchise, changed writers and future Romulan episodes concentrated on brinkmanship and espionage. But Treklit too left it so. Treklit shut them behind their borders due to...

Spoiler: Serpents Among the Ruins

their fear of the UFP matching their war capabilities by developing their own cloak, something the UFP could have done after stealing the cloak in "The Enterprise Incident"...or perhaps were only able to long after in Serpents as a result of that tech acquisition.

Later Treklit suggests the Romulans weren't really all that preoccupied during that time, keeping plenty busy and communicative with other surrounding powers. Even with the UFP, spies keeping tabs on the happenings on both sides.

...drat, gotta go. Well, I invite others to add to the list of paths not taken in Treklit.

 

[Therin of Andor]

"Matters more urgent caused our absence. Now, witness the result. Outposts destroyed, expansion of the Federation everywhere."

There was speculation that the Borg threat, not as yet fully realised by the show's writers - but certainly the scooping up of technology from Romulan outposts was part of this planning of a future story arc - was part of the distractions that kept the Romulans so busy and out of UFP affairs for so many decades.

I like how they then link the destroyed outposts with the UFP.

 

[Christopher]

I dunno... I got the impression that the Sherman-Shwartz novels portrayed those "matters more urgent" as internal political jockeying within the empire -- the Romulans turning inward against each other and struggling for dominance. I can see the Romulans considering that "urgent." Heck, it's pretty much the main thing they do.

 

[Turtletrekker]

"Matters more urgent caused our absence. Now, witness the result. Outposts destroyed, expansion of the Federation everywhere."

There was speculation that the Borg threat, not as yet fully realised by the show's writers - but certainly the scooping up of technology from Romulan outposts was part of this planning of a future story arc - was part of the distractions that kept the Romulans so busy and out of UFP affairs for so many decades.

I like how they then link the destroyed outposts with the UFP.

The Operation Assimilation one-shot from Marvel Comics connected the dots from The Neutral Zone to the Borg.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Operation_Assimilation

ETA: The book is available reasonably priced at Mile High Comics...

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=80430706062&snumber=1

 

[Nardpuncher]

"Matters more urgent caused our absence. Now, witness the result. Outposts destroyed, expansion of the Federation everywhere."

There was speculation that the Borg threat, not as yet fully realised by the show's writers - but certainly the scooping up of technology from Romulan outposts was part of this planning of a future story arc - was part of the distractions that kept the Romulans so busy and out of UFP affairs for so many decades.

I like how they then link the destroyed outposts with the UFP.

The Operation Assimilation one-shot from Marvel Comics connected the dots from The Neutral Zone to the Borg.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Operation_Assimilation

ETA: The book is available reasonably priced at Mile High Comics...

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=80430706062&snumber=1

Ha! I love that Marvel comic in the first link. "Collector's Item Issue!"
I love when Marvel used to say that about their own comics. I think when I was a kid I had the first issue of the A-Team comic and it said that on it.

 

[Arpy]

Serpents Among the Ruins spoilers ahead.

You have been warned.


I hear you Christopher, but nothing I've read of the Romulan empire...short of maybe the events in The Empty Chair...really suggests anything grand enough happening that would explain their disappearance for so long. If it were just internal reaction to the Feds developing their own cloak...well, why didn't they react so shortly after "The Enterprise Incident"? ...Then again, maybe internal partisanship hadn't deteriorated far enough by that point. Though weird stuff was happening like the alliance with the Klingons!?!

Also, the Klingons already had cloaking tech and the two powers were constantly at each others throats during this time.

Furthermore, the Romulan commander states that their "more urgent matters" kept them from addressing the matter of Federation's expansion (eventually on all fronts)...instead of it being the matter addressed. True, perhaps what began as a policy dispute on how to address the issue got to the point of an all-out internal revolution that delayed them taking any action, but we never hear of any of that.

What we did get (again, of what I've read) suggests that everything was going normally with their dealings with everyone but the Federation! Come. On.

It's more likely the idea of the "more urgent matters" was forgotten or purposely set aside in Treklit (as it was in the series) as newer stories were approved that included the Romulans.

Lost opportunity.

That's the big one (lost opportunity) that comes to my mind. I'll try to think of more. What are some that come to yours?

 

[ProtoAvatar]

The romulans closed their borders after the Earth-Romulan War and they closed their borders again after the Tomed incident.
They have strong isolationist tendencies - particularly after they've taken a beating. Perhaps that's because then, the Praetor has his hands full trying to stay in power, much like his successors; these would be lenghty periods of political instability, perhaps small-scale civil wars, etc - they fit perfectly both established lore and the romulan mind-set (first, gain power, then keep it, and only after that can you begin to think of expansion).

The Federation or Klingons having or not some tech had nothing to do with the romulan reactions - they often proved their medium/long term thinking is clouded by over-estimation/pride.

 

[MNM]

I always like to think the "matters more urgent" stuff was something like a wide-spread Reman uprising throughout the Empire and it just took a long time to quell it.