Missed opportunities to revisit old characters

[The Overlord]

I was kinda of annoyed that none of the prominent Romulan characters from TNG appeared in Nemesis. In the earlier seasons of TNG, Tomalak was built up as Picard's Romulan counterpart, it have been nice to see him again in the movie.

 

[Christopher]

I was kinda of annoyed that none of the prominent Romulan characters from TNG appeared in Nemesis.

In the months before the movie's release, IMDb claimed that every single one of them would (along with every prominent Romulan from DS9 and VGR too). Which just goes to show how ridiculous IMDb can sometimes be.

 

[diankra]

I'm still not convinced that T'Lar from TSFS couldn't have been T'Pau instead. Granted, T'Pau was a politician first, and T'Lar seemed like more of a mystic, but to the vast majority of the audience, I'd wager the two characters were pretty much interchangeable: "Elderly Vulcan female officiating at an important ceremony on Vulcan on Spock's behalf." Would have been a nice nod, I think -- even if Celia Lovsky was gone by then.

You say nice nod, I say gratuitous small-universe syndrome. What, is Vulcan just a village rather than a whole planet with billions of people? They've only got one important elder female in the whole world?

But she's an important elder female who has an established personal link to Spock: a key point (or passing point) in Amok Time is that Kirk and McCoy are surprised to see her at Spock's ceremony, as they'd had no idea he (or his family) were that well connected.
So it would make sense for her to be there, though not necessarily to conduct this particular ceremony. But with the actress gone, Nimoy might as well just use a new character.

 

[BillJ]

I was kinda of annoyed that none of the prominent Romulan characters from TNG appeared in Nemesis. In the earlier seasons of TNG, Tomalak was built up as Picard's Romulan counterpart, it have been nice to see him again in the movie.

Tomalak always seemed more like a bumbling moron to me.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Tomalak always seemed more like a bumbling moron to me.

I agree. He always seemed more like a Romulan Biff Tannen than a legitimate foil for Picard, and one of the least interesting Romulan characters to ever appear in Star Trek. Jarok, N'vek, Donatra and the two Romulan Commanders from TOS were much more intriguing.

As far as missed opportunities go, it would have been interesting if Stephen Collins had been able to reprise Will Decker on Voyager, as was rumored before The 37's came out.

--Sran

 

[Timewalker]

My other votes: "Number One" from "The Cage" could have made a great Admiral for one of the movies (though I understand Majel Barrett may have had issues with how Gene Roddenberry was being pushed aside -- that's why she was so limited as Dr. Chapel during that period.)

That would have been a nice nod to the original pilot. They'd have had to give her a proper name, though, or she would have been "Admiral Number One."

 

[Steve Gennarelli]

I have read just in the past couple of years that there was some consideration of having Roger C. Carmel reprise his Harry Mudd role in "Star Trek IV"....the speculation is he would have provided testimony on behalf of Kirk as Starfleet and the Klingons debated Kirk's fate.
Not sure why the idea got dropped, maybe they were behind schedule...but as has been said earlier in this thread, it would have been a nice sendoff for Roger C Carmel who sadly passed away later on that year.
Roger was at least scene reuniting with the crew when Gene Roddenberry got his Star on the Walk of Fame in the mid 80's.