Non-priority dangling plot points from episodes

Interesting. Never knew that.

 

That bit was in the book. I remember reading it and wondering if she might be 50% Romulan, 25% Vulcan, and 25% Human.

 

There were only five of them left, weren't there? Can't repopulate the species with that few. So it doesn't matter whether they live fast or slow - their race is doomed.

 

"Return to Tomorrow":

And whales seem to be genetically related to other Earthly lifeforms. Therefore it seems unscientific to suggest that Whales were imported to Earth from somewhere else.

People don't know that there aren't "space probes looking for whales". That is a possible situation.

People don't know that there are no "green-blooded hyper-logical humanoids with pointy ears or blue-skinned people with antenna growing out of their head." Such species could exist.

Saying that Humans, or whales, or some other lifeform, was imported to Earth from some other solar system seems much less scientifically plausible than imaging that space probes might search for whales for some reason, or that green-blooded hyper-logical humanoids with pointy ears or blue-skinned people with antenna growing out of their head might exist.

There is much scientific evidence contradicting the idea that any lifeforms on Earth come from other space. There is no scientific evidence against whale-seeking space probes or aliens that resemble Vulcans or Andorians. Those two sets of concepts exist on different levels of plausibility.

My theory is that a few years before TUC there was a big Klingon War. The Klingons were winning and only the genius of Admiral Kirk kept stopping each attempt to conquer the Federation. But everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the Klingons won. Then Ambassador Nanclus negotiated a Romulan-Federation alliance and the Klingons were defeated and driven back into Klingon space. So Ambassador Nanclus became very influential in the Federation and was invited to all the president's secret meetings.

 

^That doesn’t really fit with what we see on screen, however. The Klingons of the TOS movie era kept taking all sorts of risks to gain an advantage over the Federation, which suggests that they were already losing ground to their rivals by the time Praxis exploded.

Having thought about this further, I wonder if the Federation was considering asking the Romulans to serve as a mediator or arbitrator to determine Kirk and McCoy’s chances for extradition (as may have been allowed under interstellar law under certain circumstances). As his people’s representative, Nanclus likely conveyed what he thought his praetor would say when he was asked where his government stood. That doesn’t explain why he was privy to a secret conversation, but it does explain why he was in the Federation President’s office to begin with.

 

Romulan presence as a result of the extended peace that developed from the mutual treaty that resulted in the settlement of Nimbus III. This peace was fragile and ebbed and flowed, but it was superficial. The peace collapsed about the time of the Tomed incident. The resulting embarrassment over the fact that the Romulans either were misled, fed false data, or made false assumptions which resulted in their sneak attack on a purely civilian target forced the Romulans to cut all ties with the Federation including diplomatic contact.

The fragile peace prior to Tomed allowed the "smuggling" of Romulan ale across the border despite its official prohibition.

At least that my head canon

 

The thing I love about the history implied by "the planet of galactic peace" is that it's foundation date falls bang in the middle of TOS. So, around the time the Romulans come back on the scene and Starfleet officers on the front line are continually having border skermishes with the Klingons, the political class of all three are working behind the scenes and establish this 'planet of peace', allegedly optimistically but probably more for their own reasons, scheming and plotting. Fast forward 20 years and the place is a joke and it's citizens ignored by their respective governments

 

^Nimbus III was an interesting idea in theory, but it was never going to work as long as the rejects of galactic society were the only people living there. What was needed was a successful civilization similar to that seen in “Children of Time.”

 

^ My feeling was that Nimbus was intended to be (and probably was, at its foundation) home to top ambassadors, but as it became forgotten and neglected maybe within a few years to a decade afterwards, the 'assignment' of folk there was largely considered a formality, and the embarrassed governments just sent any old dud who'd collected their pension and was on the way out.

Caithlin Dar is young and optimistic when she arrives but was probably sent by Romulus because she was no-one special, and certainly the two other ambassadors are just dopes eeking out a sad existence after more fruitful (or otherwise) careers.

 

Caitlin Dar’s Memory Beta pages says she was part-human (her grandfather was Irish), which may have been why the Romulans chose her, as they likely didn’t want to give a human an important assignment, and they probably assumed she’d hit it off with Talbot.

Another plot point: where was the Romulan ship assigned to rescue Dar? Cloaked? Or did the Romulans not care enough to send someone?

 

The characters seemed convinced that neither the Romulans nor the Klingons would lift a finger in defense of their envoys. The characters apparently knew what they were talking about. We never heard of the Klingons sending a ship, either - Klaa only went in on his own, without any plans on rescuing anybody.

Romulans as a game-changing factor makes eminent sense. The Feds and the Klingons had been at each other's throats for seventy "unremitting" years, but neither had triumphed. Clearly, there was a balance there. Something would be needed to tip that balance if a successful war were to be had - and Colonel West believed in successful war. So, enter Romulans.

Not necessarily as allies to either side. But the Romulans convincingly lying to one side that they would at the very least stay out of the fight would encourage that side to start a war. And Romulans convincingly telling the same lie to both sides would be to their great advantage, as the war would then get going, and the Romulans would win it in the end.

I'm convinced Nanclus promised West some cloaks for the job of extracting Kirk and McCoy, too. Anything to encourage the two sides to take stupid risks.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I've always assumed that the Romulan ambassador was in league with the Federation due to tensions between the two Empires just beginning and Nanclus had given the Federation sensitive information about Klingon troop movements and positions of their fleet! He believed that pretending to want peace was the answer! Instead we know he was one of the many behind a plot to create a galactic war leaving the Romulans free to sit back and watch and then perhaps take care of the survivors! So although Nanclus is assisting the Federation rebels, he is really looking after his own people's interests!
JB

 

The really weird bit isn't the Romulans sitting in on UFP secret meetings. Or them doing the same in Klingon ones at the same time, possibly. It's Saavik, a relatively lowly positioned field operative, knowing that the Romulans were part of the overall conspiracy.

If the Romulans were to benefit from the war as allies to one side or the other, they wouldn't want to be known as allies to the exact opposite side in this conspiracy. If they were to benefit as enemies of both, igniting the fighting and then watching from the Gods till the dust settled and they could move in, they sure wouldn't want to blow their cover as being friends of both, either.

I can so see Starfleet and Klingon leaders working together with the intent of emerging triumphant from the final backstabbing. They could play pretend till the very last all right. But accepting the third party in the mix would make it explicit that backstabbing was due.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Humans look for humanoids (and other oids), whales search for Cetaceoids.

 

You misspelled Valaris

 

^ No, “Valeris” (with an E) is the correct spelling.

Fun fact: Kim Cattrall herself came up with the name.

 

She suggested the name "Eris," after the Greek goddess of strife. Meyer and Flynn changed it to "Valeris" so that it sounded more Vulcan-like.

 

Seems I got too caught in a parallel thread discussing the dramatic impact of using Eris/Valeris instead of an established character...

Timo Saloniemi

 

Why the UFP trusted the Romulan ambassador in the first place is a mystery! Had the Federation made overtures to Romulus? Or was it the secret info provided to them by Nanclus? Surely Kirk and Spock should have warned the President that you can't trust any Romulans?
JB

 

The real fun ensues at Khitomer, where Nanclus and Sarek share a bench and a sash color. Is the Yellow Sector the Romulan delegation, or the joint Vulcan/Romulan one?

Might be Spock told Starfleet not to trust the Romulans, but his father told the exact opposite. Any opportunity to contradict each other... The positions of the two would simply flip after Khitomer.

Timo Saloniemi