Reunification I and II
- Thread starter Dryson
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Well, in the TNG episodes, Spock was talking about working for and with the "salt of the Romulus", rather than with the top politicians; his contact, Senator Pardek, was also considered "a man of the people".
Nero was as bluecollar as bluecollars get, so Spock may well have talked to people like that and decided on that basis that unification was indeed feasible. Which is sort of amusing, as Nero is also the exact opposite of what the average Vulcan appears to represent: he's informal, driven to emotion, engaging in utterly frivolous things such as tattooing his face, and uninterested in pursuing logic even for his quest of vengeance...
(Is that an illusion, though? Are we in fact missing out on all the real average Vulcans while concentrating on those conservative ones who work as politicians or scientists or, with a hint of rebellion, in Starfleet? Would the Average S'Joek of Vulcan in fact be more like Nero?)
Apart from that, we never heard that Vulcans would have timeline-crossing abilities similar to those of Guinan. So the Spock that tried to unify the Vulcanoids in TNG would have had no knowledge of the events of the movie with Nero. But who knows? Perhaps the opposite is actually the case here, and Spock's TNG experiences with a false and misleading "resistance movement" were the reason he so badly misjudged Nero and allowed him to capture the Red Matter and all.
Incidentally, the episodes are titled "Unification" rather than "Reunification" for what I think is a reason... Vulcan never sounded as if it were unified back when the Romulans walked out on them. If the followers of Surak and the Romulans now get together, that won't be a re-enactment of history, but something previously completely unheard of!
Timo Saloniemi
Nero was as bluecollar as bluecollars get, so Spock may well have talked to people like that and decided on that basis that unification was indeed feasible. Which is sort of amusing, as Nero is also the exact opposite of what the average Vulcan appears to represent: he's informal, driven to emotion, engaging in utterly frivolous things such as tattooing his face, and uninterested in pursuing logic even for his quest of vengeance...
(Is that an illusion, though? Are we in fact missing out on all the real average Vulcans while concentrating on those conservative ones who work as politicians or scientists or, with a hint of rebellion, in Starfleet? Would the Average S'Joek of Vulcan in fact be more like Nero?)
Apart from that, we never heard that Vulcans would have timeline-crossing abilities similar to those of Guinan. So the Spock that tried to unify the Vulcanoids in TNG would have had no knowledge of the events of the movie with Nero. But who knows? Perhaps the opposite is actually the case here, and Spock's TNG experiences with a false and misleading "resistance movement" were the reason he so badly misjudged Nero and allowed him to capture the Red Matter and all.
Incidentally, the episodes are titled "Unification" rather than "Reunification" for what I think is a reason... Vulcan never sounded as if it were unified back when the Romulans walked out on them. If the followers of Surak and the Romulans now get together, that won't be a re-enactment of history, but something previously completely unheard of!
Timo Saloniemi
Er, no, because Prime Spock would never have had that info as a younger man because he wasn't nuSpock.
What turn? Pardek appears to have advocated peace rather than war as a means of unifying Romulus and Vulcan - and that's what he and Neral plan to achieve here, conquering Vulcan without a war. Romulan terminology just happens to be a bit confusing.
OTOH, mere seventy years is probably not a particularly long time for a Vulcanoid to keep doing one thing...
In the end, we're left wondering whether there ever was any sort of a grassroots unification movement there at all. It could easily have been a hoax aimed at Spock alone, with a select few actors pretending to be secretive members of a cell-based organization. This would be completely unrelated to whether Romulans really want to join their Vulcan siblings, and in what fashion: for all we know, a real movement also existed but never managed to contact Spock.
Timo Saloniemi
I always thought it would have been a nice touch for Sela to have said to Spock: "It would seem, Mr. Spock, that you're already under a death sentence. Something about a stolen cloaking device."
Still, I loved Data's line to her: "Perhaps you would be happier in a different job."
Still, I loved Data's line to her: "Perhaps you would be happier in a different job."
I also loved Data learning the Vulcan Nerve Pinch from Mr. Spock.
Data later used it in 'Nemesis' when he breaks Picard out of the Scimitar medical bay on the Reman guard.
Data later used it in 'Nemesis' when he breaks Picard out of the Scimitar medical bay on the Reman guard.
To me, the final seconds of Unification were some of the finest in Trek, when Picard offers Spock the opportunity to get to know the mind of Sarek, with whom Spock had never melded. The momentary wince of pain, loss, and regret (especially after Spock had said to Data that he had no regrets) spoke volumes in a way that elevated my already heightened level of respect to the acting prowess of the late, great Leonard Nimoy.
In Unification, I also liked Spock's appraisal of Data's neck pinch: "Not bad."
In Unification, I also liked Spock's appraisal of Data's neck pinch: "Not bad."
I always took it as either:
1. He was threatened with death if he didn't assist by the Tal Shiar
2. He wanted more power (it would seem to me in the Romulan Empire those focused on supporting the people rather than the military wouldn't get very far).
This episode is very disappointing. It really comes off like what probably happened: despite a (somewhat) ambitious script, "they" blew almost their entire wad on roping in poor Lenny for this one. His costume is just mind-blowing, how embarassingly bad and cheap-looking it is. The Romulans look even more fake with Nimoy's standing beside them with much better looking hair & makeup. The staging of most of the scenes in this one, especially on Romulus are particularly bad. Even Spock's heart-to-heart with Data comes off as needless and obvious. Sarek, though, was great. Mark Lenard really gives a good performance and his scene is really strong. A great start to a not so great episode and it makes the case, once again, that "doing more with less" is horseshit. Sometimes ... a lot of the time ... you really need good resources to do the thing right.
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