Romulan Bird of Prey, Where Art Thou?

[Phaser Two]

Or was simply telling Scotty something the engineer didn't know.The line made sense.

It would make pretty good sense to make sure your second officer is read in on the latest intelligence reports. But even if we accept that Scotty didn't know about it, EVERYONE looks stunned at the appearance of the Klingon ship, and Spock isn't addressing his remark just to Scotty, but loudly informing everyone on the bridge. It's silly.

 

[The Old Mixer]

They're pretending that Kirk is taking them into TNZ on the fly, so there wasn't an opportunity for a staff briefing. That Romulans are now using Klingon ships could be classified and/or unconfirmed intelligence, until the crew sees one and the cat's out of the bag.

Bottom line, tho: Exposition! One line instead of an entire briefing room scene.

 

[Timo]

Indeed, it's very consistent that Spock would be "lying", "withholding" and "obfuscating", in order to support the multi-level make-believe that will both give Starfleet some deniability and, more importantly, confuse and mislead the Romulans.

Also, the more Spock's antics anger and beduffle the crew, the better for their reactions when Spock "turns traitor"...

What the TOS-R use of the indigenous Romulan design does is take away one interpretation of Spock's line that might have been the most reasonable in the end: that Romulans are using ships of Klingon design in order to appear Klingon.

The episode is all about traps within traps. Like any good con, the Starfleet plot involves the heroes deliberately falling into a Romulan trap and reinforcing the impression that the bad guys are always three steps ahead of them. But it's another one of those instances where multiple Romulan ships are suspiciously rapidly available to intercept the Enterprise, even though most evidence suggests it takes lots of time to traverse the Neutral Zone, meaning the Romulans apparently were illegally lying in ambush within this forbidden Zone to begin with.

So the Romulans may have been playing the deniability game, too. "No, we weren't waiting in ambush inside the NZ. Some Klingons blew up your intruding starship and saved us the trouble. Too bad we were unable to blow up the Klingons afterwards, what with us sticking meekly to our side of the NZ as required by the treaty that you so callously violated."

The additional presence of the supposedly older native Romulan ship confuses that interpretation. Sure, the ship could be part of the posse, only uncloaking to add to the firepower when it was absolutely certain the prey could not wriggle her way back to freedom. But a homogeneous posse would make more sense, especially as it would need to do some rapid deploying in order to meet the intruder: ships with dissimilar engines would be a major hindrance there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

Surely the Neutral Zone is not to be encroached upon by either side and the only time the Romulans can attack said vessel is if it moves into Romulan space?
JB

 

[Timo]

Probably not. I mean, yeah, it's just as bad for Tomalak or the like to barge into the RNZ from their side as it is for Picard or Kirk from theirs. But if A does it first, then it seems to be okay for B to respond and blast A to bits within the RNZ - c.f. all those "Explain your offending presence!" / "Explain yours first!" exchanges where Picard or Kirk has no foot to stand on merely claiming that the Romulans are where they should not be.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MAGolding]

...The episode is all about traps within traps. Like any good con, the Starfleet plot involves the heroes deliberately falling into a Romulan trap and reinforcing the impression that the bad guys are always three steps ahead of them. But it's another one of those instances where multiple Romulan ships are suspiciously rapidly available to intercept the Enterprise, even though most evidence suggests it takes lots of time to traverse the Neutral Zone, meaning the Romulans apparently were illegally lying in ambush within this forbidden Zone to begin with.

So the Romulans may have been playing the deniability game, too. "No, we weren't waiting in ambush inside the NZ. Some Klingons blew up your intruding starship and saved us the trouble. Too bad we were unable to blow up the Klingons afterwards, what with us sticking meekly to our side of the NZ as required by the treaty that you so callously violated."...
Timo Saloniemi

KIRK: Change course. Come about to one eight five, mark three.
SULU: But, sir, that'll lead us directly into the Romulan Neutral Zone.
KIRK: Yes, very perceptive, Mister Sulu. I know where the course change takes us. Execute.
SULU: Aye, sir.
SPOCK: Increasing sensor scan to one parsec. All scanners report clear. Nothing in our immediate vicinity.
KIRK: Better and better, Mister Spock.
SULU: Captain, leaving Neutral Zone. Now entering Romulan space.
(Scott enters the Bridge.)
KIRK: Very well, Mister Sulu.
SCOTT: Lieutenant, when did the order come through?
UHURA: Order?
SCOTT: From Starfleet. The order to enter the Neutral Zone.
UHURA: There's been no order I know of, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: Surely the Captain couldn't be doing this on his own authority.
KIRK: If you two have complaints, you can bring them out into the open.
(A sinister shape appears on the viewscreen.)
SCOTT: That's a Klingon ship! But it couldn't be, not in this area.
SPOCK: Intelligence reports Romulans now using Klingon design.

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/59.htm

So the Enterprise was already in Romulan space when the Romulan ships showed up. Thus there is no evidence that these particular Romulan ships were ever in the Neutral Zone or on the Federation side of it.

 

[Timo]

Uh, quite true. So, not as nefarious as "The Deadly Years" where an ambush within the RNZ is implied, or "The Practical Joker" where the Romulans appear to violate UFP space outright.

What bothers me about the scene is the ability of the Enterprise to cross the entire thickness of the RNZ within the dialogue-allocated time. If it were always that easy, why did we ever get "The Deadly Years"? Of course we can assign a cut there, one that gives us extra minutes, perhaps even the extra hours that would be ah so welcome.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shawnster]

Romulans (and Klingons) can tool around in their respective neutral zones all they want without repercussion. The Enterprise sticks it's nose into the zone and it's blown all to hell and everyone starts yelling "war!"

 

[Kor]

Legally, the Romulans aren't supposed to enter their Neutral Zone. in Balance of Terror, Spock said, "The treaty, set by sub-space radio, established this Neutral Zone, entry into which by either side, would constitute an act of war." (source: chakoteya.net)

Kor

 

[Mytran]

Uh, quite true. So, not as nefarious as "The Deadly Years" where an ambush within the RNZ is implied, or "The Practical Joker" where the Romulans appear to violate UFP space outright.

What bothers me about the scene is the ability of the Enterprise to cross the entire thickness of the RNZ within the dialogue-allocated time. If it were always that easy, why did we ever get "The Deadly Years"? Of course we can assign a cut there, one that gives us extra minutes, perhaps even the extra hours that would be ah so welcome.

Timo Saloniemi

It's just yet more evidence for more than one Neutral Zone, or at the very least a constantly renegotiated one!

 

[Marsden]

The Klingons never had a "neutral zone" until ST II.

There were about 5 or 6 specific details that someone bothered to research to have Romulans be in that simulator but changed it to Klingons afterwards because they reused the footage from ST TMP.

Any border can have a neutral zone, maybe there was some stipulation to the Organian Peace Treaty that created it, or maybe it was just a video game simulation that didn't worry too much about facts and more about playability.

 

[Ithekro]

For "The Deadly Years" one would imagine that the Neutral Zone is not all that thick between the two parties, but the border itself is rather long, and it seems to, at least partially, encircle the Romulan Star Empire. Thus is bows into Federation Space. Thus, if the Enterprise's course to Starbase 10 would normally take them around the edge of the border areas in a arc, it would make sense if one needed to cut some time off the journey by using a direct course. But that direct course would go through the Neutral Zone along the border for several parsecs as you run across the length of that part of the border's curve until you arrive again in Federation space closer to Starbase 10 than you would if you took the slightly longer way around (putting a few more parsecs on your travel time)..

Even in three dimensional space, the galactic top or bottom of the Neutral Zone might be several more parsecs out of the way than a direct path through the Zone. That the Romulans attack the Enterprise while it was still in the Zone is a thing though.

 

[Dukhat]

That reminds me of Spock's ridiculous line "Intelligence reports Romulans using Klingon designs," as though he just received that report from faraway Starfleet, or was holding it back for dramatic effect. Probably would have been good to let everyone on the bridge know that information before the encounter.

This is why you are not a TV writer, my friend. There's drama in "that's a Klingon ship!"

Except the "that's a Klingon ship" line wasn't said for dramatic effect. It was said as exposition for the audience that the production only had the budget for one ship model and had to use it for both empires.

And what I find more ridiculous about the comment is how vague it is. What does "intelligence reports Romulans using Klingon designs" actually mean? That the Romulans are building their own ships using Klingon blueprints? That they're stealing the Klingon ships? That the Klingons are building them for the Romulans?

 

[Ithekro]

This was the first time the Klingon ship had ever been seen on TV from what I recall.

 

[Phaser Two]

Except the "that's a Klingon ship" line wasn't said for dramatic effect. It was said as exposition for the audience that the production only had the budget for one ship model and had to use it for both empires.

And what I find more ridiculous about the comment is how vague it is. What does "intelligence reports Romulans using Klingon designs" actually mean? That the Romulans are building their own ships using Klingon blueprints? That they're stealing the Klingon ships? That the Klingons are building them for the Romulans?

Good call. Another silly aspect of that comment. Dumb.

 

[MAGolding]

For "The Deadly Years" one would imagine that the Neutral Zone is not all that thick between the two parties, but the border itself is rather long, and it seems to, at least partially, encircle the Romulan Star Empire. Thus is bows into Federation Space. Thus, if the Enterprise's course to Starbase 10 would normally take them around the edge of the border areas in a arc, it would make sense if one needed to cut some time off the journey by using a direct course. But that direct course would go through the Neutral Zone along the border for several parsecs as you run across the length of that part of the border's curve until you arrive again in Federation space closer to Starbase 10 than you would if you took the slightly longer way around (putting a few more parsecs on your travel time)..

Even in three dimensional space, the galactic top or bottom of the Neutral Zone might be several more parsecs out of the way than a direct path through the Zone. That the Romulans attack the Enterprise while it was still in the Zone is a thing though.

I once tried to calculate the curve of the Neutral Zone that was sticking into Federation space between Gamma Hydra(e) and Starbase 10. Perhaps someone might want to try that using the courses and times from the episode.

 

[Timo]

It always rather stretched credibility that the shortest route to a Federation medical facility would be through enemy space. For such a rare scenario, a rather artificial setup would probably be needed, with Gamma Hydra at the bottom of a deep well into said enemy space, or with a great wall of enmity jutting out from said space between Gamma Hydra and the bulk of UFP holdings.

Such weirdness might well be expected in a region where three rather than two territories meet, of course. We don't want these exotic features in a stable border established a century ago at the conclusion of a war where the Romulans were humiliated. But we might have to accept them in a border modified by the more recent introduction of an aggressive third party.

Except the "that's a Klingon ship" line wasn't said for dramatic effect. It was said as exposition for the audience that the production only had the budget for one ship model and had to use it for both empires.

In retrospect, though, it's no different from TPTB only having the budget for transporters, not shuttles: it defines another exotic characteristic of the Trek universe for us, and for the better.

And what I find more ridiculous about the comment is how vague it is.

In-universe, that bit makes sense: the heroes are deliberately being vague, even obtuse. To each other no less. Something is amiss here, and we soon find out what it is: it's all a sham. Ta-dah!

Could have been done more smoothly. But jarring is fine for the intended effect, too. That is, even if there is no real intent behind the jarring, it nicely serves the purpose.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

This was the first time the Klingon ship had ever been seen on TV from what I recall.

Airdate wise yes, but production wise Elaan of Troyius was made first!
JB

 

[alensatemybuick1]

Is there another way other than airdate-wise the Klingon ship model could have first been seen on TV?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

And what I find more ridiculous about the comment is how vague it is. What does "intelligence reports Romulans using Klingon designs" actually mean? That the Romulans are building their own ships using Klingon blueprints? That they're stealing the Klingon ships? That the Klingons are building them for the Romulans?

Spock's comment was all the explanation the characters and audience needed to know the one and only "why" behind the Romulans using a Klingon Battle Cruiser. Clearly, the line meant the two governments had arrived at a point of cooperation.. No other commentary would have added anything relevant to that fact, so thankfully, Spock's line was short and to the point.