Romulan Change in Appearance
- Thread starter the vet
- Start date
Allergic reaction to tribbles.
I actually thought about this once. The best I could come up with is, when "emotions" faction settled on Romulus there was already an indigenous species there. And the kind of stuff you'd expect happened and the blood mixed.
Over time those that were mostly blood descendants of the indigenous species were subjugated and sent to Remus. Then there were the actual "Rommies" who were still mostly Vulcan but had some of the indigenous DNA. The "V" trait devolved and persisted out of this.
Then there were those whose lines never mixed and still contained "pure" Vulcan blood. The reason, then, that these were the ones we saw during TOS is because it was the "face" the Romulus wanted to present to the outside world--this makes the most sense with ambassadors/Caithlin Dar/etc.
It's not a perfect theory, but tit's he best I could come up with.
Over time those that were mostly blood descendants of the indigenous species were subjugated and sent to Remus. Then there were the actual "Rommies" who were still mostly Vulcan but had some of the indigenous DNA. The "V" trait devolved and persisted out of this.
Then there were those whose lines never mixed and still contained "pure" Vulcan blood. The reason, then, that these were the ones we saw during TOS is because it was the "face" the Romulus wanted to present to the outside world--this makes the most sense with ambassadors/Caithlin Dar/etc.
It's not a perfect theory, but tit's he best I could come up with.
They V Romulan are descendants of Archer's illegitimate children
I just wonder why they don't go berzerk without Surak's saving Logic. Never heard if they even have Pon Farr. Is that condition a symptom of logical repression? IE, psychosomatic? That makes more sense than how you're gonna evolve a spacefaring urge to return to your home planet. Does this mean Vulcans in Archer's time could do Pon Farr with any old species, since mind melds were not a part of the process?
I usually don't have any issue with make up changes (and you can rationalise it easily enough in fiction, as others in this thread have), but it really stands out in Unification where every single Romulan we see has a ridged forehead (including the disguised Picard and Data), but Spock can cheerfully walk amongst them smooth foreheaded without any comment. I think that's a story where they could have done with at least a couple of Romulan extras with just the ears so as to sell there are different types of Romulan physical appearance so as not to make Spock being unnoticed seem so odd.
For all we know, Romulans were evicted from Vulcan for racist reasons: their ugly foreheads repulsed the Surakists. A few smooth-headed folks went along with the Romulans, while very few ridgeheads were allowed to stay, or to survive.
"Amok Time" doesn't fall much short from stating as much.
Planets aren't all that different from desert communities. You have to cross impossible distances to get from one to another - but you absolutely must, or else your community inbreeds itself to gruesome death.
Vulcans might have naturally evolved the telepathic link that sends the guy to the desperate quest for the gal across the desert (and it might be gender-biased that way because Vulcan guys are stronger than gals, or otherwise better at desert crossings - or then the elusive female pon farr also involves an element of needing to get to the specific mate regardless of obstacles). Or then the cruel masters who transplanted the species to Vulcan also implanted this adaptation to desert life via clever bioengineering.
Melds weren't...? I'd argue they were even more a part in ENT than in TOS or TNG - that's why the ENT Vulcans are so horrified with the idea of this secret leaking out, and in such deep denial. That's what "Fusion" seems to be all about: everybody is doing it but nobody has the guts to admit to it. ("It" perhaps being comparable to homosexuality today, with the largely fictional stigma of increased risk of venereal/sexually transmitted diseases being associated with it.)
Much seconded.
Timo Saloniemi
"Amok Time" doesn't fall much short from stating as much.
Planets aren't all that different from desert communities. You have to cross impossible distances to get from one to another - but you absolutely must, or else your community inbreeds itself to gruesome death.
Vulcans might have naturally evolved the telepathic link that sends the guy to the desperate quest for the gal across the desert (and it might be gender-biased that way because Vulcan guys are stronger than gals, or otherwise better at desert crossings - or then the elusive female pon farr also involves an element of needing to get to the specific mate regardless of obstacles). Or then the cruel masters who transplanted the species to Vulcan also implanted this adaptation to desert life via clever bioengineering.
Melds weren't...? I'd argue they were even more a part in ENT than in TOS or TNG - that's why the ENT Vulcans are so horrified with the idea of this secret leaking out, and in such deep denial. That's what "Fusion" seems to be all about: everybody is doing it but nobody has the guts to admit to it. ("It" perhaps being comparable to homosexuality today, with the largely fictional stigma of increased risk of venereal/sexually transmitted diseases being associated with it.)
Much seconded.
Timo Saloniemi
This never seemed like much of a big deal to me. No doubt they'll have smooth foreheads again in the new series. I just assumed some Romulans don't have the ridges and some do. The race itself didn't change much from TOS era to TNG era unlike the Klingons who looked and acted completely different in both eras.
If budget had permitted back in the day, it would have been nice if all full-blooded Vulcans and Romulans would have had a distinguishing feature like this, to make Spock's mixed heritage more evident. It was implied early on that Spock was physically distinguishable from a full-blooded "Vulcanian".
Interbreeding with the Klingons makes the most sense to me. They had an alliance in the 23rd century.
I assumed that the V ridges were either something already present in a minority of Vulcans (IE perhaps the majority of V ridged Vulcans were part of the subgroup that left Vulcan, and later became Romulans), OR the ridges were a result of interbreeding with conquered peoples the ancestors of the Romulans absorbed into their culture, as they journeyed to the Beta Quadrant, prior to settling on Romulus. Prior to Nemesis which pretty much kills this theory, I assumed maybe the Romulan Ancestors interbred with the natives of Romulus and Remus, and became Romulans, a hybrid of that species and Vulcans.
I don't know about that. We already saw a planet where Romulans and Klingons interbred in TNG, and they didn't look like V ridged Romulans.
^ The 24th century V-ridged Romulans may simply have a bit of Klingon in them from generations ago.
Not that I'm aware of, no.
In fact we know that Spock, who does not have ridges, was able to pass as Romulan without incident, so (in-universe) I'm guessing that it's not really an issue.
Interesting. A Vulcan being from the desert with copper based blood probably would not be as pale as TOS Spock who had a Caucasian mother. Unless the Northern part of Vulcan is as cold as say Scotland, in the winter but not as cold as Canada.
^ "Lots of planets have a North!" 
But did they? No such thing is actually mentioned in any of the episodes or movies. And at the supposed time of such an alliance, Kor was fighting against the Romulans at Klach D'kel Bract, or so he boasts.
That a Romulan and a Vulcan would be visually distinguishable is never a plot point, either, and in certain episodes of TNG and ENT, there are Romulans pretending to be Vulcans and succeeding.
Intriguingly, in the TNG episode, "Data's Day", the Romulan agent regains her ridges just a few minutes after abandoning the pretense of being Vulcan. Extremely rapid plastic surgery? Or evidence that the ridges are present on all Vulcanoids, a sort of erectile tissue that proud Romulans exhibit (and exaggerate) as a sign of their emotional virility, and stoic Surakian Vulcans thus naturally try to hide in public, up to and including koon-ut-kal-if-fee contests?
Timo Saloniemi
