So, the backstory with the Klingons is that there's been limited contact for over a century, although there have been attacks made by Klingons, in which Michael Burnham's parents were killed, making them sort of a personal nemesis for her.
But what if instead of Klingons, they had gone with Romulans? They already work canonically in that we know they disappeared after the Romulan War and weren't seen again until Balance of Terror. We can retcon the attacks as that although the Federation itself never had contact with the Romulans for a century, they did still continue to antagonise the Vulcans (the Vulcans stayed quiet about this to cover the secret of their relation to the Romulans). With Michael's parents being killed in one of these attacks, we could perhaps go a step further and suggest the attack on the Vulcan school was also orchestrated by Romulans, thereby increasing Michael's vendetta against them.
The only drawbacks are that the whole religious extremist angle they're setting up doesn't seem consistent with Romulan behaviour, but then it isn't really consistent with Klingon behaviour either so that's irrelevant. Also, by having the Romulans attacking the Federation now it'd make it damn obvious this isn't the Prime Universe, but that pretense is going to have to be abandoned by the time the season's done anyway.
Thoughts?
But what if instead of Klingons, they had gone with Romulans? They already work canonically in that we know they disappeared after the Romulan War and weren't seen again until Balance of Terror. We can retcon the attacks as that although the Federation itself never had contact with the Romulans for a century, they did still continue to antagonise the Vulcans (the Vulcans stayed quiet about this to cover the secret of their relation to the Romulans). With Michael's parents being killed in one of these attacks, we could perhaps go a step further and suggest the attack on the Vulcan school was also orchestrated by Romulans, thereby increasing Michael's vendetta against them.
The only drawbacks are that the whole religious extremist angle they're setting up doesn't seem consistent with Romulan behaviour, but then it isn't really consistent with Klingon behaviour either so that's irrelevant. Also, by having the Romulans attacking the Federation now it'd make it damn obvious this isn't the Prime Universe, but that pretense is going to have to be abandoned by the time the season's done anyway.
Thoughts?
