Theory: the Romulans are actually descended from Vulcan augments

[Tim Thomason]

I think almost all Star Trek races are descended from augments. That it's just a natural evolution to gain control over the genome and perfect the species at some point. Humans had a hiccup when their first augments were defective and banished, and then they ended up on the galactic scene before they could have another go. Most cultures get multiple choices to develop an augmented society, which is generally the society that pushes towards warp development.

This is why Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, are occasionally shown to be stronger than humans. They were perfected by ancestors millennia ago. Denobulans explicitly had an augment stage that did not erupt into a war.

Traditionally, I gather, that once they've developed the genome to their liking, they don't go all Gattaca, but instead return to standard procreative practices, just with less health risks and an easy fix should problems arise.

Vulcans (and Romulans) are suggested to be descended from a Sargonian culture that may have been a diaspora across the galaxy (and therefore the presumed source of the other Vulcanoids). It is very likely that the genetic engineering was done and forgotten about hundreds of thousands of years before anyone set foot on Vulcan.

 

[Prax]

If it was that long ago, then could Vulcans or Romulans really be considered "augments" because that would make all humans augments too.

 

[Finn]

Is Daniels an augment?

 

[at Quark's]

^More or less....

 

[Prax]

"Do you ever give a straight answer?"

 

[Forbin]

Enough with the augments, already!

 

[Finn]

Spock can’t be an augment. He was 35 in Vulcan years in TMP and looked 60. Having Human genes doesn’t help.

 

[Prax]

His Vulcan genes must've caught up, because when he was 150, he looked like he was 80.

 

[Arpy]

I wouldn’t get too comfortable with augments. The ones we saw were the products of the earliest technologies and were far stronger and adept at combat than any humans or Romulans or Vulcans we saw. If Vulcans or Romulans or Klingons or Cardassians have had it for thousands or even hundreds of years, wouldn’t contemporary augments be far superior to anything the humans have come up with? Wouldn’t the rate of augmentation increase exponentially as increasingly smarter products of it experiment and improve upon themselves? Augmentation stopping only makes sense in fiction. Even then, it wouldn’t be every race of the thousands we’ve seen in Trek. Ditto AI — we should see a lot more tech wars.

 

[Finn]

His Vulcan genes must've caught up, because when he was 150, he looked like he was 80.

Which would more appropriate...

 

[Tim Thomason]

His Vulcan genes must've caught up, because when he was 150, he looked like he was 80.

Spock, along with most of the TOS crew experienced rapid aging due to the presence of leftover Gamma Hydra radiation (The Deadly Years) in the transporter traces used to revitalize them after the incident in the antimatter universe (The Counter-Clock Incident). It was not reversed in time.

Spock's aging came under control thanks to the Genesis Planet (Star Trek III).

 

[Prax]

His dad had really good genes, tho

 

[somebuddyX]

Nero's crew seemed to pretty strong. Nero and Ayel threw Kirk around for a bit. Since Romulus looks pretty different from Vulcan maybe the Romulans had to alter themselves to live there but they still have that capacity to become super strong.
Maybe all the Romulan telepaths were killed off or it's a taboo, or the Romulan telepaths became Remans.

 

[Tim Thomason]

It was a taboo on Vulcan, at least by the time of Enterprise. And the Kir'Shara trilogy goes into detail on how Surak was tied into telepathic mysticism. If early Romulans went through a similar pragmatic, anti-telepath stage (they love their secrets), then they are the types to probably genocide their telepaths.

Especially if they have a fear of mind control and/or weaponized telekinesis.

But then again, the Romulans are the types to keep their telepathy in a select few for espionage purposes while claiming to have killed them all off.

 

[Prax]

It seems you have to have an "enlightened philosophy" for your telepathic powers to work. The ascetic Vulcans can do it while the carnal Vulcans can't. The Romulans don't seem to be able. Betazoids are telepathic, but the sociopathic Lon Suder isnt, etc.

 

[at Quark's]

Ah, I guess the Botha, Lethean, and species 8472 must have been enlightened after all, then.

 

[Arpy]

^ maybe it’s not a matter of enlightenment so much as control? Romulans are too emotionally volatile to align the neural fields just so?

Other aliens...well, they are aliens — who knows what’s going on under the hood?

Or maybe we haven’t seen Romulan telepathic weaponization because Starfleeters are trained (like Dukat in “The Marquis”) to resist it. Or maybe there’s a Mutually Assured Destruction clause in the Treaty of Algeron that...maybe not the pacifist Vulcans but the adept Betazoids or Deltans would reciprocate in kind.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Vulcans had telepathy before Surak. Gambit shows us this. I presume that it was a Sargonian trait bred into the pre-Vulcans in times immemorial, and the Romulans control it (if they haven't genocided it) very tightly, because they don't want their citizens rising up or learning secrets.

Humans have telepathy too, in the form of ESP from WNMHGB. Maybe the shows have ignored it since, but it was presented as rare in that episode, so there's no reason that it doesn't exist in the background.

Humans aren't interested in developing their telepathic powers beyond the few mutants that pop up now and then, and it doesn't seem evolutionarily beneficial. If they had a successful breeding program or genetic resequencing, they might develop it more.

Actually, wait, no, they did just that in that one TNG Season 2 episode.

 

[Prax]

Maybe to develop telepathy, a society must decide to just stop talking for a few dozen generations, or talk very little. All that body language, facial expressions, and wiggly eye movements eventually evolve into mind reading powers. In fact, I myself must have telepathic powers, because I know when my wife is upset without even looking at her!

Side note: another human in TOS has telepathic powers(the actress who played Dr. Pulaski), and she was raised on Vulcan.

 

[Timo]

...One wonders if said humans got their telepathy from alien ancestors, considering the telepaths are mentioned generations after Earth initiates interstellar contact. (There's time for something like seven human generations there, so we aren't speaking of just half-Vulcans or one-eight-Vulcans but also of more diluted options.)

Klingons never appear particularly strong - except for Kruge, whose strength is supposed to impress his own crew. I can see how they would be attracted by the idea of gaining literally superhuman strength, then.

It's the Romulans who are slightly less consistently portrayed in that respect. Granted, few of them choose to fight using physical strength, but some are forced to - and Kirk bests one with a single kick in "The Enterprise Incident" and Worf, seriously weakened by torture, wrestles down another in "Redemption II". Admittedly, a kick or a punch could bring down an arbitrarily strong guy, and Spock plausibly feigns such defeat against Garth; it's the Worf incident that is more of a contradiction.

Romulan never pinches would not be an issue: even Spock seldom manages to use that trick in combat, and Romulans would be quicker to just press the trigger of their handy raygun.

As for Romulans and Vulcan-style touch telepathy, there are fairly few cases where this would be relevant. A few interrogation scenes, perhaps, or LaForge's brainwashing - but the Romulans have additional options there.

Timo Saloniemi