Those funny Rommie helmets in TOS
- Thread starter Vulcanian
- Start date
Hey now. The Cardassians had funny jock-strap-like helmets in their first appearance too. (TNG's "The Wounded")
considering they probably planned to use the romulans more then once the helmets which could be reused makes sense.
and if there was class conflict between the smooth and bumpy headed romulans the confict between the romulan commander and some of his crew has different tones to it,.
and possibly suggestion that changes were in the air.
and if there was class conflict between the smooth and bumpy headed romulans the confict between the romulan commander and some of his crew has different tones to it,.
and possibly suggestion that changes were in the air.
One thing I've noticed over the years, and this could be considered looking too much into the design, but the sides of the helmet appear to have small devies on the ears. The lower operation Romulan crew could have built-in communication ear phones for department reports and noise filters/amplifiers outside for direct bridge commands.
There. I fixed your quote. You're welcomed.
Vulcanian said:
Maybe it's because the helmets are too cool to be in modern television?
There. I fixed your quote. You're welcomed.
i am probably preaching to the converted in this particular forum, but am i the only one who thinks the romulans looked a LOT cooler in TOS than in any subsequent production? the post-1988 romulan makeup look ridiclously stupid and fake, and its topped by even more ridiculously stupid and fake-looking polyester wigs. it's amazing to me how much money they spend on contemporary trek productions and still have aliens that look really cheesy and fake.
i guess though that the bad look is par for the course & fits the terrible writing the romulans have gotten in all post-TOS productions; they've gone from a psychologically complex race to scenery-chewing, generic bad-guys-of-the-week...the few exceptions i can think of - TNG's "the enemy," "the defector" and VOY's "eye of the needle" all still had that lame-ass make-up....
anyway, those helmets kicked ass and the romulans were a million times cooler on TOS than on anything afterwards...
i guess though that the bad look is par for the course & fits the terrible writing the romulans have gotten in all post-TOS productions; they've gone from a psychologically complex race to scenery-chewing, generic bad-guys-of-the-week...the few exceptions i can think of - TNG's "the enemy," "the defector" and VOY's "eye of the needle" all still had that lame-ass make-up....
anyway, those helmets kicked ass and the romulans were a million times cooler on TOS than on anything afterwards...
The helmets were meh. I'm a fan of the ears.
The bumpy modern-Trek forehead could go. I simply pretend it never happened. The Moe cuts could go too. Of course, the Moe cuts were on the Vulcans too.
No imagination.
(On the other hand, the modern Klingons looked better than the TOS ones. But the TOS ones were meaner/more fun.)
The bumpy modern-Trek forehead could go. I simply pretend it never happened. The Moe cuts could go too. Of course, the Moe cuts were on the Vulcans too.
No imagination.
(On the other hand, the modern Klingons looked better than the TOS ones. But the TOS ones were meaner/more fun.)
It's just funny the guy with no helmet survives the longest in Balance of Terror. Especially with all that debris raining down the ceiling.
I also like how they reused the helmets for the Vulcans in Amok Time. Although this was probably just a budget thing (like the Romulan ears), it's a sweet detail.
I also like how they reused the helmets for the Vulcans in Amok Time. Although this was probably just a budget thing (like the Romulan ears), it's a sweet detail.
TBonz said:
The helmets were meh. I'm a fan of the ears.
The bumpy modern-Trek forehead could go. I simply pretend it never happened. The Moe cuts could go too. Of course, the Moe cuts were on the Vulcans too.
No imagination.
(On the other hand, the modern Klingons looked better than the TOS ones. But the TOS ones were meaner/more fun.)
I never understood why contemporary Trek insisted on giving female Vulcans and Romulans Moe cuts. I thought long hair and the pointed ears looked pretty somehow.
Robert
Doesn't the use of the helmet in BoT and AT show the Romulans took the design from previous Vulcan uses?
hofner said:
TBonz said:
The helmets were meh. I'm a fan of the ears.
The bumpy modern-Trek forehead could go. I simply pretend it never happened. The Moe cuts could go too. Of course, the Moe cuts were on the Vulcans too.
No imagination.
(On the other hand, the modern Klingons looked better than the TOS ones. But the TOS ones were meaner/more fun.)
I never understood why contemporary Trek insisted on giving female Vulcans and Romulans Moe cuts. I thought long hair and the pointed ears looked pretty somehow.
Robert
I think it was Berman who suggested that, about how it made it easier to tell they were Vulcans and it made the ears more prominent.
As for the bumpy forehead thing, that was a cost-cutting measure. They figured that instead of making the artists waste their time and effort on races we were likely to never see again other than one episode, they just did them cheaply while saving the money for races we would see again (Klingons, Cardassians, Ferengi, etc).
That's why the aliens in S1/S2/S3 of TNG were better looking than later on.
As for the altered Rommie looks, I think it was changed to truly differentiate the Rommies from Vulcans other than their behavior. Made it easier for the actors and writers too (at least in theory).
One thing I did like about the TNG Rommies was the greenish tinge you could see in their skin sometimes, it fits the "green-blooded" motif.
As for the "Rommies got the character shaft", yeah they did. Problem was that for TNG they switched the characteristics of the Klingons and Romulans because they realized the TOS Klingons wouldn't make good allies. So now Klingons were honorable warriors while Romulans were the scheming types.
And then they decided to give their own creations, the Cardassians, the better "Military dictatorship" characterization that DS9 expanded on wonderfully. So another Romulan trait was done away with.
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