Thoughts on the Romulan War, anyone?

[Christopher]

It's quite possible that ENT's "spatial torpedoes" were nuclear (i.e. "atomic," to use the term that was still common in the '60s). Romulans could've used equivalent weapons. Starfleet did have "photonic torpedoes" at the time, but maybe they were in limited supply, harder to manufacture.

 

[Trent Roman]

I'm not familiar with the TOS episode in question, but was it specified that it was spaceships using atomic weapons? Those might not work well in ship-to-ship combat, but I imagine they still work for planetary bombardment, particularly if the Romulans were to follow a 'scorched earth' policy (i.e. not just blowing shit up but irradiating the surface to deny your foes use of that land for the proximate future). Might tie in with Romulan tactics that are more about sabotage and undermining than direct conflict and conquest.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[CaptainDonovin]

I for one was a big fan of Ent (exception being the disastrophe that was TATV) and have been looking forward to the Romulan Wars. I would have rather seen a movie or mini-series devoted to it but I'll take what I can get.

 

[Karnbeln]

In ENT's time period, are we still talking about the same warp-scale as TOS? Is this Warp 7 equal to 343 times the SoL? If this is the case, why does it take an additional century to reach Warp 8? Has it ever been established the post-Cochrane warp projects are measured the same as in Kirk's time?

Maybe warp 7 is the so-called time barrier?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Other people have been discussing other series of novels, so I thought it time that I should bring up this summer's upcoming Enterprise novel The Romulan War.

So. Um, thoughts, anyone?

I'm very much looking forward to it.

I do hope that it's complete, though: shows us the beginning, middle *and end*. I did hear that it wouldn't finish. I hope that's not true.

 

[Thrawn]

Well it was a 4-year-long war, wasn't it? It seems absurd to want that all in one book.

The first 7 DS9 episodes chronicling the Dominion War told a complete story that was nonetheless just the beginning of a much larger conflict; that's the kind of thing I'm expecting.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well it was a 4-year-long war, wasn't it? It seems absurd to want that all in one book.

I don't care how many books it takes. Just get there eventually...

 

[Thrawn]

Oh, well, in that case, I'm sure we will; this won't be the last Enterprise novel

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I do hope that it's not just Archer and crew that's in the book. This war must be too big for that. As much as I liked ENT and its characters, I'm tired of having just one crew responsible for everything. This isn't the R. Arnold era, after all.

 

[Thrawn]

We already know that Hernandez & the Columbia are basically out of the action, due to the events in Destiny... are there any other Ent-era crews we could follow? I mean, aside from Trip.

 

[Praetor]

In ENT's time period, are we still talking about the same warp-scale as TOS? Is this Warp 7 equal to 343 times the SoL? If this is the case, why does it take an additional century to reach Warp 8? Has it ever been established the post-Cochrane warp projects are measured the same as in Kirk's time?

Maybe warp 7 is the so-called time barrier?

You know, I've thought that a long time. Ever since the 'Warp seven' reference in TATV, I'd thought more that those ships were being worked on and were a long way off anyway, and the 'time barrier' issue cropped up and drove it even further away, making it so monumental when mentioned in 'The Cage.'

 

[Sci]

Personally, while I'm looking forward to the Romulan War, I'm looking forward even more to seeing how the Coalition of Planets continues to evolve and eventually leads to the birth of the Federation. And, frankly, I'd be interested in seeing stories of how the Federation evolved and changed during its early years, too.

 

[Christopher]

We already know that Hernandez & the Columbia are basically out of the action, due to the events in Destiny...

Not necessarily. Kobayashi Maru takes place in 2155 and shows the beginning of the war, but the Destiny sequence involving Columbia begins in 2156. So Columbia could be involved in the first year of the conflict. The problem is that the attack on Columbia in Destiny is itself implied in dialogue to be the beginning of the war, creating an evident inconsistency with KM. Hopefully The Romulan War will address this discrepancy.

 

[Trent Roman]

Hmm. I had read the apparent inability to locate Columbia at the end of Kobayashi Maru to be a lead-in for Destiny (which I have not yet read). Do the events of the books not follow on one another?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Sci]

We already know that Hernandez & the Columbia are basically out of the action, due to the events in Destiny...

Not necessarily. Kobayashi Maru takes place in 2155 and shows the beginning of the war, but the Destiny sequence involving Columbia begins in 2156. So Columbia could be involved in the first year of the conflict. The problem is that the attack on Columbia in Destiny is itself implied in dialogue to be the beginning of the war, creating an evident inconsistency with KM. Hopefully The Romulan War will address this discrepancy.

That sounds like a fairly easy one to reconcile, actually. A state of war may have been officially declared but actual combat very sporadic during the period between the end of Kobayashi Maru and the 2156 sequences in Destiny I. Compare to the Phony War that marked the year between the official declaration of war upon Germany and the Battle of France.

 

[Christopher]

Hmm. I had read the apparent inability to locate Columbia at the end of Kobayashi Maru to be a lead-in for Destiny (which I have not yet read). Do the events of the books not follow on one another?

I don't know. Maybe they were meant to but there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line. It happens sometimes despite everyone's best efforts to maintain continuity. At least in this case it can probably be reconciled.

 

[Timo]

Well it was a 4-year-long war, wasn't it?

We don't know for sure. It could have been 4 years. It could have been 54 years. It could have been 4 weeks.

The relative lack of information our heroes have on the particulars of the war might suggest that it was a short and relatively insignificant skirmish. "BoT" doesn't paint it as having any modern relevance - the only reason the issue comes up at all is because the ancient war resulted in this silly Neutral Zone that Starfleet still is forced to observe and enforce, and the only person aboard with an initial personal connection to this conflict is Stiles. Even the later episodes tend to describe the old war as having been relevant only to the Romulans, who can't get over it even after 200 years; the Feds don't have similar passions.

On the other hand, the Romulan side does opt to emote over the fact of how bitter the war was - and to this day, we don't know who won it. So it could have been an affair that dragged on for decade after decade, until both sides got so fed up with it that they decided upon this Neutral Zone that both sides hated but that was still better than persisting with a hopeless quest for victory.

Four years or shorter is a neat package if we want the war to be over (and perhaps forgotten) by the time of "TatV". It is also a good choice of length if the war starts after "TatV" and ends before 2166-67 which is the "it happened over a century ago" limit. The third possibility of course is that the war was already fought before ENT began (and the identity of the enemy was only discovered, and the concluding treaty made, later on), but I doubt anybody would want to take that route now.

And the fourth possibility is that the war was ongoing during the ENT adventures or "TatV" but went unmentioned. This is what happened with the Cardassian War in TNG, after all. Or with the Klingon conflict in TOS before "Errand of Mercy".

Personally, I actually like the fourth option the best. The old chronologies speak of the war starting in the early 22nd century, but they also speak of it starting with the mysterious disappearances of Earth or ally vessels, colonies and installations. This may well be what was going on during ENT, a show that tells us that ongoing piracy against Earth vessels was the norm of the day...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[rfmcdpei]

The old chronologies speak of the war starting in the early 22nd century, but they also speak of it starting with the mysterious disappearances of Earth or ally vessels, colonies and installations. This may well be what was going on during ENT, a show that tells us that ongoing piracy against Earth vessels was the norm of the day...

The Romulans had to acquire their in-depth knowledge of Earth and the other Coalition civilizations somehow.

 

[Kchunda]

The old chronologies speak of the war starting in the early 22nd century, but they also speak of it starting with the mysterious disappearances of Earth or ally vessels, colonies and installations. This may well be what was going on during ENT, a show that tells us that ongoing piracy against Earth vessels was the norm of the day...

The Romulans had to acquire their in-depth knowledge of Earth and the other Coalition civilizations somehow.

Hmm. . . so Romulans were perhaps behind the majority of pirate activity so they can remain hidden and still cause instability, while they grew their own capabilities? Sounds plausible. I would say then that their "Marauder" operation not only was a failure tactically and strategically, but it put them in the forefront (if memory serves). Or were people still unclear about who was behind everything?

 

[rfmcdpei]

Hmm. . . so Romulans were perhaps behind the majority of pirate activity so they can remain hidden and still cause instability, while they grew their own capabilities? Sounds plausible. I would say then that their "Marauder" operation not only was a failure tactically and strategically, but it put them in the forefront (if memory serves). Or were people still unclear about who was behind everything?

One thing that Enterprise establishes is that before the Romulan War, the Romulan Star Empire was far more than a match for any of the major founding civilizations of the Federation. In the end, it took the combined efforts of Earth, Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar, plus less powerful polities like Alpha Centauri and Draylax and who knows who else, to keep the Romulans from conquering the future Federation. It was a close-run thing: DS9's "Past Tense" shows that without a starfaring Earth, the Romulans had managed to reach Alpha Centari and had probably conquered all of the civilizations in between Earth and Romulus, including Vulcan.

Enterprise also establishes that before the Romulan War, the Romulans had an active and very successful infiltration program in Vulcan, at least. If you can suborn a planet's head of state ...

The Romulans probably had multiple espionage operations going on, everything from deep-cover espionage to opportunistic piracy, some more successful than others. In fragmented pre-Federation space, they were probably able to get away with a lot until Earth started unifying the local powers and making it difficult for the Romulans to successfully play on the innumerable mutual suspicions of the area.