Unification Part 1

[Zek]

So Capt. Picard and Data go to Romulus in search of Spock and dress up like Romulans which they are supposed to be impersonating, right? In formulating this plan do you think it dawned on anyone that the guy with the British accent might not fit in among the Romulans? Even that Romulan store owner remarked that they did not sound as though they came from Rateg where Data said they were from.

 

[ihno]

So Capt. Picard and Data go to Romulus in search of Spock and dress up like Romulans which they are supposed to be impersonating, right? In formulating this plan do you think it dawned on anyone that the guy with the British accent might not fit in among the Romulans? Even that Romulan store owner remarked that they did not sound as though they came from Rateg where Data said they were from.

Of course, they could have inseret five minutes technobabble to make it all more plausible but that is a recurring standard problem of Star Trek's logic and plausability.

I usually ignore the effects of those "magical" devices like the universal translator.

 

[Dukhat]

In formulating this plan do you think it dawned on anyone that the guy with the British accent might not fit in among the Romulans?

Considering that both Picard and the Romulans are speaking English to begin with, I don't see how Picard's accent is really the problem here.

 

[Zek]

In formulating this plan do you think it dawned on anyone that the guy with the British accent might not fit in among the Romulans?

Considering that both Picard and the Romulans are speaking English to begin with, I don't see how Picard's accent is really the problem here.

Good point lol.

 

[Lance]

I have to admit, my one problem with this episode is that the dressing-up-as-Romulans stuff just felt so misconceived. And, in plot terms, seemingly pointless (as their meeting with Pardek comes quite quickly).

And it doesn't seem to work anyway, as virtually from the moment Data and Picard make landfall, there are background characters giving them funny looks, and the soup store owner doesn't seem to buy it either. So, clearly their 'disguises' aren't all that. I also think the choice of Data for the mission is weird, because as Picard himself points out, Data is going around acting all "android-like". I mean, c'mon, there had to be someone on the Enterprise who could have done a better Romulan impersonation than Data.

 

[EnriqueH]

Yeah, but then how are they going to get Spock-clone Data to interact with Spock himself?

 

[Nebusj]

I have to admit, my one problem with this episode is that the dressing-up-as-Romulans stuff just felt so misconceived. And, in plot terms, seemingly pointless (as their meeting with Pardek comes quite quickly).

That's pretty much the problem with Unification overall, isn't it? The first episode sets out a lot of things that could build up to a plot, except they're also all kind of time-killers to keep Spock from appearing before the cliffhanger, and as story threads they don't really resolve into much.

And it doesn't seem to work anyway, as virtually from the moment Data and Picard make landfall, there are background characters giving them funny looks, and the soup store owner doesn't seem to buy it either. So, clearly their 'disguises' aren't all that.

Perhaps, though I recall an incident (I believe it was recounted in Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA) from, I believe, the mid-1950s when the CIA needed to send someone undercover to Mongolia, and had penciled in one of their agents who was white, Anglo-Saxon, spoke little if any Mongolian or Chinese or any other dialect likely to be of use, and had been a basketball player in college. (They ended up not sending him, to his considerable relief, even if it spoiled the chance to make a Get Smart scene happen in real life)

 

[BillJ]

The entire "Unification" story was ill conceived. The Romulans were going to hold a Federation founding world with one Warbird and twenty thousand troops?

 

[Dukhat]

The entire "Unification" story was ill conceived. The Romulans were going to hold a Federation founding world with one Warbird and twenty thousand troops?

To be fair, this plot was hatched by a 20 year old kid with hardly any military background whatsoever who just got her job because her daddy was a bigwig admiral or something.

 

[T'Girl]

The entire "Unification" story was ill conceived. The Romulans were going to hold a Federation founding world with one Warbird and twenty thousand troops?

The plan would work if the Romulans already had a considerable number of Vulcan sympathizers living in the general Vulcan population and waiting for the Romulans to arrive with troops and weapons. A underground of sorts.

When the troops didn't show up, the underground stayed underground.

My take.

 

[Nebusj]

The entire "Unification" story was ill conceived. The Romulans were going to hold a Federation founding world with one Warbird and twenty thousand troops?

The plan would work if the Romulans already had a considerable number of Vulcan sympathizers living in the general Vulcan population and waiting for the Romulans to arrive with troops and weapons. A underground of sorts.

When the troops didn't show up, the underground stayed underground.

My take.

I think Timo had the rationalization for the episode which made the most possible sense, which amounted to: the stolen Vulcan ships were packed with Romulan dissidents who wanted to reunite with Vulcan, and who were lead aboard being told by the Romulan government that they were the vanguard of a ``Peace Ship'' type mission. Then the Romulans convinced the Federation (through Spock, Data, and Picard) that it was an invasion force so the ships would get blown up nice and publicly.

Consequences: the remaining Romulan dissidents are possibly leaderless, and certainly discredited since their ``Peace Ship'' mission got blown up by the Federation, not even their own government. And the Romulans got dissidents smashed down without even having to do the dirtiest part of the deed. There's a mild risk of further Federation retaliation but obviously they didn't regard that as too likely (who'd want to go to war over such a spectacularly flimsy mid-80s-cartoon-evildoer invasion scheme)?

It all pretty nearly makes sense, but it does require that we throw out the stuff that we can be fairly sure the show's creators meant to be taken honestly.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Romulans probably have spies on Vulcan just because they have spies everywhere but not substantial enough a number to make a huge difference.

Given what we know of the Vulcans, very few of them would do anything but resist. They wouldn't make any inroads until Starfleet security showed up.

 

[Zek]

The Romulans probably have spies on Vulcan just because they have spies everywhere but not substantial enough a number to make a huge difference.

Given what we know of the Vulcans, very few of them would do anything but resist. They wouldn't make any inroads until Starfleet security showed up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I know someone will, but aren't the Vulcans generally pacifists? Would this ideal preclude them from fighting a Romulan invasion force or would they forgo their non-violent ways to protect their homeworld? I should hope it wouldn't but what do you think?

 

[T'Girl]

but aren't the Vulcans generally pacifists?

The series Enterprise certainly didn't depict the Vulcans as such. Spock said that the planet Vulcan had never been conquered in it history.

Would this ideal preclude them from fighting a Romulan invasion force ...

Vulcan defense vessels were sent towards the invasion force very quickly.

I should hope it wouldn't but what do you think?

I would hope the opposite, the Vulcan would do more than stand idlely by while their world was invaded and conquered.

 

[Louigi Verona]

But then again, so many real life political decisions are weird to no extent. Compared to them, Unification is just your everyday plot.

 

[Zek]

but aren't the Vulcans generally pacifists?

The series Enterprise certainly didn't depict the Vulcans as such. Spock said that the planet Vulcan had never been conquered in it history.

Would this ideal preclude them from fighting a Romulan invasion force ...

Vulcan defense vessels were sent towards the invasion force very quickly.

I should hope it wouldn't but what do you think?

I would hope the opposite, the Vulcan would do more than stand idlely by while their world was invaded and conquered.

And there we have it folks. I knew someone would correct me. Thank you

 

[The Old Mixer]

"If there were a reason, my father is quite capable of killing. Logically and efficiently."--Spock, "Journey to Babel"

 

[Timo]

I think the telling bit about the "invasion plan" is the telling bit. That is, Sela freely tells the plot to the captured trio and then allows them to escape. So we can pretty safely assume that everything that was told was a lie. Except for those parts that were devious double lies, of course.

(On a similar vein, and relating to the real-world precedent of fundamentally faulty infiltration plans, the Nazis infamously sent extremely ill-chosen and ill-trained agents to infiltrate Great Britain during WWII, these then being captured en masse and turned against their original operators. This was apparently because the German spymasters were opponents of Nazism and did everything in their power to prevent the acquisition of relevant information - the infiltration operation was mainly the work of Abwehr, a profoundly and successfully traitorous intelligence service that managed to undo many of the achievements of the other German intel agencies. Picard has been sent on missions like this in several episodes, such as "Chain of Command" and "Gambit"; apparently, somebody at Starfleet Intelligence or Starfleet Security wants him to fail! Although not necessarily to the detriment of the UFP.)

"Vulcans are pacifists" is a statement made by the ignorant Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon". They are proven rather wrong when Spock beats them to submission...

Surak of Vulcan is also credited with establishing Vulcan pacifism in "The Savage Curtain", but he only

a) chooses his enemies wisely when saying there's no point in fighting the images of Kahless and Genghis Khan
b) says that toning down the original Vulcan violence saved their species and serves as an example of a negotiated, nondestructive solution being at least possible

which establish his personal deep rationality but not a general Vulcan tendency to shy away from fights.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

I think the telling bit about the "invasion plan" is the telling bit. That is, Sela freely tells the plot to the captured trio and then allows them to escape. So we can pretty safely assume that everything that was told was a lie. Except for those parts that were devious double lies, of course.

Or she is just incredibly incompetent. Which would be consistent with how she is portrayed in "Redemption".

 

[Timo]

Then it's a double feint: the Romulans have a devious plan and carefully camouflage it with another, orchestrated by a bumbling idiot... Sort of like the "sending legitimate ancient Vulcan tubs to create noise to mask the carefully cloaked armada of warbirds" plan, but on an organizational level.

Timo Saloniemi