posted
I've heard from a ton of people that ENT screwed up by putting Romulans in, however, does anyone know of the back story to how they got where they are in that Ep? The only BG I ever saw about Warp came from DD Books about the Federation encountering the Romulans and then the Romulans disabling one of the Federation's ships and using it to construct their own. This obviously isn't true in the timeline recently established, so anyone know what the story is?
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
There is no story. We don't know if the ENT BoPs had warp or not. I'm inclined to say they do have warp, and the TOS BoPs also have warp. In this case, the whole story becomes a nonissue.
OTOH, Rick Sternbach, in one of his Magazine articles, proposes that the early BoPs were carried to the frontlines by huge warpcarriers, and that the BoPs themselves usually didn't have warp drive.
posted
In no way do I think that Enterprise screwed up the Romulans and how they are portrayed in "Minefield", because frankly, there is not enough information available to misread or judge their technological place in the 22nd Century.
Here are the facts gathered thus far based on quotes from "Balance of Terror":
Spock : "Referring to the map on your screens, you will note beyond the movement of our vessel, a line of Earth outpost stations. Constructed on asteroids, they monitor the neutral zone established from treaty following the Earth-Romulan conflict of over a century ago."
Spock : "As you may recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels, which allowed no quarter, no captives, nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication. Therefore no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other."
Spock : "Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous, and only the Romulans know what they think of Earth. The treaty, set by sub-space radio, established this neutral zone, entry into which by either side would constitute an act of war. The treaty has been unbroken since that time."
Kirk : "After a whole century, what will a Romulan ship will look like, Mr. Styles. I doubt they'll radio and identify themselves." Styles : "You'll know sir. They're painted like a giant bird of prey."
Kirk : "I had no idea history was your specialty." Styles : "Family history. There was a Captain Styles in the space service then, two commanders, several junior officers -- all lost in that war, sir." Kirk : "Their war, Mr. Styles. Not yours. Don't forget it."
As for Romulans and warp...Scotty DID mention that the bird of prey they were pursuing ran on "pure impulse power". This does not indicate that the Romulans of 100 years past did not have warp drive or even that OTHER Romulan ships of the 1701 era didnt have warp drive, simply that the ship in question, which they were pursuing, was running on "simple impulse power".
It seems highly unlikely that a species that somehow got from Vulcan to Romulus 1000 years ago, which seemingly has subspace radio, and cloaking devices (during ENT era and based on TOS info) cannot be sophiticated enough to have warp drive.
If you think about it, the weapons we have seen on the NX-01 so far have been significantly primitive compared to what we see on the 1701, not to mention the fact that a ship limited to Warp 5 is fairly primitive by the means of the 23rd Century as well. Also consider that the NX-01 is also the most sophisticated ship of its time. For all we know, it is reasonably likely that in young fleet-based agency such as Starfleet, employed many known primitive ships indiginous to that era, such as the ever popular DY-500 model or what have you. The same can be said about the Romulan vessels, which may only be limited to low warp as well.
Again, there is not enough information present based on TOS, ENT or otherwise to indicate Romulans do or do not have warp drive during the era of the Earth-Romulan War. Only time will tell, as presumably this is a topic that will build over the next 5 1/2 years.
BTW isnt this more a "Starships & Technology" related thread?
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