posted
From what I remember of BoT, they mentioned that the only communications with the Romulans were voice-only. Otherwise it would be absurd that they had no idea that the Romulans looked like Vulcans. If they had communicated by video, just how stupid would Earth/Starfleet have to be not to notice the similarity? If they had already seen Romulans before, why should anyone be surprised when the Enterprise managed to get video of the Romulan BoP and the occupants appeared to be Vulcanoid? The episode implies that no-one from Starfleet or Earth had ever seen a Romulan prior to this.
If someone has BoT in their video collection, could they check up on this and get back to up please?
------------------ "I think you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million kids can get together and have three days of fun and music� and have nothing but fun and music." -Max Yasgur; Woodstock, NY; August, 1969
The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
Going back to TSN;s comment about "impulse power only," I think it's an excellent idea that the line means they didn't have a M/A power system. After all, in later years they still don't have one but instead use quantum singularities for power. Perhaps for certain reasons they never got 'into' antimatter. . .
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Perhaps it is so rare that they went ahead and developed alternative power generation systems that did not require it. By the time they might have discovered large deposits of Dilithium, their infrastructure was already geared to the way they had been doing things and it would be impractical (and wasteful of resources) to change over by that time. Of course, that might prove to be a source of revenue, if only they could risk selling dilithium to someone who would not turn around and use it to power weapons that could be used against them.
--Baloo
------------------ "Some students try to hold the Rock up, instead of letting the Rock hold them up" --Anonymous divinity professor www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
For all we know it could be some sort of taboo against antimatter. They've been Romulans for a long time, which means they've had technology for a long time. Maybe they suffered some sort of catastrophic accident in experiments with the stuff, which long after still causes horrible memories.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Regarding the suggestion of BoT that Earth had no idea that vulcans were related to romulans. How likely is this? Earth had fought a war with the Romulans. It would be in the interest of Earth during the war to find out as much as they could about their enemy. In addition to the usual spying and interception of messages, this might involve examination of captured weapons and bases, physical examination of biological specimens (prisoners or dead bodies or tissue samples), and gathering intelligence from other races that had any contact with the Romulans. I suppose it's possible that the Romulans were so paranoid that they never showed themselves or had any contact with other races. I suppose that the war could have been fought only at long range, using missiles, and that no Romulan ship was ever captured (they all completely self destructed without a trace when heavily damaged), no Romulan base was ever taken, and no ground combat ever occurred. If I were a Earth or Federation scientist, I would have been looking very hard for some physical evidence of Romulan biology. Even a few cells could tell you a lot, such as genetic relationships to other races. Also, the romulans in their exodus from Vulcan, must have left some trail of artifacts all the way to Romulus. Maybe even buried bodies. Maybe they burned all the bodies and cleaned up after themselves very well. Finally, the Vulcans are supposed to be pretty close allies of Earth. In more than 200 years from first contact, after a war with an off-shoot race, after establishment of the Federation, they didn't mention anything about their relationship with the Romulans? Did the Vulcans think we would never find out? Or did they think we already knew? If they didn't tell us and we didn't know, did they think we would not be upset that they didn't tell us earlier? We they trying to protect a fragile alliance by not revealing a relationship with the enemy? Are there sections in Vulcans libraries that have signs saying "off-limits to Earthlings"? Is their relationship to the Romulans (and their uncontrolled emotions) something they are so ashamed of they never mention it?
------------------ When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
posted
I suspect that you have touched on one reason the Vulcans did not know that the Romulans were expatriate Vulcans. Perhaps they were so ashamed of the "heretics" who would not embrace logic, that they purged all records of them and banned any mention of these "failures".
As far as I know, the end of BoT shows (perhaps) one reason that the Federation was unable to collect any captives. The Romulans are (were?) so paranoid that their ships may have been rigged to self-destruct either on command or when the ship had sustained certain types and/or amounts of damage.
Since the Romulans presumably know that biological information would be of potential military use to an enemy, it seems likely that their destruct systems were designed to ensure whatever remained was incinerated so completely that there would be no useful evidence left.
"Captain! I have some sensor readings on the wreckage!"
"Anything useful?"
"Nah. Just some more highly radioactive lumps of metal interspersed with traces of carbon residue."
"Rats!"
--Baloo
------------------ "Some students try to hold the Rock up, instead of letting the Rock hold them up" --Anonymous divinity professor www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
posted
The Vulcans may never have even known what happened to the offshoots. Spock was as surprised (or the Vulcan equivalent) as everyone else. Maybe just a few thousand left the planet, and weren't considered significant enough in number to make a big deal about. Then, when the Rommies were met a couple millenia later, they looked up all mass migrations prior to Surak's philosophy taking hold, and decided that this group of a few thousand was probably the ancestors of the Romulans.
------------------ Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons; for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
posted
Baloo's got a pretty good point. The Romulans could be so paranoid about getting genetic information on their species for a reason. Biological weapons tailored to wreak havoc on Romulan physiology. It's a nasty way to fight a war, but we have the technology to do something like that right now, so in the 22nd century, who knows what would be possible?
------------------ "I see you have the ring. And that your Schwartz is as big as mine! -Dark Helmet, Spaceballs
posted
Yes, that's a good suggestion. Earth scientists could get a few Romulan cells and culture them in the lab. Genetic analysis would probably reveal the similarity to Vulcan DNA. (But maybe the Vulcans are also paranoid about genetic info. In that case, follow a Vulcan around until one of his hairs fell out.) They could then test all sorts different chemicals on cultured cells to find what killed them. They could possibly devise agents that killed only Romulans and not humans. If they really wanted to be ambitious, them might try to actually clone an entire Romulan too see what killed him and what kept him alive. They'd also find it looks like a Vulcan.
Of course in Star Trek, no one would ever do anything so nasty. Such bad things only happen on our real Earth.
------------------ When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
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