posted
That, uh, doesn't appear to map to the known Romulan MO at all. Romulus fights Earth for reasons unknown. (But personally, I suspect that Vulcan cultivating all these allies probably had something to do it.) Romulus attacks a second time just to see if they could. Then they buddy up with the Klingons, and then the Federation too, only to try to play the two off of each other. Then something happens at Tomed. And then, you know, the Dominion War, and so on.
Were I charged with describing Romulan strategy with regards to the Federation, I'd say it all started as a way to maintain parity with the Vulcans. But instead of driving a wedge between Vulcan and her new allies, they seem to have drove them together. So the plan changes to one of keeping up with the interstellar Joneses, as it were. War with the Klingons. (Though surely the Klingons had something to do with that.) Espionage and infowar with the UFP. And now, post DS9, apparently engagement with both powers.
Sure, we've seen the Romulans try to grab or interfere with Federation technical advances. And we've seen Starfleet doing the exact same thing. These are all components of larger political strategies. The Romulans aren't just privateers or something.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yes, just like DS9 had an annual "let's torture O'Brien" show, Enterprise can have a "aliens known to us from the future of Trek, but not to Archer & co, sneak onboard and steal stuff without the crew ever learning this species' name." We've had the Ferengi and the Romulans, we can look forward to the Cardassians, Gorn, Tholians, Kazon, Borg - yeah, that should do us nicely for the remaining 5 seasons.
posted
Captain Archer knows the name of his nemesis in "Minefield". See the preview.
To be honest, I like the backstory as presented in the James Blish adaptation of the "Balance of Terror". According to this backstory, the Romulans were an unknown species to Earth people before the Earth-Romulan war. The war started when the Romulans attacked an Earth outpost. The Earth forces repulsed the invaders and pushed them back to their home system.
For me, now I think about it, I would have liked to see a series where Earth builds alliances with non-Earth species. This is the proto-Federation. We see the build-up to the Earth-Romulan war. Then the war. Then the Federation. (Sounds like B5, doesn't it?)
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I forgot about the whole "Romulans didn't have warp drive until 100 years ago" thing - how do this FIT with "Minefield". A Romulan impulse sleeper ship?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Well, it's all so messed up that, from a fatalistic viewpoint, a bit more doesn't really hurt. We already know that everyone has subspace radio in those days and quite a few races have holodecks or shapeshifting abilities. And we have seen the Xyrillians and the Suliban cloak. Actually, I would have been surprised to see a Romulan ship without cloak!
From an optimistic viewpoint, we can enjoy a homage to the TOS BoP, and finally the idea that Romulans didn't have warp drive (which would have surprised me too) is dead.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
you cant do that! the continuity would collapse! whenever a character utters a time reference its because he has chekced and double checked his padd!
if it was 2364 and someone says a hundred years ago it mean 2264! not 2263 or 2265! never! not 2246 thats for sure!
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
In any case, Picard and Dougherty may not be referring to the introduction of Romulan warp any more when Dougherty says "We can handle them" and Picard retorts "Somebody probably said that about the Romulans a century ago".
I personally think Picard was making a reference to the fact that Romulans and Feds were uneasy allies roughly a century before "Insurrection". This is evident in ST6, and fits well thematically with the Son'a/Fed alliance in "Insurrection".
I'm not at all convinced the writers meant this (they probably just checked the chronology to see that Romulans first made it on screen in the 2260s), but I still think it's a natural explanation for Picard's words. It thus has nothing to do with when and how the Romulans got warp.
posted
If the authors checked the Chronology, they probably read the reference about them not having warp drive, and Picard's line may have meant exactly that. But we are free to interpret this in that Picard may be either 100 years off, or he actually referred to the Romulans coming out of isolation, using their warp drive to cross the NZ for the first time in 100 years (I assume the latter).
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Someone was talking about transcribing the text from "Balance of Terror". Well someone over at TrekBBS did just that, go on to this thread, and look for a post by TRexx:
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
. what do thugs do? i think steal![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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