Vulcans: Elves Romulans: Dark elves Andorians: Goblins Tellarites: Dwarves Klingons: Orcs Orions: Trolls ^Its hard to quantify; 'The Remans' per se but yes as 3Rayfire says?, they're possibly 'Blood Elves' if they were to be given a "fantasy" style comparison as it were?! their design in Star Trek Nemesis was made to be too different from their Romulan cousins though for silly reasons. They should've been made to look closer to their; Romulans brothers and sisters regardless.
I would rather the next Star Trek movie take place in neither the Kelvin Timeline nor the Prime Timeline but go back and take place in the original universe. I've had enough of the JJAbramsverse. You forget to mention the DS9 episodes featuring the Romulans and their involvement in the Dominion War.
I know this comment is four months old but I just want to point out that the Prime timeline is the original universe. Everything made before Star Trek 2009 was Prime timeline, JJ-verse is Star Trek 09, Into Darkness and Beyond.
@Tyler Durden I absolutely agree. JJ took Trek and made it into Star Wars. We already have star wars. My idea has always been to just create a movie crew of new characters. In response to the original poster, the Dominion War may have been the most amazing Romulan arc in the entire trek universe.
@Tyler Durden absolutely I agree with you 100% plus JJ or should I say jar jar Abrams gas torched and wrecked BOTH Star Trek and Star Wars with his total debauchery of Canon !!!.. Before he finished the 2009 Trek movie Abrams even stated in a interview that he NEVER watched TOS as a kid or as an Adult To me that says a lot about the out come of all three of his Trek movies including all of the post George Lucus movies ,; attempting to attach his own "Spin," and interjection into 🌟 Wars Canon ,thus calling it his own original content.
I hate to nitpick but John Colicos played Kor. Michael Ansara was the actor who played Kang. I sure someone in the comments has already posted this. Jolan Tru
@@amiscellaneoushuman3516 "If anyone could use a good tailor, it would be them" Odo's quote when asked if it was the Romulans behind Garak's attempted assassination (DS9, forgot the name of the episode).
When you remember those costumes were introduced in the 80s, they make a lot more sense. My grandmother rocked a pantsuit that looked a lot like a Romulan uniform back in the 80s :)
The main reason for giving the Romulans “Klingon-design” ships specifically later on was that a PA accidentally stepped on the Romulan Bird of Prey model and broke it.
That’s not confirmed to have happened, it’s only a theory. There’s another theory that it was because they needed to show off the expensive new D7 model which had been gifted to them
@@TheMrPeteChannel My theory is that someone left the cloaking device on by mistake and it was misplaced as a result. ... What? It doesn't actually turn invisible? That's disappointing.
ST: Enterprise was a lost opportunity to show the entirety of the Earth-Romulan War, and the original establishment of the neutral zone. It would have made for an epic story arc. I simply cannot understand why they decided to devote the show to an endless succession of convoluted unnecessary time travel plots.
It was strange for them to ignore the Romulans for the entire first three seasons, sans a one off episode. I will also never understand why they did not use the Romulans surprise attacking Florida with an atomic weapon in favor of the Xindi launching a surprise attack. The entire third season could have been about the Enterprise trying to put together clues about who attacked earth and discovering who the Romulans were. At the very least they could have made the Xindi puppets of the Romulans who got them to attack earth for them.... instead of the weird Sphere Builders.
Enterprise was a whole series of weird decisions. Gotta love it, redheaded stepchild though it is. (Also is the phrase redheaded stepchild still socially acceptable? It made me feel weird as soon as I typed it, bc obv redheads and stepchildren are blameless and harmless. Or have we as a society collectively agreed that it’s just a harmless, albeit weird outdated phrase out of context?)
@@UndyingNephalim that would have been better, agreed. I struggle with ENT season 3 for the same reason I once struggled with voyager... why test a doomsday weapon that isn't ready on the planet you plan to use it on? If they had tested the weapon elsewhere, and then just rocked up to earth with a functioning weapon... similar to voyager, did janeway not know about time bombs? As time has marched on both Voy and Ent have become favorites but at the time I couldn't wrap my head around that stuff and just instead rewatched TNG.
Well I can only speak for myself, but I think it's fair to say that alot of us who had been with what we today call the berman era since 1987, 18 years later in 2005 when Enterprise got the axe... let's just say franchise fatigue was a thing. ENT was not getting the ratings anymore and even die hards like myself were just tired of it. That may sound blasphemous but if 12 years from now the kurtzman era is still airing I challenge anyone to still be excited on a weekly basis. absence makes the heart grow fonder and it was probably only 2 years after ENT left the air and us die hard trekkies were binging the VOY and ENT episodes we missed, and were ready for it to come back on the air.
enterprise is another universe, reason behind photons being early is temporal war, could it be that romulans felt that earth was even stronger and forming federation faster even. many reason why romulan war didn't play out
In the background material for the tabletop game Starfleet Battles it's stated that the Klingons and the Romulans had a brief alliance and exchange of technology. Which is why Klingon ships ended up with cloaking devices and why Romulans were using the D7 design.
8:36 Let's appreciate for a moment the flat out obvious appearance of Colonial Vipers from Battlestar Galactica on the cover of the Star Trek book :) And sorry I hope the Kelvin timeline dies as soon as possible.
There is no Kelvin timeline. A change of timeline does not turn Kahn from an Indian sikh into a British white guy. JJ's movies aren't Star Trek, they're crap.
STO did the Romulans justice with the Empire still existing, the formation of the Romulan Republic and the Tal'Shiar up to their old games trying to become the the top Romulan faction.
One thing they have managed is to have some terrific actors play Romulans. From Mark Lenard in TOS through to Andreas Katsulas (sp?) in TNG they have always been interesting portrayals.
I'm disappointed you haven't touched upon DS9 at all. The Romulans were portrayed brilliantly there. Scheming, cunning, surprisingly becoming Federation allies but still loads of scheming on both sides as they prepare for a post-war Alpha Quadrant. It was very much the start of a US-USSR cold war setting.
True, till their homeworld is about to be vaporise from the supernova that lead tens of millions of offworld Romulans homeless. 18 Billion natives on Romulus were perished.
I don't recall where I heard it, but there is a lore explanation for the Romulans having D7 cruisers. In "Balance of Terror", we are told that the Romulans did not have warp drive (yet the Bird of Prey had warp nacelles). Also in TOS, the Klingons do not have cloaking technology. At some point, the Romulans traded cloaking technology for Klingon warp technology which included plans for the D7. This is why we see Romulan D7s and cloaking Klingon vessels in the movies.
One possible explanation for the Bird of Prey having warp nacelles is that it had non-tactical warp. The idea is that a ship with tactical warp capabilities unequivocally outclasses one without... except that the Romulans had the cloaking device.
watch again. scotty is speaking about the power of the ship towards weapons etc not the drive system. www.ditl.org/article-page.php?ArticleID=12&ListID=Articles#:~:text=Romulan%20Warp%20Drive%20One%20of%20the%20stranger%20facets,new%20Romulan%20ship%20encountered%20in%20that%20episode%20%3A
My fan canon has always been that Surak's Awakening simply did not take in a particular region. Since I have never seen ridged Vulcans, I am going to go with this, especially since I have seen more variety to skin tones than with the two tone (now three tone) Romulans. I think the people who refused the Awakening were from a particular region with most having a particular look indicative of it. Then they left en masse.
I like the ST Picard explanation that ridges are from Northern Romulans. Personally I feel like they appear as a specific result of Vulcanoid physiology versus environment. I came up with the idea that Vulcans have a glandular network in their forehead that keeps their brains cool in Vulcan's extremely hot environment. In cooler environments like Romulus or even Mintaka, it gets...stuffed up and swells, hence forehead ridges.
Kelvin timeline. High school jocks and cheerleaders in space. I could only take Bones seriously as an officer. Go back to Prime. Kelvin reminds me o Jar Jar Binks.
@@OffRampTourist I agree.. Karl Urban is a very good versatilel actor As far as I am concerned he was SPOT ON was Dr Leanerd "Bones" McCoy he brought with him his own. Touches and talents that DeForest Kelly made as a character worthy of endearment. The same can also be said of the fellow that played Pavlo Checkov and how he reimagined Walter Keoing 's version on this character.. Also the actor who played Montgomery Scott was very good as well ..
I've always enjoyed and been drawn to the Romulans. And yes, I think you nailed it. Their characters are always somebody you remember unlike a lot of other 1 time people you just could care less for. Their devious nature make them fun, and the actors really ham up the parts to really drive their culture home every time. You never know their purpose, just know that its' going to be interesting with a romulan involved.
I have long thought that part of the split between Vulcans and Romulans was different philosophies on how to deal with a critical issue. In Star Trek: Enterprise there are episodes dealing with The Vulcans nearly wiping themselves out. One of the main issues was the strength of Vulcan emotion and how contact with aliens had caused them to lose control and lead them to a war that nearly killed them all. Sarak's solution was to learn to suppress all emotions. So the often related statement that Vulcans have no emotions is a lie, they have simply learned not to express them. Romulans chose a different path. First was to become xenophobic. Any alien influence was suspect. The second half was a rigidly structured society. While Vulcans exerted control inwardly, Romulans exert the control outwardly.
the vulcans had always been warlike. its just that with tech advancing they got better at killing one another and ruining what was left of their planet
Actor John Calicos portrayed the Klingon Commander Kor in ST:TOS and decades later the same Kor, the long lived High Master in ST:DS9. Michael Anzara portrayed Kang, young and aged respectively, in both series.
the one thing I liked about ST Picard, is how the Romulan compliment of the space station is a mixture of all the styles they used over the years: grey uniforms and black wigs from TNG, black checkerboard uniforms from Nemesis, bald soldiers like in 2009, _black_ Romulans, etc.
In my opinion, if Klingons are used to represent USSR/Russia, Romulans as a whole represent the culture of a certain East Asian culture, which I will say begin with Nemesis and then amplified in Picard; depend on how you see it, thus split, with one side going very high in secrecy, the other keeping old traditions. This is especially when you look at Qowat Milat and Elnor's design.
When I am going trough the original series I often find little details that remind me just how old the show is, both in terms of production tech and in series development. But they did such a good job with the Romulans out the gate that I don't find anything like that with them.
Just an opinion here, so don't get your panties in a twist... Although it is not 'canon', Diane Duane's Star Trek novels on the Rihannsu/Romulans is much superior to anything in or out of canon/new canon. 'My Enemy, My Ally and Spock's World were very good, but the 'Romulan Way' was the best at explaining their origins. Too bad that the older novels are ignored because the newer explanations are pure rubbish, as is the new Trek.
I've always preferred the Romulans over the Klingons. Even the bird-of-prey in Star Trek III The Search For Spock was originally intended to be a Romulan warbird of some kind. before the villains of that film were switched to Klingons etc's! Looking exactly like Vulcans but being completely opposite was always fascinating to me. if Vulcans can be compared to Elves? then Romulans would naturally be Dark Elves by comparison. The Picard show pisses me off how they've ruined them. Hell even JJ Abrams got'em right in the 2009 Star Trek film. I wish the original series featured more episodes on the Romulans as i didn't like the Next Generation era episodes of them, but certainly liked and understood the DS9 and the sparse Voyager ones which expanded on them overall.
@@3Rayfire They're ruined because Romulans didn't need that kind of exposure into their society, Romulans always worked best as Cold War soviet for the Russians in the classic series. an ongoing threat of further Russian hostilities in the TNG era shows of; TNG, and DS9. Picard doesn't do anything creative or new with'em at all. except make'em out to be scheming extremist with a grudge cos they're now played off as; "oh woe is me" salty victims now. Nero in Star Trek 2009 was done far better by comparisons. Kelvin timeline comparison or not, why aren't these Romulans shaving their hair off and putting painted tattoos on their bodies as a form of grieving and reverence to their lost ones?the shit is all over the place and not even interesting anymores'. i'll be quite happy just going over old TOS episodes and the TNG era stuff thank you for my Romulan fixes!
Your comprehensive examinations are worthy of attention. The novel, "Spock's World" gave a narration closer to the one mentioned in, "The Romulan Way," so I'm surprised you missed that, but then, there have been dozens of books in each series' lines, of which I have long since lost count and ability to buy (I worked for B&N from 1995-97, so I used to have income, and a discount). Your analysis is succinct and fulsome. Thank you. I just subscribed, and look forward to more. I'm an Aspie, so it's hard for me to connect irl. Sci-fi, Marvel Universe, etc., showed me potentials within which I could live. The human mind creates universes, which reflect real potentials both here, and Multiverseally. Live long, and Prosper. #IDIC #CThia
I'd love to see the agents of the temporal Corps go in and prevent Spock's failure and thus preventing the destruction of Romulus and the maniacal revenge fueled chaos by Nero and the destruction of the USS Kelvin. Thus setting the timeline back on its original course.
I dont think the idea was holograms were a new thing in TNG, I think the idea was, or at least can reasonably be taken as the level of holographic technology seen in TNG was new. At least to the characters in the show. Theres a fair difference between rendering a single object like a ship that needs to be convincing from a distance and rendering a fully immersive space with perfect replicas of trees grass water wind sound scents etc. Not only that but it is able to alter the apparent perspective of people in the holodeck space, two people can appear hundreds of feet apart while sharing the same smallish room. I think we can also allow that not everything in trek holds up to scrutiny and thus cant really be relied upon as solid canon, that same episode had the Enterprise able to detect the romulan ship so well that they could shadow the ship perfectly. Matching course and speed to appear as a sensor glitch, yet despite clearly having the exact position course and speed of this ship they couldn't fire on it without a visual?? Targeting via sensors was a thing all the way back in WW2 when many on staff had been fighting, and was a common thing in the military by the mid to late 60s. This just doesnt hold up even in the shows contemporary period, DSC did a light recon of this where the Klingon cloak in season one didnt completely hid the presence of the ship but did actively disrupt sensors to make accurately targeting the ship difficult. And while you might argue that BoT establishes that cloaks are a brand new thing theres no dialogue that actually says that. From the crews perspective accounting for season one of discovery Starfleet had seen cloaks before, but had found a way to effectively penetrate it. Then ate confronted with a refined cloak that left them starting over from step one. As stories involving cloaks usually do. This different cloak may be why the Romulans couldn't warp away, their solution to the Klingon cloak being busted required the warp core to be entirely off line. Season 2 of DSC shows Klingons using their cloaks at warp but they are also detected by Disco before they arrive.
The Balance of Terror was based on a film and book written by a veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic based on his experiences in World War II against U-Boats. So to maintain the dramatic consistency the tech may certainly seem inconsistent. However the facts of that episode actually support your later interpretation of Discovery's events. Enterprise was tracking the Bird of Prey via Motion detector, not their normal sensors. They couldn't actually get a lock. In other words, she couldn't see them if they didn't move. It's entirely possible that without normal sensors attacking would've only given away their position without any guarantee of hitting them at the range they were at. However, Discovery detecting the Klingons actually had nothing to do with them using warp drive. Discovery's battle with the Sarcophagus ship before their trip to the Mirror Universe provided sufficient sensor data for Starfleet to completely defeat that iteration of the Klingon cloaking device.
John Colicos did not portray Kang. He portrayed Kor, in the first season episode Errand of Mercy, the first appearance of the Klingons. Kang was portrayed by the late, great Michael Ansara, in the third season episode Day of the Dove. Get your references straight.
While thinking about the new brow compared to “Balance of Terror” I was wondering if they had a caste-like system. Strong brows being pushed into leadership roles. I wonder if anyone else here considered this?
Star Trek Picard Season One has established that the Romulans with brow ridges are Southerners while the ones without brow ridges are Northerners, and they tend to make fun of each other as evidenced by the banter between Laris and Zhaban in the Picard home in Labarre, France.
My personal view was that shortly after the Vulcans became a Spacefaring civilisation they were driven back to their home world by some threat ( there’s plenty of indications that happened int the alpha quadrant by the number of destroyed and elder races who have also abandoned space travel ) while the Romlians were left to fend for themselves who in the original series seen to be Harding their borders more than expanding them to the point I felt that the war was caused by humans trying to colonise In their neutral zone ( much like the opium wars between Britain and China )
On the Topic of *POTENTIAL,* t fantastic potential of the Romulan Lore having an opportunity for a quick lil JumpStart/Reboot/Fine Tuning and I feel it was *SQUANDERED* at the hands of Sir Patrick Stewart, *UNDERCOVER SJW!!* Who could've known!
Hi Romulans Most loved enemy in my early star trek. Enterprise was good and should have been given the full seven years to take it to the level that many fans feel it would have reach. I agree Star Trek into Darkness was a bad choice to build a story that could NEVER come near Wrath of Khan. I would like a new Star Trek with the the Chris Pine crew, Thank for sharing your work on the history of a great race.
I would be interested in another Kelvin Movie. Clips that I have seen from STD turned me off from the show. A new prime timeline movie? would we base it off of Enterprise or Voyager? I have yet to watch Picard as I don't want to pay for a streaming service just to watch 1 series.
Diane Duane's Rihannsu series, along with her "Spock's World" novel, were the first serious attempts at fleshing out Romulan culture and history. It ranks up with John M. Ford's excellent book "The Final Reflection", which did the same for the Klingons. I always thought it unfortunate that the Next Generation etc. didn't use more of this background material. And - off topic - as long as I'm here, I also highly recommend Janet Kagan's excellent novel, "Uhura's Song", one of my personal favorites.
Ironically the klingons originally liked large cruses while the Romulans liked more agility. In the 24th century they basically swapped ship design doctrines with klingons closing the bird of prey and the Romulans choosing the D'Deridex
I never understood why TNG had to change the look of the Romulans by giving them the standard big brows. I would have preferred the look of a Vulcan with emotions and warlike.
I think I liked Picard mostly because of how they portrayed the Romulans and unified the different looks of their species. They even have varied cultures like a real civilization would(using humanity as the only known example). Each Star Trek faction should be fleshed out in this way going forward.
I (and I can stress this enough) LOVED the d-class Warbirds from TNG, that sleek vaguely threatening design was something I doodled in notebooks and paper drawings for YEARS. One of my only complaints with Star Trek Picard was the new Romulan ships, they looked like thin pieces of tin foil. #BringbackDderidex
The problem is that the Dominion War exposed the weaknesses of the D'Deridex-class warbirds as while they looked impressive and their weapons were formidable their ships were sluggish in manoeuvering and had serious blindspots in their disruptor firing arcs. Hence why after the war by the time of Nemesis the Romulans had begun fielding the newer, more powerful and smaller Mogai-class warbirds like the Valdore.
@@AndrewJamesWilliams I like the Mogai-class too, it keeps the general design consistent with 'beneath the raptor's wings' stuff that I've liked with the Romulans overall aesthetic.
Thank you for including "The Romulan Way". I read this a long time ago and thought it really explained how the Romulans came to be, while also giving up so much of their Vulcan heritage.
I prefer the story of STO. I know STO is not canon, but still. They tell the war story, meaning the Vulcans almost tore themselves apart until Surak somehow managed to convince the majority of his species to suppress their emotions using logic. Some Vulcans, however, didn't want to give up love, passion, and, yes, also hate. They were known as "Those Who Marched Under The Raptor's Wings". They left Vulcan in huge colony ships some 2000 years ago, in an event that was called "The Sundering". They first settled on the old Dewan homeworld, but later left again (not sure if that's explained) and settled on Romulus. Since only around 2000 years have passed, they're genetically still virtually identically to Vulcans, and their language is based on an old Vulcan language. I explain the forehead ridges as diversity that existed in Vulcans 2000 years ago. However, Vulcans preferred smooth foreheads (looked more distinguished and refined), while Romulans preferred the ridged look (because it looks more aggressive), so it mostly disappeared among Vulcans, and became prevalent in Romulans (this is possible within 2000 years). The lack of telepathic abilities is because while they are inherent to their species, they are weak, and a lot of mental discipline and training are required to use them, to a level emotional beings, such as Romulans, are simply not capable of. All this would mean that the Remans (unless they're the result of genetic modifications) are a separate species, as they're too different from Vulcans/Romulans (evolution isn't that fast, also Nemesis shows them as having a completely different language and writing system). STO also shows that not all Romulans are war-mongering imperialist conspirators, they do have a spiritual side, and some of them are genuinely nice guys. There's the whole Romulan Republic arc, where they just want to find a new homeworld after Romulus and Remus were destroyed by the Hobus supernova, and live in peace with their neighbors, but the Empire and the Tal Shiar keep bothering them.
I thought the TNG era finally established that the Klingons had birds of prey as their light cruiser/raider class ships and Romulans had 'warbird' as a general term for all of their ships, but it gets mixed up so much in other works that I can't tell anymore
I don’t know why they simply didn’t explain Romulans, Vulcans and Remans similar to Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Like Earth they walked the planet at the same time but had different evolutionary outcomes. Rather than dying off, they went “flying off” to another world.
In S1E10, "Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 2", Narek (or Hrai Yan, as he tells Soji ASHA before he tries to terminate her) tells a tale about an ancient Romulan end-times myth called Ganmadan, involving the two daemon (in Romulan the word is khalagu) sisters, Seb-Natal (The Foreteller, who beats on a drum made from the skin of children with a chain of skulls) and Seb-Cheneb (The Destroyer), who "blows on a horn taken from a great pale hellbeast called Ganmadan, and that horn will summon all the ch'khalagu (greater daemons) who have waited beyond the wall of the universe since the beginning of time. The sky will crack open, and through the crack the ch'khalagu will come ravening. The streets will become slick with the entrails of half-devoured corpses, and te ch'khalagu will nurse their brats on blood while they pick their teeth with the bones of the dead". It will be the end of Everything. Narek believes, as do the Zhat Vash, that this has already happened once, long, long ago in earliest antiquity, and it will happen again unless the Zhat Vash can prevent it by exterminating all synthetic life everywhere.
This applies to Romulans and Klingon's: A dominate species expands rapidly to fill the power-vacuum in their quadrant. Outsiders see only the dominate species as the face of Empire, but Empires arise and fall on the shoulder of many species. The zipper-head Klingon's aren't genetic experiments or some phage; that's just lazy writing! Kirk's dark skinned Klingon's were the dominate species of Klingon space for a time, and were subjugated/exterminated by the zipper-heads. Still the Klingon Empire, just with a new face. Even the zipper-heads had variations in color, pattern and texture of skull. The shame of being enslaved was enough to keep it a 'family secret'; Kang and others got surgery done to pass as "new Klingon's" Dunno why the writers never though to use common sense motivations and instead relied on tricks. I don't know what this would do to 'ancient Klingon lore', but we all know that most of Klingon lore was fairy-tales. Romulans have a chip on their shoulder because they feel superior. Klingon's have a chip on the shoulder because they feel inferior. If they ever worked together, the Federation is in trouble.
1:32 you mention "John Colicos' memorable ... as Kang ..." John Colicos played Kor. Michael Ansara played Kang. (and both reprised those roles alongside William Campbell's Koloth ) as more "modern" Klingons in a DS9 story years later ). A little slip in what is otherwise an entertaining video.
I would love to see a lore evolution on my favourite Star Trek race the Cardassians but it would be difficult to do an "evolution" as they feature only in DS9 and TNG
The change to the Romulans' physical appearance in TNG is not unlike what was done with the Klingons for Discovery and both were really unnecessary. The Romulans were established in TOS as being nearly indistinguishable from Vulcans, different only in culture. At least Picard cleaned up the mess by simply giving us every Romulan variant ever seen. This also fixed the common Trek problem of nearly all representatives of any given alien species being the same in culture, language, and dress. Hopefully the Klingons will get the same treatment soon
I hated the Romulan redesign for TNG. They had some great stories (and really cool ships) but the Romulans themselves sure were awful from a visual perspective. Terrible haircuts, really stupid costumes, and TNG's ongoing weird obsession with lumpy foreheads for every race - man they looked so lame.
I have to say, the only design change in TNG that I like is the ship. It looks so cool and intimidating, the front looks like a face. Otherwise tho the character design and costume is so bad, especially given that in TOS they were sexy af. I mean, look at my man at 1:58. God damn.
I loved the Romulans, but hated the addition of the forehead ridges and the stupid quilted uniforms that Grandma Romula's quilting bee made. I wish we had seen the Earth-Romulan War in Enterprise.
It's ironic that the Romulan Empire, if anything, resembles more closely the waning years of the Roman Republic as social upheaval, disastrous wars, and the spiraling acceleration of Roman politics gradually led to the rise of an outright dictatorship and what was functionally a monarchy seizing power from the aristocracy once again.
I really can't understand why people like Klingons. Their society is to devolved for their technology and there's hardly anything to say it's a recent devolvement that happened. The Romulans are a much more worthy antagonist and a lot more interesting.
With regards to another Kelvin movie, it's obvious that the writers would have to find a way to explain why Chekov wouldn't either be in it or find a suitable actor to replace Anton Yelchin, whose premature passing was without a doubt proof that god doesn't exist as someone like him is dead and I'm still alive.
The Picard series is a bit of a mess and the story makes little sense, so I would tend to ignore it. I also thought it was in the kelvin time-line and I would tend to ignore anything to do with the kelvin time-line. But then TNG changes so much about the prime time-line it bears little resemblance to the original star trek time-line so I suppose if people like the kelvin time-line, so be it. My objection to the kelvin time-line is the logic behind the first Kelvin time-line star trek movie lack credibility. Visually its very good, but story wise not so good. At least the TNG changes to cannon made some type of sense, after all its hard to create a TV-Series in 1994, when the Eugenics war was supposed to be raging at the same time. For those interested, a time-line based solely on the 1st season of the original star trek can be found here: th-cam.com/video/3OZ9MWOc2Gc/w-d-xo.html You can quickly see this is not our time-line, while the TNG time-line could be our time-line.
After JJ destroyed Romulans and the Star Empire, I pretty much lost interest in Star Trek. They were my favorites and that was pretty much a bridge too far moment for me
Enterprise didn't have phasers and photon torpedoes but phase cannons and photonic torpedoes, which was a really lazy way of trying to stay canon. a very lazy way :D
Will you consider including i future episodes, or even make an episode in on itself about, the 70's and 80's Star Trek roleplaying games' lore, and how it connected or diverged or even influence movies and tv-shows?
Balance of terror, in my opinion, remains one of the best star trek episodes to date. TNG is often depicted as the best show; but this is possibly my favourite episode.
Vulcans: Elves
Romulans: Dark elves
Remans: Orcs
Remans: Blood Elves
I thought Klingons were the Orcs?
@@JCDenton2012Modder Klingons are more like dwarves - except for the height thing.
I'd say the Klingons were more like trolls.
Vulcans: Elves
Romulans: Dark elves
Andorians: Goblins
Tellarites: Dwarves
Klingons: Orcs
Orions: Trolls
^Its hard to quantify; 'The Remans' per se but yes as 3Rayfire says?, they're possibly 'Blood Elves' if they were to be given a "fantasy" style comparison as it were?! their design in Star Trek Nemesis was made to be too different from their Romulan cousins though for silly reasons. They should've been made to look closer to their; Romulans brothers and sisters regardless.
I would rather the next Star Trek movie take place in neither the Kelvin Timeline nor the Prime Timeline but go back and take place in the original universe. I've had enough of the JJAbramsverse. You forget to mention the DS9 episodes featuring the Romulans and their involvement in the Dominion War.
I know this comment is four months old but I just want to point out that the Prime timeline is the original universe. Everything made before Star Trek 2009 was Prime timeline, JJ-verse is Star Trek 09, Into Darkness and Beyond.
I wish, to this day, that the Tal Shi'ar officer for the Defiant's cloak was a recurring character
@Tyler Durden I absolutely agree. JJ took Trek and made it into Star Wars. We already have star wars. My idea has always been to just create a movie crew of new characters. In response to the original poster, the Dominion War may have been the most amazing Romulan arc in the entire trek universe.
@@vergeofchaos There is already a chance, that Picard will continue the Prime Timeline
@Tyler Durden absolutely I agree with you 100% plus JJ or should I say jar jar Abrams gas torched and wrecked BOTH Star Trek and Star Wars with his total debauchery of Canon !!!.. Before he finished the 2009 Trek movie Abrams even stated in a interview that he NEVER watched TOS as a kid or as an Adult To me that says a lot about the out come of all three of his Trek movies including all of the post George Lucus movies ,; attempting to attach his own "Spin," and interjection into 🌟 Wars Canon ,thus calling it his own original content.
I hate to nitpick but John Colicos played Kor. Michael Ansara was the actor who played Kang. I sure someone in the comments has already posted this. Jolan Tru
Beat me to it!
I have to admit, the Romulans are my favourite Star Trek species, even if their TNG era costumes look ridiculous.
Remember the Cardassians' uniforms?
@@RapidCityJM which ones, the TNG ones or the DS9 ones?
@@amiscellaneoushuman3516 "If anyone could use a good tailor, it would be them" Odo's quote when asked if it was the Romulans behind Garak's attempted assassination (DS9, forgot the name of the episode).
@@STSWB5SG1FAN
"Improbable Cause" the first of a fantastic two-part episode from Season 3 and one of my top-10 DS9 episodes.
When you remember those costumes were introduced in the 80s, they make a lot more sense. My grandmother rocked a pantsuit that looked a lot like a Romulan uniform back in the 80s :)
The main reason for giving the Romulans “Klingon-design” ships specifically later on was that a PA accidentally stepped on the Romulan Bird of Prey model and broke it.
Really?
Read it from Mark Altman & Edward Gross’s oral history novel, ‘The Fifty-Year Mission’.
That’s not confirmed to have happened, it’s only a theory. There’s another theory that it was because they needed to show off the expensive new D7 model which had been gifted to them
I heard the orginal Romulan BoP model was stolen.
@@TheMrPeteChannel My theory is that someone left the cloaking device on by mistake and it was misplaced as a result.
...
What? It doesn't actually turn invisible? That's disappointing.
The appearance of the Romulans in DS9 was greatly interesting especially in the episode In The Pale Moonlight.
"Its a fakeeeeeeeeee!!!" (lol).😆
@@MGSBigBoss77 It's real!!
yeah where is the big talk about those
you mean the best trek episode ever made
Best ever episode, indeed 👍👍👍
Crossing my fingers that the next Lore Evolution will be on the Cardassians.
THERE ARE LORE LIGHTS!
The fact I can say the word Cardassian architecture in reference to Deep Space Nine makes me look forward to this even harder.
The Cardassians and the Romulans were definitely the most interesting baddies in the Trek universe.
But why do you show scenes of the Picard series? That's not even Star Trek.
... that's just some crappy-confused fan fiction shit.
ST: Enterprise was a lost opportunity to show the entirety of the Earth-Romulan War, and the original establishment of the neutral zone. It would have made for an epic story arc. I simply cannot understand why they decided to devote the show to an endless succession of convoluted unnecessary time travel plots.
It was strange for them to ignore the Romulans for the entire first three seasons, sans a one off episode. I will also never understand why they did not use the Romulans surprise attacking Florida with an atomic weapon in favor of the Xindi launching a surprise attack. The entire third season could have been about the Enterprise trying to put together clues about who attacked earth and discovering who the Romulans were. At the very least they could have made the Xindi puppets of the Romulans who got them to attack earth for them.... instead of the weird Sphere Builders.
Enterprise was a whole series of weird decisions. Gotta love it, redheaded stepchild though it is.
(Also is the phrase redheaded stepchild still socially acceptable? It made me feel weird as soon as I typed it, bc obv redheads and stepchildren are blameless and harmless. Or have we as a society collectively agreed that it’s just a harmless, albeit weird outdated phrase out of context?)
@@UndyingNephalim that would have been better, agreed. I struggle with ENT season 3 for the same reason I once struggled with voyager... why test a doomsday weapon that isn't ready on the planet you plan to use it on? If they had tested the weapon elsewhere, and then just rocked up to earth with a functioning weapon... similar to voyager, did janeway not know about time bombs? As time has marched on both Voy and Ent have become favorites but at the time I couldn't wrap my head around that stuff and just instead rewatched TNG.
Well I can only speak for myself, but I think it's fair to say that alot of us who had been with what we today call the berman era since 1987, 18 years later in 2005 when Enterprise got the axe... let's just say franchise fatigue was a thing. ENT was not getting the ratings anymore and even die hards like myself were just tired of it.
That may sound blasphemous but if 12 years from now the kurtzman era is still airing I challenge anyone to still be excited on a weekly basis. absence makes the heart grow fonder and it was probably only 2 years after ENT left the air and us die hard trekkies were binging the VOY and ENT episodes we missed, and were ready for it to come back on the air.
enterprise is another universe, reason behind photons being early is temporal war, could it be that romulans felt that earth was even stronger and forming federation faster even. many reason why romulan war didn't play out
In the background material for the tabletop game Starfleet Battles it's stated that the Klingons and the Romulans had a brief alliance and exchange of technology. Which is why Klingon ships ended up with cloaking devices and why Romulans were using the D7 design.
8:36 Let's appreciate for a moment the flat out obvious appearance of Colonial Vipers from Battlestar Galactica on the cover of the Star Trek book :)
And sorry I hope the Kelvin timeline dies as soon as possible.
I'm glad you spotted the colonial vipers. I saw this book as a child in a library and never even noticed them.
There is no Kelvin timeline. A change of timeline does not turn Kahn from an Indian sikh into a British white guy. JJ's movies aren't Star Trek, they're crap.
Season 5 of Enterprise was supposed to have the Romulan Earth War?!? I am so mad now!
And to reveal who Future Man was.
There are Enterprise novels that cover it, but yes, it's really sad we didn't see it.
Didn't a single Romulan show up in voyager but he was in their past
yes, and a couple more in "message in a bottle" (Prometheus episode)
@@Kirifairy oh right yeah, the sneaky butt heads tryed to Nick a ship
the romulan from the past is one of the only who gets portrayed as a good guy, it was an all right episode imo
Two Romulan appearances, impressive for a show a quadrant away.
The was a Romulan ex-Borg in VOY too.
STO did the Romulans justice with the Empire still existing, the formation of the Romulan Republic and the Tal'Shiar up to their old games trying to become the the top Romulan faction.
the Romulans were the best species of the Star Trek Universe.
In Picard the Romulans look more like the Elves from Lord of the Rings.
That's OK the Klingons were orcs.
In Disco.
@paulsarnik8506 Yeah, you gotta admit Klingon have gotten f****ng ugly since since the original series.
One thing they have managed is to have some terrific actors play Romulans. From Mark Lenard in TOS through to Andreas Katsulas (sp?) in TNG they have always been interesting portrayals.
I have read the books,
The Romulan Way and Spock's World many times.
To me they are canon.
I'm disappointed you haven't touched upon DS9 at all. The Romulans were portrayed brilliantly there. Scheming, cunning, surprisingly becoming Federation allies but still loads of scheming on both sides as they prepare for a post-war Alpha Quadrant. It was very much the start of a US-USSR cold war setting.
True, till their homeworld is about to be vaporise from the supernova that lead tens of millions of offworld Romulans homeless. 18 Billion natives on Romulus were perished.
I don't recall where I heard it, but there is a lore explanation for the Romulans having D7 cruisers.
In "Balance of Terror", we are told that the Romulans did not have warp drive (yet the Bird of Prey had warp nacelles). Also in TOS, the Klingons do not have cloaking technology. At some point, the Romulans traded cloaking technology for Klingon warp technology which included plans for the D7.
This is why we see Romulan D7s and cloaking Klingon vessels in the movies.
One possible explanation for the Bird of Prey having warp nacelles is that it had non-tactical warp. The idea is that a ship with tactical warp capabilities unequivocally outclasses one without... except that the Romulans had the cloaking device.
watch again. scotty is speaking about the power of the ship towards weapons etc not the drive system.
www.ditl.org/article-page.php?ArticleID=12&ListID=Articles#:~:text=Romulan%20Warp%20Drive%20One%20of%20the%20stranger%20facets,new%20Romulan%20ship%20encountered%20in%20that%20episode%20%3A
My fan canon has always been that Surak's Awakening simply did not take in a particular region. Since I have never seen ridged Vulcans, I am going to go with this, especially since I have seen more variety to skin tones than with the two tone (now three tone) Romulans. I think the people who refused the Awakening were from a particular region with most having a particular look indicative of it. Then they left en masse.
I like the ST Picard explanation that ridges are from Northern Romulans. Personally I feel like they appear as a specific result of Vulcanoid physiology versus environment. I came up with the idea that Vulcans have a glandular network in their forehead that keeps their brains cool in Vulcan's extremely hot environment. In cooler environments like Romulus or even Mintaka, it gets...stuffed up and swells, hence forehead ridges.
Kelvin timeline. High school jocks and cheerleaders in space. I could only take Bones seriously as an officer.
Go back to Prime. Kelvin reminds me o Jar Jar Binks.
I like to call the Kelvin timeline Star Trek Fast and Furious.
Too bad std and stp are just as bad
@@mrklean0292 I think that was the appeal of the Kelvin line for fans of that ... Fast and the furious meets outer space...lol...
I did like the new Doctor McCoy. He seemed the truest and most respectful reimaging.
@@OffRampTourist I agree.. Karl Urban is a very good versatilel actor As far as I am concerned he was SPOT ON was Dr Leanerd "Bones" McCoy he brought with him his own. Touches and talents that DeForest Kelly made as a character worthy of endearment. The same can also be said of the fellow that played Pavlo Checkov and how he reimagined Walter Keoing 's version on this character.. Also the actor who played Montgomery Scott was very good as well ..
I've always enjoyed and been drawn to the Romulans.
And yes, I think you nailed it. Their characters are always somebody you remember unlike a lot of other 1 time people you just could care less for.
Their devious nature make them fun, and the actors really ham up the parts to really drive their culture home every time. You never know their purpose, just know that its' going to be interesting with a romulan involved.
It should be noted that Remus was mentioned in "The Balance of Terror" and was only explained in Nemesis.
The Romulan Empire will live😎👍
Word
Mark Leonards performance as the Romulan commander in TOS was probably is one of my favourites in all of trek history.
I liked Joanne Linville who played the Romulan Cmdr who had the hots for Spock.
_Romulans - so predictably treacherous._ - Weyoun
I love love LOVE the TNG Romulans, particularly the D'deridex Warbird.
I have long thought that part of the split between Vulcans and Romulans was different philosophies on how to deal with a critical issue. In Star Trek: Enterprise there are episodes dealing with The Vulcans nearly wiping themselves out. One of the main issues was the strength of Vulcan emotion and how contact with aliens had caused them to lose control and lead them to a war that nearly killed them all. Sarak's solution was to learn to suppress all emotions. So the often related statement that Vulcans have no emotions is a lie, they have simply learned not to express them.
Romulans chose a different path. First was to become xenophobic. Any alien influence was suspect. The second half was a rigidly structured society. While Vulcans exerted control inwardly, Romulans exert the control outwardly.
the vulcans had always been warlike. its just that with tech advancing they got better at killing one another and ruining what was left of their planet
Actor John Calicos portrayed the Klingon Commander Kor in ST:TOS and decades later the same Kor, the long lived High Master in ST:DS9. Michael Anzara portrayed Kang, young and aged respectively, in both series.
the one thing I liked about ST Picard, is how the Romulan compliment of the space station is a mixture of all the styles they used over the years: grey uniforms and black wigs from TNG, black checkerboard uniforms from Nemesis, bald soldiers like in 2009, _black_ Romulans, etc.
Also Picard explained ridges and said that Romulans has talk shows. And these are the only advantages of this... product. :)
In my opinion, if Klingons are used to represent USSR/Russia, Romulans as a whole represent the culture of a certain East Asian culture, which I will say begin with Nemesis and then amplified in Picard; depend on how you see it, thus split, with one side going very high in secrecy, the other keeping old traditions. This is especially when you look at Qowat Milat and Elnor's design.
When I am going trough the original series I often find little details that remind me just how old the show is, both in terms of production tech and in series development. But they did such a good job with the Romulans out the gate that I don't find anything like that with them.
Just an opinion here, so don't get your panties in a twist...
Although it is not 'canon', Diane Duane's Star Trek novels on the Rihannsu/Romulans is much superior to anything in or out of canon/new canon. 'My Enemy, My Ally and Spock's World were very good, but the 'Romulan Way' was the best at explaining their origins. Too bad that the older novels are ignored because the newer explanations are pure rubbish, as is the new Trek.
I've always preferred the Romulans over the Klingons. Even the bird-of-prey in Star Trek III The Search For Spock was originally intended to be a Romulan warbird of some kind. before the villains of that film were switched to Klingons etc's! Looking exactly like Vulcans but being completely opposite was always fascinating to me. if Vulcans can be compared to Elves? then Romulans would naturally be Dark Elves by comparison. The Picard show pisses me off how they've ruined them. Hell even JJ Abrams got'em right in the 2009 Star Trek film. I wish the original series featured more episodes on the Romulans as i didn't like the Next Generation era episodes of them, but certainly liked and understood the DS9 and the sparse Voyager ones which expanded on them overall.
How are they ruined? Keep in mind we were primarily dealing with a psycho cult and not dealing with the Romulan people at large.
@@3Rayfire They're ruined because Romulans didn't need that kind of exposure into their society, Romulans always worked best as Cold War soviet for the Russians in the classic series. an ongoing threat of further Russian hostilities in the TNG era shows of; TNG, and DS9. Picard doesn't do anything creative or new with'em at all. except make'em out to be scheming extremist with a grudge cos they're now played off as; "oh woe is me" salty victims now. Nero in Star Trek 2009 was done far better by comparisons.
Kelvin timeline comparison or not, why aren't these Romulans shaving their hair off and putting painted tattoos on their bodies as a form of grieving and reverence to their lost ones?the shit is all over the place and not even interesting anymores'. i'll be quite happy just going over old TOS episodes and the TNG era stuff thank you for my Romulan fixes!
Romulans are Romans who never lost power...just like my Civ game.
Your comprehensive examinations are worthy of attention. The novel, "Spock's World" gave a narration closer to the one mentioned in, "The Romulan Way," so I'm surprised you missed that, but then, there have been dozens of books in each series' lines, of which I have long since lost count and ability to buy (I worked for B&N from 1995-97, so I used to have income, and a discount). Your analysis is succinct and fulsome. Thank you. I just subscribed, and look forward to more. I'm an Aspie, so it's hard for me to connect irl. Sci-fi, Marvel Universe, etc., showed me potentials within which I could live. The human mind creates universes, which reflect real potentials both here, and Multiverseally. Live long, and Prosper. #IDIC #CThia
Please do not bring Picard and other "Calvin timeline" BS into these. They're not canon. They're not even real Trek.
Oh okay, gatekeeper.
Boring. This new concept of star trek is nice.
I'd love to see the agents of the temporal Corps go in and prevent Spock's failure and thus preventing the destruction of Romulus and the maniacal revenge fueled chaos by Nero and the destruction of the USS Kelvin. Thus setting the timeline back on its original course.
I dont think the idea was holograms were a new thing in TNG, I think the idea was, or at least can reasonably be taken as the level of holographic technology seen in TNG was new. At least to the characters in the show.
Theres a fair difference between rendering a single object like a ship that needs to be convincing from a distance and rendering a fully immersive space with perfect replicas of trees grass water wind sound scents etc.
Not only that but it is able to alter the apparent perspective of people in the holodeck space, two people can appear hundreds of feet apart while sharing the same smallish room.
I think we can also allow that not everything in trek holds up to scrutiny and thus cant really be relied upon as solid canon, that same episode had the Enterprise able to detect the romulan ship so well that they could shadow the ship perfectly. Matching course and speed to appear as a sensor glitch, yet despite clearly having the exact position course and speed of this ship they couldn't fire on it without a visual?? Targeting via sensors was a thing all the way back in WW2 when many on staff had been fighting, and was a common thing in the military by the mid to late 60s.
This just doesnt hold up even in the shows contemporary period, DSC did a light recon of this where the Klingon cloak in season one didnt completely hid the presence of the ship but did actively disrupt sensors to make accurately targeting the ship difficult.
And while you might argue that BoT establishes that cloaks are a brand new thing theres no dialogue that actually says that. From the crews perspective accounting for season one of discovery Starfleet had seen cloaks before, but had found a way to effectively penetrate it. Then ate confronted with a refined cloak that left them starting over from step one. As stories involving cloaks usually do.
This different cloak may be why the Romulans couldn't warp away, their solution to the Klingon cloak being busted required the warp core to be entirely off line. Season 2 of DSC shows Klingons using their cloaks at warp but they are also detected by Disco before they arrive.
The Balance of Terror was based on a film and book written by a veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic based on his experiences in World War II against U-Boats. So to maintain the dramatic consistency the tech may certainly seem inconsistent. However the facts of that episode actually support your later interpretation of Discovery's events. Enterprise was tracking the Bird of Prey via Motion detector, not their normal sensors. They couldn't actually get a lock. In other words, she couldn't see them if they didn't move. It's entirely possible that without normal sensors attacking would've only given away their position without any guarantee of hitting them at the range they were at.
However, Discovery detecting the Klingons actually had nothing to do with them using warp drive. Discovery's battle with the Sarcophagus ship before their trip to the Mirror Universe provided sufficient sensor data for Starfleet to completely defeat that iteration of the Klingon cloaking device.
Star Trek canon is a dog dinner. The worst offender is picard.
John Colicos did not portray Kang. He portrayed Kor, in the first season episode Errand of Mercy, the first appearance of the Klingons. Kang was portrayed by the late, great Michael Ansara, in the third season episode Day of the Dove. Get your references straight.
While thinking about the new brow compared to “Balance of Terror” I was wondering if they had a caste-like system. Strong brows being pushed into leadership roles.
I wonder if anyone else here considered this?
It's more likely that the TOS Romulans were intended to resemble Vulcans, whereas the creators of TNG wanted the Romulans to look distinct. That's it.
Star Trek Picard Season One has established that the Romulans with brow ridges are Southerners while the ones without brow ridges are Northerners, and they tend to make fun of each other as evidenced by the banter between Laris and Zhaban in the Picard home in Labarre, France.
My personal view was that shortly after the Vulcans became a Spacefaring civilisation they were driven back to their home world by some threat ( there’s plenty of indications that happened int the alpha quadrant by the number of destroyed and elder races who have also abandoned space travel ) while the Romlians were left to fend for themselves who in the original series seen to be Harding their borders more than expanding them to the point I felt that the war was caused by humans trying to colonise In their neutral zone ( much like the opium wars between Britain and China )
What is the music that starts at 7:10 ? I've heard it in a few mobile games, but could never find the original source.
I would like to know too
@@amichels its from star trek online
🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very well informatively executed and nicely explained indeed 👌.
I liked the TNG design better than the Kelvin timeline Hot Topic style Romulans.
John Colicos played Kor(TOS "Errand of Mercy"). Michael Amsara played Kang
The only time I ever saw any personality trait in a Romulan was in DS9: "It's a fa-a-ake!"
On the Topic of *POTENTIAL,* t fantastic potential of the Romulan Lore having an opportunity for a quick lil JumpStart/Reboot/Fine Tuning and I feel it was *SQUANDERED* at the hands of Sir Patrick Stewart, *UNDERCOVER SJW!!* Who could've known!
🤪👈
Hi Romulans Most loved enemy in my early star trek. Enterprise was good and should have been given the full seven years to take it to the level that many fans feel it would have reach. I agree Star Trek into Darkness was a bad choice to build a story that could NEVER come near Wrath of Khan. I would like a new Star Trek with the the Chris Pine crew, Thank for sharing your work on the history of a great race.
so i think romulans are like the ussr strength and power
I would be interested in another Kelvin Movie. Clips that I have seen from STD turned me off from the show. A new prime timeline movie? would we base it off of Enterprise or Voyager? I have yet to watch Picard as I don't want to pay for a streaming service just to watch 1 series.
I just found this channel so glad I did!
Diane Duane's Rihannsu series, along with her "Spock's World" novel, were the first serious attempts at fleshing out Romulan culture and history. It ranks up with John M. Ford's excellent book "The Final Reflection", which did the same for the Klingons. I always thought it unfortunate that the Next Generation etc. didn't use more of this background material. And - off topic - as long as I'm here, I also highly recommend Janet Kagan's excellent novel, "Uhura's Song", one of my personal favorites.
Ironically the klingons originally liked large cruses while the Romulans liked more agility. In the 24th century they basically swapped ship design doctrines with klingons closing the bird of prey and the Romulans choosing the D'Deridex
3:50
I see you Dukat you can hide from me, you rascal.
I still wonder about the parallel universe where the ST3 Bird of Prey stayed as a Romulan ship and the TNG D'deridex was a Klingon battlecruiser.
0:50 it was his son’s obsession with the Romulan empire which led him to create the Romulans 😂
Oopsie!
Glad I'm not the only one that heard it
I never understood why TNG had to change the look of the Romulans by giving them the standard big brows. I would have preferred the look of a Vulcan with emotions and warlike.
I think I liked Picard mostly because of how they portrayed the Romulans and unified the different looks of their species. They even have varied cultures like a real civilization would(using humanity as the only known example). Each Star Trek faction should be fleshed out in this way going forward.
picard is shit.
I (and I can stress this enough) LOVED the d-class Warbirds from TNG, that sleek vaguely threatening design was something I doodled in notebooks and paper drawings for YEARS. One of my only complaints with Star Trek Picard was the new Romulan ships, they looked like thin pieces of tin foil. #BringbackDderidex
The D-Class Warbird is an awesome design :)
yes they were just crap like everything in std and stp.. i will never watch again stp std.
The problem is that the Dominion War exposed the weaknesses of the D'Deridex-class warbirds as while they looked impressive and their weapons were formidable their ships were sluggish in manoeuvering and had serious blindspots in their disruptor firing arcs. Hence why after the war by the time of Nemesis the Romulans had begun fielding the newer, more powerful and smaller Mogai-class warbirds like the Valdore.
@@AndrewJamesWilliams I like the Mogai-class too, it keeps the general design consistent with 'beneath the raptor's wings' stuff that I've liked with the Romulans overall aesthetic.
They look like a mix of Avian elements with stealth aircraft design, as they should.
Thank you for including "The Romulan Way". I read this a long time ago and thought it really explained how the Romulans came to be, while also giving up so much of their Vulcan heritage.
I prefer the story of STO. I know STO is not canon, but still. They tell the war story, meaning the Vulcans almost tore themselves apart until Surak somehow managed to convince the majority of his species to suppress their emotions using logic. Some Vulcans, however, didn't want to give up love, passion, and, yes, also hate. They were known as "Those Who Marched Under The Raptor's Wings". They left Vulcan in huge colony ships some 2000 years ago, in an event that was called "The Sundering". They first settled on the old Dewan homeworld, but later left again (not sure if that's explained) and settled on Romulus. Since only around 2000 years have passed, they're genetically still virtually identically to Vulcans, and their language is based on an old Vulcan language. I explain the forehead ridges as diversity that existed in Vulcans 2000 years ago. However, Vulcans preferred smooth foreheads (looked more distinguished and refined), while Romulans preferred the ridged look (because it looks more aggressive), so it mostly disappeared among Vulcans, and became prevalent in Romulans (this is possible within 2000 years). The lack of telepathic abilities is because while they are inherent to their species, they are weak, and a lot of mental discipline and training are required to use them, to a level emotional beings, such as Romulans, are simply not capable of.
All this would mean that the Remans (unless they're the result of genetic modifications) are a separate species, as they're too different from Vulcans/Romulans (evolution isn't that fast, also Nemesis shows them as having a completely different language and writing system).
STO also shows that not all Romulans are war-mongering imperialist conspirators, they do have a spiritual side, and some of them are genuinely nice guys. There's the whole Romulan Republic arc, where they just want to find a new homeworld after Romulus and Remus were destroyed by the Hobus supernova, and live in peace with their neighbors, but the Empire and the Tal Shiar keep bothering them.
I thought the TNG era finally established that the Klingons had birds of prey as their light cruiser/raider class ships and Romulans had 'warbird' as a general term for all of their ships, but it gets mixed up so much in other works that I can't tell anymore
Romulans can't all be bad.
Look a all those cool Beetles haircuts.
Mo from the Three Stooges wore it best and was first.
I don’t know why they simply didn’t explain Romulans, Vulcans and Remans similar to Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Like Earth they walked the planet at the same time but had different evolutionary outcomes. Rather than dying off, they went “flying off” to another world.
Honestly, I liked the original Balance of Terror Romulans. The 'Space Roman' design just fit so well with the rest of the Greco-Roman themes of ST:ToS
John Colicos was Kor, went to play him again on DS9, and of course, the original Baltar. Keep on flying, Rowan.
In S1E10, "Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 2", Narek (or Hrai Yan, as he tells Soji ASHA before he tries to terminate her) tells a tale about an ancient Romulan end-times myth called Ganmadan, involving the two daemon (in Romulan the word is khalagu) sisters, Seb-Natal (The Foreteller, who beats on a drum made from the skin of children with a chain of skulls) and Seb-Cheneb (The Destroyer), who "blows on a horn taken from a great pale hellbeast called Ganmadan, and that horn will summon all the ch'khalagu (greater daemons) who have waited beyond the wall of the universe since the beginning of time. The sky will crack open, and through the crack the ch'khalagu will come ravening. The streets will become slick with the entrails of half-devoured corpses, and te ch'khalagu will nurse their brats on blood while they pick their teeth with the bones of the dead". It will be the end of Everything. Narek believes, as do the Zhat Vash, that this has already happened once, long, long ago in earliest antiquity, and it will happen again unless the Zhat Vash can prevent it by exterminating all synthetic life everywhere.
This applies to Romulans and Klingon's:
A dominate species expands rapidly to fill the power-vacuum in their quadrant.
Outsiders see only the dominate species as the face of Empire, but Empires arise and fall on the shoulder of many species.
The zipper-head Klingon's aren't genetic experiments or some phage; that's just lazy writing!
Kirk's dark skinned Klingon's were the dominate species of Klingon space for a time, and were subjugated/exterminated by the zipper-heads.
Still the Klingon Empire, just with a new face.
Even the zipper-heads had variations in color, pattern and texture of skull.
The shame of being enslaved was enough to keep it a 'family secret'; Kang and others got surgery done to pass as "new Klingon's"
Dunno why the writers never though to use common sense motivations and instead relied on tricks.
I don't know what this would do to 'ancient Klingon lore', but we all know that most of Klingon lore was fairy-tales.
Romulans have a chip on their shoulder because they feel superior.
Klingon's have a chip on the shoulder because they feel inferior.
If they ever worked together, the Federation is in trouble.
1:32 you mention "John Colicos' memorable ... as Kang ..." John Colicos played Kor. Michael Ansara played Kang. (and both reprised those roles alongside William Campbell's Koloth ) as more "modern" Klingons in a DS9 story years later ).
A little slip in what is otherwise an entertaining video.
Wow, did you wax over the DS9 involvement and the first Kelvin-verse movie which started in Prime?
7:58 Picard is not canon. It is shyster.
Yeah that's not something you get to decide
@@RowanJColeman *If Picard contradicts too many previous sources - then it is Non-Canon by default.*
@@Princess2Warrior What does it contradict?
@@3Rayfire th-cam.com/channels/70RHgm8FoCkN2163piIfVg.htmlvideos
*Plenty of contradictions listed here.*
@Princess2Warrior pov you never seen star trek.😂
I would love to see a lore evolution on my favourite Star Trek race the Cardassians but it would be difficult to do an "evolution" as they feature only in DS9 and TNG
A Cardassian episode is in the works
They also appear in Voyager.
@@danielyeshe Just Seska. I believe she was Obsidian Order.
@@STSWB5SG1FAN And briefly Gul Evek plus two holograms.
The change to the Romulans' physical appearance in TNG is not unlike what was done with the Klingons for Discovery and both were really unnecessary. The Romulans were established in TOS as being nearly indistinguishable from Vulcans, different only in culture. At least Picard cleaned up the mess by simply giving us every Romulan variant ever seen. This also fixed the common Trek problem of nearly all representatives of any given alien species being the same in culture, language, and dress. Hopefully the Klingons will get the same treatment soon
I hated the Romulan redesign for TNG. They had some great stories (and really cool ships) but the Romulans themselves sure were awful from a visual perspective. Terrible haircuts, really stupid costumes, and TNG's ongoing weird obsession with lumpy foreheads for every race - man they looked so lame.
The Kelvin Timeline!!?? Absolutely not!!!... Get rid of the Kelvin Timeline for good !!!
JJ Abrams: Romulans? You mean futuristic Elves wielding cool looking swords?
No mention of all the Romulan development in DS9???
there was some but it was mostly cardassian, klingon, ferengi that got heavily fleshed out and for the better
I have to say, the only design change in TNG that I like is the ship. It looks so cool and intimidating, the front looks like a face. Otherwise tho the character design and costume is so bad, especially given that in TOS they were sexy af. I mean, look at my man at 1:58. God damn.
I loved the Romulans, but hated the addition of the forehead ridges and the stupid quilted uniforms that Grandma Romula's quilting bee made.
I wish we had seen the Earth-Romulan War in Enterprise.
It's ironic that the Romulan Empire, if anything, resembles more closely the waning years of the Roman Republic as social upheaval, disastrous wars, and the spiraling acceleration of Roman politics gradually led to the rise of an outright dictatorship and what was functionally a monarchy seizing power from the aristocracy once again.
I wish we could learn even more about those space elves
Please do a lore evolution on the Andorians ! 👍🏻😎
I really can't understand why people like Klingons.
Their society is to devolved for their technology and there's hardly anything to say it's a recent devolvement that happened.
The Romulans are a much more worthy antagonist and a lot more interesting.
With regards to another Kelvin movie, it's obvious that the writers would have to find a way to explain why Chekov wouldn't either be in it or find a suitable actor to replace Anton Yelchin, whose premature passing was without a doubt proof that god doesn't exist as someone like him is dead and I'm still alive.
I thought the Romulans enslaved the Klingons and then they broke free and stole D7s?
I always wondered if the Romulans were inspired by the ancient King of Italy Romulus?
The Picard series is a bit of a mess and the story makes little sense, so I would tend to ignore it. I also thought it was in the kelvin time-line and I would tend to ignore anything to do with the kelvin time-line. But then TNG changes so much about the prime time-line it bears little resemblance to the original star trek time-line so I suppose if people like the kelvin time-line, so be it.
My objection to the kelvin time-line is the logic behind the first Kelvin time-line star trek movie lack credibility. Visually its very good, but story wise not so good. At least the TNG changes to cannon made some type of sense, after all its hard to create a TV-Series in 1994, when the Eugenics war was supposed to be raging at the same time.
For those interested, a time-line based solely on the 1st season of the original star trek can be found here: th-cam.com/video/3OZ9MWOc2Gc/w-d-xo.html
You can quickly see this is not our time-line, while the TNG time-line could be our time-line.
*Very true - especially considering TNG mentioned an Irish Reunification that could take place 4 years from now - just like the show entailed.*
After JJ destroyed Romulans and the Star Empire, I pretty much lost interest in Star Trek. They were my favorites and that was pretty much a bridge too far moment for me
Agreed on everything - except the Kelvin timeline. PLEASE reboot that. I left the theater after the Kirk/product placement shot.
you forgot the Romulans in DS9, they had the most notable shift in uniform as well as more footage of their warbirds in action
Enterprise didn't have phasers and photon torpedoes but phase cannons and photonic torpedoes, which was a really lazy way of trying to stay canon. a very lazy way :D
Pukehard and STD are a mockery of Star Trek and it saddens me that anyone would actually consider that anything in them is actually Star Trek lore.
Will you consider including i future episodes, or even make an episode in on itself about, the 70's and 80's Star Trek roleplaying games' lore, and how it connected or diverged or even influence movies and tv-shows?
It's just like Enemy Below but I could have sworn the writer said it wasn't the inspiration
John Colicos played Kor. It was Michael Ansara that played Kang.
Balance of terror, in my opinion, remains one of the best star trek episodes to date.
TNG is often depicted as the best show; but this is possibly my favourite episode.