Romulan Empire??

[Straha]

Could someone please explain the romulans to me, I have begun to find them confusing, and I like them.

[Patrick Degan]

We're talking about one of the major races in Star Trek here.

The Romulans made their first appearance in the TOS season one episode "Balance Of Terror". It is established that the Romulans are a Vulcan offshoot, who settled their planets during Vulcan's colonisation period, which Spock described as savage and warlike even by Earth standards. The third season episode "The Enterprise Incident" has the Romulan Commander in that episode stating directly that the Vulcans are their "distant brothers".

Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation establish that the Vulcan colony group which eventually would become the Romulan nation settled their planets some 1700—2000 years before the founding of the Federation.

The Romulan Star Empire is based on the planets Romulus and Remus. About a century before the foundation of the Federation, the Earth/Romulan war took place, in which the conflict was fought with "primitive space vessels, using primitive atomic weapons", and in which there was no ship-to-ship visual communication so that no human, Romulan, or ally, ever saw the other. The treaty ending the war, which ground to a draw, was negotiated entirely by subspace radio and established a Neutral Zone, the crossing of which by either side constituted an act of war.

According to the TNG third season episode "The Defector", the Romulans suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Federation at the Battle of Cheron. The conflict that this battle was a part of led to the Treaty of Algeron which ended that war but under terms which banned the Federation from developing cloaking technology. Evidently, that war ended in a draw as well.

The Romulans had an alliance with the Klingon Empire during Kirk's era, in which the Romulans gained Klingon shipbuilding technology, but the amity between the two powers deterioriated within thirty years and degenerated into open hostility expressed in the form of border raids against frontier colony worlds.

The Romulans had turned isolationist and avoided contact with the rest of the galaxy, barring the occasional border raid against the Klingons, for fifty three years before reemerging in "The Neutral Zone" (TNG season one) following the mysterious destruction of Federation and Romulan Neutral Zone outposts, which were subsequently discovered to have been the result of Borg incursions upon the Alpha Quadrant. The Romulans reemerged as a millitant fascist dictatorship determined to check the expansion of the UFP and later employed one or more ploys designed to destabilise the Federation/Klingon alliance and disrupt the political structure of the Federation itself ("The Mind's Eye", "Redemption", "Unification").

The Romulans attempted to remain neutral during the opening phases of the Dominion War but were drawn into the conflict on the Federation/Klingon side after Capt. Sisko and Garak arranged the assasination of an anti-Federation Romulan senator and framed the Dominion for the crime.

There is no counting as to how many planets comprise the "Romulan Star Empire", though apparently they control a sphere of territory several hundred lightyears in radius. They appear to be the smaller of the Alpha Quadrant powers (though larger than the Cardassian Union) and although they appear to have powerful warships, they seem on the whole to be militarily weaker than the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

[The Nomad]

* RSE is technically in the Beta Quadrant, although referred as an "Alpha Quadrant power" during Deep Shame 9.

*Romulans are no weaker than the other powers, they're just insidious ( TNG era ) and like to prepare carefully a war, breaking their opponents' alliances, etc. that's why they're not often seen fighting. Their main warship, the D'Deridex-class, is 1200 m long and able to annihilate life on an entire planet's surface.

[Admiral Griffith]

* RSE is technically in the Beta Quadrant, although referred as an "Alpha Quadrant power" during Deep Shame 9.

*Romulans are no weaker than the other powers, they're just insidious ( TNG era ) and like to prepare carefully a war, breaking their opponents' alliances, etc. that's why they're not often seen fighting. Their main warship, the D'Deridex-class, is 1200 m long and able to annihilate life on an entire planet's surface.

Excuse me, but you better not be suggesting BDZ capabilities, cause those little popgun disruptors aren't going to dent a tank.

[Solid Snake]

The Romulans are the most interesting, most underused race in Star Trek. Instead, dumb and dumber decide to use the Borg and the Klingons all the damn time. I swear, if i hear one more thing about the Klingons, i will invent a jump gate, jump to Quo'nos, and use 900000000 KT nukes to kill off an annoying race. The Borg, i'll just tell the Empire that they said one of their cubes can assimilate a Death Star. Then they will prove them wrong.

[Patrick Degan]

The Romulans are the most interesting, most underused race in Star Trek. Instead, dumb and dumber decide to use the Borg and the Klingons all the damn time.

Perhaps... But can you imagine what the Romulans would be like now if the Killer Bs had focussed their whole attention upon them instead of the Klingons and the Borg? What they've done to them in Nemesis is bad enough. The Romulans got much better treatment from Ron Moore and Ira Behr than they ever would have gotten from Brannon Braga.

[TheDarkling]

The thing I find odd about the Romulans is that the Federatuion was best friends with them for a while (ST 6) where a Romulan ambassador got to sit in on SF military planning.

Maybe it was arresting that diplomat that irked the Romulans so much but thanks to SPock and his band of rebels the Romulans will be flying the Fed flag within a few centuries.

[Jim Raynor]

Why would the Federation sign a treaty barring them from using cloaking technology, while the Romulans use it all the time?

[RayCav of ASVS]

Maybe it was arresting that diplomat that irked the Romulans so much but thanks to SPock and his band of rebels the Romulans will be flying the Fed flag within a few centuries.

NO! THAT WOULD MEAN THE ULTIMATE PUSSIFICATION OF THE ROMULAN STAR EMPIRE!

[Patrick Degan]

Why would the Federation sign a treaty barring them from using cloaking technology, while the Romulans use it all the time?

An interesting question.

The TNG episode "The Defector" references some unspecified conflict between the Federation and the Romulan Empire at some point in the past, in which the Romulans suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Cheron (something which they have never forgotten, according to Adm. Jharok). We know from "The Neutral Zone" that "circumstances" forced the Romulan Empire to withdraw into itself; an isolation which lasted 53 years and also coincides with the time that famine and political upheaval within the Cardassian Union brought its military dictatorship to power. This suggests that some 50-60 years before the time of Capt. Picard's command of the Enterprise there was some sort of general period of chaos which affected the major powers of the ST galaxy. Apparently, part of this chaotic period involved a general Federation/Romulan war. Obviously, the Federation did not win the war, yet they inflicted a major and apparently devestating defeat upon the Romulans. It is possible that the Federation exploited this major victory in what may have been a losing war on their part to move quickly to the negotiation table to effect a political solution and end the war. If the Romulans suffered major losses and carrying on the war was in some way a threat to their political stability, they would have taken the opportunity as their out so they could withdraw from the field and lick their wounds in a face-saving retreat. The Romulans evidently demanded that the Federation cease any further development of cloaking technology on their part (which beggars the question as to whether they might have at one time had cloaking systems on their ships and had employed them in the war) to be able to claim some measure of victory. If the Federation was desperate enough to end the war quickly, they would have agreed, and the equally desperate Romulans may have found that acceptable enough to conclude the matter. Thus would the Treaty of Algeron have been forged.

The Federation obviously turned their research toward the direction of defeating cloaking systems and discovering how to be able to track a starship under cloak by detecting its mass or other emissions which cannot be effectively masked; which they apparently became quite good at in the intevening years, although from what we see in TNG, cloaking technology like all forms of technology in the ST galaxy has advanced very little in the course of a century so it would not have been very much of a challenge.

[Enlightenment]

An interesting question.

IMO a more interesting question is why Bozo and Bitbrain gave us (topless) Boobyprise instead of something about this interesting gap in Trek history.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

We're talking about one of the major races in Star Trek here.

The Romulans made their first appearance in the TOS season one episode "Balance Of Terror". It is established that the Romulans are a Vulcan offshoot, who settled their planets during Vulcan's colonisation period, which Spock described as savage and warlike even by Earth standards. The third season episode "The Enterprise Incident" has the Romulan Commander in that episode stating directly that the Vulcans are their "distant brothers".

Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation establish that the Vulcan colony group which eventually would become the Romulan nation settled their planets some 1700—2000 years before the founding of the Federation.

The Romulan Star Empire is based on the planets Romulus and Remus. About a century before the foundation of the Federation, the Earth/Romulan war took place, in which the conflict was fought with "primitive space vessels, using primitive atomic weapons", and in which there was no ship-to-ship visual communication so that no human, Romulan, or ally, ever saw the other. The treaty ending the war, which ground to a draw, was negotiated entirely by subspace radio and established a Neutral Zone, the crossing of which by either side constituted an act of war.

Actually, The Romulans Lost That war, and only the Federation can enter the Neutral Zone. The only Neutral Zone that the Fed can't enter is the Fed/Klingon NZ.

[Kamakazie Sith]

We're talking about one of the major races in Star Trek here.

The Romulans made their first appearance in the TOS season one episode "Balance Of Terror". It is established that the Romulans are a Vulcan offshoot, who settled their planets during Vulcan's colonisation period, which Spock described as savage and warlike even by Earth standards. The third season episode "The Enterprise Incident" has the Romulan Commander in that episode stating directly that the Vulcans are their "distant brothers".

Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation establish that the Vulcan colony group which eventually would become the Romulan nation settled their planets some 1700—2000 years before the founding of the Federation.

The Romulan Star Empire is based on the planets Romulus and Remus. About a century before the foundation of the Federation, the Earth/Romulan war took place, in which the conflict was fought with "primitive space vessels, using primitive atomic weapons", and in which there was no ship-to-ship visual communication so that no human, Romulan, or ally, ever saw the other. The treaty ending the war, which ground to a draw, was negotiated entirely by subspace radio and established a Neutral Zone, the crossing of which by either side constituted an act of war.

Actually, The Romulans Lost That war, and only the Federation can enter the Neutral Zone. The only Neutral Zone that the Fed can't enter is the Fed/Klingon NZ.

Umm your mistaken. No RSE or UFP ships are allowed to enter the Neutral Zone, refer to TNG "The Defector" for canon evidence.

[Patrick Degan]

The Romulan Star Empire is based on the planets Romulus and Remus. About a century before the foundation of the Federation, the Earth/Romulan war took place, in which the conflict was fought with "primitive space vessels, using primitive atomic weapons", and in which there was no ship-to-ship visual communication so that no human, Romulan, or ally, ever saw the other. The treaty ending the war, which ground to a draw, was negotiated entirely by subspace radio and established a Neutral Zone, the crossing of which by either side constituted an act of war.

Actually, The Romulans Lost That war, and only the Federation can enter the Neutral Zone. The only Neutral Zone that the Fed can't enter is the Fed/Klingon NZ.

Remember from "Balance Of Terror" —Spock explicitly stated, in the briefing given to the Enterprise crew that crossing of the neutral zone by either side constituted an act of war. Late into the pursuit, Dr. McCoy points this out as the Romulan Warbird is nearing the NZ:

"What now? Do we enter the neutral zone?"

"They did, Doctor."

"And once we cross over they can say we did it first. A setup; they want war, we furnish the provocation."

KIRK: "Let's get them while they're still on our side."

The Federation is equally prohibited from crossing the neutral zone. When the Warbird fails to destroy the Enterprise with the nuclear charge, the Romulans were actually on their side of the zone. They were home free. Kirk had the Enterprise play dead to lure them back across into Federaton space.

Also, in the episode "The Deadly Years", the Enterprise is attacked when Commodore Stocker stupidly takes the ship across the border to shortcut his way to Starbase 10. The ship is quickly captured and in the centre of a diplomatic incident in "The Enterprise Incident" when Kirk takes her into the zone on the spy mission to steal the cloaking device. In the later episode "The Way To Eden" when Dr. Severin and his cult hijacks the ship to get to Eden, Kirk specifically warns the space hippies that the presence of the Enterprise in Romulan space would be considered an act of war and sufficent provocation to attack, and that the peace of the galaxy was endangered.

The prohibition cut both ways.

[Tsyroc]

The Romulans are the most interesting, most underused race in Star Trek. Instead, dumb and dumber decide to use the Borg and the Klingons all the damn time.

Perhaps... But can you imagine what the Romulans would be like now if the Killer Bs had focussed their whole attention upon them instead of the Klingons and the Borg? What they've done to them in Nemesis is bad enough. The Romulans got much better treatment from Ron Moore and Ira Behr than they ever would have gotten from Brannon Braga.

Good point. I thought the Romulans improved a bit in DS9, at least in the last couple years. They all still had that same awful haircut but their uniforms were fitted better, plus the dark grey color was better than the silvery grey scaled look. They ditched the superbig puffy-wide shoulder pads and tailored them down a bit as well.

It's a pitty, in TOS Romulan women were HOT and the ships were cool. No so in TNG era. The most they had going for them in TNG era was the coolist ship to be designed for TNG, the Warbird.