Romulans

[Hooray for boobies 0]

Romulans in Star Trek

 

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Now that I have seen the new Star Trek I wish to express some dissapointment with the use of Romulans as the villains. Not only was the entire Romulan empire out of the picture, which means the villains represented only som sort of minor terrorist faction with a vengence, but they were also in appearance unlike any Romulans or Remans we've seen before. Two things contributed to this mostly. That they were all bald and that they were all tattooed. (Thouhg they also wore very atypical clothes for Romulans).

 

I suppose all this might be explained with them beeing civilian miners or something of the kind, or even from the future. But it does again make the movie villains something almost entirely new. Still the biggest flaw with this group of villains was that they were mostly just uninteresting. I'll blame that on uninspired writing.

 

In any case I was left wondering why the villains were chosen to be Romulans at all.

 

 

Note from AE - Jack originally edited this post to add spoiler tags. I am editing it for the following reason; while the parent thread has to do with Romulans, it was about TNG Romulans, not new movie Romulans so I am splitting it, and Jacks response, to the Movies forum.

 

 

 

 

Following is some content which did follow the original topic this was split from. Please use the following link to it for responses pertaining to the original topic. http://www.startrekfans.net/index.php?show...st&p=465608

 

But is *everything* stated in the movies and series cannon? As welconfed stated, the Remans being used for canon fodder was Picard and Riker's interpretation based on limited information. It could be they played a much more extensive role than Picard and Riker knew. So just because Picard and Riker said it doesn't make it true.

In that instance, it would be canon that there were Reman troops used during the Dominion War. The extent and nature of their deployments would be open to debate.

 

El-Aurians are not really villians Soran was just unusual and we never see another El Aurian. If the romulans are the villians I am a bit more suspicious of the movie. A Romulan has never been a villian before in the film (Nemesis does not count as it was mostly remans.)

 

But isn't going to mess with continuity if this is before Kirk actually met the Romulans in that series one episode.

 

Then again ENT Completley screwed the continuity as well.

 

Looks like this film is going to completley change ST as we know it. :P

Guinan was El-Aurian so of the two we met, one was a villain.

 

ENT didn't change canon regarding the Romulans. Kirk was the first human to see a Romulan and ENT didn't change that. There was no visual contact between Romulans and humans in any episode of ENT. Also, we know that Romulans and humans had been in non-visual contact before TOS because of the Romulan-Earth war referred to in TOS.

 

 

They did use cloaks, in the episode with the minefield. Not a big deal although the cloaking appears something of a surprise to Kirk and the others many years laters. What is slightly annoying is that the cloaks in that episode didn't really serve any purpose.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Alterego
Added spoiler tags/explained move

[Jack_Bauer 1]

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That they were all bald and that they were all tattooed. (Thouhg they also wore very atypical clothes for Romulans).

That's not how they naturally look. They shaved their heads and gave themselves tattoos (both as symbols of mourning for Romulus and their lost loved ones). Aside from that, they are really just the same Romulans. Their forehead ridge isn't as prominent, but the actors did wear a forehead appliance. As for the clothes, these are non-military Romulans, so they're obviously wearing non-military clothes. Also keep in mind they've been stuck in the past for 25 years, part of which was spent in prison (according to deleted scenes). Their clothes are probably in rough shape.

[Takara_Soong 4]

I was just wondering...

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what people think of the different look for the Romulans in the movie. Do you prefer the tattoos with slight ridges over the 24th century ridges or the Vulcan-style forehead of the TOS Romulans?

 

I edited this question after reading Jack's post.

[Kor37 9]

I didn't like it. The same way as I didn't like it in Nemesis.

[Jack_Bauer 1]

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They're not really new Romulans. They still have the forehead ridge (although it may be slightly less pronounced). They've just shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies out of grief.

[Takara_Soong 4]

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They're not really new Romulans. They still have the forehead ridge (although it may be slightly less pronounced). They've just shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies out of grief.

 

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I disagree. You can hardly tell they had ridges. I couldn't see them and if you hadn't posted that they did have them I wouldn't have known they were there. Look at this picture:

Can you see ridges? They look more like creases in his forehead than ridges.

[Jack_Bauer 1]

I see ridges. Nero's eyebrows are definitely on ridges. I mean they're as obvious as the TNG days but they're there.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

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[Stephen of Borg 2]

I see ridges as well, but you can always say that they were going for the TOS Romulan look when it comes to the face

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

The ridges are there, but they are very faint. However, remember that TOS Romulans had no ridges at all.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Nero and his group are from TNG era so there has to be some good reason for the less pronounced ridges other than 'because the TOS Romulans didn't have them.' If I were a writer on this film and had an opportunity to focus on a cross section of Romulan society never fleshed out before, I think I'd go for something a little different, a little mysterious about them too.

 

Something we know about these Romulans is that they are civilians, not in the military, as we so often see. The reason they have smaller ridges could somehow be linked to that fact.

 

We could all watch TNG era episodes which show civilians, (Unification) and look for other examples of civilian Romulans with less pronounced ridges. Of course, not finding any won't prove they don't exist but it's worth a look before we unfairly judge and say something isn't justified. But even if we don't find proof it is still a non-issue. Before we meet Tuvok, few if any of us would have thought his existence possible.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Something we know about these Romulans is that they are civilians, not in the military, as we so often see. The reason they have smaller ridges could somehow be linked to that fact.

Come on, that is a stretch. Are you saying that biology determines occupation? We can deduce that ridgeless Romulans exist in TNG since Spock in Unification was able to blend with Romulan society without any prosthetics or makeup.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Something we know about these Romulans is that they are civilians, not in the military, as we so often see. The reason they have smaller ridges could somehow be linked to that fact.

Come on, that is a stretch. Are you saying that biology determines occupation?

 

No, that's not what I was saying. I was only fishing for ideas the writers may have had in mind when they decided to go with reduced ridges for this group, which just so happens to be civilian.

 

We can deduce that ridgeless Romulans exist in TNG since Spock in Unification was able to blend with Romulan society without any prosthetics or makeup.

 

Very good. Now think about it, how often in TNG era do we see Romulan Military Personnel with reduced ridges? Never, correct? If anything, it could be said RMP may go out of their way to enhance, somehow make their ridges more prominent than normal. :P

[Jack_Bauer 1]

I don't think ridge implants is the answer.

 

A far more likely explanation is the prominence of Romulan ridges is based on genetics, with certain families having stronger ridges. This combined with a caste system, could explain why most members of the Romulan military have strong ridges and civilians such as Nero have lesser ridges.

 

Again, this is all just idle speculation.

 

The point is, Nero has ridges just not prominent ones and they are slightly different than the ones we've seen before.

 

I really don't think we want to get into a Star Trek make-up changes debate. We'd be here for a while.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

A far more likely explanation is the prominence of Romulan ridges is based on genetics, with certain families having stronger ridges. This combined with a caste system, could explain why most members of the Romulan military have strong ridges and civilians such as Nero have lesser ridges.

As good a reason as any I suppose. All societies have their prejudices and unofficial caste systems. My point was I didn't think it would be genetics alone.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Lt. Van Roy

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I think the potential for the Romulans to try and mimic the intimidating nature of Klingon ridges, either by genetics or implants is not without merit.

 

It makes more sense, IMO, than saying Romulan ridges formed naturally over the course of such a short period of time.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

If that were true, why are the Romulan ridges and Klingon ridges so vastly different?

 

Are Romulans just Klingon fashion whores?

[A l t e r E g o 9]

:P

 

I didn't say they were perfectly mimicking, just enhancing so they didn't look so normal, like TOS Romulans did..

[Hooray for boobies 0]

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Come to think of it, this is also the first time (that I can remember) that I have seen Romulans with facial hair.

Compared with Romulans from the TOS and TNG era, these new Romulans remind me much more of Humans than any other race.

[savagediana 0]

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Didn't it look like Nero's wife, in the image he shows to Pike, has the facial tattoos too? I don't want to authoritatively assert this in case I was seeing things, but I sure thought so, all 3 times I've seen it so far...

Diana

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Personally, I don't see any ridges.

 

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[Jack_Bauer 1]

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Didn't it look like Nero's wife, in the image he shows to Pike, has the facial tattoos too? I don't want to authoritatively assert this in case I was seeing things, but I sure thought so, all 3 times I've seen it so far...

 

Diana

 

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It does kind of look that way, but you never really get a clear look at her. If she does, it would be something of a goof, or perhaps she was mourning a loss.