Romulan


The Romulans are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They first appeared in the series '. They have appeared in most subsequent Star Trek releases, including: ', ', ', ', ' and '. They have also appeared in the Star Trek feature films ', ', ' and Star Trek. They also appear in various other spin-off media, including books, comics, toys and games.
Writer Paul Schneider created the Romulans for use in the 1966 ' episode "Balance of Terror". As a basis, he considered what the ancient Roman Empire might have looked like had it developed to the point of spaceflight. Physically, the Romulans were presented as humanoid, but the show's make-up department gave them pointed ears to distinguish them from humans. In the series, which is set in the 23rd century, the Romulans were speculated as to having split from another alien species, the Vulcans, in the distant past. In contrast to the Vulcans, who were presented as peaceful and logic-oriented, the Romulans were depicted as militaristic, having founded an interstellar empire. The Romulans were used as antagonists for the series' protagonists, the starship USS Enterprise, her crew, and their fictional government, the United Federation of Planets.
In 1987, the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation—set in the 24th century—again used the Romulans as antagonists of the Federation. The show's designers gave the Romulans new costumes and added a V-shaped ridge on the foreheads of most Romulan characters, though with indications that Romulans without the ridges also existed. In the series, Star Trek: Enterprise, Romulans without ridges are depicted as passing for Vulcans. The 2009 film, Star Trek, depicted the Romulan homeworld, Romulus, being destroyed by a supernova in the year 2387. This film featured Romulans without the head ridges. The impact of Romulus' destruction forms a plot-theme in the ' series. Romulans in that series have included those with and without ridges, and a line about northern Romulans may have been intended to refer to these two groups.

History

Original development

The Romulans were devised for the episode "Balance of Terror". In 2014, "Balance of Terror" was rated the best episode in the franchise by Io9.
The Romulans were reused for the second-season episode "The Deadly Years" and the third-season episode "The Enterprise Incident".

Reintroduction in the 1980s and 1990s

After the launch of ' in 1987, the show's writers introduced the Romulans in the final episode of the first season, "The Neutral Zone |The Neutral Zone", which aired in the U.S. in May 1988. The episode was written by Maurice Hurley, who later acknowledged rushing it, putting together a script in a day and a half. In the episode, which is set in the year 2364, the Starfleet ship USS Enterprise-D—whose crew are the series' main protagonists—responds to the disappearance of Federation colonies along the Neutral Zone, fearing that it reflects growing Romulan activity in the region. Investigating, the Enterprise crew encounter a Romulan spaceship; it is stated that this is the first encounter between the two peoples for 53 years. The Romulans reveal that they have had colonies destroyed on their side of the border too, and the two species agree to share information on the issue in future. In later episodes it is revealed that these colonies were destroyed by a previously unknown species, the Borg, whom the show's writers had devised as a new alien antagonist following dissatisfaction with their previous attempt, the Ferengi. Initial thoughts by the script-writers had proposed a multi-episode storyline in which the Federation and Romulan governments would co-operate to fight the Borg; ultimately only certain elements of this idea entered "The Neutral Zone" and the Borg would be introduced not in the first season, but in the second-season episode "Q Who".
New costumes were designed for the actors playing Romulans, created by the show's costume designer William Theiss.
The newly designed Romulan ship that appeared in "The Neutral Zone" was built as a miniature model by Greg Jein. The ship featured a newly designed Romulan crest, featuring a stylised bird of prey clutching two planets, Romulus and Remus, in its claws. Later in the series, this ship type would be explicitly referred to as a "warbird". In 1989, AMT released a plastic kit of the vessel, alongside other kits for a Ferengi ship and a Klingon bird of prey vessel.
The Romulans were re-used for the second-season episode "Contagion |Contagion", written by Steve Gerber and Beth Woods and first aired in March 1989. In this episode, the Enterprise-D entered the Neutral Zone to answer a distress call and ends up in conflict with a Romulan vessel, with both spaceships being disabled by an alien computer virus. "Contagion" was the first episode in the Star Trek franchise in which the Romulan ship was given a name, in this case the Haakona. In the third-season episode "The Enemy |The Enemy", written by David Kemper and Michael Piller and first screened in November 1989, the Enterprise-D is depicted rescuing a crashed Romulan ship. The episode introduced the Romulan character Tomalak, played by Andreas Katsulas, who would reappear in three further Next Generation episodes. It also further established the idea of a significant enmity between the Romulans and the Klingons, with the ''Enterprises Klingon officer, Worf, refusing to donate blood to save the life of an injured Romulan; the scriptwriters had debated whether to include this, with Dorn initially reticent.
Three episodes later, in "The Defector |The Defector", written by Ronald D. Moore and first screened in January 1990, a Romulan admiral is presented as seeking to defect to the Federation. The episode is the first in the franchise to include images of Romulus itself and introduced the design of a Romulan scout vessel. "The Defector" also includes a reference to the Battle of Cheron, an incident in the 22nd century Earth-Romulan War that was previously mentioned in "Balance of Terror".

''Deep Space Nine'' and ''Voyager''

For "The Search |The Search", the opening two-part episode of the third season of ', a Romulan link was introduced. The episode, which was written by Ira Steven Behr, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Ronald D. Moore, featured the introduction of a new Starfleet ship, the USS Defiant; the scriptwriters included the idea that it had been equipped with a cloaking device by the Romulans in return for intelligence that the Federation gathered on another alien power, the Dominion. A Romulan character, T'Rul, was included to oversee the device's use aboard the Defiant. The show's writers had initially planned on including T'Rul as a permanent fixture on the show but decided that she did not offer enough potential for new storylines.
The Romulans were reused later that season in "Visionary |Visionary", where they are presented as attempting to destroy the Deep Space Nine space station as part of their plan to collapse the nearby wormhole and thus prevent a Dominion invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, the region of space where both the Federation and Romulans reside. Three episodes later, the follow-on episodes "Improbable Cause" and "The Die Is Cast |The Die Is Cast" again featured the Romulans, in this case portraying a joint mission by the Romulan Tal Shiar''' and Cardassian Obsidian Order to fatally cripple the Dominion by eradicating its leaders, the Founders. For these episodes, new Tal Shiar outfits were designed; Moore related that this was partly his decision, for he "hated, underline hated, the Romulan costumes . Big shoulder pads, the quilting, I just loathed it." Costume designer Robert Blackman noted that his team created eight new Romulan uniforms, using the same fabric as the old ones but "dyed it down slightly, and we made them much sleeker and a little more menacing".

Reboot: 2009–present

After Star Trek: Nemesis proved a financial failure and Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled, the franchise's executive producer Rick Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendresen began developing a new film entitled Star Trek: The Beginning, which was to be set during the 22nd century Earth-Romulan War. The project never materialised. Instead, the decision was made to reboot the series by creating a film using the characters of the original Star Trek series but played by new actors. Putting together a script for the new film, the director J. J. Abrams stated that he wanted Romulans to be the antagonists because they had featured less than the Klingons in the original Star Trek series. The film's writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, thought that it would feel backward to demonize the Klingons as villains again after they had been presented heroically in later Star Trek series; they also wanted to use Spock as a central character in the film and believed that the Romulan presence would continue Spock's story from his last chronological appearance in "Unification |Unification".
In the reboot film, titled Star Trek and released in 2009, the planet Romulus is destroyed by a supernova in the year 2387. A Romulan mining ship, the Narada, survives and travels back in time to the 23rd century; its commander, Nero, is committed to destroying the planet Vulcan to punish Spock for failing to save Romulus. The actors playing Romulans in this film wore three prosthetics applied to their ears and foreheads, while Bana had a fourth prosthetic for the bitemark on his ear that extends to the back of his character's head. The film's Romulans lacked the 'V'-shaped ridges on the foreheads, which had been present in all of their depictions outside the original series. Neville Page wanted to honor that by having Nero's crew ritually scar themselves too, forming keloids reminiscent of the 'V'-ridges. It was abandoned as they did not pursue the idea enough.
centers around Picard's reaction to the destruction of Romulus. The series begins with Picard in self-imposed exile at his French vineyard following his resignation in protest to Starfleet's handling of Romulans and androids. Picard has two live-in Romulans at his estate. At least two groups of Romulans survived: one group formed the Romulan Free State, while the other group was evacuated to the planet of Vashti.

Other media

The Romulans have been the focus of a number of non-canon books, and have appeared or been mentioned in other non-canon media. Among their key appearances have been: