How THE ROMULANS Changed - LORE EVOLUTION

welcome to lore evolution it's been a while since I've done one of these so for the uninitiated this is the show where we take a look at the production history of our favor of factions characters and technologies from the realm of sci-fi and fantasy and seeing is how the heavily Romulan centric Star Trek Picard recently wrapped up I thought it appropriate to take a gander at the Federation's oldest foe the Romulans and their empire were first introduced in the Star Trek the original series episode balance of Terror below Jean L Kuhn often received credit for the creation of the Romulans for many years writer Paul Schneider was the actual creator he was famously inspired by the world war ii thriller enemy below in creating the battle of wits between two starship captains according to Schneider it was his sons own obsession with the Romulan Empire which inspired him to create the Romulans Schneider saw the Romulans as a race which had formed a Roman like empire on their own world which simply never died and continued to advance well into space travel with a limited resources of the original series it was also Schneider who conceded the Romulans and Vulcans having a shared ancestry although the exact relationship between the two races was often retconned later down the line well made the Romulans so appealing to many writers of the show was their inherent sense of mystery their origins in their culture were shrouded in secrecy and left a lot of potential for future scripts the Klingons on the other hand who became the de facto bad guys at the show wore much of their culture and identity on their sleeves the Romulans were also presented with a strikingly different kind of characterization in the Klingons John Kohler Coast was delightfully memorable as the fiendish and merciless Kang however mark Leonard's portrayal of the Romulan commander was much more sympathetic the Romulans and balance of Terror are not irredeemable evildoers were equals to the enterprise with their own sense of honour and strong bonds between crew members it's thanks to the excellent writing and terrific gas performance that the first appearance of the Romulans comes in one of the best episodes of the original series although as stated while the Klingons would go on to become the main antagonistic faction for Kirk's era the Romulans have many connections to their Imperial rivals for one thing their starships are a little bit confusing historically speaking take the iconic Klingon d7 battle cruiser for instance a fantastic piece of design which perfectly nails that warrior-like presence of the Klingons surprising them that it was also primarily used by the Romulans the practical reason for this being the show simply couldn't afford to build a brand new model for a Romulan battle cruiser however some confusion also surrounded the bird-of-prey designated ships in the original script outline for Star Trek 3 to search for Spock Harv Bennett intended to use the Romulans as the primary villains of the story however in subsequent meetings it was Leonard Nimoy who suggested changing them to Klingon antagonists this is why search for Spock introduces the Klingon bird-of-prey up until that point the d7 battle cruiser had become the iconic Klingon ship whereas the Romulan bird of prey was the iconic Romulan ship and so in harbin its original outline the Romulan antagonists would use their signature ship when this was changed to Klingons however it seems there was a simple swap of Romulan to Klingon resulting in the new Klingon bird-of-prey as we see it search for Spock as with the d7 the term bird of prey in Star Trek is much more associated with the Klingons than the Romulans the Romulans would make some more minor appearances and other Star Trek movies such as the final frontier and the other scarred country however by that point they had already made their return in for Star Trek's first major spin-off the Romulans made the return in the season 1 finale the neutral zone this appearance was intended to be part of a three episode arc written by then Sharona Morris Hurley which would see the Federation and Romulan Empire uniting to fight the emerging threat from the Borg while this arc never came to fruition that didn't stop the Romulans from making plenty more appearances a notable change was the overall look of the Romulans in order to make them more distinct from Vulcans makeup artist Michael Westmore included a four head appliance which gave the Rollins a permanent frown together with their abrasive looking costumes and awesome looking Romulan warbird ships the Romulan Empire seemed more powerful and threatening than ever before however the Romulans still maintained their sense of secrecy while the cold war with the Klingons often took the form of posturing and threats the Romulans were portrayed as more cunning and politically savvy although Gene Roddenberry initially mandated the policy of the Romulans not being used in a villainous capacity through their subsequent appearances they actually became the primary antagonists of the next generation being featured did not show more than any other Star Trek series and I'm honestly glad they did their clashes between the Federation and the Romulan Empire often produced some fantastic episodes throughout the next generation the enemy the defector unification parts one and two and face of the enemy our personal favorites of mine and once again that sense of nuance is preserved whereas glorious battle and conquest is a celebrated element within Klingon society it's made clear the Romulan Empire is an oppressive and tyrannical regime the tell XI our secret police keeping the population in check and a steady stream of nationalistic propaganda convincing them of their inherent superiority to other factions because of this we get to sympathize with many worn off Romulan characters previously I've confessed my last and enthusiastic response to TNG's Klingon centric episodes but the Romulan centric stories in my opinion at least are of a more consistently high quality [Music] once again the Romulans were slated as the antagonists for another Trek movie and then dropped originally they were meant to be the villains in Star Trek insurrection before the solo were introduced instead however Star Trek nemesis gave us an even deeper look into the empire through shinzen we learn of the Riemann's created by writer john logan a slave race residing on a twin planet within the Romulans home system once again maintaining the Roman influence naming the worlds after the brothers featured in the Roman Empire's creation myth while shinzen and the Riemann's plan would spell death and destruction for many their origins continue to keep that sympathetic element enterprise was in a tricky position when it came to the Romulans as it's established in balance of Terror humans didn't even know what a Romulan looked like until the 23rd century and despite the attempts of the production team enterprise does chalk up a number of continuity issues for example in balance of Terror cloaking technology and even remote viewing screens are relatively recent inventions with cloaking only being introduced in that same episode however an enterprise the crew witnesses an early Romulan bird of prey D cloaking as well as a number of other capable ships and of course a few screen technologies all over the place balance of Terror also referred to the earth Romulan war being primarily fought with atomic weapons but Enterprise already has photon torpedoes and phasers also the Romulans use Holograms even though that's supposed to be a new thing in TNG although there is sort of a holodeck in the animate show and yeah unfortunately what was likely to be the most interesting Romulan story in enterprise never saw the light of day season 5 was meant to portray the earth Romulan war in full and further seasons would see the founding of the Federation itself but unfortunately the show was canceled which is a shame because Enterprise had finally gotten good with this latter two seasons [Music] the recently concluded first season of Star Trek Picard followed in the footsteps of TNG by having a heavy Romulan focus and in general Picard's depiction of Romulans pretty much plays to all their strengths we get a nicely intriguing Romulan conspiracy plot there were a number of sympathetic Romulan characters the Romulans show off some badass new ships but the card also builds on these strengths by giving us an even deeper look into Romulan culture the Romulans in general are in a fascinating place at this point in the Star Trek timeline their empire is fractured their homeworld is gone they aren't the United superpower faction they once were and as a result many elements which would have been shielded behind state secrecy are now free to be explored in terms of design Picard features both the Romulans of the original series and the forhead rich design from TNG making the Romulan race more diverse in general we also see that the Romulans actually retained a lot of their Vulcan heritage the Romulans it turns out have numerous spiritual traditions and methods of mental discipline as a people they aren't just all scheming spies and sub commanders however as I said earlier their exact origin isn't quite as clear as one may think imbalance of terror Spock speculates that Vulcans and Romulans evolved separately from the same ancestor however later incarnations of the Romulans suggest the Romulans themselves are an offshoot from Vulcans Anna novel the Romulan Way by Diane Duane it was first contact by hostile Orion Raiders which prompts the split the mythical figure Ciroc promotes pacifism and logic while a radical named sat asked favor strength when these two opposing forces threatened to fall into Civil War so task leads his followers on a migration where they later settle and invent a new language culture and society becoming not the Romulans but the rehan Sioux the name Romulan is merely the English name created by Federation explorers the same goes for the Riemann's and the names of their respective home worlds however in the Vulcans sole trilogy by Joseph Sherman and Susan Schwarz the origin story is a little different in this trilogy the Vulcan homeworld was being consumed by Wars and Surak oversaw an exodus of people to ensure their race survived in case their homeworld was ever fully destroyed and it was this group of ex who later became the romulans I personally find both stories quite fascinating perhaps the former is the myth told within Romulan society and the latter is the truth of what happened I think that could be quite cool the Romulans are a truly interesting part of the Star Trek universe while the Klingons are more popular the Romulans are often more nuanced even from their very first appearance they've been portrayed as worthy foes of the Federation with real dimensionality they've made terrific villains but also tragic victims they've been a big part of tracks most recent installment and I'm keen to see what new territory they're taken into 506 seven alexander camp asks would you rather the next Star Trek movie take place in the Kelvin timeline or the prime timeline I personally hope to see more from the Kelvin timeline I think it's a great cast and the classic characters they play have been given really good material in those films into darkness did squander a lot of potential but beyond in my opinion really nailed what I think a Star Trek movie should be I would be really disappointed if they start from scratch again with the movies thank you for watching if you like my videos feel free to subscribe and hit the BAL icon to stay up to date on all my new uploads over my patreon you can see videos early speaking of which I like to quickly thank all of my patrons who are now appearing on screen have a good one and as always live long and prosper

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 109,864

Keywords: rowan j coleman, star trek, rowan j coleman star trek, lore evolution, rowan j coleman lore evolution, romulans, star trek romulans, star trek the original series, balance of terror, star trek balance of terror, star trek the next generation, star trek picard, star trek picard romulans, star trek lore, romulans lore, romulan empire lore, lore, sci-fi, review, video essay, analysis, star trek picard review, star trek the next generation romualns, romulan warbird, spacedock

Id: miieSNiVNhE

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2020