| Romulans | |
|---|---|
| Star Trek race | |
 Amannequin of a Romulan, as they appeared in the television seriesStar Trek: The Next Generation | |
| Created by | Paul Schneider |
| In-universe information | |
| Quadrant | Beta |
| Home world | Romulus |
TheRomulans (/ˈrɒmjʊlənz,-jə-/) are anextraterrestrial race in the Americanscience fiction franchiseStar Trek. Their adopted home world is Romulus, and within the same star system they have settled a sister planet Remus. Their original home world,Vulcan, was renamedNi'Var later in canon. They first appeared in the seriesStar Trek (1966–1969). They have appeared in most subsequentStar Trek releases, includingThe Animated Series,The Next Generation,Deep Space Nine,Voyager,Enterprise,Discovery,Picard,Strange New Worlds, andLower Decks. They appear in theStar Trekfeature filmsStar Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989),Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991),Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) andStar Trek (2009). They also appear in various other spin-off media, including books, comics, toys and games.
WriterPaul Schneider created the Romulans for the 1966Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror". As a basis, he considered what the ancientRoman Empire might have looked like had it developed to the point ofspaceflight. Physically, the Romulans were presented ashumanoid, 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 having split from another alien species, theVulcans, in the distant past. In contrast to the Vulcans, who were presented as peaceful and logic-oriented philosopher scientists, the Romulans were depicted as militaristic, having founded an interstellar empire. The Romulans were used as antagonists for the series' protagonists, thestarship USSEnterprise, her crew, and their government, theUnited Federation of Planets.
In 1987, the writers ofStar 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 seriesStar Trek: Enterprise, Romulans without ridges are depicted as passing for Vulcans (who do not have ridges either). The 2009 filmStar Trek depicted the Romulan homeworld, Romulus, being destroyed by asupernova in the year 2387. This film featured Romulans without the head ridges. The impact of Romulus's destruction forms a plot-theme in the seriesStar Trek: Picard. 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.
The Romulans are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek universe and were devised for the episode "Balance of Terror". In 2014, the episode was rated the best in the franchise byio9. They were reused for the second-season episode "The Deadly Years" and the third-season episode "The Enterprise Incident".[1]
They are humanoid beings originating from the planet Romulus and are known for their cunning, secrecy, and often adversarial relations with other civilizations, especially theUnited Federation of Planets. Physiologically, Romulans are similar to Vulcans, another species in the Star Trek universe. In fact, Romulans share a common ancestry with Vulcans and are considered an offshoot of the same species. They have pointed ears and arched eyebrows, and possess great strength, intelligence, and longevity.
The Romulans diverged from their Vulcan counterparts millennia ago due to ideological differences. While Vulcans embraced logic and the teachings of Surak, advocating emotional control and pacifism, the Romulans rejected these principles. They embraced their emotions and maintained a more militaristic and secretive society. Romulans are known for their cunning strategies, espionage, and manipulation in political affairs. They have a powerful and formidable military, with their signature warbird starships being a symbol of their might.
Throughout various Star Trek series and films, the Romulans have been portrayed as complex adversaries with deep-seated cultural traditions and a sense of superiority over other species. Their interactions with other factions in the Star Trek universe often involve political intrigue, espionage, and attempts to expand their influence in the galaxy.
While based on theRoman Empire, they took on the adversarial role ofCold War eraCommunist China, with the fictional government theUnited Federation of Planets playing the role of theUnited States, and theKlingons, based on theMongol Empire, acting the role of theSoviet Union.[2] As a result, the Romulans were generally portrayed as mysterious, but also "highly militaristic, aggressive by nature, and ruthless in warfare".[2] The make-up required for an episode including Romulans in the Original Series became too expensive and time-consuming, so the Romulans became largely overshadowed by theKlingons.[3]
After the launch ofStar Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, the show's writers introduced the Romulans in the final episode of the first season, "The Neutral Zone", which aired in the U.S. in May 1988.[4] The episode was written byMaurice Hurley, who later acknowledged rushing it, putting together a script in a day and a half.[4] In the episode, which is set in the year 2364, the Starfleet shipUSSEnterprise-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, theEnterprise 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.[5] In later episodes it is revealed that these colonies were destroyed by a previously unknown species, theBorg, whom the show's writers had devised as a new alien antagonist following dissatisfaction with their previous attempt, theFerengi.[6] 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".[6]
New costumes were designed for the actors playing Romulans, created by the show's costume designerWilliam Theiss.[7]The newly designed Romulan ship that appeared in "The Neutral Zone" was built as a miniature model byGreg Jein.[6] The ship featured a newly designed Romulan crest, featuring a stylised bird of prey clutching two planets, Romulus and Remus, in its claws.[6] Later in the series, this ship type would be explicitly referred to as a "warbird".[6] In 1989,AMT released a plastic kit of the vessel, alongside other kits for a Ferengi ship and aKlingon bird of prey vessel.[6]
The Romulans were re-used for the second-season episode "Contagion", written by Steve Gerber and Beth Woods and first aired in March 1989. In this episode, theEnterprise-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.[8] "Contagion" was the first episode in theStar Trek franchise in which the Romulan ship was given a name, in this case theHaakona.[9] In the third-season episode "The Enemy", written by David Kemper and Michael Piller and first screened in November 1989, theEnterprise-D is depicted rescuing a crashed Romulan ship.[10] The episode introduced the Romulan character Tomalak, played byAndreas Katsulas, who would reappear in three furtherNext Generation episodes.[10] It also further established the idea of a significant enmity between the Romulans and the Klingons, with theEnterprise's Klingon officer,Worf (Michael Dorn), refusing to donate blood to save the life of an injured Romulan; the scriptwriters had debated whether to include this, with Dorn initially reticent.[10]
Three episodes later, in "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.[11] The episode is the first in the franchise to include images of Romulus itself and introduced the design of a Romulan scout vessel.[11] "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".[11]
For "The Search", the opening two-part episode of the third season ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine, a Romulan link was introduced. The episode, which was written byIra Steven Behr,Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Ronald D. Moore, featured the introduction of a new Starfleet ship, theUSSDefiant; 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 (Martha Hackett), was included to oversee the device's use aboard theDefiant.[12] 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.[13]
The Romulans were reused later that season in "Visionary", where they are presented as attempting to destroy theDeep Space Nine space station as part of their plan to collapse the nearbywormhole and thus prevent a Dominion invasion of theAlpha Quadrant, the region of space where both the Federation and Romulans reside.[14] Three episodes later, the follow-on episodes "Improbable Cause" and "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.[15] 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 [introduced in the first season ofThe Next Generation]. Big shoulder pads, the quilting, I just loathed it".[7] Costume designerRobert 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".[7]
The Romulans were the major antagonists in the 2002 filmStar Trek: Nemesis, with much of the action set on Romulus. The film also introduced the Remans, inhabitants of the other planet in the Romulan system, who serve as a slave labor caste in Romulan society.
Inseason 4, the Romulans played a pivotal role in the episodes "Kir'Shara", "Babel One",United", and "The Aenar". In "Kir'Shara", it's revealed that Administrator V'Las of the Vulcan High Command is actually conspiring with a Romulan agent to "reunify" their two peoples through force. The agent, Major Talok, chases Captain Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau through the area of Vulcan known as The Forge throughout the episode, although his true nature isn't revealed until the end. In addition, in the previous episode "Awakening", Archer learned fromSurak that during the "Time of Awakening", a Vulcan schism of those who "sought a return to savage ways" and "marched beneath the raptor's wings" (later the symbol of the Romulan people) perpetrate a cataclysmic nuclear attack uponSurak and his enlightened society. Soon after Surak's death, these Vulcan recidivists abandoned their homeworld to colonize the planets Romulus and Remus.
In "Babel One", "United", and "The Aenar", the Romulans plot to destabilize their sector of space by using drone ships disguised as vessels from various cultures to turn their enemies against each other. These drone ships are piloted remotely through telepresence by Gareb, a young Aenar kidnapped by the Romulans who had lied to him that he was the last of his people. The plot was exposed by the efforts of theEnterprise crew and instead resulted in the humans,Vulcans,Andorians, and Tellarites uniting to defeat the Romulan threat, bringing them closer together than ever. TheEnterprise then enlists the help of Gareb's sister Jhamel who telepathically contacts her brother and informs him of the truth. Gareb turns on the Romulans, destroying one drone ship and allowing theEnterprise to destroy the other, foiling the Romulan plot. In retaliation, Romulan Admiral Valdore kills Gareb for his betrayal.
AfterStar Trek: Nemesis proved a financial failure andStar Trek: Enterprise was cancelled, the franchise's executive producerRick Berman and screenwriterErik Jendresen began developing a new film entitledStar Trek: The Beginning, which was to be set during the 22nd century Earth–Romulan War. The project never materialised.[17] Instead, the decision was made to reboot the series by creating a film using the characters of the originalStar Trek series but played by new actors. Putting together a script for the new film, the directorJ. J. Abrams stated that he wanted Romulans to be the antagonists because they had featured less than the Klingons in the originalStar Trek series.[18] The film's writers,Roberto Orci andAlex Kurtzman, thought that it would feel backward to demonize the Klingons as villains again after they had been presented heroically in laterStar 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".[19]
In the 2009 Abrams reboot film, titledStar Trek, the planet Romulus is destroyed by asupernova in the year 2387. A Romulan mining ship, theNarada, survives and travels back in time to the 23rd century; its commander,Nero (Eric Bana), is committed to destroying the planet Vulcan to punishSpock 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.[20] 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, formingkeloids reminiscent of the "V"-ridges. It was abandoned as they did not pursue the idea enough.[21]
Picard's reaction to the destruction of Romulus is the backstory and central premise ofStar Trek: Picard. 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.[22] 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.
In theStar Trek: Discovery episode "Unification III", Ambassador Spock's dream of Vulcan/Romulan reunification has been achieved. The Romulans have returned to their ancestral homeworld (since renamedNi'Var) and reunified with their Vulcan cousins. When the Vulcans decided to pull out of the Federation due to the apocalyptic event known as the Burn, it was actually the Romulans who wished to remain, according to Starfleet Admiral Vance. In the episode "All Is Possible", Ni'Var rejoins the Federation.
The Warbird was developed by Andrew Probert with the model built by Greg Jein.[23] In the series it was introduced in the episode "The Neutral Zone" and seen on a recurring basis in the franchise from then on.[23] In theStar Trek universe, it is twice as big as Picard's Enterprise D and is powered by an artificial quantum singularity.[23] It is noted for its size and power inStar Trek by Picard and his crew.[24] In 2017,Space.com said the Warbird was the 9th best spacecraft in the Star Trek franchise.[25] In 2020,CNET ranked the Romulan Warbird the 16th most powerful spacecraft inStar Trek.[24]
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Twofictional languages have been constructed for the Romulans and Remans of theStar Trek franchise.
The first was created byDiane Duane for hernon-canon series of novels calledRihannsu. In this imagining, it was an intentional creation, based on Old High Vulcan when the Romulans leftVulcan and established their own society. Duane describes it as sounding somewhat likeLatin andWelsh.[26][27]
The second was created for the television seriesStar Trek: Picard. Its script is distinct from occasional glimpses of Romulan writing in earlier series. As of 2021, little information has been released about the language, though it is developed enough to be used for dialog in the show.[citation needed]
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In 2017,Den of Geek ranked Romulans the seventh best aliens out of 50 species from theStar Trek franchise, ahead of theFerengi but behind theQ, and in first and second place respectively were the Vulcans and the Klingons.[28]
The Romulans have been the focus of a number ofnon-canon books and have appeared or been mentioned in other non-canon media. Among their key appearances have been:
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