In the Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, what role did Ambassador Nanclus play in the conspiracy?
Did he act to prevent the Klingons and the Federation from forming an alliance?
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Other than voting to have Kirk/McCoy extradited to Qonos, I don't recall him having a role. But he WAS named as a conspirator, so it's a good question.– OmegacronJan 12, 2015 at 18:07
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3@Omegacron: And one has to wonder how he, as a Romulan ambassador, could possibly have any say about whether or not to extradite UFP citizens to the Klingon Empire, anyway.– O. R. MapperJan 12, 2015 at 20:05
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@O.R.Mapper - very true. However, had he dissented it's likely that the UFP President would have refused to extradite them. During the scene in the President's office, he was basically the swing-vote. Not so much an official vote, but definitely an unofficial one.– OmegacronJan 12, 2015 at 20:53
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Assassination of a treaty ambassador would likely fall under some type of joint jurisdiction, or atleast require some type of consensus of the member parties– user16696Mar 24, 2015 at 16:52
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Romulan and Klingons were official allies at the time after all, no?– user16696Mar 24, 2015 at 16:53
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1 Answer
He was at the least a conspirator
In that year, he was involved in a conspiracy to sabotage peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While in a meeting with the Federation President after the arrest of James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, Nanclus lent his support to "Operation Retrieve," the proposal to infiltrate Klingon space and rescue the hostages, put forth by Nanclus' fellow conspirator, Colonel West. Later, Nanclus attended the Khitomer Conference. After the crew of the USS Enterprise-A learned of his involvement in the conspiracy, and successfully prevented the assassination of the Federation President at the conference, he was detained by Starfleet. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Anywhere that you look on Memory Alpha they all say that he was a co-conspirator to undermine peace talks, so whether or not he was involved in the rest of what was going on, I am sure that he was at the least trying to undermine the peace talks and this gave him some ammunition
David A. McIntee once proposed that he may have been the initiator of the conspiracy in a Star Trek Magazine article
Author David A. McIntee once proposed that Nanclus was actually the initiator of the conspiracy, having secretly put the idea that the Federation were the true threat to the Klingon Empire into General Chang's mind, due to Romulan concerns that the Klingons and Federation were about to form a pact. McIntee went on to characterize Nanclus as "almost certainly the true villain of the movie, and probably the most forgotten of the Trek villains." (Star Trek Magazine issue 149, p. 64)
Obviously the Romulans didn't want the Klingons and the Federation teaming up, because the Romulans couldn't possibly overpower them in tandem, which means that the Romulans could never expand into Federation or Klingon space.
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At what point does being an instigator cause someone to become a conspirator? What about conspiracy theorists? Or even just a paranoid or concerned third party.– user16696Mar 24, 2015 at 16:56
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Down vote because Mcintee has nothing to do with the writing or production of the movie or anything to do with this character aside from a magazine conjecture– user16696Mar 24, 2015 at 17:05
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@cde, had you followed the links you would see that it is common knowledge --> Memory Alpha - Nanclus.
While in a meeting with the Federation President after the arrest of James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, Nanclus lent his support to "Operation Retrieve," the proposal to infiltrate Klingon space and rescue the hostages, put forth by Nanclus' fellow conspirator, Colonel West.– MalachiMar 24, 2015 at 17:19 -
The Star Trek Magazine is an official magazine, so should be considered somewhat canon. Star Trek Magazine - Memory Alpha– MalachiMar 24, 2015 at 17:25
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also see (Memory Alpha - David McIntee)[en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/David_A._McIntee]. this makes it sound like he wrote an episode guide for Voyager and that he would have had another published but was thrown out because of publisher rivalry. so maybe he has some knowledge on the subject, at least enough to get published in an official magazine and an episode guide for a major Star Trek series that is in canon– MalachiMar 24, 2015 at 17:32