27
votes
Accepted
How can Picard have a Romulan housekeeper?
The Romulan Star Empire appears to be gone
The supernova decimated the Romulans. While they may still have a government, they clearly are no longer the political power they were during the TNG era. We ...
- 53.7k
25
votes
Accepted
Why is "Romulan is a dirty word in the writers’ room" for Star Trek: Discovery?
Between the end of The Romulan War and the original series episode Balance of Terror, there had been little or no contact between the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation. Kirk didn't know what a ...
- 14.1k
23
votes
Why did the Romulans loan a cloaking device to the Federation in DS9?
With the revelation of the Wormhole and the Dominion the Federation wanted to explore the Gamma Quadrant and learn anything they could about them. The Romulans were also interested in this, and ...
- 66.5k
21
votes
Accepted
Why did the Romulans loan a cloaking device to the Federation in DS9?
Consider the Romulan's position. There was a new region of space suddenly accessible, with none of the history or diplomatic complexity of the Alpha Quadrant. They need information, or else they risk ...
- 4,999
19
votes
How did Romulans and Vulcans split 1600 years before developing warp drive?
Canon
The answer is probably 'very very slowly'. We know that the Vulcans have had the capability of limited space flight for multiple thousands of years by the age of the Vulcan Monastery on P'Jem ...
- 718k
16
votes
Did previous Star Trek series establish Romulan distrust of androids?
No. This anti-android stuff is new to the Picard show. See a comparison to TNG's the Defector.
- 11.5k
15
votes
Is Sybok a Romulan?
No, Sybok was Vulcan.
Sybok was the son of Sarek and an unnamed Vulcan princess. He is biologically %100 Vulcan.
Sybok did not want to follow the teachings of Surak. This is indeed what the caused the ...
- 39.1k
14
votes
How did Lt. Stiles know that Romulan ships are painted with a bird of prey?
The very next lines in Balance of Terror explain that Stiles knows it through family members who had served in the war a century before:
STILES: You'll know, sir. They're painted like a giant bird-of-...
- 3,905
14
votes
How can Picard have a Romulan housekeeper?
The political landscape has changed dramatically.
First of all, we learned in Star Trek (2009) that the destruction of the Hobus star in 2387 had obliterated the home solar system of the Romulan ...
- 112k
14
votes
Accepted
How can a single-planet species pose a threat to the Federation?
The Klingons and the Romulans control vast expanses of space. They have colonized many planets and have a population that might be rivalling that of the Federation. There's a reason they're called '...
- 8,880
13
votes
Accepted
Are there any (canon) differences between Klingon and Romulan cloaking devices?
We know that Klingons have the technical ability and know-how to modify the cloak. In Star Trek VI, they have a bird of prey that can fire weapons while cloaked, a no-no even up to the Voyager era (...
- 8,351
13
votes
Accepted
Why did Romulans attack Khitomer and why did Ja'rod (father of Duras) help?
To answer your first question: despite what Worf says in the first season, the Romulans and Klingons weren't really allies any more by that point. Indeed, the attack on Narendra III where the ...
- 13k
12
votes
Accepted
Why are the crew surprised at Romulan cloaking technology in the "Enterprise Incident"?
From The Enterprise Incident's Memory Alpha Continuity section:
The Romulans have improved their cloaking system since "Balance of Terror" and "The Deadly Years". In the former, Spock refers to it ...
- 20.3k
9
votes
How did Romulans and Vulcans split 1600 years before developing warp drive?
The earliest period in Vulcan prehistory we have any information about was many thousands of years before the split between Vulcans and Romulans.
In "Return to Tomorrow" the Enterprise ...
- 43k
8
votes
How is this mild Picard spoiler possible?
It's unclear what really happened in the Neutral Zone, and if the Borg actually assimilated anyone
It might be a plot hole, but there really is no sufficient information on what happened. This is ...
- 8,185
8
votes
Accepted
How did Lt. Stiles know that Romulan ships are painted with a bird of prey?
Nothing in the quotes you've provided supports the conclusion that this was the first time the Federation had seen Romulan ships.
Nor was there even ship-to-ship, visual communication;
The absence ...
- 17.3k
7
votes
Accepted
How did the Tal Shiar rebuild but the Obsidian Order couldn't?
The Tal Shiar had more support from the government. It was customary for the head of the Tal Shiar to sit on the Continuing Committee, the highest advisors to the Praetor, and some high-ranking Tal ...
- 13k
6
votes
How can a single-planet species pose a threat to the Federation?
A military threat is created when the population and the industrial potential of a species are diverted to military purposes. There is a proverb that in war, nobody is ever killed by a piece of gross ...
- 5,319
6
votes
Why did Romulans attack Khitomer and why did Ja'rod (father of Duras) help?
Based on similar events years later I think we can make some deductions. Ja'rod being from a prominent klingon house no doubt was deeply invested in the Romulan alliance that had briefly failed a few ...
- 11.5k
6
votes
A comment from Michael Chabon reveals that Romulan marriages are threesomes; has this ever been mentioned before?
As far as I know, this suggestion by him has not appeared in a canonical episode. It might even be contradicted by Season 2 Episode 1 of Picard, "The Star Gazer", where Romulan housekeeper ...
- 239k
5
votes
Accepted
What exactly are Romulan interests in the Borg Reclamation Project?
Although the Borg are not synthetic life, they are arguably along a spectrum where natural life falls at one end and Data pretty much represents the other end. The Borg might be on an evolutionary/...
- 12k
5
votes
How can Picard have a Romulan housekeeper?
As I see it, there are two parts to the question.
Why are they working for Picard, and in apparently subservient roles? AND
How are they permitted by Authorities to be so close with Picard?
To ...
- 151
5
votes
What is the in-universe origin of the Vulcan salute (within Vulcan culture)?
As far as I know, they never devised an in-universe origin of the Vulcan salute. Since neither Memory Alpha nor Memory Beta or even the extensive biography of Gene Roddenberry talks about it, I'm ...
- 8,880
4
votes
Class of the Reman Warbird Scimitar
In the non-canon video game Star Trek Online, other ships of the same model exist and are referred to as "Scimitar-class" dreadnoughts. This is consistent with Star Trek's general policy of ship ...
- 17.3k
4
votes
Klingon war ships to Romulan
It is speculated outside of canon that the Klingons and Romulans enjoyed a brief and tumultuous alliance during the mid-23rd century, during which time the Klingons traded their more rugged D7-Class ...
- 8,976
4
votes
Accepted
What is the penalty for unlawful possession of Romulan Ale in the Federation?
In the absence of canonical evidence, we can only speculate.
Out-of-universe, however, the ban on Romulan Ale was very probably inspired by the real-life ban on Cuban cigars so it seems likely that ...
- 17.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the Romulans take advantage of The Burn?
This answer tries to establish that Dilithium was part of the Romulan propulsion drive, too. Even if it weren't, it seems that the Romulan society as we know it no longer exists at that time - but ...
- 8,185
4
votes
What (if anything) does the Romulan Empire use for money?
TV/Film Canon
We don't know. As lucasbachmann has mentioned in a comment, we do know that they have some sort of exchange system because when Picard and Data visit a classy Romulan establishment in ...
- 718k
3
votes
Do any other TNG-era Romulans lack brow ridges?
I don't know if this counts. But Commander Sela (Tasha Yars daugther with a Romulan) has not even a hint of the brow ridges:
I am not aware of any other half Romulan / half Humans, but with any other ...
- 16.1k
3
votes
How is this mild Picard spoiler possible?
For completeness I thought I should add this:
It's a plot hole.
The Romulan Orum was assimilated prior to Seven's liberation from the collective, in Voyager Unity. Additionally, in Infinite ...
- 1,413
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