tonight's Enterprise - - - - ROMULANS!

[wyldwolf]

[FM Arouet666]

1. Damn nice episode......

I am loving Enterprise the more I watch. They sure do have a penchant for ending a multi-part episode at just the right moment to drive me running screaming into the night. Can't wait for next week......

[Enraged_Ape]

2. With a special appearance by "Hee-Haw" greats the Hager Brothers

as the chief engineer's twin uncles, Billy and Bubba Joe.

Actually, you remind me: Wasn't "Balance of Terror" in TOS supposed to be the first time the Federation encountered the Romulans? Is this show planning to bring Balok back next? (They could still get Ron Howard's brother Clint to play him. He looks like Balok in real life now, so they could save money on makeup.)

As long as the producers of this show are so creatively bankrupt that they have to plunder the original series for characters and plots, I suggest they bring back those hot babes in the miniskirts that steal Vulcans' brains. That might give this show the ratings boost it needs--though I must admit, it would not be as effective as the "Trip suffers gory impalement by wrench" episode I suggested in another thread.

[wyldwolf]

3. has the federation encountered the Romulans yet?

I don't recall that happening on any Enterprise ep.

...and actually, Earth fought a war with the Romulans long before the ep you mentioned - in fact, it should be happening about 4 years from the time "Enterprise" is in, if I recall.

Trek history is vast, my friend, and Enterprise hasn't actually violated canon yet... but they've pushed it a little.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

4. If the crew of Enterprise haven't actually seen a Romulan...

then canon hasn't been violated. As far as I can recall, in "Balance of Terror", Starfleet didn't know what the Romulans looked like until the Enterprise was able to peek into the Romulan's bridge.
I didn't see the episode, I must admit.

[wyldwolf]

5. pretty accurate. According to Trek canon...

Earth fought the Romulans in a war around Captain Archer's time and never laid eyes on them.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

6. Well, that's good

I remember an interview with Braga who actually bragged that he'd never seen an episode of the original series. When they were working on the script for "First Contact", he said "Zefram Cochrane....that sounds like a good love interest for Captain Picard".
So you can understand why I've been skeptical of Braga's influence on Trek for quite a time. (I'll try to find the interview. I recall it was quite funny.)

[wyldwolf]

7. Manny Coto has definitely revived Enterprise

..Paramount should have replaced Berman-Braga years ago.

[Ravenseye]

10. I think it might be a good thing

As long as Braga's influence is kept in check by somebody who knows canon.

See sometimes you need someone who hasn't seen or isn't familiar with anything to come up with some truly original stuff. People complain when they don't come up with anything good new or original, but if you keep using the same writers they're gonna start getting stale and rehashing stuff.

The only problem is not keeping a leash on a new writer when they stray from established canon, which is important in a multi decade ongoing story.

[Orsino]

20. And now we know (Enterprise spoilers)...

...how the Romulans might never meet the Feddies face-to-face in this series, yet still wreak havoc with their drones. This little arc also shows us what the Romulans *must* have invented prior to that cloaking device.

Nice extrapolation, or whatever extrapolation in reverse is called. And what an exciting show ("United," the second in the miniseries)! The Shran character is fascinating--despicable and admirable in turn, in a way that comes across as, well, alien.

As long as we're comparing Enterprise to other Treks, I'll say that the rationale for getting Archer into that duel to the death beats the heck out of the wacky excuse for the Kirk-Spock fight in "Amok Time," and was less contrived than the impressment of Riker as a prosecuting attorney in "Measure of a Man." And Enterprise had the courage to spend *two* scenes on the underlings' search for a loophole, which ended in failure.

I don't buy Archer's victory for a minute, not with a weapon he'd never seen before, and with which his opponent had trained almost since birth--*and* after being wounded and dazed. As Archer himself pointed out, though, this was the *only* outcome that could have saved the fragile alliance.

I'd love to see a later episode credit some Temporal Cold Warrior with having engineered his victory.

[Endangered Specie]

8. no...

The TOS episode Balance of Terror was the first time anyone (federation) SAW a Romulan... naturally they were all suprised in that episode to see that they all looked liked Vulcans... course the Vulcans are very much on a need to know basis with giving out info... which is why everyone looked mighty damn funny at Spock in that episode.

Humans had a War with the Romulans (but never saw them)

However, the Romulans AREN'T supposed to have Warp Drive for sometime... oh well I guess some canon must be sacrificed... It still was a good ENT episode.

[FM Arouet666]

9. Glad to see defense of ST Ent, but a question.

I am hooked on ST Ent, but see that many on this board despise the series. This may be justified, as I missed the first three seasons, but the recent episodes are very good.

My question, where do you draw the information regarding the time table for Romulan warp drive capability? I just reviewed Startrek.com, but didn't find much info. You are probably right, and I am just too tired to recall the pertinent episodes.

[Ravenseye]

11. There is too much peripheral information.

I had a book one time that was all about the different star trek species. It had coordinates for their home worlds, pictures, drawings, and stories. One of the species it mentioned was Alpha Centauri. In this book it talked about first contact being made between an Earth exploration vessel and an Alpha Centauri exploration vessel and how surprised they were that they looked alike. How they worked on understanding each other, etc.

That was completely destroyed when they made the first contact movie, and it weirded me out.

Granted that book was never canon but it was an official publication.

I think the Romulan Warp drive thing is simliar. I dont' recall them ever setting a date for it in the series anywhere.

They fought a war with the Romulans but never laid eyes on them then didn't see them for a while.

[wyldwolf]

12. *** You may be referring to "Strangers From The Sky" ***

In that excellent novel, set in Kirk's time, details are given of how earth made first contact with the Vulcans.

The book begins by explaining how the first alien species man made contact with was the result of the voyage of the UNSS Icarus to Alpha Centauri in 2048.

The first contact with Vulcans, according to official sources, came about when the earth ship UNSS Amity rescued a disable Vulcan craft adrift inside our solar system in 2065.

But, as the book explains, that is only the OFFICIAL story. In reality, man had an encounter with the Vulcans years before but it remained hush hush.

The book, however, isn't canon. The story in the movie "First Contact" strayed a bit from official canon but kept time with the mentioned book as Vulcans being the first encounter with aliens earth had.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671640496/qid=1107215814/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-7900126-2624842?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Another great source is "Star Trek Chronology" which draws a history of our galaxy based on all the TV series and movies - from the Big Bang to th 123rd century. It states the Romulan wars began in 2158 and was fought with atomic weapons. The Romulan fleet didn't even have warp drive.

This info is based on conjecture from "Balance of Terror" (TOS) which said the war ended about 100 years prior to that episode.

However, in the DS9 episode "Homefront" it is implied the Romulans reached earth during the war - suggesting some sort of warp capabilities...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671536109/qid=1107218976/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-7900126-2624842?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[coloradodem2005]

13. 2156, actually.

Enterprise is currently set in late 2154 so we are getting close. I am glad that they are setting up the conflict now and I was worried that they wouldn't do so.

[Ravenseye]

14. Did it mention how long the war lasted?

If the current enterprise year is 2154 then season 5 could be the foundation of the federation of some sorts...at least an alliance of the Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and Andorians....the core four. Then end season 5 with the start of the romulan war.

Season 6 set in 2156 would be perfectly set up to be the Romulan war. Then unless the war was specified as being a long one, you could see the series conclude in season 7 (don't most star trek series go 7 years?) with the end of the war or maybe the foundation of the actual federation.

That'd make it a cool series overall in my book.

[coloradodem2005]

16. They estimate the end in 2160.

That could be problematic.

[Ravenseye]

17. Not Necessarily

If for some reason the ratings pick up enough to justify movies, you could have the war continue, the federation form and then leave it hanging for a movie or two about the true official birth of the federation and defeat of the romulans.

[wyldwolf]

18. the foundation of the federation is currently happening on Enterprise

Don't miss the next new ep.

[Ravenseye]

19. Yeah it's the early stages

but it's not the actual foundation. I mean maybe the start of a tenative 4 way alliance but not the federation itself.

I'd say what we're seeing now is the basis for the four races to come together for talks of alliance. Then maybe by the end of this season or early next season we're looking at an actual alliance. No matter what happens right now the Andorians aren't going to join a political body along with the Vulcans. Yet.

[Ravenseye]

15. No, but that must be where it came from.

I don't remmeber the name of the book i'm refering to, but it was a large sized paperback. About the size of a roleplaying book. It was essentially a Star Trek Encylcopedia of different species, from Humans, to Vulcans, to Klingons, to THolians, etc. Each page was a different species, with coordinates for the homeworld, a drawing of the species, and description of the species and it's world.

The background story of Alpha Centuari must be taken from that book.