Let's Discuss the Romulan Bird of Prey!

[Ithekro]

The Romulans still need to be considered a viable threat in the TOS era. Having them restricted to a very small area of space with sub-light drives is really a non-threat to the Federation, or even any Federation allies if it would take a decade or more to get to the nearest non-Romulan system.

Having lower powered FTL drives is fine. Even if they are only up to Enterprise era warp factors, they could at least be a threat to the surrounding area.

 

[Mytran]

I knew this sort of thing had been discussed before, but I didn't realise it was on this very thread - and almost a year to the day, at that!

The concept of a single-system Romulan Empire is really attractive and works within the initial episode, Balance of Terror. The name of the war, the "Earth-Romulan conflict" also makes sense, since it was one solar system vs another (albeit with some allies here and there). No need to try and explain this away in terms of the Federation.

Unfortunately, that is where the theory runs out of good ground. Every later encounter seems to refute the notion - Commodore Stocker takes a "short cut" across the NZ to reach Starbase 10, an absurb concept (in interstella terms) if the RNZ merely surrounds a single star - you are effectively cutting through a solar system! Season 3 episodes have the Enterprise actually crossing to the other side of the RNZ, in one instance getting almost instantly surrounded by enemy vessels, in another spending several hours on a hitherto uncharted planet.

I have not seen the TAS episodes recently, but from earlier discussions they don't seem the help the "single-system" theory either.

It's great to see that the original script supported the "single system" Romulan Star Empire model. It matches well with the "Earth / Romulan War" remarks in the dialogue as being fought between two space faring species.
However, even by the time that the famous schematic was produced, this idea seems to have dropped by the wayside - the RNZ is less of a circular permiter and more of a wobbly line between two superpowers - which is handy for future stories!

 

[Ithekro]

If they had been a one used enemy, Romulus as a cut off world after Earth's victory might make sense. But is still would make the lack of knowledge about just who the Romulas are even more odd if Starfleet has been sitting right inside their home system for the last 100 years. Their sensors tend to have good enough range for that sort of thing.

Also the concept of the Nuetral Zone seem more like a draw happened, rather than a total victory one might expect to cut off Romulus from the galaxy. From the "known" galaxy would allow for a simple curved border that goes away eventually as it reaches unknown space. Though this also leaves the other side of the Star Empire "open"

 

[publiusr]

That makes sense.

 

[Timo]

Also the concept of the Nuetral Zone seem more like a draw happened, rather than a total victory one might expect to cut off Romulus from the galaxy.

Dunno - after all, apparently only one side of the Zone has outposts monitoring it!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ithekro]

Didn't Spock say something about suspecting the Romulans had something similar on their side of the Zone? Though in all fairness it seemed like the Federation had very little knowledge of what was beyond the Zone.

 

[Maurice]

Didn't Spock say something about suspecting the Romulans had something similar on their side of the Zone? Though in all fairness it seemed like the Federation had very little knowledge of what was beyond the Zone.

No, he did not. TNG introduced that idea in "The Neutral Zone".

 

[Mytran]

With the original premise of the episode (the RNZ existing to isolate Romulus from the rest of the Galaxy), bases on only one side would be consistent. However, with the revised interpretation (the RNZ as a "space wall" between two superpowers) it just makes sense that there would be Romulan bases as well - cloaked or otherwise.

 

[Timo]

Isolation could be achieved around multiple star systems, too - although probably not with a chain of asteroid outposts so few that a random selection only shows us numbers 1 through 8, rather than, say, 23909588 through 23909596.

Would the goal of the isolation be withering of the empire locked inside? This might work with a single star system (it probably takes interstellar trade for any civilization to evolve to such a high level that they can ultimately sustain themselves by exploiting their own star system only), but not with a "prison" or "reservation" encompassing dozens of star systems.

Or would the goal simply be postponing of further conflicts by providing a formal excuse from attempts to exploit the same resources? The RNZ might be of mutual benefit in that case; even if only one side had the actual guardtowers, the other would also enjoy the symbolic protection of the barbed wire, until time was ripe to have conflict again.

The invisible ship might have been intended as the WWI tank, a novel means of breaking through the RNZ, after which the war could proceed with conventional means and the cloakship would become useless. In such a case, the ship probably wouldn't even need a warp drive. But if the RNZ always was more a symbolic than a concrete obstacle, then the cloakship probably was designed as a means of waging the actual war and triumphing over Earth this time around.

Timo Saloniemi