Star Trek XI: Romulan Wars?

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Posted by michael on Friday July 9, 2004 @07:30AM from the it's-all-downhill-from-here dept.

Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that the next Star Trek movie will deal with the war between Earth and the Romulans that led to the founding of the Federation. According to Rick Berman, the film will be 'set before the time of Kirk, but will not be connected with Enterprise.' So how will they make this fit with the Classic Trek episode Balance of Terror, in which we learned that no human ever saw the face of a Romulan during the Romulan Wars?"

23 of 753 comments (clear)

Uh.... by raehl · 2004-07-09 07:30 · Score: 5, Funny

Maybe the Romulans wear Vulcan disguises?

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1. Re:Uh.... by freqres · 2004-07-09 07:43 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  That sounds supisciously like Sci-Fi pr0n to me.
  
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Kill all the crew... by grub · 2004-07-09 07:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

So how will they make this fit with the Classic Trek episode Balance of Terror, in which we learned that no human ever saw the face of a Romulan during the Romulan Wars?"

Perhaps no human that saw a Romulan made it back to Federation space to report the fact?

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1. Re:Kill all the crew... by blowdart · 2004-07-09 07:36 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Simple.
  Berman : "How do I fix this"
  Braga : "Particle of the week"
2. Re:Kill all the crew... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · 2004-07-09 08:02 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Actually, the temporal cold war was part of the original series- Remember the Mirror Universe? There's suggestions in some of the books that it started about the same time Lake Sloan on Alpha Centauri III changed it's name to Lake Riker- thus the incursion in First Contact created the new timeline Enterprise is in, the shadowy figure the Suliban are following is likely Emperor Tiberius Kirk or somebody from his government, and the people from the thirtyeth century are trying to head off the mirror universe before it causes too much damage.
  
  Along the way we also have the Sphere Builders the Xendi were fighting (read the New Voyages books for more info on this one) and now this new movie.
  
  But back to the original thread- Balance of Terror's claim of a lack of information about the Romulans can be explained one of three ways:
  1. This is the original timeline not in the mirror universe, so without Suliban interferance the Federation didn't even meet up with the Romulans until the war.
  2. This is the mirror universe- so due to Suliban interferance in the timeline, the Romulans gained a whole new set of technolgies- including cloaking technology- that allowed for the creation of the minefield seen in that Enterprise episode that I can't remember the name of right now, and therefore this movie will use Enterprise-style cloaking beacons to defeat cloaking, changing the entire nature of the Romulan War.
  3. Due to use of Nukes, nobody in the Romulan war actually ever sees a Romulan- at least, not without getting a lethal dose of radiation, as insinuated in Balance of Terror.
  
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3. Re:Kill all the crew... by Tassach · 2004-07-09 08:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  we'll have to accept that Star Trek is finally dead
  Some of us already have, and have moved on. As far as I'm concerned, Star Trek died when DS9 went off the air. They kept the body on life support for Voyager, but it was brain dead. Enterprise is a brain-eating zombie made from the dead carcass of Star Trek. The only reason Rodenberry isn't spinning in his grave is that his ashes are in orbit.
  
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Easy by belg4mit · 2004-07-09 07:31 · Score: 5, Interesting

Just make sure whomever does, dies. Sheesh.

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Berman, future, past, and stealing ideas. by numbski · 2004-07-09 07:31 · Score: 5, Interesting

Heh, further proof thatBerman couldn't get an original idea to save his life.

Okay, so it's not EXACTLY the same, but dang, how close can a guy get? Anyway, sounds to me like this would be better 'experimented' as a TV miniseries, as you're going to have to introduce characters, do character development, plot development, and plot resolution all in a single flick. In a miniseries, you'd have more screen time to work with, and wouldn't have to rush through it all.

Oh wait, this is Berman we're talking about. Then again, we'd be bashing him if this were announced as a miniseries talking about how much it's going to suck. :\

My personal feeling is that until they return to the TNG timeline, come up with a believable story plot, and give the Berman team a rest, things aren't going to get better. Perhaps dropping the franchise altogether is the answer, but not so long as the cash flows is that going to happen.

I know! Captain B-4 of the Starship Enterprise-F! :P Always remember to keep a reliable backup of your Data. ;)

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1. Re:Berman, future, past, and stealing ideas. by B3ryllium · 2004-07-09 07:40 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  My opinion is that Joss Whedon is what B&B can never be; a quality writer who cares about the material.
  
  That's why I plan to eschew Star Trek movies in favour of Serentity, due out in 2005. :)
2. Re:Berman, future, past, and stealing ideas. by AKAImBatman · 2004-07-09 07:45 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You're not the only one to complain. I have a few wishes that had better be met if this movie is going to be any good:
  
  1. There better be a reset button hidden in that Temporal Cold War. We need to wipe out that idiot Enterprise episode where the Romulans were able to cloak. Not to mention the "invention" of phase cannons and photon torpedos.
  
  2. NUKES! BIG FRIGGIN' NUKES! There's only one way to fight a space war before phasers and photons, and that's with Gigawatt lasers/masers and BIG ASS NUKES!
  
  3. No hull plating. That stuff is the stupidest invention yet. They can use M2P2 shields for protection against radiation and nuclear explosions. Fine. But "charged" hull plating that "wears away" is just stupid. Ablative armor is the way REAL wars are fought.
  
  Think they'll listen?
  
  NAH. It will all be "photons", "phasers", "Oops, I fell on [bimbo of the series] boobs", and "Oh, yeah. There's like this... war... thing, going on. Guess we better save the day. Let's act REAL angry and tell them they're wrong. That always works."
  
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3. Re:Berman, future, past, and stealing ideas. by Jerf · 2004-07-09 08:24 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Hey, all you nerds! Even if Firefly wasn't your cup of tea, let's help Serenity kick Star Trek's ass at the box office. It would be good for everyone... most especially Star Trek, which needs all of us to stop shoveling our money over for crap so that there is an incentive to stop making that crap.
West Wing episode 4.10 "Arctic Radar" by spoonyfork · 2004-07-09 07:35 · Score: 5, Funny

West Wing episode 4.10 "Arctic Radar"
JANICE I'm not obsessed, you know. JOSH I'm sorry? JANICE I'm not obsessed. I'm just a fan, and I care. JOSH What's your name again? JANICE Janice. JOSH I'm a fan. I'm a sports fan, I'm a music fan and I'm a Star Trek fan. All of them. But here's what I don't do. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar: "Let's list our ten favorite episodes. Let's list our least favorite episodes. Let's list our favorite galaxies. Let's make a chart to see how often our favorite galaxies appear in our favorite episodes. What Romulan would you most like to see coupled with a Cardassian and why? Let's spend a weekend talking about Romulans falling in love with Cardassians and then let's do it again." That's not being a fan. That's having a fetish. And I don't have a problem with that, except you can't bring your hobbies in to work, okay? JANICE Got it.

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Speak truth to power.
Re:Many options for resolving the conflict by raehl · 2004-07-09 07:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

Ignore old Trek on the assumption that only the geekiest fans would remember that episode and the rest wouldn't care.

I think the real assumption is that a geeky fan who pays for a ticket isn't any better than a geeky fan who pays for a ticket and gets pissed off about plot inconsistencies.

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paintball
Give Straczynski a chance!! by October_30th · 2004-07-09 07:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

Straczynski of the B5-fame has expressed his interest in getting involved with Star Trek.
Why don't they just give B&B something else to do and give JMS free hands like Warner Bros did with B5.

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The owls are not what they seem
Film the movie like Das Boot by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-07-09 07:44 · Score: 5, Interesting

In the original theatrical release of Das Boot, you never saw outside the craft. You lived the clasterphobic terror of WWII submarine warfare.
(Of course the director's cut went off and added a whole bunch of cheasy plastic model in a green tank of water shots. Bastards.)
Frankly, you don't really need to see the face of your enemy in a space battle. They are a blinking set of lights a few kilometers away. It's just a question of turning that blinking set of lights into a fireball before they turn you into one.

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Improving Star Trek, the idiot's guide: by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-09 07:46 · Score: 5, Funny
1. Shoot Rick Berman in the face with a nuke cannon.
2. Bring back Gates McFadden. Irish people rock.
3. Bring back Patrick Stewart. Bald english people rock.
4. Bring back Jeri Ryan. Walking plot-elements rock, occasionally.
5. Bring back Leonard Nimoy. It's only logical.
6. Bring back whoever the hell played Kira in DS9. We need aggresive people who dont mind kicking ass.
7. Bring back whoever played Worf. Same thing as Kira.
8. Elimate time travel. Blame Q. Then elimate Q as well, blame time travel.
9. Make the Borg kick ass again.
10. More action. If I wanted advice on parenting, decisions, whatever, I'd visit my mother. Stop talking and kill those idiots.
11. Bring Garibaldi and Marcus Cole from B5 into the series. They are awesome. Ivanova would be nice too, but she and Kira would likely kill eachother within five minutes.
12. Leave the script to Mel Brooks.
Re:Oh hell no by najay · 2004-07-09 07:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

They killed Data the same way they killed Spock. Death is, more or less, an abstract concept when dealing with major characters in the Star Trek universes.
Re:Romulan faces by PortHaven · 2004-07-09 07:52 · Score: 5, Funny

Some clarification on the historical documents you refer to:

a) there has been discovered a historical error of 4 yrs in the records, WWIII in fact began on 2001

b) over the years the dialect changes of BASIC has caused some confusion. Recent discoveries have also shed light that the war did not start "after Khan" but rather in "Afghanistan"

Just as our historical documents (textbooks, films, etc) are full of errors so are the ones of the 23rd and 24th centuries...
Re:*NERD ALERT* by reverius · 2004-07-09 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

You're on Slashdot. The Nerd Alert is unnecessary.

Did you think this was "News for Normal People, Stuff that Isn't Geeky"?
Kill Berman. Then put the franchise in stasis. by MsGeek · 2004-07-09 07:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

These are the same guys who are PROUD of the fact that they never watched the original series.
Now I know why I absolutely loathe Rick Berman and what he has done to Star Trek. TOS is the root from which the entire Star Trek Universe sprang. Cheesy or not, it is the model for everything that came before it.
Someone yank the ST franchise from Berman's grubbies and put it on hiatus for a while. Voyager and Enterprise suck runny eggs. It's time to put it to bed. Maybe give it to Stracynski (sp?) after a few fallow years.

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Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Humans will get to see Romulans by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-09 08:04 · Score: 5, Interesting

Star Trek TOS got it wrong. They had the official story. In reality, humans will see Romulans a couple of times during the war. The Vulcans will engineer a cover-up, destroying records and doctoring memories with mind-melds.
Re: Who cares about "classic" trek? by Dr.+GeneMachine · 2004-07-09 08:33 · Score: 5, Funny

>>I don't particularly like the original Star Trek
>Let me guess....you use emacs, right?
And there, at first unnoticed in a somewhat offtopic thread on /., it happened. The combination of two flamebaits, the Star-Trek-TOS-vs.-later-series and vi-vs.-emacs debates. Little did the original posters know about what they unleashed, a critical flame-mass triggering the worlds first thermonuclear flamewar. Centuries did it take for historians to recover the way of events from mostly degraded hard disks. Up to now it is heavily debated in the scientific community, whether "frist ps0t!" had anything to do with this, and what kind of deities the mighty "vi" and the world-shattering "emacs" represented...

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Re:'Secret history'? by noewun · 2004-07-09 09:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's not so tight. It doesn't explain the lack of any NX-01's hanging on the walls of various incarnations of the Enterprise.
There's a very, very, very good explanation for this: Enterprise wasn't written when those scenes were filmed.
It's that simple.
I know there is an enormous amount of disagreement here, but, to me, a lot of it misses a very simple point: you can't undertake a successful creative endeavor by starting with contraints, and the desire of many Trek fans that new series stick to a timeline which was made up on the fly by Roddenberry et al. in the original series is an enormous impediment. Personally, I felt that TNG, DS9 and friends were dreadfully boring series which seemed to excel only at technobabble and pseudoscience. The characters were one-dimensional audioanimatrons, the plots predictable and tired. Watching TNG was sometimes like watching a lecture in "how to be an evolved species", and DS9 was like some freshman creative writing project gone all wrong.
Yawn.
Enterprise is the first show since the original series I can really sink my teeth into: imperfect characters, unknown space and some good old fashioned alien ass kicking. I don't care about fidelilty to some idea of fictional continiuity. I care about a series I can enjoy watching.

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