Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Romulans

To quote Worf in Star Trek: Generations: "Romulans." If the Klingons have had their own turbulent history with 'those who marched beneath the raptor's wings' — from uneasy allies (and lenders of technology) to "blood enemies" to shady back-door co-conspirators — the rest of the galaxy hasn't fared too well with the species either. Cloak and dagger from the start in the minefield with Starfleet, Earth then fought a four-year war with the Romulans during which neither side had visual contact with the other. After their defeat, the Romulans seemingly just disappeared back into their territory. It was, then, quite the surprise when they popped back out of the Neutral Zone and onto the viewscreen about one hundred years later!

"Two Romulans, three conspiracies," as Michael Chabon, showrunner of Star Trek: Picard's first season put it. Balance of Terror was followed by scheming, plotting, more scheming and plotting, and another period of isolation after the mysterious 'Tomed Incident' before the ominous "We are back" of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then, right up to the destruction of their homeworld, the Romulans couldn't help being spectacularly devious! All this means that we've only seen Romulus on screen a handful of times — from chasing down an ambassador through to catching up with a clone.

We could, of course, always turn to a certain Cardassian tailor and former embassy 'gardener' on Romulus for extra information, but that way we'd end up with more Romulan than Romulan lies.

Here, let's stick to the facts — jolan tru!

"Patrolling outposts guarding the neutral zone between planets Romulus and Remus and the rest of the galaxy," Kirk states in his Captain's log at the start of Act One of Balance of Terror. By now considered one of Star Trek's best, the episode that introduced us to the Romulans was written by Paul Schneider who, despite some apparent confusion over the years, gets the credit for inventing the species in the first place.

In Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, Schneider confirmed his thought process behind the creation: "I came up with the concept of the Romulans which was an extension of the Roman civilisation to the point of space travel." Indeed, it's all there: the mythical twin founders, centurions, the Praetor, Commander Decius… the helmets, and, as shown later, the Senate, assassinations, and slavery (of the Remans). And if the Western Roman Empire fell (in part) to the hubris and political machinations of its leaders, as well as to outside forces, the Romulan Empire owes its demise to much the same reasons.

In The Making of Star Trek (1968), Stephen E. Whitfield and co-credit Gene Roddenberry added further parallels between Romulan society and the latter days of Rome, stating: "Romulans are highly militaristic […]. The Star Empire is a dictatorship, with some similarities to the warrior-stoic philosophies of Earth's ancient Roman Empire." Roddenberry was equally fond of a Cold War parallel so, just as the Klingons were Soviet Russia, "the Romulans [also] represented the 1960s Chinese Communists," according to John Logan in the introduction to the novelisation of Star Trek: Nemesis.