10 Best Ever Romulan Stories In Star Trek
6. TNG, Unification
Perhaps the story that best defines the different aspect of Romulan culture is Unification from The Next Generation's fifth season. While the episode is of course most famous for the return of Leonard Nimoy's Spock to the small screen for the first time since TOS went off the air in 1969, it is also the first visit by the Star Trek franchise to Romulus itself, showing the home world in the gorgeous matte paintings done by Syd Dutton. (A holographic representation was shown in The Defector, but this is the first time that the planet appears in reality).
The two-part story revolves around the attempts by Spock and the Romulan dissident movement to bring about the re-unification of the Romulan and Vulcan peoples. It was also designed as a promotion for the then-upcoming Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which would also feature Spock and several Romulan characters.
Again, the two sides of Romulan culture are depicted. There is the underground, civilian movement that attempts to change the way that the people think by continuing the teachings of the Vulcan way of life, while above them there is the Romulan Military, scheming to invade Vulcan and bring about re-unification in its own way.
The episode would establish the relationship between Spock and the Romulan people that would continue on into later episodes and the JJ Abrams films that followed. He continued to work with the dissidents after overcoming Sela's plot to use him as a pawn and attempted to help them when the supernova that would become so important to both the JJ Abrams films and Star Trek Picard threatened to destroy Romulus itself.
With the supernova and the scattering of the Romulan people, it is unclear if the dissident movement ever truly stood a chance of becoming the dominant power on the planet but the story shows the will of the people and the will of the military were not always in sync.