10 Best Ever Romulan Stories In Star Trek

This episode of The Next Generation's sixth season gave us the fearsome Tal Shiar, the Romulan Secret Police (though as Laris says to Jean Luc in Star Trek Picard, one could put the word secret before any aspect of Romulan society.) Deanna Troi is kidnapped by the Romulan dissident movement and surgically altered to look like a Romulan, then placed on a Warbird to ensure the safe transport of several high ranking dissident leaders to the Federation.

While important for the introduction of the Tal Shiar themselves, another split is shown in Romulan society - that of the military and the secret military police. Around every corner there is another threat and another reason for mistrust and paranoia.

The Tal Shiar are both a response to this and a cause of it. Echoing the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, stories are told of the Tal Shiar dragging old men from their beds for daring to speak against them. It is evident that they hold a special position of power, depicted as Troi easily overrules the Romulan Commander for most of the episode's run time, until eventually her cover slips and she has to be rescued by the Enterprise.

The Tal Shiar would remain a formidable force and would eventually team up with the Cardassian Obsidian Order in an attempt to destroy the Founders of the Dominion, a move that would serve to weaken but not destroy them, which is more than can be said for their Cardassian counterparts. Far into the Dominion War and beyond, they still exist. They were shown again in Star Trek Deep Space Nine (more on that later) and are said to still be in power in Star Trek Picard, even after the destruction of the home world itself.