10 Times Star Trek Broke Its Own Rules

4. The Romulan Cloaking Device - Minefield

Star Trek Romulan
CBS

Minefield is a second season episode of Enterprise that depicts the Romulans as having access to cloaking technology. This episode is set almost 100 years prior to the early episode of Star Trek, Balance of Terror.

In Balance of Terror, the cloaking device is depicted as being relatively new technology. Therefore, on-screen, Romulans seem to have a very different definition of what new and old are.

There is an explanation given for this, but it is not depicted in canon. Rather, the non-canon book The Good That Men Do explains that the Birds of Prey seen in Minefield were experimental ships, similar to the Klingon Bird of Prey in Star Trek VI. The experiments were deemed failures and it would take a long time for the Romulans to perfect the technology.

This is all well and good - but none of that is explained in the show!

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Seán is the host and head writer/presenter for TrekCulture, as well as a writer/presenter on WhoCulture and WhatCulture Horror. He has authored two novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of articles for WhatCulture. He holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. As part of his work with TrekCulture, Seán has been invited to participate in collaborations with Roddenberry Entertainment, as well as contributing to several Star Trek community projects. An avid fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the horror genre at large, Seán's expertise has helped develop these channels to the successes they are today. As host of the Ups & Downs series on TrekCulture, Seán has become internationally recognised for his positive yet critically informed approach to reviewing every episode of modern Star Trek, ensuring he is one of the go-to voices in the Trek community. Favourite Quote to describe himself: "I'm serious about what I do, just not always about the way that I do it"