Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Romulan Warbird You Need To Know

If you've been paying attention to our previous dozen or so "10 Secrets of" articles and videos (aka the Dolphin Series aka the Pole Series), you might be picking up on a recurring theme: Star Trek likes to reuse its futuristic stuff. A lot.

Without the benefit of CGI, the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation were especially good at taking their starship models and slapping a fresh coat of paint or a few new greebles onto them and calling them a brand new ship. This was especially true for vessels like the aforementioned Tarellian ship from the episode "Haven", which, with a few minor modifications, went on to appear as the Zalkonian warship in "Transfigurations", the Ktarian ship in "The Game", the Hunter ship in Deep Space Nine's "Captive Pursuit", and the Haakonian shuttle in Voyager's "Jetrel". And don't even get us started on the many, many redresses of the Husnock ship from "The Survivors".

The caveat here, though, is Trek's producers also knew when they simply couldn't pass an iconic starship off as something else, like the Klingon Bird of Prey, or the Vor'cha-class attack cruiser, and the D'deridex-class Romulan warbird. As one of TNG's most recognizable and merchandised ships, the Romulan warbird was never repainted or modified to guest star as a different ship, it was always the Romulan warbird.

However, a couple of pieces of the D'deridex-class have popped up over the years, repurposed as different alien starships and even props in the Star Trek Universe.

Notably, both the Mazarite ship from Star Trek: Enterprise's "Fallen Hero" and the Illyrian starship from "Damage" are "derivative" models of the Romulan warbird. While they were created utilizing CGI (not repurposed physical models), both of these alien vessels are simply the upper half of the Romulan warbird, given a yellow-ish hue and a few new details. According to Doug Drexler, Enterprise's VFX team was instructed by the producers to use the warbird pieces:

The Mazarite Attack Ship was always a puzzler. Why? How? It's immediately recognizable as derived from Probert's iconic Romulan Warbird. Not that Trek isn't known for getting multiple uses from it's motorpool. What makes it so noteworthy is this is one of the only times a highly recognizable hero ship was recycled in such a manner. A hall of fame head scratcher for sure.

Additionally, an engine from AMT's commercially available Romulan warbird scale model also cropped up in an unexpected place. Apparently coopted by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's property department, a single Romulan warbird nacelle was repainted and given blinking lights to become an engineering tool in "Visionary" and "Favor the Bold" as well as for Voyager's "Collective".