I usually avoid the trailers for Discovery so as not to spoil myself, but I’ve been
looking forwards to this ever since I saw the title. “Unification part 3”. The full
review will be on Sunday, this isn’t that. The unification movement is one that was started
in the next generation era by Ambassador Spock within the Romulan Star Empire and it’s
been explored in other media alongside some setup in Star Trek Picard. So, let’s take
a quick look at the lore leading up to this. The Romulans are descended form the Vulcans.
Back around the 4th century, according to Earth’s calendar and the Romulan Way Books,
the Sundering took place when “Those who Marched Beneath the Raptor’s Wings” were
warring with other Vulcans using Atomic Weapons. During this time, Surak, the great Vulcan
philosopher and spiritual leader began spreading his teachings on emotional control through
suppression, leading to the Vulcan people we see for the majority of Star Trek. Those
who followed the D’era, the Way of the Romulans however left on a self-imposed exiled across
the stars rather than join this expanding movement.
The ships they left on traversed interstellar space, making multiple pitstops until final
they settled in the Romulus system where they became Romulans. The Sundering deserves its
own video, so I’m working on that one separately, for now this is about the reunification.
The first attempts at unification, of a sort could be considered the subversive alteration
of the Vulcan High Command throughout the 2150s. They had agents embedded on Vulcan,
and thanks to the fact the Vulcans were unaware that their cousins had survived the exile,
the Romulans had carte balnche to ingratiate themselves on Vulcan. This however was foiled
by the Enterprise and the return of the teachings of Surak through the Syrranite movement that
reformed Vulcan, bringing it back to the same path of logic, pacifism and intellectualism
that the Romulans had disagreed with in the first place.
This whole ordeal is documented in the 4th season of Enterprise and would have seen the
Vulcan people gradually turned to the Romulan’s way of thinking so, reunification or corruption,
you decide what the Romulan end goal was. Eventually in 2266, it was revealed to the
Federation, and therefore to the Vulcan people at large that the Romulans were the descendants
of these exiled Vulcans, and one of the first to publicly learn this was Commander Spock,
of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 as seen an “Balance of Terror”.
Over the years, the Romulans continually made forays into Federation space, but there was
no true war since the original Earth-Romulan War of 2155 to 60, which I’ve a whole series
on. Further actions of the USS Enterprise B, the actions of Starfleet Intelligence and
Captain John Harrison led to the cementing of the treaty of Algeron, a deal between the
Federation and the Star Empire that saw the shifting of some neutral zone territories
and the banning of Federation research into cloaking devices. This was a rather hefty
sacrifice, but one that Starfleet was willing to make in order to keep its neighbours from
starting another war. In 2293, Ambassador Spock made one of his
most important connections to the Romulan senate through Ambassador Pardek, a dialogue
he would maintain until the late 24th century. It wasn’t until 2364, when Captain Picard
on board the USS Enterprise D was investigating missing UFP colonies along the Neutral Zone,
that the Romulans reared their rapturous head once again, showboating their new D’Deridex
class warbirds. They were also losing colonies and were under the impression that the UFP
was responsible. In truth, it was the Borg, who had been creeping ever closer to the Alpha
Quadrant, and in fact reached the Beta Quadrant and begun to encroach through the neutral
zone. If you look on the few canon Star Trek galaxy
maps, you can see that the Borg would indeed need to pass through Romulan space to reach
Earth and its elaborated on in expanded materials that after the Borg emergence, Romulus actually
has to deal with them rather frequently, check the intro to Lower Decks for instance and
Star Trek Picard. Getting of Topic, sorry I’m excited. Starfleet eventually tackled
the Borg issue alone and the Romulans dealt with it solo too, presumably not wanting to
share the valuable Borg salvage. The Romulans would continue to try to manipulate galactic
affairs for years wherever they could, different regimes within their Senate shifting and altering
their plays. In 2366, Alidar Jarok, a Romulan Admiral,
attempted to defect to the Federation when he learned of an imminent attack on the UFP,
however this was all a political play to remove him from power, but it goes to show that there
were those among the Romulus who were willing to risk a lot to avoid a war that would cripple
both powers. In 2368, Ambassador Spock (who had continued
to make every effort to open a dialogue) made the bold move to travel, clandestinely to
Romulus in order to pursue leads at another reunification attempt. This time one on a
more equal footing. He ended up amassing a group of like-minded Romulans, who did not
buy into the Romulan State propaganda concerning the Federation and its selfish ways, nor abided
the oppressive ever-watchful government of the Star Empire.
These unificationists, such as D’Tan moved through public circles to spread the Vulcan
philosophy and counter Romulan propaganda all the while under threat of being stamped
out. Spock elected to remain behind on Romulus, despite the danger to himself in order to
ensure the movements growth. While many of the Romulan people were coming around to the
idea of opening relations with, if not the Federation, at least Vulcan, the Romulan senate
itself was staunchly opposed. But the Federation and Romulus would ally
for a time in 2374, to the close of the Dominion War. This was after the events of “In the
Pale Moonlight” where the Federation condoned an assassination attempt to implicate the
Dominion in a plot against the Star Empire, in spite of the Romulan-Dominion non-aggression
pact. This brough the Star Empire to fight alongside its former adversaries of both the
Klingons and Starfleet. Even this brief act however would not last
and soon after the war’s conclusion, Romulus fell back being its veil of secrecy. Events
transpired however that saw the assassination of the majority of the Romulan senate and
its Praetor, and the rise of a new one, Shinzon, in “Star Trek Nemesis.”
Unfortunately, it’s all a ploy, but the Enterprise E soon saves the day and fights
alongside Star Empire forces against the deranged Shinzon, placating the waters somewhat. Captain
Riker of the USS Titan is one of the first to attend formal talks between Romulus and
the Federation in the aftermath of Shinzon’s Coup. Donatra of the Romulan Imperial fleet
was also open to diplomacy. Then we have the events that led up to Star
Trek Picard. The Romulan sun is beginning to behave unusually, showing signs of imminent
supernova and as usual, the new Romulan Senate keeps matters under wraps to stay in control.
All the while, they botch repeated evacuation attempts and shun Federation aid until, in
2381 Captain Picard manages to call in favours with both Starfleet and Romulus to mobilise
an evacuation fleet, grander than any the Federation has ever seen before.
“The Last Best Hope” details these events, but if you want a summary, I got you covered
too. The big take away, is that Admiral Picard, now in command of the USS Verity, not the
Enterprise because of all the history with Romulans that name entailed, dissolved the
Neutral Zone in order to freely move refugees across to Federation worlds.
Meanwhile on Romulus, Ambassador Spock has been doing his utmost to save his “unificationists”
and evacuate as many Romulans as he can, but I cannot stress how paranoid the Star Empire’s
government was being. Some simply denied the results, some evacuated themselves in secret
and continued to govern from afar, the whole thing was a mess and in 2385, things got even
worse when Federation aid was halted after an attack on Mars destroyed the rescue operation.
Many Romulans, by this time had escaped the blast radius, but the lack of Federation aftercare
left them and the colonies they were dumped on, struggling. In 2387, Spock bypassed the
Federation and made a direct appeal to the Vulcan Council to take a Red Matter bomb into
the Romulan Sun to collapse it, at least preventing a supernova. After much red tape from the
Vulcans, he was given the go ahead, but was minutes too slow. The bomb stopped the supernova,
but not before Romulus and Remus were consumed. This led to the apparent death of Ambassador
Spock too, as seen in the Prime universe retellings in the 2009 Star Trek film.
This fractured the Romulan Empire, leaving different factions in its wake across multiple
planets, both in former Star Empire territory, and the sheltering Federation colonies, such
as the Romulan Free State as well as apocryphal ones such as the Republic, led by D’Tan
as seen in Star Trek Online. Some wanted to work with the Federation still, seeing it
as the only way to survive, while some now hated the organisation that had abandoned
them and responded by becoming even more xenophobic. A repeated theme that we see when it comes
to the Romulan reunification movement, is that the Romulan people themselves are generally
open to the idea, or at least, not as hostile to the notion of cooperation as the Star Empire’s
government and agencies. Jirok, Donatra, the Romulan Commander from the end of “The Chase”,
Centurion Bochra in “The Enemy”, all these Romulans expressed a willingness to work with
the Federation. With the destruction of the Romulan homeworld,
the senate itself was scattered and its people disillusioned with their government for allowing
this all to happen, an anger that even propaganda couldn’t placate. It seems in the aftermath
of the supernova, that the Tal Shiar was still active, and if anything had grown in power,
but they were too busy chasing down old doomsday legends to care about their own people.
As of 2399, the Romulan Star Empire was no more, but the Romulan people were free to
make their own choices without Tal Shiar oversight. Sure, many were hurt from the botched evacuation
but over time people heal. By the late 32nd century, bit of a time jump
I know, the Vulcans and Romulans seem to have finally decided to work together probably
after the diminishing of the United Federation of Planets in the wake of the galaxy crippling
“Burn”. With Starfleet pulling away from the core planets to protect itself, it had
to sacrifice oversight of many worlds, including Vulcan.
Overall, its great to see Spock’s endeavours in getting the Vulcans and Romulans to cooperate
actually amount to something. It’s just a shame it took so long, but then again, shaping
empires is seldom quick and I love getting new lore on Romulans. Star Trek has been setting
the Romulans up for a more cooperative role with the federation and Vulcan in particular
with decades of development and even the destruction of their home planet can ultimately benefit
the previously xenophobic and zealous empire. Star Trek Online even drops a casual mention
of the Romulan Republic becoming a Federation member world in the 26th century, something
that certainly is not beyond the realms of possibility. let’s hope the 32nd century
does them justice too. Thanks for watching this video on the history
(and future?) of the unification movement among the Romulans. I’m working on a video
exploring the other end of their timeline, with the Sundering, but until the next lore
vid, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you again later, thanks again and goodbye!