This my second Trek thread in as many minutes, also inspired by having watched ST:VII and thinking about Camp Khitomer.
The Federation is a federation of many species from many different planets.
The Romulan Empire, to be a formidable enemy to the Federation, must command similar resources and territory.
My question is, what happened to all the races that presumably must have been on those worlds colonized by the Romulans? The Federation, of course, welcomed everybody in with open arms and offered them an equal piece of the pie in true Human form.
We never see what must be an equally diverse body of aliens who live within Romulan territory. Federation ships have all kinds of species working on them, but for the Romulans it’s always just Romulans.
Did the Romulans kill all in their path? Somehow that’s doubtful. What’s the Straight Dope, eh?
If the planet is colonized, it is highly unlikely that there was a native hominid species or one so primitive that it was likely wiped out or made into second class citizens a la Native Americans and Australian Aboriginees.
Or, in the case of Star Trek: Nemesis, the Remans. So, yeah. They have them. We just don’t see them.
Also, as a further point of reference, look at the British Empire. It was the largest the world had ever seen but you never saw Nigerians, Indians, or Jamaican captains or, if you did, it was a Briton born in Nigeria, India, or Jamaica and not a native-born African, Asian, or North American.
Frankly, I’d like to have seen a character without the bumpy-head dressed in traditional Klingon clothing. His planet was conquered and assimilated ten generations earlier; he’s a full-fledged and somewhat proud citizen of the Klingon Empire and the other Klingons accept him as such. The only problem is the bigoted simple-minded humans who act like idiots around him: “You’re a Klingon?! You don’t look like a Klingon! Are you sure you’re a Klingon? Wouldn’t you be happier with your own kind (i.e. humanoids like us)?”
Well, I could as easily have said “Romulans”. No matter. Similarly, Voyager irritated me for (among vast vast numerous countless myriad googleplex other reasons) the endless bits about “humanizing” Seven of Nine. Pfft. If the Federation is such a freedom-loving society, why does S-of-N have to live on Earth upon her return to Fed space? Couldn’t she as easily settle on any member planet, or even leave it altogether? I always wanted to hear the following exchange:
Seven: May I ask your advice, Lieutenant?
Tuvok: Certainly.
Seven: Captain Janeway is continuing to try to instruct me in human customs and practices. I admit finding most of them encourage me to discard reason and logic. I find this distressing and an inefficient use of my talents. How do you reconcile yourself to thier illogical beaviour?
Tuvok: It is difficult, I admit. At times I find myself inadvertvantly receiving a negative emotional response becuse the crew perceives I am condescending them, simply because I do not share or sympathize with their views. If I may make a suggestion…?
Seven: Please do.
Tuvok: Upon our return to Federation space, you will not be under any obligationto live on Earth. If you prefer an environment of greater social discipline and restraint, I propose you instead live for a time on Vulcan. There, your emotional restraint will be seen as a positive, not a negative. No-one will suggest that you try to “develop your feelings”.
Seven: Interesting. I will begin assimilating information on Vulcan culture from the library computers. May I come to you if any points require clarification?
Tuvok: Of course.
It annoyed me that even while the human characters claimed to represent diversity and whatnot, there was invariably a “right” way and a “wrong” way to emotionally react to any given situation. Offhand, I can’t think of a human character who was pro-Death Penalty, for example, or one who had personal views that might be considered “right-wing” in general. The role of Worf in the early seasons of NextGen seemingly consisted only of:
Worf: We must attack!
Picard: Settle down, you reactionary Republican bastard. We must settle this peacefully.
I honestly wasn’t sure if you meant to post to this thread or the other one. It could have fit either one and with the mention of Klingons, I thought you might have simply posted to this one by mistake. I know I’ve done something similarly absentminded before.
So far as the rest of your post goes, I agree wholeheartedly. The oversimplification of the various species has always annoyed me with Trek, especially the idea that everyone should be some ideal of their own race. With Worf, it was understandable, him trying to be an uberklinsch since he was raised by humans, but everyone else was really grating… especially how Data strove to be human and how Spock tried to deny his own semi-terrestrial origins.
Actually, the biggest problem for me with that wasn’t Spock’s attitude but McCoy’s, and those harangues about being “too logical” and such. Geez, Doc, leave him the fuck alone, why don’t you? If he wants to act a certain way, let him! I always kinda cheered for those moments when Spock was under some kind of alien influence and became violent because he was damn sick and tired of all these jabbering humans trying to tell him how to behave. Case in point was the ep where he and McCoy travelled back some 5000 years to an ice age and Spock’s emotional control was affected, though he was adapting. It wasn’t fatal, but bugging him about it could have been, as McCoy found out. Similarly, the moment where Spock was on the verge of bashing Scotty a good one. Woo-hoo! That’ll teach the right bloody bastard that he’s Scottish and crap!
Just ranting. I hate stories in which one character tells another that he has to feel a certain way about something. On the topic at hand, I see no reason why a member of a special conquered by Romulans wouldn’t (after a few generations of assimilation) believe that he, in fact, was a Romulan, and screw anyone who tried to tell him different!
There was an episode of Malcolm in the Middle during Francis’s time working in Alaska that is on point. The other loggers had gotten drunk and stolen a totem pole, setting it up in the cabin. Francis went a little nuts meditating on it, trying to divine its mystical secrets. Finally, the owner, a native, shows up. Parphrasing:
Owner: So you’re the one who stole my totem pole! [starts to drag it out of cabin]
Francis: No, wait! I have to understand the deep meaning of it. I’m so close!
Owner: Listen, buddy. You white guys might think we’re all in tune with nature or some crap, but my kids helped me carve this thing to put at the end of our driveway. It’s just a decoration!
Francis: But that can’t be true-
Owner: Yes, it is. Look, pal. There’s no deep mystical secret here. I’m a baptist and proud of it. And I only have one word for ‘snow’: SNOW!
This is why I’ve always liked the Cardassians as a Trek race. Sure, they have plenty of common behaviours - they respect efficiency, have a major superiority complex, and are prone to somewhat lengthy monologues… but different Cardassians were actually individuals. They’re not all uniformly scientists or soldiers or politicians. They aren’t all evil. They didn’t have any overused catch-phrases like “honor” or “logic” that lazy writers could just throw in whenever they got stuck. I think they’re one of the most well-realized alien races in Trek.
Because Dr. McCoy is a nosy busybody who likes to tease people. But also, I think the idea was supposed to be that McCoy was sort of a father figure to both Kirk and Spock, and realizes that Spock, for all he pretends he doesn’t have them. has emotions and wants to express them, and that the good doctor is just helping him and encouraging him to do that.