Romulan Bird of Prey

[calvin]

are there birds on Romulus or planet Vulcan? if not, why would the Romulan Bird of Prey (2260s) have a picture of a bird (with plumage and all) painted under its hull?

i'm just wondering cuz i just recently started getting into Star Trek, and even though the writers seem to have done a pretty good job creating a believable (or at least thoughtfully designed and logically consistent) sci-fi universe, that red & white bird design has been kinda bugging me.

i mean, i could believe that the name "bird of prey" was just an approximate translation using an analogous earth species to the Romulan equivalent of a winged predator, but it seems rather strange that Romulans would paint a picture of an earth species on their space crafts.

[robbiewebster]

I'm sure they must have some sort of flying creature on both of those planets which the ships were named after.

[calvin]

well, naturally. hence i said i originally assumed the word "bird" was just an approximate translation. but i think it's rather unlikely that romulan "birds" would look just like earth birds, with claws, feathers, and even yellow beaks.

i mean, star trek aliens don't all look just like humans wearing different outfits do they? so what are the chances that two planets light-years away would follow the same evolutionary path down to the aesthetic details. it's like painting a giraffe on the side of a klingon ship.

[Arellia]

Star Trek isn't as meticulous about making everything too incredibly different between planets. You must admit, most of the main species are just humans with weird facial ridges--there's a couple reasons for that. The creators wanted you to be able to relate to the characters more, and The Original Series (TOS) didn't have the ability to make really crazy body designs.

In fact, Romulan and Klingon birds are very similar to ours, much like a Klingon Targ is approximately the same thing as a wild boar. It doesn't bother me so much, since Star Trek isn't meant to be entirely believable, just fun. I mean, really... the universal translator alone is just not founded on a great theory.

Also, you may or may not be aware, the Bird of Prey you refer to (sometimes called a BloodWing) is only around during the TOS era. After The Next Generation, they changed the ship designs entirely, calling them Warbirds.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v332/exalya/Romulan_Warbird.jpg (new design)

[calvin]

ah, i see... thanks for the clarification. i guess it makes sense for the writers to focus more on things like the culture/societal structure, political philosophy, and the history of the alien races rather than details about their planetary ecology which wouldn't really effect the plot of the series.

and the Warbird you posted a picture of definitely looks much better than TOS version. i only knew about the BloodWing because i happen to be playing Star Trek: Tactical Assault, which only has TOS-era ships, i think. though i'm watching TNG right now (only on the 3rd episode atm), so hopefully i'll get acquainted with the more modern designs.

[Arellia]

The Romulans show up in the 2nd season of TNG, I believe... very early-on, anyway. TNG improves upon the designs of the Klingon ships as well. As you get further into TNG, the culture of various races becomes more important, and DS9 makes that even more apparent. If you're into the depth of story-telling and alien concepts, I would definitely recommend DS9. Some people found it tedious for that reason, but others (like me) enjoyed it more for the complexities.

Welcome to Star Trek, basically. ^.^

[calvin]

thanks. =]

i just finished Season 1 of TNG. but i'll check out DS9 next just to get a feel for some of the others series.

[Avenger]

[subcom]

There have been many "birds of prey" throughout history in real life, most recently a military application by mcdonald douglas to compete with the stealth fighter. it was even featured on the cover of a popular science magazine.

paramount keeps saying that we should only go by what we see in the episodes and movies, not the novels. but no novel has ever really specified any flying animals on vulcan. the romulans are a different story tho. "the romulan way" by diane duane and peter morwood describes romulus as an earthlike planet with many-many flying animals, which is where the romulan insignia clutching the two romulan homeworlds of romulus and remus comes from. the movie Nemesis and the STNG Unification two-parter supports this.

diane duane also wrote Spock's World describing how vulvan and most of its resources were destroyed by a solar flare. including all its birds. the book then describes a bunch of vulvans leaving vulcan to become the romulans. if i came from a planet devoid of flying animals animals like vulcan and came to a planet with all these birds i know i would be very enamored with the idea. and i would probably design all my shipd like them and start painting all over everything too.

hi i'm Aaelan Arneaud, published author and longtime Trekker. please visit my website to learn more about my work and me. i also have a completely free STNG novel available to fellow Trek fans.

[Sev]

[StephenRichardson]

You can't rule out pure coincidence. The atmospheric composition of the planet Vulcan (turbulent upper strata) makes flying by biological means extremely difficult and unlikely.

[Cosiris]

The Vulcan atmosphere is very thin and windy. I would think that would be perfect for flying. The problem for birds would be the heat. But they would simply evolve without feathers the way most other animals, like sehlats, evolved without body hair. Romulus is earthlike in its atmosphere as seen on STNG, Nemesis and the Enterprise series. So they most likely have birds. The migrating Vulcans probably saw birds for the first time and got excited. We became the Romulan Star Empire and avian impressive.