Bumpy-headed Romulans

[Aquarius]

And even though there was nothing to distinguish them physically from Vulcans, the 1960s Romulans were easily discernible due to their sheer badassery!! Seriously. I think other than the Vulcans themselves, it was the Romulans that TOS-era fans wanted to know more about the most.

[honeybee]

My grandmother had dresses like the Romulan Commander - by the time I was old enough to play dress up they were long out of fashion and I was allowed to romp around in them. Mom wouldn't let me near false eyelashes though -something about eye infections.

[Transwarp]

Not to keep pushing the same point, but those of you who are familiar with TOS's The Enterprise Incident - will remember the Romulan Commander's badass 1960s high fashion.

That was 1000x more awesome than the TNG era Romulans.

I agree wholeheartedly.

*Everything* about the TOS era Romulans was better. So obviously they had to be changed. Obviously. Right..?

[Aquarius]

I think that part of what made them scarier was that they weren't physically discernible from Vulcans. You had these cold war-era storylines, and as a viewer you think "OMG, the Romulans could have undercover spies on Vulcan right this minute and nobody would know!!" I think by changing them, they actually wrote themselves into a corner because they diminished the possibilities of what the Romulans could do.

[honeybee]

Plus, there is the whole narrative potential of Vulcans looking at the road not taken - Romulans appear to have a functional society - albeit one with a different moral code than the Federation. There's tremendous potential in that a race so enamored of itself (I love Vulcans, but they are fond of themselves) - would be faced with such a challenge.

[Asso]

Just so.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Romulans always struck me as to xenophobic/proud of their genetic heritage to claim a not-pureblooded Romulan as a memeber of their race....

That's the main flaw I have with my interbreeding theory. However, if you go by what I mentioned abovethread about the Debrune civilization, I can picture the proto-Romulans encountering them and hailing them as long lost Vulcan(oid) cousins, perhaps another band of Vulcans who left Vulcan a millennia or two ago.

I just find it really hard to think that such a prominent genetic difference as the forehead ridges could develop in such a short time, especially considering the longevity of Vulcans/Romulans.

Not to keep pushing the same point, but those of you who are familiar with TOS's The Enterprise Incident - will remember the Romulan Commander's badass 1960s high fashion.

Oh yeah! Despite being a somewhat older woman, I always found that Romulan commander to be something of a hottie!

[aadarshinah]

I just find it really hard to think that such a prominent genetic difference as the forehead ridges could develop in such a short time, especially considering the longevity of Vulcans/Romulans.

It is possible. All it takes is one mutation in one person. And if that proto-Romulan passes that gene onto 2 kids, who each pass it on to 2 children, well, you get the "doubling penny" situation. In thirty generations that did not interbreed and had two kids each, you'd have 536,870,912 - or a over half-a-million - bumpy-headed Romulans. In another generation, 1,073,741,824 Romulans - over 1 million - would have the gene. In a 32nd, over 2 million bumpy Romulans. In 35 generations, 17,179,869,184 Romulans - over 17 million - would have the trait. And, as previously estabilished, it would be about 30 to 70 generations between the Vulcan/Romulan split and the events of ENT. It could be possible, provided the gene was potent enough - and that's just assuming each bumpy-headed Romulan had only two kids. Given the.... oh, I forget how someone put it exactly on the original thread, but given the rather... non-Vulcan appitites of Romulans, I think expecting only 2 kids from each Romulan is a little impossible; make each bumpyheaded Romulan have 3 kids and you get 6.86 billion bumpyheads in 30 generations...

Now, none of this includes the inevitable interbreeding, but subtract out say, 10% for that and you still get 480 million bumpyheads in 30 generations with the 2 kids each scenario and 6.1 billion bumpyheads in 30 with the 3 each.

So, again, it is possible. Assuming that the first wave of Romulans to leave Vulcan contained only 5,000, 1 of whom was a bumpyhead... with 0% population growth, it would only take 13.5 generations for the bumpyhead gene to spread (at the rate of 2 children each). Plenty of time. Even if the population had a 10% growth rate, in 16 generations, the population would be 22,975, and all of whom would be bumpyheads (and probably unviably interbred)... Do the same assuming that the first wave of proto-Romulans had 10,000, it would take only 14.5 generations with 0% population growth and 17 generations at 10% population growth with a poupulation of 45,950 bumpyheads at the time.... Do the same for 20,000 and it's 16 generations and 18 generations (with a population of 101,090 bumpyheads) respectively... and you get the picture.

whoo. And that is how bumpyheads can happen, to the best of my memory of my genetics and biodiversity classes... which were 4, 5 years ago, mind, but still. Not bad after the day I've had.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^ Doesn't that imply that the Romulans would have kids when they were young, say around 30-40 years old? With their longevity I'd think that their generations are much longer, say 100 years or so. They would be in no hurry to have kids at the first time when they grow up. Same for Vulcans actually.

[aadarshinah]

^ Doesn't that imply that the Romulans would have kids when they were young, say around 30-40 years old? With their longevity I'd think that their generations are much longer, say 100 years or so. They would be in no hurry to have kids at the first time when they grow up. Same for Vulcans actually.

It just implies generations, not how long those generations are. Even at 100 years each, 18 generations would be only 1800 years. At 70 years each, thats 1260 years. A tight squeeze for total gene dominance in the nearly 2000 years between Surak and ENT, but doable. And if bumpyheads were more prevelant, say, in one class or colony that the majority of Starfleet contact might've come from, well, that's even more doable...