The Remans were humanoid inhabitants of the planet Remus with the potential for telepathy .
Physiology[]
The Remans are a humanoid species characterized by their distinct facial features, pale skin and pointed ears. Remans are adapted to living in low-light environments, as their native planet, Remus, is tidally locked with its star, resulting in one side of the planet being constantly exposed to sunlight while the other side is in perpetual darkness. As a result, Remans have large, photosensitive eyes capable of seeing in dim lighting conditions.
Remans possess great physical strength and agility, and are capable of enduring intense physical exertion for long periods of time.
They are also notable for their telepathic abilities. Reman telepathy allows them to communicate with each other over long distances, and also to read the thoughts and emotions of other species. However, their telepathic abilities are not well understood by other races, and as a result, they are often feared and mistrusted. (Star Trek Nemesis)
Reman blood was dark purple in color. (LD: "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee")
Society and Culture[]
As a slave caste, Remans were not allowed to participate in Romulan society and were often subjected to harsh and dangerous working conditions in the dilithium mines of their homeworld, Remus. Their society was largely underground due to their extreme photosensitivity.
Reman pictographs
According to Data, the Reman language was "a most complex language" that utilized pictographs representing certain verb roots.
Despite their status, Remans were known for their exceptional fighting abilities, and some were employed as bodyguards or soldiers by the Romulan Empire. However, they were often treated as expendable, "cannon fodder" soldiers, and were deployed in the fiercest engagements during the Dominion War. (Star Trek Nemesis)
History[]
The Remans were the slave labor caste of the Romulan people since at least the 22nd century and forced to work in the extremely hazardous dilithium mines of their world. (ENT: "United", "The Aenar")
Among the Romulan people, Remans have historically been known as great warriors. As such, Romulan Senator Vrax employed two Reman bodyguards to intimidate possible opponents. (ENT: "United", "The Aenar")
The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 2, p. 214 indicated that Senator Vrax was "beholden to Reman interests."
Remans were used by the Romulan Empire as "cannon fodder" during the Dominion War, and were often deployed in the fiercest engagements.
In 2379, the Remans usurped the power of their Romulan overlords in a military coup, installing their leader, Shinzon (in actuality, a clone of Jean-Luc Picard), as the new Praetor of the Romulan Senate and thus the empire. As an act of war against the Federation, Praetor Shinzon – with his warbird, the Scimitar – then attempted to destroy all life on Earth.
However, with the destruction of the Scimitar at the Battle in the Bassen Rift, after Shinzon's supporters on Romulus turned against him, the bid for Reman superiority was prematurely ended. (Star Trek Nemesis)
Distrust between Remans and Romulans was still prevalent in 2380, when a Romulan guard on Romulus commented to a colleague that he hated Remans, with his colleague commenting Remans were "the worst". (LD: "Veritas")
In 2381, two Reman assassins intercepted the USS Enterprise-E in the Donatra sector and threatened Picard. (PIC: "Seventeen Seconds")
Technology[]
Reman technology was highly advanced, despite their status as a slave labor caste. One notable example was the Scimitar, a massive warbird constructed during Shinzon's reign. The Scimitar was equipped with an arsenal of weapons, including Thalaron radiation weapons capable of destroying all organic matter on a planet. Reman technology also included Cloaking devices, which allowed ships to become invisible to sensors and the naked eye. The Scimitar had an advanced version of this technology that allowed it to remain cloaked while firing weapons, a feat previously thought impossible. Remans also developed unique mining technology to extract dilithium from their world's hazardous mines. This technology allowed them to extract the valuable mineral while minimizing the risk of radiation exposure. Despite their technological advancements, Reman society was still heavily oppressed by the Romulan Empire until Shinzon's takeover. (Star Trek Nemesis)
Individuals[]
No Reman characters have been named in any canon production.
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- Star Trek Nemesis
- ENT:
- LD: "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee" (remains only)
Background information[]
John Logan with a Reman-playing actor
It has not been confirmed onscreen whether the Remans are an offshoot of the Romulans/Vulcans or if they are completely separate species. While certain Reman features, e.g., their telepathic abilities, pointed ears and their forehead patterns, are in agreement with a genetic relation to the Romulans/Vulcans, production sources have typically referred to them as a "species".
The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 2, p. 214 does suggest the Remans were Romulans, whose "appearance has diverged significantly over the centuries from that of their Romulan brethren...," owing their telepathic abilities to their "Vulcan heritage."
When writer John Logan came up with the idea of featuring Remans as the villains of Star Trek Nemesis, he first had to explain to a perplexed Rick Berman and Brent Spiner exactly who the Remans were, an alien race that had never been established in canon Star Trek before. Berman and Spiner eventually approved of Logan's idea, giving him the go-ahead to write the species into the film. Logan later explained, "Brent and Rick agreed it would be fun to explore the Remans and their relation to the Romulans." (Star Trek Nemesis, pp. xviii & xix)
The Remans were created as a response to the challenge of devising a new, terrifying alien race for Nemesis. "The idea of the Remans being vampirelike slaves, laboring away in the dilithium mines, never seeing the sun, grew out of our desire to create a truly monstrous race," recalled John Logan. "It seemed obvious to me that the Romulans would subjugate some other race to dig dilithium for them. Much too messy for our pristine and elegant Romulans." (Star Trek Nemesis, pp. xviii & xix)
The concept of the Remans looking akin to vampires was also inspired by their lack of exposure to sunlight. "[Director] Stuart Baird and Rick Berman had the idea that they wanted the Remans to have an almost Nosferatulike feeling, but without making them into vampires," remembered makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, referencing the vampire Count Orlok from the 1922 horror movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. (Star Trek Nemesis, p. 216) Indeed, the script for Star Trek Nemesis described the Remans as having "a disturbing resemblance to the original Nosferatu." [1] Count Orlok actually served as inspiration for the Reman makeup design. Westmore related, "Stuart [Baird] handed me a picture of Nosferatu and said that was exactly what he wanted. He said, 'I need an alien [species] that looks like this.' And that's exactly what we did. I did some sketches for him and then we went to town on it. We designed the head and ears." (Star Trek Monthly issue 109, p. 32)
The Reman makeup, consisting of foam rubber prosthetics, was ultimately highly elaborate. "It was a full appliance makeup," explained Michael Westmore, "with a complete face piece that blended in with a headpiece. The actors' lower lips and chins were their own; but everything else was covered with the appliances, which were airbrushed with a marbleized pattern […] We had eight Reman performers, and we didn't know which one Stuart [Baird] was going to pull up front [in closeup], so they all had to have the full makeup, which included teeth and contact lenses and hands painted to match the face." (Cinefex, No. 93, p. 103) The Reman head was sculpted by Earl Ellis. (Cinefex, No. 93, p. 103)
The Remans' ears were made of a semi-translucent latex and included veins. "The ears were neat," commented Michael Westmore. "Stuart [Baird] said, 'I want to be able to see through the ears.' I made the ears out of clear gelatin, so if there's any backlight behind them you can see through them. Then we painted veins on the back of the ears, so if the light was showing through you could even see veining through them." (Star Trek Monthly issue 109, p. 32)
Executive Producer Rick Berman once wondered how the Remans operated the push button controls of their ship with such long, curving fingernails. (audio commentary, Star Trek Nemesis (Special Edition) DVD) The length of the Reman nails actually caused problems during shooting. "No matter how well we glued them on, someone was always popping a nail," recalled Michael Westmore, "so the makeup artists were chasing the performers around with little packs of nails all day." (Cinefex, No. 93, p. 103)
The Reman uniforms were specially painted to appear iridescent, a delicate process that involved several coats. The uniforms were later modified and reused as Xindi-Reptilian uniforms on Star Trek: Enterprise
Ron Perlman, who played the Reman Viceroy in Star Trek Nemesis, enjoyed the fact that the Remans had never previously been viewed by audiences. "We've never seen the Remans, so it's kind of cool to present something that's fresh and uncharted," he said. "A mysterious race." (Star Trek Nemesis, p. 216)
In the final draft script of ENT: "United", Remans were described as having "pallid, bat-like faces." The Remans who appear in that episode (and presumably also "The Aenar") reused masks originally created for Star Trek Nemesis. (Star Trek Magazine issue 120, p. 56) A pair of Reman guards were also included in a deleted scene from "The Aenar". (ENT Season 4 DVD)
A Reman rifle was among the items which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [2](X)
In 2015, Remans were included in a list of "Top 50 Alien Species!" which was published by IDW. Commenting on the selection, comics writer Mike Johnson referred to the Remans as "a cool species." ("Top 50 Alien Species!", Star Trek: Ongoing issue #50, "Live Evil, Part 1")
Apocrypha[]
According to the novel trilogy Vulcan's Soul, the Remans were descended from the telepathic Vulcans who refused to give up their abilities during the exodus to Romulus, and were enslaved by the majority non-telepaths who became the Romulans. The Remans were mutated into their current form by exposure to extremophile organisms that lived on the surface of Remus.
The novel Articles of the Federation describes the Remans as being voluntarily transported to an uninhabited Klingon world as a new homeworld a year after Shinzon's death.
Shinzon and his regiment of Reman shock troops are the protagonists of the short story "Twilight's Wrath" in Tales of the Dominion War.
In the Star Trek: Titan novel Taking Wing, the newly-appointed Captain Riker is ordered by Admiral Akaar to proceed to Romulus to assist negotiations between the Remans and the Romulans following Shinzon's failed attempt to wage war on the Federation after his assassination of the Romulan Senate. Riker successfully convinced a faction of Remans who had been part of Ambassador Spock's Unificationist group to cease attacks on Romulus in return for the land that they had been attempting to demand from the new Praetor Tal'aura.
The Remans made a brief appearance in the comic book series Star Trek: Countdown, a tie-in to the 2009 Star Trek film. A fleet of Reman ships captured and boarded Nero's mining ship the Narada while it was mining decalithium in the Kimben System at the farthest edge of the Romulan Empire in 2387. The Remans were planning on executing Nero's crew as well as Ambassador Spock, who was on board, before the ship was rescued by the USS Enterprise-E and Captain Data.
In Star Trek Online, which incorporates the story of Countdown, the Remans have colonized Crateris, a failed Romulan colony, with Donatra's blessing. Star Trek Online also shows the Remans as the direct cause of the destruction of Romulus, having intentionally made the Hobus system go supernova under orders from then-Praetor Taris. In the "Cloaked Intentions" feature episode series, a resistance force under the Reman leader Obisek arose to challenge the Tal Shiar's efforts of supremacy over the unstable Romulan Empire, by claiming the secret Romulan factory station known as "the Vault". The Reman resistance would later join with dissident leader D'Tan to settle on "New Romulus", and defend the Vault from Tholian attackers. In the first expansion pack, Legacy of Romulus, the Remans became a playable race under the new Romulan Republic, which also introduced female Remans.
External link[]
- Reman at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works