[gregebowman]

Well, I don't know any of the SFB history, but from what I have read and understood over the 3 decades I've been a Trekkie, there was no visual contact between the terran (or federation) fleets and the Romulans. Now either the Romulans didn't have that kind of technology at the time (subspace transmissions), or they were very xenophobic and didn't want anyone to know what they looked like. Now, whether they knew they resembled Vulcans or not was unclear, but Berman made up for that in ST:TNG. One of the few things that has always bugged me about the Star Trek franchis is the use of language. It seems like every race speaks English (or Basic or whatever you want to call it) even when they are met for the first time. A univeral translator can only do so much. That's one thing I like about Enterprise, where they have to learn every new language. Maybe that's what caused the first Terran/Federation vs Romulan war; a simple lack of knowledge of each other's language and customs. It would be interesting once they do show this war to show the creation of the Federation. That would bring the Andorians and Tellarites into the treaty, and if I'm not mistaken, Alpha Centauri was the fifth founding race. I can't wait for September 18 to see the new season.