Quick Links
Summary
There are many facets to running a vast Star Empire, from administration to military and everything in between. That leaves plenty of room for secret intelligence organizations to operate underneath, and for many years, the best example of that inStar Trekwas the Romulan Tal Shiar.
To paraphrase the Klingons, the Romulans are difficult to trust, so it is no surprise that the Star Empire’s secret intelligence network has played a vital role in storylines across multipleStar Trekseries.
What Is The Tal Shiar In Star Trek?
The Tal Shiar is a ruthless covert organization dedicated to protecting the security of the Romulan Star Empire and willing to use any means necessary to serve Romulan interests. The Tal Shiar has been known to work independently from the Romulan Senate. Their impunity and personal war fleet have made the Tal Shiar’s relationship with the Romulan military understandably tense for some time.
The Tal Shiar has appeared repeatedly inStar Treksince its introduction inStar Trek: The Next Generation, but has experienced varying fortunes, much like the Romulan Star Empire itself.The covert agency has been seen to directly challenge the authority of the Romulan military, but its lasting contributions toStar Treklore have been behind the scenes.
When Has The Tal Shiar Appeared In Star Trek?
Fans first encountered Tal Shiar in the classic episode ofStar Trek: The Next Generation,‘Face of the Enemy.’ It opened with Deanna Troi kidnapped by the Romulan underground and surgically altered to take the role of the recently deceased Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar. Undercover, she aided the defection of Vice-Proconsul M’ret and his aides to the Federation in a pointedly Cold War-tinged episode that picked up the events of the Spock-starring two-parterUnification.The storyline called back to the cat and mouse of thefirst clashes between the Romulans and Federation, making the Tal Shiar a clear analog for secret police.
Writer Naren Shankar confirmed inThe Star Trek: The Next Generation Companionthat he named this mysterious and dangerous new part of Romulan culture after the Vulcan martial tal-shaya in the Original Series episode ‘Journey to Babel.’ The Tal Shiar was clearly a dangerous force that sought to take the art of intelligence and deception to a new level.
The organization gained a more significant role inStar Trek: Deep Space Ninewhen the Romulan Star Empire, like other major powers in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, faced an existential threat from theGamma Quadrant’s Dominion. In 2371, a secret pact between the Tal Shiar and their Cardassian equivalent, the Obsidian Order, launched a major operation to preemptively destroy the homeworld of the leaders of the Dominion, the Founders.
Catastrophically, the Tal Shiar suffered a pre-emptive strike of their own. The Changeling Founders had infiltrated the organization, and the massive joint fleet was massacred at the Battle of the Omarion Nebula in the epic two-parter ‘Improbable Cause’and ‘The Die is Cast.’
The Tal Shiar quickly rebuilt itself. TheStar Trek: Voyagerepisode ‘Message in a Bottle’ showed them undermining Romulan military operations when they attempted to hijack the prototype starship USS Prometheus three years after the Battle of the Omarion Nebula. Nine years later, they would be up to the same tricks when they tried to capture the USS Protostar inStar Trek: Prodigy.
Deep Space Nine’stense wartime thriller ‘In the Pale Moonlight’revealed that Tal Shiar investigated the destruction of Senator Vreenak’s shuttle in 2374, concluding that the Dominion was responsible and so playing a pivotal role in that episode’s machinations. A year later, ‘Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges,’ the organization was operating security for that episode’s Romulan Conference. However, it also confirmed that Koval, chairman of the Tal Shiar during the Dominion War, was a Federation collaborator planted to ease relations after the war.
However, the period after the Dominion War brought unprecedented instability for the Romulan Star Empire. While the Tal Shiar laid low duringShinzon’s takeover of the Romulan Star Empire, they might have been working on grander plans.In 2387, the destruction of Romulus when its star went supernova changed the Star Empire forever. Some pinned the stellar disaster on the Tal Shiar, but in any event, the covert organization survived to exploit the Romulan Free State that emerged.
Star Trek: Countdownwas a comic series that set up the 2009 movieStar Trekand later events inStar Trek: Picard. It revealed that, along with attempts to hijack the latest technological advancements in the quadrants, the Tal Shiar had long been experimenting with captured Borg cubes.Picardshowed the organization continued to evolve as it forged links with Zhat Vash, an ancient Romulan cabal dedicated to opposing synthetic life. The covert pact was responsible for a significant campaign, including thedevastating Synth Wave attack on Marsthat halted the Federation’s operation to evacuate Romulans before the catastrophic supernova.
By this point, the Tal Shiar had also infiltrated Starfleet.Star Trek: Picardintroduced Oh, a Vulcan-Romulan hybrid who was director of Starfleet Security and a Tal Shiar general loyal to Zhat Vash. Oh’s plots were foiled duringPicardSeason One, as Jean Luc Picard learned much about both organizations fromLaris and Zhaban, former operatives he had taken to Earth as refugees.
The Tal Shiar has been active inStar Trek: Onlinein the expanded universe. The sprawling storyline confirmed that the Tal Shiar had won its long-running feud with the Romulan military, becoming the dominant Romulan defense force in the years following the destruction of Romulus. The organization was a crucial player in the rule of Empress Sela from 2403.
Is The Tal Shiar The Equivalent Of Section 31?
Fans learned about the Tal Shiar before theirFederation counterpart, Section 31, although the latter has become the dominant covert agency inStar Treklore in recent years. Both organizations owe a debt toDeep Space Nine’s complicated and satisfyingly gray storylines of war and intrigue. During that series, Section 31 was revealed to have been formed in the 22nd century, exploiting a loophole in the Federation Charter to use any means to ensure the survival of the Federation’s way of life.
Distinct from Starfleet, Section 31 used techniques and tactics the Federation’s military arm would never touch. Since their story arc inDeep Space Nine, this dark side of the Federation has taken important roles inStar Trek: DiscoveryandStar Trek: Into Darknessand will soonheadline a movie for Paramount Plus.
Section 31 sounds a lot like the Tal Shiar on the face of it, and the idea that they aren’t as deadly or dangerous as the Romulan organization has been tough to swallow since the second season ofDiscovery. Their heavily armed conflict against Starfleet ships was reminiscent of the Tal Shiar’s doomed attempt to destroy the Founders’ homeworld. Both organizations are symptomatic of the mistrust at the heart of every galactic power, and the origins of both, perhaps not coincidentally, have been dated to the time of theEarth-Romulan Warand the formation of the Federation.
Ostensibly, Section 31 ensures the survival of the essence of the Federation, while the Tal Shiar is dedicated to defending the security of the Romulan Star Empire. It’s a thin line, and the major difference may not be in the organizations but in the larger Empires they profess to serve. While Section 31 is not and can not be sanctioned by the Federation, the Romulan Star Empire benefits overtly from the operations of the Tal Shiar.
To learn the truth about an organization like the Tal Shiar, it’s best to look at what their enemies say. Typically, the messages are mixed. The Dominion were concerned enough to take care of this ruthless organization. Meanwhile, the legendary former head of the Cardassian Obsidian Order (and Garak’s estranged father), Enabran Tain, considered them “sloppy.” Considering the devastation and mistakes attached to the name Tal Shiar, the truth of this dangerous slice of the Romulan arsenal is probably somewhere in between.
