Only if you want to regard one of the worse NuTrek series as canon.
In TNG Data is known about in both the Klingon and Romulan empire, and throughout TNG the impression that Dr. Soong was a genius who’s work is nearly impossible to replicate was really high. So the Romulan just couldn’t make someone like Data.
You’re confusing active suppression for inability. The Romulans aren’t idiots, nor short on genius, they’re deluded at their core, to the point that their intelligence alone explains the long-term survival of their civilization. The Picard series didn’t invent that about them, and the stable 8-star-star-system believed to have been created by super-tech in Romulan space is old lore as well.
Except for the suppression. I’m not confusing the one with the other. I’m calling it NuTrek bullshit. The Romulans simply aren’t able. The Federation has some of the brightest minds in the alpha quadrant, largely due to being such a diverse collection of ideas, and even the smartest minds in the Federation could not replicate the work of Dr. Soong without reverse engineering Data himself, something that was the key point of the episode Measure of a Man.
![Signal [Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1738172995-20250129.png){kind=link}
This is idiotic.
It’s basically how the Tal Shiar duped themselves and their entire civilization.
Only if you want to regard one of the worse NuTrek series as canon.
In TNG Data is known about in both the Klingon and Romulan empire, and throughout TNG the impression that Dr. Soong was a genius who’s work is nearly impossible to replicate was really high. So the Romulan just couldn’t make someone like Data.
You’re confusing active suppression for inability. The Romulans aren’t idiots, nor short on genius, they’re deluded at their core, to the point that their intelligence alone explains the long-term survival of their civilization. The Picard series didn’t invent that about them, and the stable 8-star-star-system believed to have been created by super-tech in Romulan space is old lore as well.
Except for the suppression. I’m not confusing the one with the other. I’m calling it NuTrek bullshit. The Romulans simply aren’t able. The Federation has some of the brightest minds in the alpha quadrant, largely due to being such a diverse collection of ideas, and even the smartest minds in the Federation could not replicate the work of Dr. Soong without reverse engineering Data himself, something that was the key point of the episode Measure of a Man.