Commander Sirol was a 24th century officer in the Romulan military and commanding officer of the Warbird Terix.
In 2370, Sirol discovered a fragment of the experimental USS Pegasus in the Devolin system, and was assigned to find the rest of the ship in the system's asteroid field. When the USS Enterprise-D arrived on the same mission two days later, Sirol claimed he was conducting a survey of gaseous anomalies.
After the Enterprise-D entered a large asteroid where the Pegasus had settled, Sirol fired on the asteroid and sealed them inside, claiming the Romulans were conducting "geological experiments". Sirol offered to transport the Enterprise-D crew out and return them to the Federation after a "short stay" on Romulus, but the Enterprise-D escaped on its own by means of an illegal phasing cloaking device that had been tested on the Pegasus. The Enterprise-D decloaked in front of Sirol, and informed him that the Romulan government would be contacted shortly concerning the incident. (TNG: "The Pegasus")
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Background information[]
Sirol was portrayed by actor and intern writer Michael Mack.
The role was originally conceived as a female role, but after Mack approached Jeri Taylor, she agreed that there was no reason why the character had to be a female, but added that up to that point, Star Trek had never had a black Romulan before. Mack, who was well versed in franchise lore pointed out the black Vulcan midwife who appeared in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, before arguing that because the two species are cousins, you can have a black Romulan. After Taylor agreed to the audition, he was chosen for the role, and called back to her office forty-five minutes later to be informed that his audition "blew [director] LeVar Burton's mind".
Mack later went through the three hour makeup session, where the makeup department used the existing white toned Romulan headpiece, and made up Mack using the in same white tone, causing him to appear, as Mack described, "kind of Asian", which he actually thought was cool and liked. However, after reviewing his scenes, Mack was called back to Taylor's office and told by Taylor that, "I will not run the risk of offending the African-American community by having the first black Romulan be a black man in white face," before she informed them that they would reshoot the scene. Michael Westmore then created black Romulan makeup based on Mack's skin tone.
For the next shoot, Burton asked Mack if he was up for having some fun with the character, and they agreed upon making a "Sirol that was, let's say, larger [...] kind of wicked in a Jack Nicholson kind of way, [...] with a wicked sense of humor. [...] Kind of satanic, really, in that way." Taylor said she found the second take to be "over the top". His scenes were once again reshot, and the third take became the version shown in the final cut of the episode. [1]
External links[]
- Sirol at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works