To what extent is continuity jettisoned in Enterprise?

[SailorSaturn13]

First note: as new supersedes old, it's the episodes of older series that are contradicted, not other way around. This way we can resolve ANY continuity problem, if all else fails.

Centuries ago, a disastrous first contact with the Klingon Empire led to decades of war.



Hang on - have you seen watchdogs post? Hostilities with Klingons started 67 years after First Contact. Sixty seven years. How could anyone say that FC situation is connected in any way with start of the hostilities?

Easy: because of misunderstanding by first contact, some minor Klingon was offended deeply and declared a Vendetta on UFP. The swear to fight UFP was transferred from father to son many generations. When descendants of that family reached power in Klingon Empire, they started war. So, "from certain point of view", first contact DID lead to war.

There's no problem - between "Q-Who" and "Best of Both Worlds" there was ample amount of time to dig trough entire archives.
But if you believe, that this was your first contact with the Borgs and that there couldn't be information about them in the archives, you wouldn't search for them.
Consider that the "first contact" in "Q Who" was on the other side of the galaxy and that Picard and every living person in Starfleet, who have not known about the Borg before, couldn't know, that the Borg would be able to reach Earth, let alone that the Borg were already at Earth.

Well, if anything "Q WHO" is the contradicting episode: it is stated as an FC, yet Borg knew of UFP before (Hansen), UFP knew of Borg before (Hansens knew what basically to expect) and Guinan knew of Borg before (ST:GEN). So "Q Who" is discontinued, not ENT.

Which is precisely why Doug Drexler defense is also irrelevant. He tries to defend NX-01 like we accuse it for having similarities with other Starfleet vessels. The problem is not that NX-01 resembles Akira in the same way Ambassador resembles Galaxy - the problem is that NX-01 looks too much like Akira.

Miss the point, do you? Similarities from outside are nothing. Tell me one reason a new super-duper, nuclear armed ship shouldn't look like a Spanish galleon.

They simply remembered a good outlook and gave it to Akira, what's wrong?

Or we disregard temporal wobbliness to a certain extent, which would help to explain some of the inconsistencies, which are in all series and would be there too without Enterprise and its new aspects.

Q(Tapestry) and Prophets(Episode with this poet) explicitly showed examples time line changes could be contained, if done correctly. Sisco did this too, by impersonating Bell.

[Kazeite]

Maybe because since their first contact, both, the UFP and the Klingons, have failed to etablish any diplomatical contacts at all.

Which has no connection to the FC whatsoever. If they didn't try to estabilish diplomatic relations, then the question whether FC was succesful or not is moot.

All you have on this topic is one single sentence from Picard in whole Star Trek.

Not true - now I have second sentence from Spock which shows that start of hostilities couldn't have been more disconnected from FC.

And, as I have shown, he have had a good motive to be not entirely honest respectively to simplify his given reason.

Then why use Klingons at all?

But there happens other time travelling too.

But no Temporal Cold War, as in "messing with other side's past in order to erase them from history". All examples mentioned by you were more or less accidental and people involved tried their best to restore proper history. That is not the case with TCW.

I would think, that if there was a similiar situation in the past, it would be either common knowledge or it would be top secret. If I'm convinced, that this is a new situtaion, I wouldn't bother to exceedingly search the archives.

That's where clever 24th century computers come in. Not to mention Data. If there is some information in the databank, it would be found.

That's an example, why I hate it, if someone takes my sentences out of context.

I believe that we've already estabilished that info about Borg would've been accesible by captains (since info about Q, much more dangerous, is accesible by captains), so, no, your sentence wasn't taken out of context.

I don't see, why it is irrelevant.

Because we're not dealing with the situation where our heroes go to past and change history. Which is why this sentence wasn't taken out of context as well.

I don't understand it. Usually it is an argument of your kind, that the UFP is so stupid, that it can lose its technology, like the Genesis device, the metaphasic shield, the phase cloacking device, the phase torpedos or the ablative hull armor.

Excuse me? "Argument of my kind"? "Stupid UFP"? Where did you got those ideas? And what makes you think I believe in such silly arguments?

Maybe, we won't ever agree on this. I think, that there are similarities but huge differences too. These huge difference are important. Because they show the uniqueness of the NX class.

Cutting 200 old design in half, enlarging it, attaching new engines, saucer dish and bridge module doesn't make it completely new design.

You can't look at two different things and only search for similarities. You have to look for differences. Otherwise, all people will look the same. They have all a nose and a mouth, two eyes and ears, a body with two arms and legs.

Which usually have different shapes. But we're not talking about people, but about ships.

Yes, you can't see it, because you again have taken this sentence out of context. It was to read in context with the foregoing sentence:

The sentence which is invalid - we can estabilish roughly when the Akira class was constructed. And we know from basic design components (like shape of the escape pods or bridge module), or the ship's size itself than it cannot be as old as Excelsior or Miranda class.

If you would have dealt with Doug Drexler's defence, you would see, that both its defence and my argument is relevant.

I did dealt with Doug Drexler's defense, so I do not understand this accusation.

Please, why would they look like idiots?

For example, "A night in Sickbay", which shows us how Archer brings Porthos to the diplomatic meeting with sensitive race. Porthos pees on one of their sacred trees, aliens get offended, and on top of that, Porthos get's sick. Now tell me, whose fault is that? What kind of idiot would take his dog to diplomatic meeting with the race he knows can be offended by things humans consider trivial?

Except that if you look at how the drone ship holographic system worked, it was essentially a cloak, only it made the Romulan drones look like another ship, instead of just making them appear invisible.

Are you saying that system designed to project a image of other ship over itself is the same as cloaking device? Cloaking device doesn't project a holographic image of space to hide the ship - it bends the light around it. This is not an extension of the same technology - you can't bend light around anything using holograms.

Easy: because of misunderstanding by first contact, some minor Klingon was offended deeply and declared a Vendetta on UFP. The swear to fight UFP was transferred from father to son many generations. When descendants of that family reached power in Klingon Empire, they started war. So, "from certain point of view", first contact DID lead to war.

Except that FC involved only one single Klingon. Unless you want to reinvent definition of the First Contact...

Tell me one reason a new super-duper, nuclear armed ship shouldn't look like a Spanish galleon.

Becuse it would have different hull shape, for example, which alone would change the look of the ship.

They simply remembered a good outlook and gave it to Akira, what's wrong?

What's wrong is that this particular outlook was dictated by several factors of which "good look" was the least important. Starfleet engineers aren't fashion designers, for cryin' out loud!

[Mike DiCenso]

Mike DiCenso wrote:

The Vulcan mind meld originally as presented was a rare and difficult thing. However, as TOS went on, that aspect of it was quietly dropped in favor of making it common tool for the writers to exploit.

Also note that McCoy was completely unaware at the time of what a mind meld was! Yet not too later on it seems as if the technique is common knowledge and routine.

watchdog wrote:

Exactly the point, the mind meld held a much higher position in Vulcan society in Spocks days than it did 100 years earlier;

Amok time, Spock melded with T'pring when they were children in order to call them to one another when the time was right, and in TNG (ether the episode with Sarek or the one with Spock) we learn that it is apparently normal for Vulcan fathers and sons to meld with one another, something Spock chose not to do. Also dont forget about the stone of Gol, a device that only telepathic Vulcans could use that was a very powerful weapon.
I would have accepted that the mind meld was a practice that was all but forgotten and maybe only practiced among a small number of Vulcans, but when they first introduced it in Ent it was an ancient technique abandoned centuries ago and only later changed to a genetic anomaly that was frowned upon, not to mention that at least 90% of all the Vulcans seen throughout Star Trek history have all been one of these genetic mutants up until Ent aired.

Since you've admitted that you haven't seen the fourth season of ST:ENT, I'll simply point out that all of that was addressed in the Vulcan Civil War story arc, starting with "The Forge" [ST:ENT4]. Basically it is revealed that all Vulcans can accomplish the mind meld, but the Vulcan High Command lied about that. What the exact reason for this need to subvert the mind meld tradition was, but the hints are that it has something to do with covert Romulan influence.

Havent seen any of Ent in a while, so I do not recall this holographic cloak bit at all, as the Romulan and Suliban cloaks were not the only cloaks in Ent (those aliens with the holodeck had a cloak too) I will continue to stand by my original statements.

Sure, but the Xyrillians as seen in "Unexpected" were one-shot aliens, and we might presume that no one saw or heard of them afterwords. The Romulan and Suliban situations are far bigger offenders, but were dealt with in one way or the other in the 4th season.

I will have to check but I'm pretty certain that Spock stated that the accidental time travel in the naked time was the first proven time travel in the Federation.

Knock yourself out:

http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/07nakedtimetrans.htm

http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/22tom ... ytrans.htm

One of the stated reasons for this episodes existence was because B&B thought that they needed to show how the Borg became aware of earth, as stated the other examples above already showed how the Borg became aware of Earth (I dont think that was even a question from their first appearance anyway), making this episode unessesary and redundant.

It doesn't matter the intent, it is how the story actually portrays the scenario. In this case, we discover that the Borg found at the crash site are the ones blasted by the E-E in ST:FC. Take this dialog between Archer and T'Pol:


ARCHER: There was something familiar about all this, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I find this speech Zefram Cochrane made eighty nine years ago. When I was a kid, I read everything I could about him. It took me a while, but I finally found it in the database. He was giving a commencement address at Princeton when he started to talk about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated by a group of humans who were also from the future.
T'POL: As I recall, Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories. He was also known to be frequently intoxicated.
ARCHER: No one took him seriously, and he recanted the whole thing a few years later. But you have to admit, there are similarities.
T'POL: (reading) He said their ultimate goal was to enslave the human race.
ARCHER: If he was right, they might be heading back to their homeworld so they can try again.

Earlier one of the scientists who discovers the crash site notes that the crash occured some 100 years prior, which also coincides with ST:FC and Cochrane's warp test with the Phoenix in 2063.
-Mike

[SailorSaturn13]

What's wrong is that this particular outlook was dictated by several factors of which "good look" was the least important. Starfleet engineers aren't fashion designers, for cryin' out loud!

The only peopole without fashion sence are BORG. All others do have fashion sence. And which factors dictated the outlook, btw? So many classes indicate it is a question of design, nit necessity.

Becuse it would have different hull shape, for example, which alone would change the look of the ship.

WHY would it have a different hull shape?

Except that FC involved only one single Klingon. Unless you want to reinvent definition of the First Contact...

No, meant is first travel of NX to Q'ronos.
But it could also be, say, an uncle disgusted by the fact his nepfew was ATTACKED by those filthy humans!

Then why use Klingons at all?

Why did Obi-Wan mentioned that Vader killed Luke's father rathere than simply "he disappeared".

[Kazeite]

The only peopole without fashion sence are BORG. All others do have fashion sence.

Which is precisely why I wrote "that this particular outlook was dictated by several factors of which "good look" was the least important", not "this particular outlook would be dictated with no regard whether project would "look good" or not".

WHY would it have a different hull shape?

Because Spanish galleons hull were designed according to period knowledge of hull "areadynamic". Since then, our knowledge about how ships hull interacts with water has increased. A lot. And thus, we'd use this knowledge to design hull which, unlike galleons hull, can move through water faster and with less amount of resistance. Not to mention that galleon was wind-powered, and nuclear armed ship would have screw propulsion.

No, meant is first travel of NX to Q'ronos.
But it could also be, say, an uncle disgusted by the fact his nepfew was ATTACKED by those filthy humans!

Of all weird explanations this has got to be the weirdest one. Now ask yourself - do you like to boggle yourself with such silly explanation, or do would you like to simply to simply accept this as error, shrug, and move on?

Why did Obi-Wan mentioned that Vader killed Luke's father rathere than simply "he disappeared".

Because George Lucas changed his mind halfway through writing TESB script. When Obi-Wan said that Vader killed Luke's father, he was telling the absolute and literal truth: at this point Lucas envisioned Vader and Anakin as being two different people.

It's similiar kind of inconsistency, really...

[watchdog]

Since you've admitted that you haven't seen the fourth season of ST:ENT, I'll simply point out that all of that was addressed in the Vulcan Civil War story arc, starting with "The Forge" [ST:ENT4]. Basically it is revealed that all Vulcans can accomplish the mind meld, but the Vulcan High Command lied about that. What the exact reason for this need to subvert the mind meld tradition was, but the hints are that it has something to do with covert Romulan influence.

I missed the last part of season 3 while I was at basic training, but I've seen all of season 4. I dont remember every single detail to every episode I have seen but even if it was revealed that all Vulcans have the ability (which they should) it still does not explain the bizarre change earlier from a lost technique to a genetic anomaly and now to a Romulan plot(?) nor does it address the fact that within the lifetime of a single Vulcan (Sarek born 2165) it becomes a compleatly accepted ritualized thing that Vulcans do within their families normally.

Sure, but the Xyrillians as seen in "Unexpected" were one-shot aliens, and we might presume that no one saw or heard of them afterwords. The Romulan and Suliban situations are far bigger offenders, but were dealt with in one way or the other in the 4th season.

Yes but keep in mind how Kirk responded to the invisible ship, not with a 'an advanced cloak spock?' but with an 'How is this possible!!'
There was no indication that there were any kind of invisibility screens from before (which should have been noted with the three examples from above), but there was compleat surprise and concern from everyone even the guy on outpost 4, at the cloaking screen. There was no indication that such a thing had happened before regardless of how the cloak may or may not opperate.

Knock yourself out:

http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/07nakedtimetrans.htm

http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/22tom ... ytrans.htm

Thanks, I've been looking for this site;


Checked elapsed time, Mr. Sulu.
My chronometer's running... backwards, sir.
Time warp.
We're going backward in time.
Helm, begin reversing power.
Slowly.
Helm answering, sir.
Power reversing.
We're back to normal time, Captain.
Engines ahead. Warp one.
Warp one, sir.
- Mr. Spock. - Yes, sir.
The time warp-- what did it do to us?
We've regressed in time 71 hours.
It is now three days ago, Captain.
We have three days to live over again.
Not those last three days.
This does open some intriguing prospects, Captain.
Since the formula worked,
we can go back in time, to any planet...
any era.
We may risk it someday, Mr. Spock.
Resume course to our next destination, Mr. Sulu.
Course laid in, sir.
Steady as she goes


Notice the wording, I will concede that there is no definitive statement saying 'this is the first time man has traveled through time!' however the way Spock says the above does sound as if this was the first time a way has been discovered to actually travel trough time.

It doesn't matter the intent, it is how the story actually portrays the scenario. In this case, we discover that the Borg found at the crash site are the ones blasted by the E-E in ST:FC. Take this dialog between Archer and T'Pol:


ARCHER: There was something familiar about all this, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I find this speech Zefram Cochrane made eighty nine years ago. When I was a kid, I read everything I could about him. It took me a while, but I finally found it in the database. He was giving a commencement address at Princeton when he started to talk about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated by a group of humans who were also from the future.
T'POL: As I recall, Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories. He was also known to be frequently intoxicated.
ARCHER: No one took him seriously, and he recanted the whole thing a few years later. But you have to admit, there are similarities.
T'POL: (reading) He said their ultimate goal was to enslave the human race.
ARCHER: If he was right, they might be heading back to their homeworld so they can try again.

Earlier one of the scientists who discovers the crash site notes that the crash occured some 100 years prior, which also coincides with ST:FC and Cochrane's warp test with the Phoenix in 2063.
-Mike

The fact that it's from the movie 'First Contact is not in dispute (by me at least), my point was that there was no need for the Borg to appear in this series at all (shows a lack of imagination to me) and certainly no need to explain how the Borg learned of Earth. I never saw any need to introduce TNG aliens into the show (the ones that were pretty clearly first contacted, as in their existance became widly known, in the show).

[Jedi Master Spock]

Well, logically speaking, it's always possible to contrive some explanation to fit the apparent inconsistencies. The problem is that explanation isn't always reasonable - for example, Spock and Kirk are talking about invisibility without any reference to whether it's a genuine cloak or a holographic method of simulating invisibility.

First note: as new supersedes old, it's the episodes of older series that are contradicted, not other way around. This way we can resolve ANY continuity problem, if all else fails.

Or is it?

There are a couple methods of resolving contradictions.

One - which I use in my analyses of warp speeds - is to take whichever example is a better fit in the franchise as a whole. There are two relatively consistent warp paradigms, the Voyager and the TOS, but the TOS paradigm is more consistent with the whole of Trek taken over all the series and movies.

Another is to appeal to specifics relating to the creation in real life. Some people say that older examples override (see, for example, here), others say newer examples override (as you just did), and others appeal to other still other external motivations ("Roddenberry was alive back then/was involved more directly in making this, so this is real-er Trek.")

[Who is like God arbour]

Well, logically speaking, it's always possible to contrive some explanation to fit the apparent inconsistencies. The problem is that explanation isn't always reasonable - for example, Spock and Kirk are talking about invisibility without any reference to whether it's a genuine cloak or a holographic method of simulating invisibility.

First note: as new supersedes old, it's the episodes of older series that are contradicted, not other way around. This way we can resolve ANY continuity problem, if all else fails.

Or is it?

There are a couple methods of resolving contradictions.

One - which I use in my analyses of warp speeds - is to take whichever example is a better fit in the franchise as a whole. There are two relatively consistent warp paradigms, the Voyager and the TOS, but the TOS paradigm is more consistent with the whole of Trek taken over all the series and movies.

Another is to appeal to specifics relating to the creation in real life. Some people say that older examples override (see, for example, here), others say newer examples override (as you just did), and others appeal to other still other external motivations ("Roddenberry was alive back then/was involved more directly in making this, so this is real-er Trek.")

You have to see the different methods to resolve contradictions in a ranking system.

1.) an higher ranking statement supersedes a lower ranking statements.

• • Here, you could say, that the movies and serieses (from Star Wars and Star Trek) are higher ranking, than novels and waht there is else.
    In Star Trek, you could also say, that Star Trek from Roddenberry is higher ranking than Star Trek from B&B. I think, that there is the only need for a canon policy at all.

2.) a more specialised statement supersedes a more generalised statement

3.) a newer statement supersedes an older statement

But this only apply, if there is no possibility to resolve a contradiction.

If there is a contradiction, you have first to try, to solve it by interpreting the lower, older or more generalised statement. For this, there are different methods to interpret a statement [grammatical, historical, systematical, teleological, comparative]. In which order that has to happen, is not finally settled.

[Mike DiCenso]

Mike DiCenso wrote:
Since you've admitted that you haven't seen the fourth season of ST:ENT, I'll simply point out that all of that was addressed in the Vulcan Civil War story arc, starting with "The Forge" [ST:ENT4]. Basically it is revealed that all Vulcans can accomplish the mind meld, but the Vulcan High Command lied about that. What the exact reason for this need to subvert the mind meld tradition was, but the hints are that it has something to do with covert Romulan influence.

watchdog wrote:
I missed the last part of season 3 while I was at basic training, but I've seen all of season 4. I dont remember every single detail to every episode I have seen but even if it was revealed that all Vulcans have the ability (which they should) it still does not explain the bizarre change earlier from a lost technique to a genetic anomaly and now to a Romulan plot(?) nor does it address the fact that within the lifetime of a single Vulcan (Sarek born 2165) it becomes a compleatly accepted ritualized thing that Vulcans do within their families normally.

Sure, but the Xyrillians as seen in "Unexpected" were one-shot aliens, and we might presume that no one saw or heard of them afterwords. The Romulan and Suliban situations are far bigger offenders, but were dealt with in one way or the other in the 4th season.

Yes but keep in mind how Kirk responded to the invisible ship, not with a 'an advanced cloak spock?' but with an 'How is this possible!!'
There was no indication that there were any kind of invisibility screens from before (which should have been noted with the three examples from above), but there was compleat surprise and concern from everyone even the guy on outpost 4, at the cloaking screen. There was no indication that such a thing had happened before regardless of how the cloak may or may not opperate

.

That's the implication, but nevertheless, we now have the Romulans using a holographic, not light-bending "cloak. In other words, Kirk asking "how" is now changed in light of Spock next suggesting "Well, the bending of light may be what they're doing here". At the time TOS was made in the 1960's, the concepts of stealth technology were only just begining to be applied; by the 1990's and beyond anyone watching TOS would have to wonder if there were other forms of stealth tech before then, especially as we now are developing "cloaking" armor.

Checked elapsed time, Mr. Sulu.
My chronometer's running... backwards, sir.
Time warp.
We're going backward in time.
Helm, begin reversing power.
Slowly.
Helm answering, sir.
Power reversing.
We're back to normal time, Captain.
Engines ahead. Warp one.
Warp one, sir.
- Mr. Spock. - Yes, sir.
The time warp-- what did it do to us?
We've regressed in time 71 hours.
It is now three days ago, Captain.
We have three days to live over again.
Not those last three days.
This does open some intriguing prospects, Captain.
Since the formula worked,
we can go back in time, to any planet...
any era.
We may risk it someday, Mr. Spock.
Resume course to our next destination, Mr. Sulu.
Course laid in, sir.
Steady as she goes


Notice the wording, I will concede that there is no definitive statement saying 'this is the first time man has traveled through time!' however the way Spock says the above does sound as if this was the first time a way has been discovered to actually travel trough time.

Right, a way that they can make use of not that it was impossible, nor that anyone else had gone back in time. Even if Kirk did know about Archer's time travelling, it's not like anyone could apply Daniel's 31st century techniques and technologies. Side note: the antimatter-matter "cold start" method was dropped and forgotten in favor the risky "sling shot" (but more dramatic story-wise) maneuver.

It doesn't matter the intent, it is how the story actually portrays the scenario. In this case, we discover that the Borg found at the crash site are the ones blasted by the E-E in ST:FC. Take this dialog between Archer and T'Pol:


ARCHER: There was something familiar about all this, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I find this speech Zefram Cochrane made eighty nine years ago. When I was a kid, I read everything I could about him. It took me a while, but I finally found it in the database. He was giving a commencement address at Princeton when he started to talk about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated by a group of humans who were also from the future.
T'POL: As I recall, Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories. He was also known to be frequently intoxicated.
ARCHER: No one took him seriously, and he recanted the whole thing a few years later. But you have to admit, there are similarities.
T'POL: (reading) He said their ultimate goal was to enslave the human race.
ARCHER: If he was right, they might be heading back to their homeworld so they can try again.

Earlier one of the scientists who discovers the crash site notes that the crash occured some 100 years prior, which also coincides with ST:FC and Cochrane's warp test with the Phoenix in 2063.
-Mike

The fact that it's from the movie 'First Contact is not in dispute (by me at least), my point was that there was no need for the Borg to appear in this series at all (shows a lack of imagination to me) and certainly no need to explain how the Borg learned of Earth. I never saw any need to introduce TNG aliens into the show (the ones that were pretty clearly first contacted, as in their existance became widly known, in the show).

That's a suggested thing, regardless. I agree that the series could have done without the Borg, but in the context of the effects of the events of ST:FC, it still makes sense.
-Mike

[SailorSaturn13]

Notice the wording, I will concede that there is no definitive statement saying 'this is the first time man has traveled through time!' however the way Spock says the above does sound as if this was the first time a way has been discovered to actually travel trough time.

This is first method that:
1. Is achievable by current tech (without any power-ups from Q, Dowds, or so)
2. produces reliable results and don't just throws you blindly somewhen, somewhere (as many episodes do)

[Kazeite]

That's the implication, but nevertheless, we now have the Romulans using a holographic, not light-bending "cloak.

No, we don't. It's not a true cloaking device, not to mention that Kirk shouldn't be astonished at all - unless you want to argue that Romulan-Earth war was fought with Romulans refraining from using their "holographic cloaks".

[Mike DiCenso]

That's the implication, but nevertheless, we now have the Romulans using a holographic, not light-bending "cloak.

No, we don't. It's not a true cloaking device, not to mention that Kirk shouldn't be astonished at all - unless you want to argue that Romulan-Earth war was fought with Romulans refraining from using their "holographic cloaks".

Why would they use a holographic cloak that's been compromised?
-Mike

[Kazeite]

Because it would still be a valuable weapon. I don't know - it seems to be that you argue that because now enemy (UFP) knows about weapon, it suddenly becomes useless?

[Who is like God arbour]

Why would they use a holographic cloak that's been compromised?

Because it would still be a valuable weapon. I don't know - it seems to be that you argue that because now enemy (UFP) knows about weapon, it suddenly becomes useless?

A cloaking device is no weapon. It's per definition a form of stealth technology. It doesn't mean, that the cloacked ship has to be optical invisible. It is usually enough, if it is invisible to the sensors because usually at the distances in space, one wouldn't see a ship with eyes only.
But it could not be amiss, if a cloaking device makes the ship invisible too.

Regardless how a cloacking device is working (holographic, space-warping, EM-bending...), it lost its value, if it can be compromised. A known weapon could be used regardless. But if the cloacking device is compromised, it lost its single value: the invisibility (for sensors or eyes).

Crewman Daniels has provided Cpt. Archer with the necessary knowledge to build a quantum beacon. That technology could not only compromiss the Suliban cloaking device, but the Romulan cloaking devices too. At this time, it was beyond Starfleet's level.

But we don't know, how far it was beyond Starfleet's level. But it could be possible, because at this time, there still was no UFP and no "Department of Temporal Investigations" or its "Temporal Integrity Commission" or its "Temporal displacement policy" or its "Temporal Prime Directive", that Starfleet has analysed it and has later applied the new technology to all sensor systems.

The cloaking device (holographic and whatever the Suliban have used), as it was used until this time, would be worthless and therefore not further used. A new operating mode has to be found for a new cloaking device, which can't be compromissed by the quantum beacon technology. But that needed time.

Therfore it could be, that after the quantum beacon technology was applied to the sensor systems, no cloaking device was used until Ballance of Terror. The new cloaking device has had a new operating mode (EM-bending), which couldn't be compromissed by the quantum beacon technology.

That could explain the surprise of the Starfleet officers. Not only that they have never seen a working cloacking device in person, they have thought, that the Romulans couldn't use their holographic cloaking device because the UFP sensors would be able to compromiss it. But suddenly, there appeared from nowhere a ship, which was not there before. He even must not have noticed, that the ship was optical invisible too. He has seen at his screen and the ship would have appeared, if it would have used the known and compromissable holographic cloaking device. But there was nothing. I would be surprised too.

That's only a possible explanation. There could be more explainations. It is not supported by canon. But I think, it fits to the facts and could solve the inconsistency. If you think not so, maybe you can explain me, why you think so.

[Mike DiCenso]

Because it would still be a valuable weapon. I don't know - it seems to be that you argue that because now enemy (UFP) knows about weapon, it suddenly becomes useless?

Not because they (the enemy) knows about the holocloaks, but because the enemy knows how to penetrate through it, thus rendering it useless. It now falls apon the Romulans to find a better way to cloak their ships, hence the R&D effort that ultimately leads to the light-bending cloaks of TOS and TNG.
-Mike