Should the Picard Show ignore ST-2009 destruction of Romulus?
- Thread starter Phil123
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Why ignore it? If this is truly the prime universe, and Romulus exists, then Spock Prime is not from the "real" prime universe. If this is the prime universe, why NOT do a story that deals with the aftermath of that and where the Romulans would be?
There is no reason to ignore that.
There is no reason to ignore that.
one good reason is that it might require too much work from an audience that did not watch the 2009 movie or did and forgot about it. best not to get too stuck in the details. can be a throaway line, but maybe not some key plot point.
A 5 minute montage similar to what we got from Spock in ST09 would fix that problem. Or even better, just write it into Picard's lines at some point. No one needs to know how Romulus was destroyed, only that it was.
Orci was intentionally leaving the restoration of the Prime Universe storyline open for Shatner Kirk in the third movie. Then Orci got fired and we got Beyond instead.
Agree with it or not, Romulus was destroyed in the Prime timeline. Keep it. It would be interesting to see the state of Romulan relations with The Federation after the destruction of Romulus; Did they reach out to The Federation for help, or turn inward and isolate themselves for a period of recovery?
It would, but I found that to be one of the weakest parts of that movie. Nimoy makes it bearable, but isn't good. (my opinion)
One way to make it all work is opening the show with Riker and the Titan on their diplomatic mission as per the end of Nemesis. Romulans are ready to work on peace relations, and are in fact eager to end hostilities. Then the supernova event happens and all hell breaks loose, drastically changing things as Picard and his contingent struggle with the ramifications of what just happened. Then the show would deal with picking up the pieces from this large chain of events and what it means for the future of the Federation.
That would be interesting, and how the fallout would impact other regional powers.
Romulus getting blown up would hurt the Romulans, but they have an empire filled with worlds. I think they'd bounce back.
It depends on what power structure is in place after Shinzon's coup.
They were willing to negotiate peace in the aftermath of Shinzon. Romulus was the seat of their government so anything would have been undone and they would have suffered a huge blow. The big question is, would they in turn blame the Federation for it? I imagine there would have been rumblings and protests about what Spock was planning on doing and him being an Ambassador in the Federation would have created resentment, so I wonder if peace would have continued. It would be fragile at best, I imagine, at least politically speaking. But the thing is, the destruction of Romulus doesn't just affect Romulus. It changes the balance of power and any new threat that wanted to take advantage of that potentially could do great harm.
After Star Trek (2009) came out and after I read that Star Trek was doing well on Netflix when it began streaming there in 2011, I became convinced it was a question of when it would come back to TV, not if. And I thought when it came back, a good place to start would be after the destruction of Romulus in 2387. It would disturb the balance-of-power for sure.
Granted, I understood why Discovery was set in the 23rd Century, since between the Kelvin Films and renewed TOS nostalgia, the 23rd Century was hot; but now that they're doing the Picard Series, I hope they address the ramifications of what happened to the Romulans. Since it'll be 2399 and 12 years after the fact, there might be a New Romulus, but there's no way it would be totally up on its feet in that short amount of time, so how intact the Romulan Empire still is would depend upon the other worlds in it. No interstellar empire should make itself too dependent on any one world.
Granted, I understood why Discovery was set in the 23rd Century, since between the Kelvin Films and renewed TOS nostalgia, the 23rd Century was hot; but now that they're doing the Picard Series, I hope they address the ramifications of what happened to the Romulans. Since it'll be 2399 and 12 years after the fact, there might be a New Romulus, but there's no way it would be totally up on its feet in that short amount of time, so how intact the Romulan Empire still is would depend upon the other worlds in it. No interstellar empire should make itself too dependent on any one world.
Have to be honest, not the Spock I know. First, IMO, the Spock of 2387 has good reason to surmise that the prime timeline is still there, unharmed. He has reason to logically believe this, partially based on what we know Starfleet science knows from "Parallels" and also because Spock could have information that we're not privy to. I'm giving Spock the benefit of the doubt here, especially because it's the writer's intent anyway.
Also, in Alternate 2258, we see a Prime Spock who, at 157, has had a long and distinguished career in Starfleet and is respected in the Federation. Moreover, it's a Spock who, although displaced in time, is more comfortable with who he is as a Human and as a Vulcan.
But it is also a Spock who feels extreme guilt at his failure to save Romulus, made worse by the decades of work and sacrifice he invested in reunification, something that arguably would have been his signature achievement and contribution to the galaxy. Work that he started back in Kirk's time. Then poof, it's all destroyed by Hobus because he got their late, and then hours later, he's forced by Nero to watch as Vulcan swallows itself. Spock feels responsible for all of this. He's worked his entire life to achieve reunification between Vulcans and Romulans, and now he feels guilty for destroying Romulus and by extension Vulcan in another timeline. Damn.
Spock's 157 years old and by the end of '09, Spock knows the prime timeline is fine and knowing what he knows about Romulans and Vulcans that both societies in this time don't know about themselves yet, there's every reason to believe that Spock would begin planting the seeds of reunification again while helping the Vulcans recover from this cataclysm. Spock could be an excellent teacher and is already a skilled diplomat and this could help him in his own way of dealing with the guilt he (rightly or wrongly) feels.
But alas, he only got 5 years before he died. No, they shouldn't ignore or forget what happened to Romulus.
Edit: Added last sentence in second to last paragraph.
Good points about Spock. I'd been wondering if perhaps an in-universe explanation could be made of his death in terms of his guilt. I completely forgot about Vulcan getting destroyed as well in the other timeline, so that's a double-whammy for him. He was already quite old by then, and being guilt-ridden must have really tore at him. That kind of thing wouldn't have just hit someone physically but mentally as well and would have taken a hit at his soul.
Anyway, all these events make for an interesting exploration of devastation and how one can move forward after such a thing. If they explore this in the series, I think it could be really fascinating.
Anyway, all these events make for an interesting exploration of devastation and how one can move forward after such a thing. If they explore this in the series, I think it could be really fascinating.
No, I feel that the destruction of Romulus could give a lot of cool storylines, Maybe the Klingons saw the chance and invaded, starting a big war, or the romulans became hyper agressive with what they had invading parts of space, of the Romulans became the gypsies of the galaxy, roaming around.
Interesting idea. Given the Klingons reaction to the instability of the Cardassians it would not surprise me if they attempted to invade a chaotic Romulan space.
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