Can I ask a few dumb questions?

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

So the things I'm most interested in for this show are 1) the ideas and 2) the performances. But i want to be straight on the most basic plot ideas.

1) The Romulans started evacuations before the supernova right?
2) The android attack on Mars happened AFTER the supernova right?
3) the attack was, at least for the public, not related to the evacuation, right?

 

[thribs]

1. The novel indicates that the Romulans didn’t want to reveal the truth to the public in order to prevent a panic. There was a bit of them not believing that their sun would go nova. The rich managed to leave but most were still on the planet.
2. The nova is said to have happened in 2387 so it was two years before.
3. Yep, so far it appears to be not related.

 

[Christopher]

So the things I'm most interested in for this show are 1) the ideas and 2) the performances. But i want to be straight on the most basic plot ideas.

1) The Romulans started evacuations before the supernova right?

Yes, several years before (2381 according to background materials and the tie-in novel).

2) The android attack on Mars happened AFTER the supernova right?

No, it was in 2385, two years before the supernova.

3) the attack was, at least for the public, not related to the evacuation, right?

The attack destroyed the shipbuilding facility that was constructing a new wave of ships for the evacuation. Once those ships were destroyed, the Federation was unwilling to expend the additional resources necessary to continue the evacuation, and thus abandoned the effort.

If you're asking whether the reason for the attack was connected to the evacuation, we don't know yet what the reason was.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Yes, several years before (2381 according to background materials and the tie-in novel).



No, it was in 2385, two years before the supernova.



The attack destroyed the shipbuilding facility that was constructing a new wave of ships for the evacuation. Once those ships were destroyed, the Federation was unwilling to expend the additional resources necessary to continue the evacuation, and thus abandoned the effort.

If you're asking whether the reason for the attack was connected to the evacuation, we don't know yet what the reason was.

thanks!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

It's hard to tell what is good storytelling or not. I mean the newscaster showed clips of the mars attack when she was actually talking about the armada.. we had not known about the attack yet.

 

[Christopher]

It's hard to tell what is good storytelling or not. I mean the newscaster showed clips of the mars attack when she was actually talking about the armada.. we had not known about the attack yet.

That seems to have been a post-production error rather than part of the intended storytelling.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

That seems to have been a post-production error rather than part of the intended storytelling.

someone pointed out that the news reporter (who had an agenda) did this on purpose, as we see Picard looking agitated after the clip was shown but before she brought up the attack.. like he knew she was about to. All things being equal, she should have shown the clip that was playing earlier in the kitchen (the fleet) when Picard got his tea

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Do the comics or the novels indicate where the Hobus system is?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Do the comics or the novels indicate where the Hobus system is?

Out there. Thataway.

 

[Christopher]

Do the comics or the novels indicate where the Hobus system is?

"Hobus" isn't a thing anymore. It was created for the IDW Countdown prequel comic and never part of canon. Picard has established that it was the Romulans' own primary star that went supernova.

And I'm glad of that, because "Hobus" is a silly name. It sounds like an Ancient Roman hobo. More importantly, it's a more sensible interpretation of the movie backstory -- the most logical way they could've been caught off guard and been unable to stop the supernova in time to prevent Romulus's destruction is if the supernova happened in Romulus's own star system, rather than occurring somewhere else and somehow traveling faster than light.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Say, buddy, can you spare an evacuation fleet?"

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

"Hobus" isn't a thing anymore. It was created for the IDW Countdown prequel comic and never part of canon. Picard has established that it was the Romulans' own primary star that went supernova.

And I'm glad of that, because "Hobus" is a silly name. It sounds like an Ancient Roman hobo. More importantly, it's a more sensible interpretation of the movie backstory -- the most logical way they could've been caught off guard and been unable to stop the supernova in time to prevent Romulus's destruction is if the supernova happened in Romulus's own star system, rather than occurring somewhere else and somehow traveling faster than light.

usually supernovas take millions and millions of years to happen.. it just wouldn't happen suddenly. I've heard people thinking that a "quantum filament" (TNG Disaster) might have swept in and caused it to be unstable. Or maybe someone launched a trilithium weapon into it ("Captain's Holiday, "Generations") but I hope they do explain it

 

[Christopher]

usually supernovas take millions and millions of years to happen.. it just wouldn't happen suddenly. I've heard people thinking that a "quantum filament" (TNG Disaster) might have swept in and caused it to be unstable. Or maybe someone launched a trilithium weapon into it ("Captain's Holiday, "Generations") but I hope they do explain it

That's another problem with the IDW version, the short notice. In the show and the tie-in novel, they had 6 years of warning. Still not much, but the novel hints that it may not have occurred naturally.

Of course, supernovae in Star Trek have never happened in a realistic way. For instance, they often tend to happen in populated systems -- the Fabrini star, Minara, Beta Niobe. And they're easy to set off in stars that normally shouldn't be capable of them. And their gravitational effects propagate FTL, as seen in Generations.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

My reasoning for this thread is to get the basic storytelling building blocks as clear as they can be.. because I notice that I sometimes find myself second-guessing the very very basics about the premise of the show and if I have it right in my head, I don't hate the show (yet) and enjoy aspects of it very much while I'm not too keen on other aspects

 

[Timo]

I don't think this is a bad attitude to approach modern Trek with. Discovery works on certain basic building blocks for its season-long plotlines, too - but twice or thrice now, the writers have had to reinvent themselves, abandoning the original intent for the blocks and introducing an all-new intent. It's not difficult to do: the square pegs are still square, they're just painted differently. But the audience is kept on their toes, trying to figure out what sort of a structure will emerge... And which previously important blocks will be abandoned in the corner, to be replaced by ones out of the left field. (And mixing of metaphors is just a nice metaphor for what's going on there, thank you.)

The supernova thing in PIC really is the best of all worlds. It doesn't contradict the 2009 movie outright - it actually explains how Spock could "be en route" during the kaboom, rather than carefully prepositioned with a safety margin of several months or years (kaboom can't be predicted down to the minute, and it happening right next to Romulus requires a fast ship and a big helping of luck, only one of which Spock has). It also nicely shows that there might be multiple rescue plans in motion, some less successful than others. And a forewarning of less than a decade is ideal: there's disbelief since all of a sudden a star that shouldn't be capable of exploding shows signs of intending to, there's too little time for anybody to wrap their minds around that, but enough time for conspiracy theories to emerge.

Best of all, something so huge serves as mere background for the actual plot here... So even the three key building blocks above can be juggled, perhaps dropped and slightly deformed, and reassembled in different ways, and overall the writers can still say "it always happened that way, you just misunderstood the general gist while inventing detail that wasn't really there". We don't have a detailed timeline, there's no data on who noticed the star was going to blow, how and when, no careful list of what happened before and after the key events known so far. Plenty of room for all-new key elements to be introduced there, I mean. This would be more difficult were the supernova at the sharp focus of the show.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

what is the Romulan Reclamation Project supposed to accomplish?

 

[TPezz]

Do the comics or the novels indicate where the Hobus system is?

Half way round the galaxy and turn left

 

[Llywela]

what is the Romulan Reclamation Project supposed to accomplish?

Reclaiming the Borg left on that abandoned cube not only gives them back their freedom and individuality but also neutralises them as a potential threat without having to murder them all. It also provides an invaluable opportunity to study and learn from Borg technology - and, potentially, to sell parts on the black market, which could offer a valuable cash boost to the Romulans after the loss of their homeworld and empire.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Reclaiming the Borg left on that abandoned cube not only gives them back their freedom and individuality but also neutralises them as a potential threat without having to murder them all. It also provides an invaluable opportunity to study and learn from Borg technology - and, potentially, to sell parts on the black market, which could offer a valuable cash boost to the Romulans after the loss of their homeworld and empire.

yet it was introduced in the first episode, and seems to have nothing to do with the supernova or the refugees?

 

[Llywela]

yet it was introduced in the first episode, and seems to have nothing to do with the supernova or the refugees?

A reminder that life goes on for the Romulans, perhaps, that not all of them lost everything in the supernova - a way of showing us that they still hold areas of space and maintain sovereignty and are continuing works begun before the disaster, that as a people they are still more than just helpless refugees reliant on outside support, even if they have been struck a terrible blow. A reminder of how complex intergalactic society can be.