Narada a "simple mining vessel"?

The Nostromo was NOT a mining vessel. It was a "Commercial Towing Vehicle" that was towing a refinery.

 

Although I've never read those books, I do seem to remember someone saying that certain things from them were contradicted by episodes of Voyager after Jeri Taylor left the show. Which pretty much brings their canonical vaule down to the same as any other Trek novel.

 

Hey guys.

I have the bluray disc which sheds some light on the Narada. Turns out the vessel was heavily upgraded after the destruction of Romulus by the romulan military, using conventional 24th century weapons and reverse-engineered Borg nanotechnology. The borg nano-techs purportedly increase the size and strength of the ship on a continous basis, which accounts for the size and multiple 'growths' or tendrils on the vessel. I may well have looked very different prior to its upgrades.

I dont know if the above is 'canon' or not, but the makers of the disc presumably used the same sources as the movie producers.

Personally I think its a good explanation: apart from its shape, the Narada has rather borg-like appearance in terms of black metal and greenish glowing illumination.

One criticism I have is that the Narada's ship-to-ship weapons seem to consist exclusively of torpedos. This is a bit silly since missiles can be shot down by phasers. On two occasions this occurs in the film and, had they been using disruptors instead, baby Kirk would have been toast

 

Torpedoe launchers, power systems wise, are probably easier to retrofit onto a ship than dedicated energy weapons like disruptors and phasers.