Was blowing up Romulus a good idea?

[The Overlord]

The conflict between the Federation and the Romulans was a plot thread in TOS and TNG and there were hints of a possible peace between these two factions in TNG, DS9 and Nemesis.

Then Romulus blows up in Star Trek 2009 and we don't really deal with the ramifications in that film, because is it set in an alternate time line (the new show is set in the past, so it won't deal with this either.)

Was this a whole bunch of set up for nothing? Are Spock's Romulan followers and Admiral Jarok's daughter dead?

Was blowing up Romulus a good idea?

 

[Shawnster]

Not to mention that many of us feel the Romulans, the very first major adversary introduced in Star Trek, were woefully underdeveloped, especially when compared with the Klingons. Definitely not the same emotional impact as, say, destroying the Klingon homeworld.

 

[T'Nara]

The conflict between the Federation and the Romulans was a plot thread in TOS and TNG and there were hints of a possible peace between these two factions in TNG, DS9 and Nemesis.

Then Romulus blows up in Star Trek 2009 and we don't really deal with the ramifications in that film, because is it set in an alternate time line (the new show is set in the past, so it won't deal with this either.)

Was this a whole bunch of set up for nothing? Are Spock's Romulan followers and Admiral Jarok's daughter dead?

Was blowing up Romulus a good idea?

In the IDW comics Countdown, which tells the background story before the ST2009, Spock said that the Romulan society as a whole has accepted him, he can legally live in Romulus and became the official ambassador of the Federation in Romulus. However, there are still suspicions between the Romulans and Vulcans, which bears consequences as seen in the movie (Romulus blew up).

 

[The Overlord]

In the IDW comics Countdown, which tells the background story before the ST2009, Spock said that the Romulan society as a whole has accepted him, he can legally live in Romulus and became the official ambassador of the Federation in Romulus. However, there are still suspicions between the Romulans and Vulcans, which bears consequences as seen in the movie (Romulus blew up).

Is that really cannon though, it seems like the guys in charge of the franchise only seem to count the movies and TV series as cannons.

I don't think the film makers can get credit for stuff that happened in back up material that most people have not read, especially since the destruction of Romulus suddenly ended a bunch of dangling plot threads from Star Trek abruptly.

 

[T'Nara]

Is that really cannon though, it seems like the guys in charge of the franchise only seem to count the movies and TV series as cannons.

Nope. The comics are definitely not canon, some of them are not totally consistent with the tv/movies. In the absense of better explanations in the canon though, I pick and choose the ones I like from non-canon materials and use them as my head canon.

 

[DonIago]

For anyone who'd been long-time franchise fans, blowing up Romulus was effective, I think.

The primeverse isn't likely to be seen again onscreen, or at least I'm sure that was the thinking at the time, so why forsake the opportunity to do something that will have an impact in favor of ramifications that will never be shown?

I also think it's more poignant that it's Romulus that bites the dust. Spock spends decades trying to reconcile Romulus and Vulcan, and in the end there's nothing he can do. Life sucks sometimes. But there's still hope that the survivors may reconcile with the Vulcans.

There's a sort of symmetry that Romulus is destroyed in the Primeverse and Vulcan is destroyed in the Nuniverse.

 

[wayoung]

Seems like quite the coincidence that both the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire, each considered by Starfleet to be their biggest threat at the time, were devastated by major explosions in their home systems. The 24th century conspiracy theorists must be having a field day. Section 31 strikes again! A genesis device was detonated in the Romulan sun! Hyposprays cause autism!

 

[Seven of Five]

I can't help but feel this could have the potential to be a TUC moment, but for the Romulans instead of the Klingons.

Though of course it's unlikely that we'll ever see the repercussions of it. We can ponder though.

 

[T'Nara]

Seems like quite the coincidence that both the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire, each considered by Starfleet to be their biggest threat at the time, were devastated by major explosions in their home systems. The 24th century conspiracy theorists must be having a field day. Section 31 strikes again! A genesis device was detonated in the Romulan sun! Hyposprays cause autism!

When is the Klingon Empire devastated by explosions in their home system?
Sorry, I must have missed this one.

 

[wayoung]

When is the Klingon Empire devastated by explosions in their home system?
Sorry, I must have missed this one.

Praxis.

 

[T'Nara]

Praxis.

Oh this, ok thanks. This was 1 century before the Romulus destruction and happened differently.
But then again conspiracy theorists are not known to be too logical or terribly accurate so , ok, your 24th century conspiracy theorist might still connect the two and blame section 31

 

[Timo]

Seems like quite the coincidence that both the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire, each considered by Starfleet to be their biggest threat at the time, were devastated by major explosions in their home systems.

Naah. Homeworlds are a known vulnerability of star empires - it's a miracle that they survive for any length of time. We should expect any and all homeworlds to get devastated sooner rather than later. Earth beating back half a dozen major threats on screen may be par for the course; eventually the goalie takes a nap and it's bye bye Human Empire, but it may take a millennium or two on the average.

Or then Earth's success so far is something of a positive anomaly - but we shouldn't forget that Earth is a youngster as imperial homeworlds go, Romulus apparently having been the center of an interstellar power for two millennia (it was founded through interstellar immigration and had no pre-power period in technological terms) against Earth's mere two centuries.

(Then again, ST:INS has Picard and Dougherty arguing that it was only a century prior to the movie that the Romulans became an "empire", rather than mere "thugs", whatever that means. Perhaps the homeworlds of thugs are exempt from regular threats of devastation?)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The Romulan star going nova and destroying the system would be interesting an idea if there was a TV/movie series set in that time to examine the fall out of such an event, but as it was done (with a super nova that somehow threatened the galaxy) then it was pointless. The Romulan ship in NuTrek 1 could easily have fallen through a temporal anomaly and been thrown back in time, rather than crap about black holes and red matter.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's a dangling plot thread for the 24th century, but it made for an awesome motivation for Nero. He lost his pregnant wife. He lost his entire world. And he blames the Federation and wants to create a future where they don't exist.

I love the idea that deep down, he's just doing anything and everything to save the woman he loves. "Because only then will she be truly safe."

 

[C.E. Evans]

Although I was kinda ambivalent about it at the time Star Trek XI was released, I actually don't think blowing up Romulus was a necessary idea in hindsight. Nero blaming Spock Prime for not being able to save Romulus and his family, and then proceeding to destroy Vulcan and other Federation worlds is really illogical (why blame Spock Prime and not the Romulan government for allowing Romulus to be destroyed?), but it works because Nero himself is illogical--basically a mad dog lashing out at the only person left he could lash out at.

IMO, A just as effective rationale could have been simply that Nero had always hated the Federation with a passion, blamed the Federation for the various woes within the Romulan Empire since he was a child, and maybe even had lost a loved one in an earlier skirmish with the Federation. Being stuck in the 23rd-Century with a ship far superior to anything the Federation had at the time, we'd be right back at the idea of Nero wanting to see the Federation destroyed planet-by-planet and wanting Spock Prime--a Federation ambassador from his time--to see it. It would then just be a case of finding a gimmick (like an aforementioned temporal anomaly upthread) that got Nero and Spock Prime thrown back in time together at the start of the movie.

 

[Paradise City]

It was a 'bull in a china' shop contrived thing to do just to jump start that film. I wasn't precisely sure what was going on whilst watching it for the first time either.

 

[Timo]

(why blame Spock Prime and not the Romulan government for allowing Romulus to be destroyed?)

Because it's Spock who's dropping mysterious red stuff in the Romulan system, in close correlation with a stellar kaboom? It's not as if the Romulan government would be a likely suspect for blowing up their own star or anything...

For me, the most interesting parts about Nero's rampage are those we didn't get to see. Did he really fight 47 Klingon ships, or was that another of his lies? Did he really save Romulus before destroying anything ("I prevented genocide!"), or was that another of his lies? Did he fall into the timehole accidentally, or by his own design, or by Spock's design, and who's lying there? These are questions that require no answer and logically should not have one, because the heroes are not in a position to find out. But it's eminently possible that Nero acted logically through and through, for various values of "this was Nero's goal".

I don't think anything was lost with Romulus, dramatically speaking. Planets die. People die. Immortal heroes and villains tend to be tedious. Why should planets be immortal? And why should dead ones be less interesting dramatically than still existing ones?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

Was blowing up Romulus a good idea?

Oh, hells no! Blowing up Romulus was a terrible idea, and to do it in the manner Trek XI did, the "oh, by the way this happened sometime after Nemesis in the Prime Universe, now enjoy this new timeline" type explanation is all the worse. And to top it all off, the original plan was to destroy the entire Prime Universe, but CBS stepped in and said "No way" so we got the loss of Romulus as a compromise.

Honestly, I was always interested in seeing if peace would eventually develop between the Federation and Romulans. We see hints of this in DS9, in Homefront there was a Romulan peace conference on Earth, the Romulans did become allies during the Dominion War, and then Nemesis ends with Titan being invited to Romulus to continue peace talks. But no, none of that matters anymore, Romulus is gone.

It would be nice if we could see some sort of aftermath of this, but though Discovery will be set in the Prime Universe, it's in the 23rd century. The comics have never done anything in the Prime Universe set after Countdown. The novels are forbidden from touching this at the moment. I guess STO has covered this stuff, but I'm not a gamer so that's of no use to me.

 

[Arpy]

Let's hope they blow up Qo'noS in the next one and pass the baton to the JJ Next Generation with the end of stale old Earth. We were meant to live among the stars, not planets! Let 20 billion humans die so that 40,000 may begin the species anew!

 

[F. King Daniel]

Remember people, you got off easy with Romulus being destroyed. The plan was originally wholesale destruction of everything, until Cryptic complained that they'd just paid a load of money for the rights to make Star Trek Online and destroying everything might put a crimp in their plans for the 25th century.

Details here: http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-original-plan-for-countdown.205504/