The Romulan Supernova: The final, canon word

[F. King Daniel]

"Remembrance" establishes that it was the Romulan sun itself that went supernova, with no mention of Hobus, or a chain reaction, or it expanding faster-than-light as the original Countdown comic or Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many previously established. Picard left the Enterprise to head up a rescue mission that would save 900,000 Romulans but it all fell apart after the Synths destroy Mars.

So Spock's "a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy!" from Star Trek (2009) is rendered nonsensical, but "Rememberance" does explain why Spock went it alone, because the Federation withdrew support for the evacuation effort after the Synths destroy Mars. His was a last ditch effort. Nero's cries that "The Federation did nothing!" are confirmed and his vendetta against Spock is about him breaking his promise to save Romulus - although Romulus could never survive without a star anyway so...

 

[The Habs Fan]

I think Picard fixes some issues with how the supernova is portrayed in Star Trek 2009 (why would a supernova threaten a galaxy?) It makes much more sense now.

 

[Tomalak]

Was Hobus not the name of the Romulan star, like Earth's is Sol, and Bajor's is B'hava'el?

Nice that they explained things a bit better than histrionic future Spock's guff about destroying the galaxy. Maybe he meant it figuratively?

 

[DEWLine]

Astropolitically.

 

[Longinus]

They handled this exactly like I hoped they would. Good.

 

[Tuskin38]

Was Hobus not the name of the Romulan star

No, it was a completely separate star.

 

[Tomalak]

No, it was a completely separate star.

Oh right. Well that's silly.

 

[Paul Weaver]

would save 900,000 Romulans

900,000,000, a reasonable number to evacuate.

 

[Tuskin38]

Oh right. Well that's silly.

Well, STO tried to explain it by saying the explosion travelled partly through subspace. I'm not sure if that was something from Countdown or ST09 background information given to them, or if they made it up completely.

 

[DaveyNY]

Was Hobus not the name of the Romulan star, like Earth's is Sol, and Bajor's is B'hava'el?

Nice that they explained things a bit better than histrionic future Spock's guff about destroying the galaxy. Maybe he meant it figuratively?

On the STO Star Chart (which is heavily based on the Geoffrey Mandel "Star Trek Star Charts" book from 2002)...,
Hobus is near the original Romulan Home world, but is not the same star.

 

[Tuskin38]

On the STO Star Chart (which is heavily based on the Geoffrey Mandel "Star Trek Star Charts" book from 2002)...,
Hobus is near the original Romulan Home world, but is not the same star.

The new (well like 3-4 years old now) Stellar Cartography book also has Hobus in it, in roughly the same area IIRC.

 

[Tuskin38]

For what it's worth, the Prequal comic (being co-written by show writer Kirsten Beyer) still seems to be implying that the Supernova will still effect multiple systems. Picard was ordered to help evacuate a Romulan colony 'Yuyat Beta' that is right at the edge of the blast zone. They don't say how far away that is.

 

[DaveyNY]

The new (well like 3-4 years old now) Stellar Cartography book also has Hobus in it, in roughly the same area IIRC.

I got that for Xmas the year it came out.
I forgot about it, but it's a pretty cool collection of maps.

 

[Tuskin38]

I got that for Xmas the year it came out.

Same here!

 

[Longinus]

For what it's worth, the Prequal comic (being co-written by show writer Kirsten Beyer) still seems to be implying that the Supernova will still effect multiple systems. Picard was ordered to help evacuate a Romulan colony 'Yuyat Beta' that is right at the edge of the blast zone. They don't say how far away that is.

Yes, supernovae do that. They can affect planets up to 100 LY away. Of course further you are lesser the effects will be and more time you have to prepare.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Just 5 light years away and yes, you’ll be blasted by the radiation. But that is only light speed - plenty of time to evacuate a small colony assuming the supernova doesn’t flatten subspace in the vicinity surrounding the star

 

[Timo]

"Remembrance" establishes that it was the Romulan sun itself that went supernova, with no mention of Hobus, or a chain reaction, or it expanding faster-than-light as the original Countdown comic or Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many previously established. Picard left the Enterprise to head up a rescue mission that would save 900,000 Romulans but it all fell apart after the Synths destroy Mars.

So, what else was lost besides Romulus and presumably Remus? Were there "colonies" mentioned? In a fashion that would make them seem off-system? Or was that part of the comics also utterly negated?

So Spock's "a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy!" from Star Trek (2009) is rendered nonsensical

Actually, it's the only bit of Spock's rant that still makes sense. That is, none of it is exactly a lie, and the galaxy is always on the verge of destruction anyway.

It's the rest of it that makes less sense now. Why does Spock need a fast ship? Why not simply launch a bit earlier? Say, three years earlier?

OTOH, Spock being late is excusable if the star only explodes after he left. Which is the likely case now, what with Romulus only being about five to ten lightminutes away from its own star.

Was Hobus not the name of the Romulan star, like Earth's is Sol, and Bajor's is B'hava'el?

No, the star's native name is Eisn. At least until somebody onscreen says otherwise.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Paul Weaver]

Why does Spock need a fast ship?

The plan was to save the romulans, not the romulan empire

Spock knew about the high risk red matter option, but it wasn't needed as until Mars, romulans were going to be evacuated

 

[BillJ]

"Remembrance" establishes that it was the Romulan sun itself that went supernova, with no mention of Hobus, or a chain reaction, or it expanding faster-than-light as the original Countdown comic or Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many previously established. Picard left the Enterprise to head up a rescue mission that would save 900,000 Romulans but it all fell apart after the Synths destroy Mars.

So Spock's "a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy!" from Star Trek (2009) is rendered nonsensical, but "Rememberance" does explain why Spock went it alone, because the Federation withdrew support for the evacuation effort after the Synths destroy Mars. His was a last ditch effort. Nero's cries that "The Federation did nothing!" are confirmed and his vendetta against Spock is about him breaking his promise to save Romulus - although Romulus could never survive without a star anyway so...

We worked with what we had until it changed. No harm. No foul.

 

[Reverend]

Actually, it's the only bit of Spock's rant that still makes sense. That is, none of it is exactly a lie, and the galaxy is always on the verge of destruction anyway.

It's the rest of it that makes less sense now. Why does Spock need a fast ship? Why not simply launch a bit earlier? Say, three years earlier?

OTOH, Spock being late is excusable if the star only explodes after he left. Which is the likely case now, what with Romulus only being about five to ten lightminutes away from its own star.

I'd chalk up a lot of the seeming inconsistencies of Spock's account to being the result of a kind of dream-logic chain of thought approach rather than a linear, factual telling. A star DID go supernova, Romulus WAS destroyed, but the sequence of events leading up to that could be different from what they seemed. Say for example if Spock's promise to counteract the Supernova came years before, as soon as the instability was detected and that it actually blew literally when Spock's new ship had just launched.

Maybe the point of that ship being "fast" had to do with out close it has to get to the event to deployt the red matter safely; as in any other ship's engines wouldn't be powerful enough to operate that close to all of the crazy gravity waves, let alone escape the well created by the black hole.

What Nero's whole deal was is still a bit of an oddity. I mean why interfere with the attempt to stop the supernova? Even with Romulus already gone all of the local Romulan colonies would still have been at risk. I can think of a few possibilities but is basically boils down to "Nero wasn't acting rationally", which kinda works but also smacks of lazy writing IMO.

As as for it threatening the galaxy: yeah I think that could be interpreted as more of a sociopolitical disaster. I mean imagine if here and now a major capital city got nuked. The physical danger in the blast radius would have little effect across the globe, but the larger implications are a massive refugee crisis, long term ecological consequences, the breakdown of that state's infrastructure and the fracturing of it's territories as what's left of the smaller internal powers via for control. Short version: civil war, strife, economic crashes and lots of military grade equipment finding their way into all the wrong hands.

We also don't quite know what the local galactic situation is in this time period, like what have the long term effect of the Dominion War been? Has the Cardassian Union broken up? What are the Klingons up to these days? Are smaller states like the Breen taking advantage of the power vacuum? How thinly stretched has Starfleet been these last few decades? Things could already have been in a very delicate state of affairs.