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halm ,
@halm@leminal.space avatar

Even the Romulan-heavy Star Trek: Picard Season 1 avoided addressing or explaining the supernova in any detail.

Explaining? Stars go supernova occasionally, there’s your explanation. There doesn’t need to be further cause or intervention behind it.

IMO this is a solution (or really several) looking for a problem that just doesn’t exist. As it stands and despite fan speculation, Romulus was destroyed by a natural disaster, which is actually something that happens on Earth and in the wider universe.

Taleya ,

Especially since 2009 had it not be the romulan star, but one near enough for the shockwave to tank Romulus

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

That’s from tie-in material, not the film itself.

Taleya ,

From the script:

SPOCK PRIME: (voice-over) That is where I’m from, Jim. The future. The star went supernova…

SPOCK PRIME: (voice-over) …consuming everything in its path. I promised the Romulans that I would save their planet…

If the sun in question was the Romulan star, then turning it into a black hole to contain the explosion would not save the planet.

Killing the star would not save their planet.

Anything involving Romulus’ star means that ‘saving the planet’ is completely impossible.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Yeah, I agree that that part of the dialogue is problematic. However, “Picard” definitively stated that it was the Romulan star.

knotthatone ,

Anything involving Romulus’ star means that ‘saving the planet’ is completely impossible.

Eventually, yes, but if it were possible to collapse the exploding star in a way that didn’t totally roast the planet it would buy a fair bit of time to continue the evacuation. It’ll get very cold and photosynthesis will stop, but with enough power and food, the population could hang on for several years if needed.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Stars go supernova occasionally

Not spontaneously, with only a handful of years’ notice, they don’t.

I’m all for Trek science being a little weird, but it seems very likely that there was some funny business going on for the star to suddenly blow up and threaten the entire galaxy.

e_t_ Admin ,

Yeah, with Star Trek-level technology, you should be able to tell to the week when a star will nova about 10,000 years in advance.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

The wiggle room within Star Trek is that the Tkon Empire was supposedly wiped out by a supernova despite being a highly advanced civilization, and in “Second Sight” the DS9 crew boosts the top speed of a ship to warp 9.5, which suggests that a supernova can have superliminal consequences.

But there’s nothing to suggest the Tkon supernova was a natural phenomenon, and the hijinks they were up to in “Second Sight” certainly wasn’t.

beefcat ,
@beefcat@beehaw.org avatar

Explaining? Stars go supernova occasionally, there’s your explanation. There doesn’t need to be further cause or intervention behind it.

Stars don’t just randomly supernova. Stars have extremely predictable lifecycles. It’s hard to believe a warp-capable species never made it past a 19th century understanding of how their sun works, especially given how fundamental the underlying principles are to our own ability to observe and understand the universe.

It’s a plot hole in ST '09, though I agree that maybe it is best ignored unless they can come up with a truly compelling explanation.

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