Star Trek Nemesis to Star Trek XI 2009 SPOILERS

[Darkstar 2.0]

After watching the movie the day it came out me and my brother were discussing more about the NEXT GEN era of trek than the present one in the movie, as to how and why the Star of Romulus went supernova and collapsed.

After the events of Nemesis the Romulans were at some civil understanding with the Federation, or at least closer to a peace, why then did they sit back and allow it to happen?

To me it really suggested that something went bad or it was a deliberate attack on the Romulans, this got me thinking?

Candidates for a deliberate attack could of been:

Dominion
Aliens from the Future still, who wanted to change to whole timeline, perhaps the pesky cold war really did heat up?
Federation, to bring Romulus to it's knees, much like they waited for Quo'nos to fall in The Undiscovered Country due to praxis exploding.

surely such a natural event would of been detected before hand?

[LanDodger]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_Countdown

will explain, you can read the basic plot outlines by clicking on issue 1,2,3,4 etc etc

[DigiFluid]

The science of it is more than a little flimsy, but the Countdown comics were entertaining enough.

[the fifth man]

The science of it is more than a little flimsy, but the Countdown comics were entertaining enough.

I certainly thought so.

[Daniel Jackson]

The film kept things very simple. The Romulans' star was going to go Supernova. The Vulcans decided to help. They sent Spock and red matter to collapse the star into a black hole. Presunably, this would buy time to relocate the Romulan civilization to another solar system. Without a sun, the planet would eventually die. Unfortunately, Spock is too late... the sun goes supernova. He and Nero's ship are pulled in. Nero blames Spock, he thinks Spock intentionally waited long enough for the star to go supernova and wipe out Romulas. He exacts revenge by blowing up Vulcan. That much makes sense. What didn't make sense to me is why he went after Earth.

[Ulkesh47]

The film kept things very simple. The Romulans' star was going to go Supernova. The Vulcans decided to help. They sent Spock and red matter to collapse the star into a black hole. Presunably, this would buy time to relocate the Romulan civilization to another solar system. Without a sun, the planet would eventually die. Unfortunately, Spock is too late... the sun goes supernova. He and Nero's ship are pulled in. Nero blames Spock, he thinks Spock intentionally waited long enough for the star to go supernova and wipe out Romulas. He exacts revenge by blowing up Vulcan. That much makes sense. What didn't make sense to me is why he went after Earth.

He went after Earth because he basically hates the entire Federation, and wants to "create a Romulus free of the Federation".

About that supernova... Spock says that this supernova "threatens the galaxy". What? Supernovas threaten solar systems, not galaxies. I really don't understand what he means.

[the fifth man]

He went after Earth because he basically hates the entire Federation, and wants to "create a Romulus free of the Federation".

About that supernova... Spock says that this supernova "threatens the galaxy". What? Supernovas threaten solar systems, not galaxies. I really don't understand what he means.

Probably just a mistake on the part of the writers.

[Quadhelix]

About that supernova... Spock says that this supernova "threatens the galaxy". What? Supernovas threaten solar systems, not galaxies. I really don't understand what he means.

Gamma-ray burst.

Ironically, then, if the supernova were going to form a black hole naturally (as opposed to artificially), then it could legitimately threaten much of the life in the galaxy. How the use of "red matter" would prevent this, I have no idea.

[Daniel Jackson]

Spock says that this supernova "threatens the galaxy". What? Supernovas threaten solar systems, not galaxies. I really don't understand what he means.

I took that to mean that if the Romulan civilization were to be whiped out, it would radically alter the balance of power throughout the known galaxy.

[Specter177]

All of this is explained in the comic book.

Spoiler:

The star that was going supernova was not Romulas's star, but a different one. However, this star gained energy with everything it destroyed, causing a chain reaction that would eventually destroy the galaxy. It's never explained how red matter does what it does, but I assume it just becomes infinitely dense when ignited.

[Ulkesh47]

All of this is explained in the comic book.

Spoiler:

The star that was going supernova was not Romulas's star, but a different one. However, this star gained energy with everything it destroyed, causing a chain reaction that would eventually destroy the galaxy. It's never explained how red matter does what it does, but I assume it just becomes infinitely dense when ignited.

Okay - as long as it's explained in some fashion, I don't have a problem.

[Daniel Jackson]

All of this is explained in the comic book.

Spoiler:

The star that was going supernova was not Romulas's star, but a different one. However, this star gained energy with everything it destroyed, causing a chain reaction that would eventually destroy the galaxy. It's never explained how red matter does what it does, but I assume it just becomes infinitely dense when ignited.

Interesting, but none of that was in the movie... The movie suggests that it was the Romulans' star that went supernova.

[Vyse99]

Interesting, but none of that was in the movie... The movie suggests that it was the Romulans' star that went supernova.

If I remember correctly you could see the super nova wave go past Romulus' star destroying it in the process before the wave hits Romulus.

[SaberBlade]

Interesting, but none of that was in the movie... The movie suggests that it was the Romulans' star that went supernova.

I'd have to disagree. To me, the movie suggested that it was another star and the fact it would be a threat to the galaxy just made Romulus an unfortunate victim of this Star going supernova.

That said, what I find interesting is that 8 years after NEMESIS, Romulus is supposed to be destroyed in the main continuity (series and first 10 movies) so I think the destruction of Romulus needs to be explained properly at some point. Either Star Trek XI has completely retconned the other series and movies, ignore the whole thing as part of some other dimension, or we're to just consider Ambassador Spock's pre-time travel events as official while everything else takes place in these alternate universe/timeline.

So either way, I wouldn't complain if the destruction of Romulus isn't retconned at some point as not to happen in the main timeline.

[LanDodger]

red matter is produced from a mineral (decalithium I think), that at the start of the countdown comics, Nero is mining for

the Hobos star (isn't Romulus' star) goes nova but is not like other stars in that it doesn't collapse but instead absorbs energy from the objects it obliterates and keeps growing

thus it threatens all life in the galaxy

Spock tries to save Romulus but is somewhat delayed because the Vulcans distrust him (and because the Romulan senate disagrees with him), the Vulcans are the only ones who can process the ore into red matter but won't give it to him even with Picards help.

Nero gets pissed off by this, and goes back to Romulus only to see it destroyed; which also convinces the Vulcans to help otherwise their planet would eventually be destroyed.

La Forge lends the Jellyfish for the mission while Nero gets his ship outfitted with borg technology at the vault (a secret Romulan base), he whoops a klingon fleet with it and then tries to stop Spock from creating the black hole, but fails, gets sucked in and you know the rest