Romulan Star Retcon

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Alright, what's different from '09 and Picard's version of what happened to Romulus?

[Al-1701]

Picard suggests it was a "destroy the entire galaxy" event, but instead Romulus' star itself went Supernova. This was still going to destroy the heart of their empire over the next several decades. Really, that's the only difference for what '09 gave us. Romulus was destroyed and with a sizeable portion of their population trapped planet side due to the loss of the evacuation convoy in the attack on Mars.

Odd that it's their star that goes supernova. Though, there's a special type of Supernova where a white dwarf draws material from a main sequence partner and once it reaches a certain mass is creates a supernova that can render all of space within a hundred light years inhospitable to life. I'm not sure if the Romulan star system has a white dwarf.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Picard suggests it was a "destroy the entire galaxy" event, but instead Romulus' star itself went Supernova. This was still going to destroy the heart of their empire over the next several decades. Really, that's the only difference for what '09 gave us. Romulus was destroyed and with a sizeable portion of their population trapped planet side due to the loss of the evacuation convoy in the attack on Mars.

Odd that it's their star that goes supernova. Though, there's a special type of Supernova where a white dwarf draws material from a main sequence partner and once it reaches a certain mass is creates a supernova that can render all of space within a hundred light years inhospitable to life. I'm not sure if the Romulan star system has a white dwarf.

You might be exaggerating, but entire galaxy? As in alpha beta delta and gamma quadrant?

[Deledrius]

You might be exaggerating, but entire galaxy? As in alpha beta delta and gamma quadrant?

JJ Abrams has no sense of scale.

"A star will explode, and threaten to destroy the Galaxy." -- Spock, Star Trek (2009)

[Steve]

Yeah. The writers of Star Trek Online had to work with that, so they gave the nova a technobabble "special sauce" upgrade involving subspace and then outright had it be artificially-induced by a faction of the Romulan Tal'Shiar and Remans under Iconian control. (They also referenced the DS9 "By Inferno's Light" bit where Changeling-Bashir was going to send the Bajoran star supernova, implying this was the same thing but bigger.)

[McAvoy]

You might be exaggerating, but entire galaxy? As in alpha beta delta and gamma quadrant?

JJ Abrams has no sense of scale.

"A star will explode, and threaten to destroy the Galaxy." -- Spock, Star Trek (2009)

Or showing planets being destroyed within visual range of each other by StarKiller base.

Or Old Spock seeing Vulcan being destroyed from his ice planet prison.

I have said this before, JJ Abrams is just a different version of Michael Bay. More about visuals than logic.

[Deledrius]

Yeah. The writers of Star Trek Online had to work with that, so they gave the nova a technobabble "special sauce" upgrade involving subspace and then outright had it be artificially-induced by a faction of the Romulan Tal'Shiar and Remans under Iconian control. (They also referenced the DS9 "By Inferno's Light" bit where Changeling-Bashir was going to send the Bajoran star supernova, implying this was the same thing but bigger.)

That sounds like they did their homework. I just can't enjoy the constant escalation/scope/everything-is-connected comic-book style storytelling in a Trek setting.

[Winter]

You might be exaggerating, but entire galaxy? As in alpha beta delta and gamma quadrant?

JJ Abrams has no sense of scale.

"A star will explode, and threaten to destroy the Galaxy." -- Spock, Star Trek (2009)

Or showing planets being destroyed within visual range of each other by StarKiller base.

Or Old Spock seeing Vulcan being destroyed from his ice planet prison.

I have said this before, JJ Abrams is just a different version of Michael Bay. More about visuals than logic.

Abrams is all about spectacle with no real substance. I mentioned this before in another forum while Abrams has had an amazing impact on pop-culture (revitalizing Star Trek, Mission Impossible and arguably helping to kick-start the 80's nostalgia crazy of the late 10's) almost every film he himself has written or directed is a film that have been more or less forgotten especially when compared to the films in Trek and MI that make Abrams films look rather tame in terms of character and plot.

Let's take a moment to look at the two Trek shows that have been made after the 09 film, Discovery and Picard. More specifically at the cinematography of both shows.

Take a look at any Abrams film so far, they are usually more experimental in how they are shot. You got shots that start right side up that than go upside down. Exposition scenes are usually done in a way to have a sense of excitement or weight even if it's rather basic bits and 9 times out of 10 any quite moment will often be interrupted by an action scene.

Discovery seems to be trying to emulate this style which gets rather annoying after a while while Picard keeps usually has more slower moments and scenes that are directed in a more traditional way. In the first 4 episodes of Picard there has been more quite and slow paced scenes that allow the viewer to catch their breath and take the world their seeing in.

After a major scene of importance in the first episode Dahj's death the rest of the episode is very quite and most of the scenes are shot is a slower way. This makes what happened before have all the more impact because the show is allowing you to take it all in and the pace only picks up when we learn of Dahj's twin Soji.

Over with the Disney Sequel Trilogy most of the scenes in all three films have a fast paced or shot in a THIS IS IMPORTANT over to the top fashion and after a while it gets rather annoying. There are no quite moments that allow the characters to just, breath. Every time someone talks to one another it's either a comedic chat, an essay on the nature of light and dark or a dramatic speech.

You don't have a scene like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h19yG1DXI2o

This scene is important but this comes right after the Empire has Destroyed a planet and right before the heroes are captured by the Death Star so this scene, which is just shy of 4 minutes, is what is needed to help the audience take in what's just happened and what's going to happen.

Here's another scene from Marvel's Civil War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3thj3OOWNQ

Just like Luke's training, this a calmer more relaxed scene that took place after a major action scene and a second action scene will happen soon after this scene and it's 4 minutes and 35 seconds.

These sort of moments are almost none existent in Abrams SW or ST films and in Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. And anytime it looks like we're going to get one it's almost always cut off by an action scene or a big speech.

The problem I have with directors like Abrams and Johnson is that they have no faith in their viewers to pay attention so they keep throwing a bunch of experimental cinematography instead of just letting the scene speak for itself.

[Al-1701]

Picard suggests it was a "destroy the entire galaxy" event, but instead Romulus' star itself went Supernova. This was still going to destroy the heart of their empire over the next several decades. Really, that's the only difference for what '09 gave us. Romulus was destroyed and with a sizeable portion of their population trapped planet side due to the loss of the evacuation convoy in the attack on Mars.

Odd that it's their star that goes supernova. Though, there's a special type of Supernova where a white dwarf draws material from a main sequence partner and once it reaches a certain mass is creates a supernova that can render all of space within a hundred light years inhospitable to life. I'm not sure if the Romulan star system has a white dwarf.

You might be exaggerating, but entire galaxy? As in alpha beta delta and gamma quadrant?

I meant to say wasn't. Trek '09 did.

[clearspira]

I always assumed back in the day that ''destroy the galaxy'' was more of a political metaphor than an actual thing. Imagine in the real world if China was suddenly wiped from the map. How would we deal with the resultant political vacuum and the hundreds of millions of refugees? How would we deal with all of its arms potentially falling into the wrong hands? How would Tibet and Hong Kong react? How would all of those works projects throughout the world that are run on Chinese money react? What about its massive corporations that own far more than most of use realise?