Hello and Welcome to Truth OR Myth, in today’s episode we’re hypothesizing about what the state of The Romulan Empire might be for the new Star Trek Picard Series that looks to be released at the end of this year.
After “Star Trek: Nemesis” no one knew what would happen to the Star Trek Franchise, or even if there would ever even be any more Star Trek. So when in 2009, a new alternate timeline movie for Star Trek came out the Fan Base was immediately taken aback by 2 things, the destruction of Vulcan in this new timeline and the Destruction of Romulus in the Prime Timeline…
Rumours and Speculation have been swirling around at Warp Speed since Patrick Stewart announced his Return in a New Trek series as his iconic TNG Character Jean Luc Picard. And although there’s not much solid information about it, one thing recently released was the little tidbit that Romulus’s destruction will be a big factor in this Picard of the year 2399.
So what exactly does that mean? Well, first let’s get the facts out of the way. First Romulus was indeed destroyed in the Prime Timeline. It was Ambassador Spock that apparently was able to stop the destruction caused by the SuperNova but not before it did destroy the planet.
This is something a lot of fans have a problem understanding and I’m not sure why. You see the alternate timeline was only created after Spock stopped the Super Nova and was flung through a hole in Space-Time to the past causing the timeline to diverge. So the destruction of Romulus DID, in fact, happen in the Prime Timeline in the year 2387.
So the Picard series takes place about 12 years after it’s destruction and 20 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis in 2379.
So what clues can we pick up from the Various Trek Series and movies to piece together what a Romulan Empire would look like by the turn of the millennium?
Well, our first clue comes from Star Trek Nemesis itself. At the end of the movie when Riker’s saying goodbye to Picard he mentions that he and his ship, the U.S.S. Titan, are off to the Neutral Zone for peace talks.
This actually jives well with the TNG episode “Future Imperfect“. In that episode, alone alien child creates a future timeline to fool Riker and cure his loneliness. Though these events are basically a dream type sequence of events, the one thing we do know is that Riker must WANT peace with the Romulans, and MUST want to be the person to lead the peace effort.
You see the Alien Child says that devices that his parents left to protect and care for him scans people minds and basically gives them what they want. this is how the Enterprise D was created in such exacting detail right down to the smells. So Riker must want that peace badly.
And personally, I doubt it would be a 1 meeting and bam they have a peace treaty, it would probably be an enormous and very slow process that like peace with the Klingon Empire, could take decades. So it wouldn’t be out of a logical realm of possibility that the Romulan Empire may have been knee deep in Peace Talks with the Federation when their Home World was destroyed.
Another clue comes from the TNG episode “ALL good Things“. In the Series finale, we see another dream like timeline created by Q where Picard has left Starfleet but needs to solve one last space puzzle to secure humanities past present and future.
In this timeline, however, the Romulan Empire has fallen to the Klingon Empire, and they have completely occupied the Romulan’s territory and a sort of cold war has resumed with the Federation.
This sort of storyline makes sense, but it’s one I hope they avoid. I’m kind of sick of the Klingons yo-yo between friend and villain in the TNG Era of Trek. It’s about time they take their place as valued allies to the Federation and instead maybe jointly, helped the Romulan Empire when it was destroyed.
So what do we have so far? We have the possibility of Peace Talks with the Federation that could have been strengthened by the Federations Help after Romulus Destroyed and the possibility of The Klingon Empire using the planet’s destruction to their advantage to take over the Romulan Empire.
What does logic, however, say would probably happen?
Well right off the bat we really don’t know how much time in advance the Romulans had to evacuate their planet. They may have had weeks or even months, and as such, the causality list could be significantly lowered then what people might think.
Some people had to have escaped the destruction in any event. There would be ships in the Romulan System that would have attempted to save as many as possible, similar to what the Enterprise did in Trek 2009 when Vulcan was destroyed.
I don’t feel, however, for it to be something that deeply affects Picard that it was almost the entire planet. At most id say 25% would have been evacuated.
So that’s the first point, 2nd the Romulans must have their own colonies scattered throughout the Empire. And this though ensuring the survival of the race could also be a source of massive tension, with each colony attempting to become the new centre of power, the New Romulus.
And if civil war breaks out in this type of circumstance would the Federation and Klingon Empire sit back and do nothing? As a side note, a factor in this might also be the Remans. They were viewing for their independence in Nemesis and this could be an opportunity for them to gain it, but how many of them would have survived is the other question.
Another problem facing the Empire in 2399 would be any alien races they made slaves or alien planets they occupied like Remus.
Without the might of the Romulan Fleet, and the Empire in disarray some of these worlds might rise up and break away from the Empire. It could even be stipulated by the Federation that in order for them to help the Empire, these colonies must be given the right to break free from under the Praetors thumb.
And that world might be in desperate need of help, turning to the Great powers like the Federation or the Klingon Empire. It could also mean that they might turn to lesser powers since both those powers would be stretched to the limit helping a huge crisis like this one would be. So you could get a spattering of Worlds belonging to the Tholians, the Gorns, and even the Cardassians.
This radically altered section of Space could cause significant conflicts in the entire region.
One other thing we must consider is the Unificationists versus what we’ll call the “old guard.”
After mind melding with Ambassador Spock, Jean-Luc Picard would be significantly close to him. That effect could drive Picard in this new series. After all, in the Prime Timeline Spock is lost and as such Picard may take up his mantle of unifying what remains of the Romulans with their Vulcan cousins.
This could Cause great issue for Tal Shiar, the Romulan Empires Secret Police. They would want the old guard to continue, perhaps in a new form but virtually unchanged. Imagine someone like Sela being the current head of the Tal Shiar having to go up against Picard to stop the old guard Empire from falling. it could be an epic storyline.
But even if that’s not the case there would still be a huge problem with the Tal Shiar. Let’s not forget that in Star Trek: Nemesis, the military supported a coup against the Empires leaders. Though ultimately they flip-flopped back, I’m sure the Tal Shiar wouldn’t be impressed by that. And we know huge tensions always existed between the Military and the Tal Shiar if the TNG episode “Face of the Enemy” is any indication.
With all of these things going one thing is certain, the Romulan Empire would be a mess, even after 12 years, that mess could still be going on getting hotter and hotter until it explodes putting Starfleet right in the middle of a moral dilemma that could provide great drama for an audience.
Personally, I think it would be great to have some or all of these point included in a show, BUT by the end id like it to be done. Id like the turn of the millennium, heading into the 25th century to be all about the peace being cemented by the 3 great Trek powers.
In my opinion, it’s time for Star Trek to move on from them and invent new powers and situations to be threats for the United Federation of Allied Planets. Let’s give Star Trek a shot of imagination like the Borg to TNG.
And no matter what you think the state of Romulus will be, or what the storyline of the show is, one thing I think we all can agree on is it will be EPIC. I have absolute faith in Patrick Stewart only agreeing to come back to the franchise if it stayed true to what Star Trek really is… A story about the human adventure…
Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth OR Myth, what do you think the state of the Romulan Empire will be in 2399? Well, let me know in the comments below. And don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel hitting that little bell icon so you don’t miss a single video we release.
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