Star Trek Picard SPOILERS thread

[FitzTheRuke]

I mean, I dunno. I just think an FTL-capable Empire can evacuate a planet faster than a 0.1c shock wave. They don't even have to go far before they're years ahead of it!

I agree. It's one of the reasons that I didn't like Abram's Star Trek plot-wise (I like it for it's "fun"-factor, but I loathed it's plot-holes) - A Supernova is not dangerous to the Galaxy, the Romulans should have known their star was unstable, the shockwave of the star is slower than any FTL ship, etc, etc.^1

So better writing (which I think Picard has) would assume that there was more to the story than we were told. Sub-space shockwaves, in the very least.

^1 Not to mention the unrelated-to-our-discussion things like how Kirk watched Vulcan blow up in the sky from some ice-planet (must have been Vulcan's moon, right?) or how Nero time-traveled and still blamed Spock for his wife's death - when he could have just gone and rescued her himself.

 

[bloodtide]

The problem is the poor choice of a ''natural disaster" (IF it was natural.....). So some poor writer Goggles ''space stuff" on their phone and see ''super nova" and then use that.

Really, they should have just used a dash of imagination and had it be a Subspace Cosmic String Cascading Phased Wavefront.

 

[Umbran]

I mean, I dunno. I just think an FTL-capable Empire can evacuate a planet faster than a 0.1c shock wave. They don't even have to go far before they're years ahead of it!

What? That only works if you put the entire population on ships at once. At 50,000 per ship, you would need 20,000 ships to move one billion people at once! If they have an even bigger population, you need more ships...

And we don't have a canon example of a ship that can carry 50,000 people. Galaxy Class ships can carry 6,000. perhaps they can design a ship that big, we have no sign of them making a fleet of 20,000 ships!

So, we are talking instead about a prolonged evacuation, ferrying people off world, landing them, and then coming back for more.

 

[Hussar]

I agree. It's one of the reasons that I didn't like Abram's Star Trek plot-wise (I like it for it's "fun"-factor, but I loathed it's plot-holes) - A Supernova is not dangerous to the Galaxy, the Romulans should have known their star was unstable, the shockwave of the star is slower than any FTL ship, etc, etc.^1

So better writing (which I think Picard has) would assume that there was more to the story than we were told. Sub-space shockwaves, in the very least.

^1 Not to mention the unrelated-to-our-discussion things like how Kirk watched Vulcan blow up in the sky from some ice-planet (must have been Vulcan's moon, right?) or how Nero time-traveled and still blamed Spock for his wife's death - when he could have just gone and rescued her himself.

Well, to be fair, actually, there are nova events that are galaxy threatening. Gamma Ray bursters can basically kill all multicellular life in the entire galaxy - true, it would take a while for the shock wave to travel through the galaxy - centuries even - but, there are real world events that can be that threatening.

 

[Morrus]

What? That only works if you put the entire population on ships at once. At 50,000 per ship, you would need 20,000 ships to move one billion people at once! If they have an even bigger population, you need more ships...

I'm going off memory here, but IIRC it wasn't that sudden. They had plenty of warning. If it was that sudden, then sure, they had hours before the supernova destroyed the homeworld, and no rescue plan is valid.

And we don't have a canon example of a ship that can carry 50,000 people. Galaxy Class ships can carry 6,000. perhaps they can design a ship that big, we have no sign of them making a fleet of 20,000 ships!

True. None of us know much about the details of the evacuation or Romulan colony ship technology. Our largest cruise liners now can carry comfortably 6.5K passengers and 2.3K crew, and I'd reckon you could double or triple that for an emergency evacuation. And we know cryostasis is a thing, which would help, and we know other aliens have built stupendously colossal ships. But yeah, we're just making stuff up here!

So, we are talking instead about a prolonged evacuation, ferrying people off world, landing them, and then coming back for more.

Well, yes!

 

[Beleriphon]

What? That only works if you put the entire population on ships at once. At 50,000 per ship, you would need 20,000 ships to move one billion people at once! If they have an even bigger population, you need more ships...

And we don't have a canon example of a ship that can carry 50,000 people. Galaxy Class ships can carry 6,000. perhaps they can design a ship that big, we have no sign of them making a fleet of 20,000 ships!

So, we are talking instead about a prolonged evacuation, ferrying people off world, landing them, and then coming back for more.

The comics have Picard taking a Sovereign-class ship to evac Romulan civilians and take them to a space station or something. So they'll be on board for a few days at worst.

 

[Nagol]

Well, to be fair, actually, there are nova events that are galaxy threatening. Gamma Ray bursters can basically kill all multicellular life in the entire galaxy - true, it would take a while for the shock wave to travel through the galaxy - centuries even - but, there are real world events that can be that threatening.

Up to 100,000 years, from end-to-end; 50,000 years if is started near the centre. And I haven't done the math lately, by I don't think a GBR would be deadly after 10K LY distance.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Well, to be fair, actually, there are nova events that are galaxy threatening. Gamma Ray bursters can basically kill all multicellular life in the entire galaxy - true, it would take a while for the shock wave to travel through the galaxy - centuries even - but, there are real world events that can be that threatening.

Sure, that threatens LIFE in the galaxy (and probably not ALL life, just a "lot"), but not the galaxy itself. But I suppose that's what the writers of Star Trek 2009 could have meant for Spock to have been talking about. It seemed like he meant it would actually destroy the galaxy, but I may have got that impression from the movie being all 'splodey and blowing stuff up all over the place.

 

[Umbran]

Well, to be fair, actually, there are nova events that are galaxy threatening. Gamma Ray bursters can basically kill all multicellular life in the entire galaxy - true, it would take a while for the shock wave to travel through the galaxy - centuries even - but, there are real world events that can be that threatening.

Note - a gammy ray burster does not kill by shockwave. They kill by emitted gamma rays.

Also, "all life in an entire galaxy" is only true for a small galaxy. GRBs may have effective lethal ranges of a few thousand light years, yes. But the Milky Way is a hundred thousand light years across....

 

[Umbran]

But I suppose that's what the writers of Star Trek 2009 could have meant...

Star Trek is not a hard science show. It is basically action-adventure morality play. What they meant is to have high stakes. Technical accuracy is... not a priority for them.