Star Trek Theory - The Disturbing Truth Of Picard

The Fall Of Romulus

At this point in the Star Trek timeline - as shown in 2009's Star Trek "reboot" - Romulus is no more, having been consumed by a supernova. Producer Alex Kurtzman has already confirmed the show will deal with the aftermath of the planet's destruction and Picard's reaction to it, which suggests that Dahj's story is inherently tied, also, to the story of Romulus.

Presumably, her story begins off-screen at a Romulan holding facility, like the one shown in the trailer, and the reason she is on the run is that she's a prisoner. But there could be more to those prisoners than it immediately seems, because those facilities are not mere prisons.

The trailer establishes a couple of key points about what the Romulans are doing. First, the have a selection of different alien species together in captivity, in a holding facility that boasts of there not being an assimilation there for over 16 years - or specifically, 5,834 days. The fact that they have that figure emblazoned as prominently as it is suggests that this is a place where Borg assimilations are a strong consideration: in fact, you could say that it's their primary concern. Not break-outs. Not deaths. Not even a vague allusion to "incidents," but "assimilations."

We also see the Romulans apparently experimenting on a Borg - the identity of which has been debated, but that's not as important here as the intent behind the experiments. The trailer seemed to hint at not only Borg holding units, but Borg charging stations - suggesting that the Romulans need them to be active. Their intent for them very much requires them to be "alive."

You could theorise that they're seeking a cure, but the experimentation doesn't really suit that - the subject remains very much a Borg, after all - and there's something about the facility that suggests more exploitative aims. And it's not like the Romulans don't have previous in humanoid experimentation: they cloned Picard without his knowledge and created Shinzon and that wasn't exactly with benevolent intent either. They planned to infiltrate Starfleet with him. They're very much cast as the evil scientists here and that probably goes for their work with the Borg too.

To understand what the Romulans might be doing, we have to look at their past. In the 2009 Star Trek film, which is part of this show's past, Romulus was destroyed by a supernova as Ambassador Spock futilely watched on. But before that, in the events of Nemesis - in 2379, four years before the last assimilation event happened according to the mysterious "prison" facility (which could well have been active then) - Shinzon took over the Romulan Empire, disintegrating the Senate to position himself in greater power. His death would have left Romulus in political turmoil for the 8 years until its destruction. For at least some of that time, the Romulans were experimenting on the Borg and it's not hard to imagine that their focus shifted somewhat when the majority of their race was wiped out in 2387.

At this point, the Romulan survivors are influenced both by the extremism of Shinzon and the destruction of their planet. They are a proud race reduced to refugee status, but they have their facilities and a Borg cube at their disposal. What better way to rebuild their power than to study the technology of the ultimate invasive species? Wouldn't a destroyed organism naturally seek a means to rebuild itself.

There are two possibilities here that are both very intriguing: either the Romulans are seeking a means to re-establish themselves as a powerful force through military strength - using incredibly powerful weapons - or they're seeking to somehow pass on their genetics through an assimilation process based on how the Borg grow their numbers. They've already mastered cloning, if they were to connect that with the ability to somehow organically assimilate, they could rebuild the Romulan Empire as quickly as the Borg grow.

Particularly if the means of transmission was as powerful as the Borg themselves.

Continued on next page...