Picard and Romulan Conundrums

Picard will be here in a matter of weeks.

While the Borg and the return of some of our most beloved The Next Generation and one Voyager crew member have taken a substantial amount of the limelight, we have to remember that the Romulans will be playing a key role in the next chapter of Jean-Luc's life.

From what we know there are sure to be references back to I Borg, Descent, Lore, B4, potentially clues as to what happened to Voyager when she got back from the Delta Quadrant but what about the Romulans?

We know that a cataclysmic event, more than likely the destruction of Romulus as seen in the 2009 reboot, has caused major ripples through the Empire and that Picard was a key player but past that we are ever so slightly in the dark. The initial edition of the three comic series, Countdown has shown that the Romulans were still very secretive about their society even up to the point where they were being hurriedly evacuated from the explosive range of the supernova.

But what events from the past might we also want to see or hear referenced in the new show; what moments from The Next Generation could influence plot points or characters' attitudes in the series?

For one there have to be a couple of mentions if not appearances to answer the 20 - plus year mystery of what happened to Commander Sela, last seen leading a failed attempt to invade Vulcan during The Next Generation's fifth season. Aside from a good reason to get Denise Crosby back on screen, it's one of those elements of the show which never really received closure...did she survive the supernova and if so where did she end up. What other career paths did she travel since the failure of her invasion?

Maybe a second element worth reminding viewers is that Picard won't be the first time that Jean-Luc has been involved with rescuing Romulans. If we flash back into the vault, Picard helped repatriate the crew of a Warbird after their warp core was used as an incubator by an unidentified alien race in Timescape. This was the episode that actually prompted my thoughts around how much we will get to revisit from the annals of the franchise and whether or not the production wants to acknowledge its hefty back catalogue beyond including familiar faces and try to mix in Star Trek history.

With the sixth season episode from The Next Generation Picard didn't initiate the rescue but he was there to clean up the mess so to speak and we know Riker is back in the new show which would spin all that together for the script. Timescape is a fine example of the Romulans and Federation working together for a positive outcome unlike the majority of their encounters across the franchise although we'll come to another partnership in a moment.

Thinking a little laterally off that remark, what's the stance on cloaking devices at the end of the 24th Century going to be? Again Picard was involved in the re-acquirement of a prototype Federation device previously tested on the USS Pegasus and against the fabled Treaty of Algeron. We can guess from the inclusion of the Odyssey Class in the recent first issue of Countdown that ship tech has moved on but where is the land lying around this game changer? One possibility to think about is that Starfleet will have a significant upper hand in the space race with all the advances that will have come back with Voyager especially the slipstream technology. Recall as well that Picard was open to informing the Romulans about the hidden technology which must give a few more points in their good books.

Thinking of Enterprise-D involvement with Romulans, there could be a part of the crumbled Empire that recalls that Worf declined to provide a blood transfusion to save the life of a Romulan in The Enemy and are still tetchy about the matter. Picard allowed him to make the choice in the episode and now we have him helping what was a dangerous opponent.

The big elephant in the room however has to be the Dominion War. In the Pale Mooonlight has a lot to answer for and not least for the addition of the Romulans to the fight alongside the Klingons and the Federation. You have to ask if there were any repercussions from the rather underhand way in which they were brought into the war by Ben Sisko although my further question off that is how come that unity doesn't seem to have blossomed? If we recall Nemesis it looked as though there were going to be inroads made between the Federation and Romulus yet even the Countdown comic suggests very little has changed in the relationship between the two powers.

In a lot of ways, Picard has been intrinsically linked with the Romulans since the end of the first season of The Next Generation. He was there when they ended their second period of isolation (The Neutral Zone) and even there when the Empire fell - well he was technically there twice. Is this perhaps another element that has played havoc with his conscience over the years? Shinzon was a clone of the Enterprise captain and Picard could be wrestling with guilt that he was part of the reason their great Empire entered a darker time.

Picard has a lot of possible backstory and emotion to mine although there have been some clear signals that this will be very much a series standing out on its own. Now we know that was also true of Discovery and that lasted less than a season before elements of previous incarnations were being dipped into the show (Harry Mudd for one). Picard has made it clear that returning characters from The Next Generation and Voyager will be essential elements to the series but not whether their pasts will be woven into the plot.

What Romulan elements would you want to see included in Picard?

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