Star Trek: Countdown was a four-part comic series released in 2009, acting as a bridge between Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek (2009), with involvement from the creative team of the latter film.
Spock, now a legal resident of and the Federation ambassador to Romulus, tries fruitlessly to persuade the senate that the nearby Hobus star will soon explode, with the potential to destroy the entire Romulan Empire when it does so. A young mining captain by the name of Nero does believe Spock, however, having nearly been killed by an eruption from the star, and he agrees to help Spock to procure enough of the rare material decalithium, which can be used by the Vulcans to produce "red matter", which can create a black hole that will implode the Hobus star before it can explode. Re-encountering his old friends Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard, Captain Data, Captain Geordi La Forge, and General Worf along the way, Spock and Nero find themselves in a race against time to save Romulus before it, the Empire, and potentially even the entire Milky Way galaxy, can be consumed by the supernova.
Star Trek: Nero and the Star Trek (IDW) line would follow on from this series.
Tropes include:
- Aborted Arc: In the second issue, the Praetor and several other senators discuss the possibility of invading Vulcan to get their hands on red matter technology. It ends up being immaterial, as Romulus is destroyed before any such invasion can be launched.
- All for Nothing: Played with; it turns out that even had both the Romulans and the Vulcans been willing to co-operate with Spock from the get-go, there would have been very little prospect of producing enough red matter to collapse the Hobus star quickly enough to save Romulus. However, Spock's efforts and having a supply of decalithium ready to go does help stop the supernova faster than would otherwise have been the case, doubtless saving a significant number of worlds.
- Apocalypse How: The Hobus star's explosion is first explained as having the potential to destroy the entire Romulan Empire due to its ability to convert matter into more explosive force, and after Romulus actually does get destroyed the Vulcans confirm it will eventually annihilate the entire galaxy if left unchecked.
- Artistic License – Physics:
- Lampshaded by a Romulan senator in the first issue, as the Hobus star's explosion bears no resemblance whatsoever to any actual supernovae that's possible in real-life. Unfortunately, this makes it harder for Spock to persuade anyone of the danger.
- The Hobus supernova somehow completely obliterates Romulus, yet doesn't incinerate the Narada or the shuttle that the Praetor and his aides were on.
- Blatant Lies: Nero gains access to a secret weapons facility by claiming to have found out its existence from the Praetor and his aides as they were dying from their injuries after Romulus was destroyed. He naturally neglects to mention that he was the one who fatally injured them.
- Canon Marches On: While it's just about possible to still take the backstories of Spock (Prime) and Nero as being in-continuity, many other aspects of this series would later be contradicted by Star Trek: Picard:
- Picard is mentioned as having retired from Starfleet prior to the destruction of Romulus and having become an ambassador. Picard showed him having retired after Romulus was destroyed, and running the family vineyard.
- Worf left Starfleet and joined the Klingon Imperial Fleet while Geordi left to become a freelance starship designer, neither of which are mentioned at all in Picard.
- Data is shown to now occupy B-4's body, and is in command of the Enterprise-E. Picard instead indicated that B-4 ceased functioning due to being unable to handle Data's programming, while strongly implying the Enterprise-E to have been destroyed prior to the setting of this comic.
- Nero blames the destruction of Romulus on the Federation because the Vulcan Science Council refused to release the secrets of refining decalithium into red matter in time for enough to be produced to collapse the Hobus star before it could explode. Picard instead established that the Federation actually produced a huge fleet to rescue the population of Romulus, only for the Zhat Vash to destroy it due to their distrust of artificial intelligence and the Federation to then refuse to risk the remainder of their fleet on the rescue, with Spock's mission being a backup plan that he simply didn't have time to carry out before Romulus was destroyed.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Nero quickly turns into one of these after Romulus is destroyed, convincing himself from the arrival of several Starfleet ships that they've come to stake claim to Romulan space. Naturally he and his crew are too grief-stricken to ask themselves why the Federation would want to annex a section of space that had been completely destroyed by a supernova, or why they would try to do so with a bunch of unarmed medical frigates.
- Continuity Nod:
- Spock's struggle to get Vulcans legal status on Romulus from TNG's "Unification" two-parter is shown to have finally bore fruit here.
- The aerial view of the Romulan capital is taken from Star Trek: Nemesis, while the stellar cartography room used by the praetor in the second issue strongly resembles its counterpart on the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: Generations, adapted to more resemble Romulan technology and architecture.
- Spock's final words before he gets pulled through the singularity are "The needs of the many outweigh-"
- Continuity Snarl: A minor one, but Worf and his crew are surprised that the Narada can fire while cloaked and act as though it were some new capability for the Romulans, even though the Scimitar demonstrated that capability to spectacular effect against the Enterprise-E in Nemesis.
- Eldritch Starship: Actually averted by the Narada at first, which just looks like a normal Romulan ship until it gets upgraded with Borg technology.
- Foreshadowing: Nero's habit from the 2009 film of demanding that the commanding officers of enemy starships board a shuttle and come aboard the Narada is already in evidence here, when he does it to Worf. Though Worf at least only does it because he thinks he's got a better chance of beating Nero in hand-to-hand combat than ship-to-ship, whereas Captains Robau and Pike really didn't have any choice in the matter.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Nero kills the Praetor this way, grabbing his sceptre and impaling him through his heart. He later tries to do the same to Worf with a mechanical tentacle aboard the Narada, though Worf just about survives.
- Insistent Terminology: After Spock makes mention of Data having resurrected himself in B-4's body, Data says that "return" would be a better description, as resurrection implies a religious or supernatural involvement.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the Vulcans come across as more than a little callous in not caring whether or not the Romulan Empire gets wiped out by the impending Hobus supernova, considering the destruction that Nero would wage with red matter in the Kelvin Timeline, their worries about the technology needed to produce it falling into the wrong hands seem pretty justified.
- Misplaced Retribution: For as much right as Nero has to be pissed off at both his own and the Vulcan government, his subsequent Roaring Rampage of Revenge comes across this way when you consider that the Hobus star went supernova so quickly that there'd have been little prospect of saving Romulus even if he and Spock had been listened to. It's additionally implied that the only reason they were able to get their plan implemented as quickly as they did was because they had the good fortune of being able to confiscate a consignment of decalithium from some Reman pirates.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Romulan Senate and Vulcan Science Academy prove just as bad as each other in this regard, with the senate not listening to Spock, and the Science Academy being unwilling to help the Romulans.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Nero is actually even worse about this than in the 2009 film, where his grudge is specifically against the Federation, and particularly the Vulcans. Here he also expresses his intention to wipe out the Klingons, Cardassians, and pretty much any other civilization he feels like taking on.
- Retroactive Idiot Ball: Man, the Narada being capable of moving metallic tentacles that can impale the enemy sure would've come in handy in the 2009 film to take care of Spock and Kirk when they sneak aboard.
- Series Fauxnale: This was intended as a send-off of sorts to the "Prime Timeline", while paving the way for the new "Kelvin Timeline" that would be established by the reboot. Ultimately, however, the Kelvin Timeline would largely splutter out after the box-office failure of Star Trek Beyond, while Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks would resurrect the 24th (and 25th) century branch of the Prime Timeline.
- Stuffed into the Fridge: While this applies on a species-wide level for Nero, the death of his wife and child really drive him to wanting revenge on the Federation and especially Vulcans.
- Take a Third Option: Spock and Nero unsuccessfully try to persuade the Vulcans to give them the technology to produce red matter, while the Vulcans themselves are convinced that the Hobus supernova will only destroy the Romulan Empire and thus don't consider it their problem. No-one involved hits on the idea of just giving the Vulcans the decalithium and getting them to produce the necessary red matter until any hope of using it to save Romulus in time has vanished.
- Too Dumb to Live: After beaming aboard the Narada, the Praetor is stupid enough to respond to Nero's I Warned You speech by telling him it's not the place of a mere miner to question the senate. Nero responds by grabbing his sceptre and fatally stabbing him with it.
- The Worf Effect: Worf's still suffering this all these years later, as he gets impaled by a metallic tentacle during his fight with Nero aboard the Narada, showing how dangerous of a location it will be for the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise crew in the 2009 film.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Nero tricks some Federation medical frigates into beaming aboard explosives after they arrive at the destroyed remains of Romulus, falsely claiming that the Narada has injured refugees aboard.
- You Don't Look Like You: In the first two issues, Nero, Ayel, and the rest of the Narada crew actually look more like TOS-era Romulans, lacking the head ridges they were shown as having in the TNG era, or the bald heads and tattoos they were depicted with in the 2009 film. The latter is eventually explained as them having shaved and tattooed themselves following Romulus' destruction, as an adaptation of a mourning ritual the normally entails shaving their heads and inking themselves with temporary tattoos.