Warning: Possible SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Finale - "A Quality of Mercy"
A preview for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 1 finale shows that the prequel has fixed a 56-year-old Romulan mistake from Star Trek: The Original Series. In Strange New Worlds episode 9, the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) underwent a tragic upheaval after a fatal encounter with baby Gorn on the planet Valeo Beta V. Pike's landing party investigating a distress signal from the USS Peregrine resulted in the deaths of three Enterprise crew members, including Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak). In addition, Lt. La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) left the Enterprise to reunite a young victim of the Gorn with her missing family.
The Romulans are a classic Star Trek adversary who first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode, "Balance of Terror." A Romulan Bird-of-Prey equipped with a cloaking device and a plasma energy weapon destroyed Starfleet outposts along the Neutral Zone. During Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the Starship Enterprise's tense game of cat-and-mouse with the Romulans, a star chart of Sector Z-6 indicated that the aliens' homeworlds were called Romulus and Romii in spite of spoken dialogue referring to the planets as Romulus and Remus. The name"Romii" was seen only once in that episode of Star Trek but was never canonically spoken of in the show. Remus was finally seen in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, which revealed the Remans were a slave caste that rose up to overthrow the Romulan Senate. The Remans briefly installed Shinzon (Tom Hardy), a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), as the new Praetor.
The Ready Room hosted by Wil Wheaton showed a clip from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1's finale, "A Quality of Mercy." As Captain Pike, his Number One Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) meet with a Starfleet commander, a massive star chart is clearly visible behind them. The chart is an updated version of the Sector Z-6 map seen in "Balance of Terror" that shows the United Federation of Planets' territory and the worlds beyond the Neutral Zone controlled by the Romulan Star Empire. The pivotal retcon is that Romulus is now identified as "Romulus/Remus" while Romii is now the third planet orbiting near the twins. This canonically fixes "Balance of Terror's" Romulus/Romii mistake that has stood for 56 years ever since the Star Trek episode was first broadcast on NBC in 1966.
The fact that Captain Pike is discussing Romulans before he meets one of the young people he is destined to save from an accident that will result in Chris being disfigured by delta rays in 2266 hints that the Romulans will appear on Strange New Worlds, possibly in the season 1 finale. Of course, Strange New Worlds can't show the Romulans since the first time humans canonically lay their eyes on the pointy-eared aliens is in "Balance of Terror," but that doesn't mean Pike's Enterprise won't encounter a Romulan starship or that Strange New Worlds won't circumvent canon in a novel way as the show already has with the Gorn.
In Strange New Worlds' era circa 2259, the Romulans have little idea that their feared interstellar empire only has about 108 more years left to live. J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek movie revealed the Romulan star goes supernova in 2387, which Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) failed to prevent and resulted in the Vulcan time traveling to the alternate Kelvin timeline. Star Trek: Picard season 1 picked up the story and told of how the United Federation of Planets failed to fully evacuate the Romulan people from the catastrophe, despite Admiral Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) best efforts. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' retcon now means Romulus, Remus, and Romii were among the worlds destroyed by the supernova.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 1 Finale streams Thursday, July 7, on Paramount+.