Problems with the Scimitar

First off, lack of creativity. A ship that was bigger than the Enterprise with more guns with primary and secondary shield generators. Plus it can fire while cloaked. Sound familiar? Oh, and it has a dirty bomb to ensure genocide, and built for that very purpose. And it was built at a secret location to be a predator.

Just with that the Narada was FAR more intimidating and creative. A mining ship from the future that has been armed to the teeth with futuristic weapons and a weapon that doesn't blow up planets or just kill everyone, but a weapon that consumes a planet in a black hole that was originally intended to save lives by destroying a supernova that would destroy all life around it.

Another problem is that just to fire thalarons, the entire ship has to undergo a major configuration change. The Narada did a big budget laser drill deployment, but nothing as elaborate as transforming the Narada from a ship into a space gun.

Though being able to fire while cloaked is an excellent attack strategy, it has been used before. From a Star Trek New Frontier comic, there was a Federation starship that was capable of local time shifting, meaning a matter of minutes. This would then give that ship to literally be at more than 2 places at once. Now if the Scimitar had that capability, then it can be a much smaller ship and easier for Picard to get to the bridge.

Why only Picard being the key? The only need Shinzon has with Picard is that he needs his blood to live, even though he wants a legacy to outshine Picards. Doesn't make sense. If the thalaron weapon had some sort of decay, in other words needs to be fired within a certain time frame, I can see. As well it would have made more sense if Data and Picard had stolen an irreplaceable vital component to the thalaron weapon, then another reason for the Scimitar to give chase.

Another problem is with Shinzon. He hates Romulans, and he hates Picard. Yet he want to destroy Earth so Romulus can invade. "I know how he thinks," eh? If it was more elaborate like he wants to hurt Picard and Romulans by destroying Earth, that would make more sense.