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Home Reviews Star Trek: Section 31 Review (SPOILERS)

Star Trek: Section 31 Review (SPOILERS)

This Star Trek: Section 31 Review Contains SPOILERS! – Please click HERE to read Trek Central’s Spoiler-Free review. Okay, Trekkies, we have Section 31 finally released on Paramount+, and it’s not going too well. But why is that? Michelle Yeoh is fantastic! What is so different about this Star Trek movie compared to the others we’ve had in Star Trek’s impressive history? One simple answer is that it does not feel like a Star Trek movie.

It’s important to remember that Trek Central aims to be fair and balanced when reviewing any Star Trek media. However, we strive to be critical of odd writing choices and story directions that don’t make sense. Please keep this in mind as this review digs into what might be the biggest miss of the modern Star Trek era under Alex Kurtzman.

Originally designed as a TV series, following Yeoh’s appearances on Discovery, the global COVID pandemic delayed production. After the delay, the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was prioritized. Section 31 was then redeveloped into a film project and originally announced in April 2023. Now, here we are. Section 31 marks the 14th Star Trek film and the first television film.

FINAL SPOILER WARNING!

The cast of Paramount+’s Star Trek: Section 31 Movie.

Flashbacks to The Mirror Universe!

The opening of Section 31 gives us a brief glimpse of Yeoh’s former life as Phillipa Georgiou. For example, we see her when she became the Terran Empire’s Emperor. I don’t mind this flashback; it cements what we know about the character in that she will go to any lengths to achieve her goal. To prove she is worthy of the Terran Empire’s leadership, her family are murdered by her own poison.

The final contest is between Yeoh’s Georgiou and her friend-turned-lover, San. We’ve previously mentioned San in Star Trek: Discovery. It was nice to get a connection back for fans of that series. Sadly, we don’t see anything of the initial contest before it’s just these two left. It would have been good to see, perhaps, reinforcing the brutality of Georgiou and what the Terran Empire is like for those unaware of it, i.e., new viewers.

Ultimately, Georgiou succeeds in the contest, and her family is murdered, while San cannot go through with it. This leads to Georgou being crowned the new Terran Empire. I guess they can play nice sometimes, and it’s not about murdering everyone. The previous 5 minutes of the movie say otherwise. Georgiou and her diabolical reign of the Empire begins. I’m pretty sure the ISS Charon, the Terran Empire flagship seen in Discovery Season One, landed on the planet in the background. If correct, I like that detail.

Miku Martineau as Young Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Section 31 Goes Mobile

Unfortunately, the actual plot of Star Trek: Section 31 is very predictable. One of the Trek Central crew managed to predict most of what happened simply by watching the trailers and thinking about it. The story ultimately feels like it was written for multiple TV series episodes but has then been chopped up and mashed into a 95-minute movie. It’s even more apparent when the movie uses the story created by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt; both writers were originally going to lead the Section 31 project when it was a series.

Craig Sweeny has written the movie’s screenplay, which seems to have borrowed elements from Bo and Erika’s original story. Honestly, the plot does feel as if it’s just an excuse to once again throw together a bunch of misfits to get a simple job done. I did like some of the Terran Empire connections. Those bits work well, especially with the Younger Georgiou, played by Miku Martineau, but we only get a small amount of that. It would have been very good to see more of her early life and how she became the tyrant we encountered in Discovery. Instead, we get none of that.

Frequent Star Trek: Discovery director Olatunde Osunsanmi directs the Movie. While I’ve seen some criticism of his direction in regard to camera work, I was actually fine with this in the film. Generally, I liked the direction it went. The fight scene on the moving platform was a little jarring, it was fast paced, but ultimately I made it through it both times when I watched Section 31.

L to R Omari Hardwick as Alok, Sam Richardson as Quasi and Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Revenge of the Mirror Universe?

As mentioned, Section 31’s plot deals with the Mirror Universe – that was apparent from the trailers. Our mysterious masked attacker is none other than Georgiou’s former lover, turned loyal servant, San (James Hiroyuki Liao). This is what I mean by the plot being predictable. San originally designed a doomsday esk device, on Gergou;’s orders, and then apparently faked his death once it was complete and delivered. The Terran Emperor at the time ordered it destroyed, it was not. Eventually, Joe Pingu’s character recovered it, made his way to the Prime Universe and tried to sell it.

Speaking of San, I enjoyed his starship design. The Mirror Universe of Star Trek has given us fantastic costumes and starship designs. At first, I thought it was a generic sci-fi ship, but when you look closer, you can see the nacelles and collectors installed. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of it before it blew up. Typical. San’s motivation is to hand the Godsend Doomsday device to the Terran Empire, who will use it to conquer the quadrant and invade.

A few Fight scenes later, the Section 31 team repairs a garbage ship and somehow chases San’s ship to the nebula – where the Mirror Universe convergence point happens, for lack of a longer explanation. While Rohl’s garret defeats Fuzz’s ship with a teddy bear – yes, I am being serious, the finale fight scene does give us some rare emotional vulnerability to Yeoh’s Georgiou, as she mortally wounds San. Finally, the weapon is detonated, sealing the passage to the Mirror Universe.

Scene from Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

The Next Mission

The cast and crew of Star Trek: Section 31 are up for doing more of these TV Movies. Michelle Yeoh previously said she was open to making a sequel if this first film succeeds. However, I am not sure that will happen. Critic reviews and, so far, general audience response does not seem favourable. The movie ends in a position where future stories can be told. Jamie Lee Curtis guest stars as “Control“, the Section 31 mission handler to deliver the Alpha Team’s next mission.

Speaking of the ending, why does the space station-turned starship warp away with all the other ships? Are all these ships decoys? Are they all working for Georgiou? Do they all follow the barship wherever it goes? Why hasn’t Section 31 given Alok’s Alpha Team a new starship to use? Now that would have been a fun way to end this film. Sure, it’s cliche, but Star Trek typically ends things on “Here us is in a ship, let’s go do something else”. I mean it’s kind of a common expectation of Trek projected and movies. Yes, This is just a nit pick, but a worthy point.

L to R Omari Hardwick as Alok, Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Sam Richardson as Quasi in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

The Section 31 Crew

While we have Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh leading the Star Trek: Section 31 movie, the supporting cast is not too bad. While the actors and actresses seem to try their best with what they have been given, some of the material does not work well. It was great to see Humberly González playing a Deltan, a familiar Star Trek species, in the movie. However, she meets the Star Trek Red Shirt fate and is killed off 25 minutes into the movie, which is disappointing as we don’t get to know her.

Omari Hardwick’s “Alok” is the leader of the Section 31 Alpha team. It seems Alok might be the only character, bar Yeoh’s, who has a backstory that properly connects with Star Trek. However, he is connected to the Eugenics Wars in the Star Trek Universe’s history. Ultimately, the backstory falls flat as it’s just told, and that’s it. It would have been a lot better to SEE this story. I really enjoyed Robert Kazinsky’s “Zeph” portrayal. While the character is played as your typical heavy-hitter, his banter often comes across as funny but cringy at some points.

Banner artwork for Star Trek: Section 31 (Via Paramount+)

The character of Fuzz did not gel with me. While Sven Ruygrok does his best with the writing, it lets him down. Fuzz is not a Vulcan but a new species called a “Nanokin” that controls a Vulcan android body. For some reason, he has an Irish Accent. His quick is to leave the android body on autopilot and fly into other tiny places. Sam Richardson as Quasi was actually very pleasant, even if his character backstory goes nowhere.

Kacey Rohl is fantastic as the character of Rachel Garrett. She plays a young Starfleet Officer, we know eventually becomes the captain of the USS Enterprise-C. The story of Section 31 seems to believe the decisions she makes in the movie will inform her later command when she reaches the rank of Captain. I think Rohl did super well in this role, but we were robbed of seeing her in a Starfleet Uniform and cementing her as a Starfleet Officer in the movie. This is linked to my following criticism about visual identity.

However, I feel that Rachel Garrett is here just for fan service. While Rohl is fantastic, I do wonder if the movie needed Garrett. I think the film attempts to suggest that the character’s experiences in this plot lead her to become the commander of the Enterprise-C we see in The Next Generation. Ultimately, Garrett could have been a new character for the movie.

Visual Identity & Story Connections for Section 31

A version of Star Trek LCARS is present in the movie. Since Section 31 takes place in 2333, which is the early 24th Century, it makes sense that Federation tech (and those associated) are moving towards what we see in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The familiar sounds of this are nice to hear and see. But this is just a rare part of the movie that is otherwise scarce of actual familiar Star Trek sounds and visuals.

I’m not saying the USS Enterprise needs to be in the background, but some familiar sights to solidify that this is Star Trek would make a lot more sense. You recognise a few aliens from Star Trek shows and movies, but they are just here and there. I’m not counting Fuzz’s Vulcan suit because it’s not an actual Vulcan. I expected some familiar sights for a movie set in the early 24th Century. Yes, this is outside the Federation, but when did that stop Trek?

I was expecting to see some familiar-looking starship designs. However, we did not get any. I will say that the Section 31 ship – which gets blown up – looks like an evolution of the design used in Discovery Season 2. Sadly, we don’t have time for it because it’s sabotaged. Back to story connections. This movie seems content in staying outside the Federation, almost as if it’s been removed to avoid causing issues in Star Trek’s canon, which we know Trekkies are protective of.

Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

A Star Trek TV Movie, That is Not Star Trek

It’s undeniable that this is a TV movie, but that is not a problem. What is issue is that Star Trek: Section 31 does feel like a bunch of TV series ideas taken and crammed into a TV movie. For example, while watching, you can almost feel it trips over several ideas simultaneously, or some things are not explained. Take Richardson’s “Quasi” character. The mention of how he came onto Section 31’s radar is described but never brought up again. It was almost as if this was an idea to be explored later, but it dropped due to time.

The movie also does not choose to expand the story of Section 31, as in the organization. I went into this hoping that it would inform how we find the black ops division in Deep Space Nine, which is in about 30 years. Okay, there is still a long way to go, but we will hopefully see the roots of their actions. Instead, the Section 31 movie seems to not even bother talking about the organisation outside of the basic setup.

A few details stick out for mega Star Trek lore nuts, which I would include myself as. For example, the Federation can’t get Georgou on the Baraam (space bar) due to the Treat of Ka’Tann. This treaty is referenced in Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Fallen Hero” episode. A nice detail. But a small one. This explains why Section 31 is dispatched. The final moment in the film is when Control (Jamie Lee Curtis) sends Section 31’s Alpha Team off to the planet of Turkana IV – this is where Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is born in The Next Generation. It’s a small world, I guess.

Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31, streaming on Paramount+, 2025. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Final Thoughts on Star Trek: Section 31

While it may sound like my Star Trek: Section 31 Review is a negative experience, I want to emphasise that I somewhat enjoyed watching this. However, when I think about it more, things do not work. So, I guess if you want to watch it once and forget about it, you might be okay; however, as big fans of Star Trek, we constantly love and rewatch the things produced in the franchise. I would not rush back to watch Section 31. Glaring story points and just a lot of wasted potential put me off this.

I wanted to see a movie that explored who Section 31 is and perhaps once again dealt with why The Federation actually needs an organization like this. When they first appeared in Deep Space Nine and did some questionable things during The Dominion War, I think some would sit back and see the need for them – maybe that is a strong debate – but it’s a debate I think this movie could have explored well. Instead, this feels like an action movie for the sake of making a wanna-be Star Trek action movie. It did not stick the landing.

I encourage you to watch this film for yourself. You may like it. If so, I’m happy for you, as it’s fantastic when we find that others can enjoy things that we did not. Star Trek: Section 31 represents an ongoing trend in the Star Trek Franchise: experimentation. The Star Trek fan base is getting older, so there are attempts to attract new viewers. We’ve seen this with the likes of Star Trek: Prodigy and the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Some of these projects stick the landing and work, others might not.

While writing this review, I remembered when the Section 31 series was announced. While I was keen to see more Michelle Yeoh, I also saw the outpour of online comments that frequently mentioned, “Who asked for this?”. Surely Paramount+ could have gotten out of making it. Unfortunately, overnight critic reviews are not looking well for Section 31. I wait to see what the general audience consensus is over the weekend.

Rob Kazinsky as Zeph and Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi, in Star Trek: Section 31, streaming on Paramount+, 2025. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Star Trek: Section 31 LIVE Now!

Star Trek: Section 31 is OUT NOW on Paramount+, for those with access to the streaming service. The film is expected to arrive on February 7th on SkyShowtime for European viewers. You can let us know your thoughts on Star Trek’s first TV movie via social media, or joining our Discord Server – both linked below. Live Long and Prosper my friends!


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