Star Trek: Section 31 – Review

Michelle Yeoh reprises her Emperor Georgiou role from Star Trek Discovery, now back in some vague period between Discovery’s first season and the “Yesterday” from TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. The genocidal dictator developed somewhat of a conscience during her later Discovery appearances but the lure of adventure pulls her into the protagonist’s anti-hero role, all thanks to the arrival of Section 31.

This may be a running theme here, but this Section 31 doesn’t bear any resemblance to the morally grey… strike that, morally bankrupt organisation from DS9 or Discovery. Instead, we get one squad of apparent rejects and criminals with a wildly shifting tone between “Look at these goofballs” and “Ooh murder and genocide”.

It’s very Suicide Squad and reads as if someone watched Guardians of the Galaxy and thought they had figured out how to make a Marvel movie. Supplemental materials confirm that there is only one actual Section 31 Agent in this ragtag group – which actually makes sense but I had to find this out outside of the movie itself.

I did come into this with a relatively open mind. I don’t hate the recent wave of Trek and, for the most part, enjoyed Discovery despite constantly complaining about the characters making dumb decisions. There are a few bright spots and some promising creativity.

Michelle Yeoh is a treasure and really made the most of the role, but again the character is somewhere between a lovable rogue and a girl that would kill redacted redacted and keep redacted as a redacted for decades. Some character and alien concepts seem like a lot of fun but deserve more exploration than a 90-minute movie can give.

At one point this movie was intended to be a series and instead became a direct-to-TV movie with a budget similar to two episodes of Strange New Worlds, and that really shows. It’s on a much smaller scale than most Star Trek movies. I feel like I’m being a little cynical, but it was mostly a group of people squabbling in a very earth-like forest until there was a twist that viewers are likely to figure out a good 20 minutes before the characters, if not sooner.

There’s some action thrown in which does its job despite some ropey CGI. Disappointingly, most of the featured spaceships were rather uninspired. I would have really liked some familiar vessels just to help centre the story in the time period and universe. Ship design and VFX are redeemed a little by an interesting final battle.

The movie ends with one of the most jarring cameos and a potential setup for a sequel, but I won’t hold my breath. From hearing the cast talk about their experience, it’s clear there’s a lot that was cut. A full series would have given us actual character motivations and insights into new alien cultures, it might even have shored up some of the gaping plot holes.

There’s some fun to be had here but it’s much more “turn your brain off” than Star Trek is known for. I’m open to new tones and styles of Star Trek; let them explore strange new genres and seek out new fans and new revenue streams. In a universe that teaches IDIC, there is space for stories like Section 31, but a longer run time was needed. A consistent tone and a stronger sense of identity could have made for a much stronger movie.