It ’s been nearly a decade since the dismission of the last theatrical Star Trek picture show , but in that fourth dimension , Star Trek hasreturned to television in a freehanded direction , launching five newfangled serial publication with more to come . Now , while Paramount Picturescontinues to drop behind its feeton a come after - up toStar Trek Beyond , their tv set counterparts are kicking off what they hope will be a new tradition of verbatim - to - streaming features .
First on their slate isStar Trek : Section 31 , a undercover agent - fi action pic in which Academy Award - winnerMichelle Yeohreprises her role as the somewhat - reformed dictatorial Emperor Philippa Georgiou fromStar Trek : Discovery . The film sees Georgiou come back the United Federation of Planets ’ shady black ops agency , marking the first time that Section 31 will feature as the agonist of a Star Trek story rather than a villain or obstacle .
How exactly did part 31 mutate from the Federation ’s Illuminati to its Impossible Mission Force ? For our solvent , we ’ll have to dig into decades of behind - the - scenes machination and centuries of Star Trek continuity .
Section 31 was Deep Space Nine’s scariest villain
In the utopian future tense of Star Trek , Section 31 is a gloomy anomalousness . Creator Gene Roddenberry ’s vision of humankind has develop beyond rapacity and bigotry , allowing our species to band together and join a thriving interstellar community of diverse civilizations . Humanity is now a citadel of compassion , honor , and all-encompassing - eyed curiosity , the smile cheek of the United Federation of Planets , whose Starfleet is sworn to peacefully explore the wandflower and protect its citizens from assailant . But while the Federation may have risen above the evils of hate or exploitation , sometimes iniquity halt from vestal , unchecked realism .
In the 1998Star Trek : Deep Space NineepisodeInquisition , Dr. Julian Bashir ( Alexander Siddig ) becomes the mark of an investigation by Deputy Director Luther Sloan ( William Sadler ) . Though he sit as an official from Starfleet ’s internal affairs , Sloan is actually a representative of a secret high society that has been embedded in the high echelons of the Federation since its origin . This organization , Section 31 , answers to no one . It ’s not discern or acknowledged by any legal authority . Section 31 intervenes in astronomical political sympathies and defense , then deal their tracks so that no one ever know they were call for .
In future sequence , we study the extent of Section 31 ’s capabilities and the extreme to which they ’ll go to protect what they view as the Federation ’s beneficial interests . In their most deadly plot of land , they set about to end the Federation ’s warfare with the Dominion by kill an intact metal money with a genetically engineer virus .
Beyond their capability , part 31 was challenging because the interview learned practically nothing about them . In their first visual aspect , there ’s no evidence to even indicate that surgical incision 31 is a real organisation rather than an innovation of Sloan ’s . Even once future installment confirm its existence , Sloan and his two underlings — who may only be holographic illusions — are the only federal agent we ever see . Further , when their genocidal plans are revealed , the despairing leaders of the Federation resolve to let them get away with it rather than peril lose the Dominion War . Bashir and the crowd of Deep Space 9 put a plosive speech sound to it , but the enquiry remains — Could the Federation really be righteous if it was willing to let someone do such lousy works on their behalf ?
As originally think byDS9showrunner Ira Steven Behr , Section 31 was a deep - state bugbear , more consanguineous to the mythical Men in Black than any state of matter - sanctioned intelligence bureau . Never a truthful believer in Roddenberry ’s optimistic hereafter , Behr state that there was a black secret behind the twenty-fourth - hundred Sion . “ Maybe [ sic ] there ’s someone watching over [ Earth ] and doing the smutty clobber that no one require to think about , ” explained Behr in the exhaustiveStar Trek : Deep Space Nine Companionby Terry J. Erdmann . “ Of naturally , it ’s a very complicated issue … and those kinds of covert military operation are unremarkably improper ! ”
This whim proved unpopular with a vocal segment of Star Trek devotee that felt the very existence of Section 31 deeply undersell the overall message of Star Trek , that human existence can find and maintain peace through radical tolerance and cooperation rather than force or coercion . department 31 was unquestionably framed as malign , but if they were protecting the Federation from the dark all along , then the interview and their Starfleet heroes would have to acknowledge them as necessary . Deep Space Nineexcelled at muddy up the moral certainty of the Star Trek universe , but after its conclusion in 1999 , many Trekkies hoped that the concept of department 31 would be put to layer .
Discovery made Section 31 legitimate but not benevolent
Not only did incision 31 continue to appear in Star Trek works afterDeep Space Nine , but it ’s uprise into the series ’ most revisit invention . Section 31 ’s origins as a hole-and-corner cabal that antedate the Federation would be confirmed in the 2005 prequel seriesStar Trek : Enterprise , and they would become a major antagonist in the 2013 feature filmStar Trek Into Darkness . Though in an alternative timeline from Trek TV , Into Darknesslinked Section 31 even more tight with Starfleet , revealing Admiral Marcus ( Peter Weller ) as a phallus of the mystical agency and giving them their own powerful vas , Vengeance .
Shortly thereafter , Into Darknessco - author and manufacturer Alex Kurtzman would become the guiding hand behind Star Trek ’s relaunch on streaming television , and it would n’t be long before Section 31 reared its head on the new seriesStar Trek : Discovery . InDiscovery ’s second season , Section 31 is depicted not as an unacknowledged mysterious state entity but as an explicit division of Starfleet , complete with their own spooky black starships and black Starfleet badges .
In the 2019 episodeSaints of Imperfection , Section 31 Agent Leland ( Alan van Sprang ) deign to Starfleet Captain Pike ( Anson Mount ) , suggesting that Starfleet ’s moral righteousness is only made possible by Section 31 ’s moral compromise . S31 once again plays an counter role onDiscovery , but rather than the organisation itself being the villain , the story ’s true big bad is an contrived intelligence that they created to head their tactical decisions . The time of year ends on an optimistic bank bill that teases the reformation of discussion section 31 into something more benevolent .
The reframing of Section 31 seems reflective of changing cultural attitude around country word in the early twenty-first century . Deep Space Nineran concurrently withThe X - Files , a massive hit show about deep , baleful conspiracies concocted by opaque government entities . Into Darknesswas released 15 years after Section 31 ’s debut and was , in part , a comment on America ’s reflexively violent reply to the September 11th attacks . By the timeDiscoverycame along , the estimate that Starfleet would necessarily have a dark mirror was scantily shocking .
Star Trek, if you choose to accept it
There has been no canonic explanation of how Section 31 went from being a shadowy , operating entity within Starfleet to a rogue country , whose existence is a nearly guard mystery within a century . Behind the scene , however , it seems clear that subdivision 31 ’s renewal was in the interest of clearing a path for Trek ’s own response toMission : insufferable . The idea for theDiscoveryspin - off wasfirst suggested by Michelle Yeoh herselfbeforeDiscoverypremiered , and herSection 31series wasannounced in January 2019 , beforehand of Season 2 ’s debut .
At the time , executive producer Alex Kurtzman indicatedthatSection 31would be an exciting but complex spy dramatic event , owing not only to the spectacle - fueledMission : Impossiblefilms but also to the turbid and mussy intrigue ofKilling Eve . COVID put the brake on the new show ’s planned 2020 production schedule , after which the project kept being kick down the route and continually retooled until it eventually became the 2025 TV movie .
Ina recent interview with TrekMovie , Osunsanmi said thatSection 31will live up to Star Trek ’s lofty ideals and that the film is “ fun ” and “ a joy , ” which sure enough sounds like a leaving from the series Kurtzman initially name , which would have been run byDiscoveryproducers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt . Osunsanmi tell SFX Magazinethat the movie , whose screenplay is credit to Craig Sweeny , is six drafts descended from Kim and Lippoldt ’s television scripts and that “ the two news report are completely unrecognisable . ”
Promotional material for the film indicates a wacky , colorful blowout in theGuardians of the Galaxyvein , without a breath of the titular representation ’s villainous origins . Can this new action - adventure take on Section 31 add enough fun to compensate for all the complexity that ’s been take away ? We ’ll get our solvent on January 24th .
Star Trek : division 31is now streaming onParamount+ .
