Star Trek: Section 31

• Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi
• January 24, 2025
• Paramount+   
• Based on Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry and Section 31 created by Ira Steven Behr

Philippa Georgiou must face the sins of her past as she works for Section 31. She was a Kelpian eating genocidal madwoman.

My expectations for Star Trek: Section 31 were pretty low from the announcement. I have not exactly been fond of Star Trek since the reboot films. Star Trek as a whole has been on a steady refashioning of every aspect since those films no matter if it takes place in the Kelvin Timeline or not.

Star Trek: Section 31 is a joyless, festering turd. It is a parasite that has attached itself to the desiccated corpse of Star Trek in the hopes of finding some sustenance. I am convinced it is a vanity project for Alex Kurtzman and a reportedly big payday for the star of the movie Michelle Yeoh along with a pointless cameo by Jamie Lee Curtis.

After watching you may feel bad for those involved. You may even feel guilty for having liked Star Trek for decades. Why? Because no matter how much you enjoyed TOS or TNG or DS9, this is connected to them. No amount of calling the Kurtzman Era ‘NuTrek’ will change that. Whatever greatness once existed has given way to Section 31. 

As an organization Section 31 is framed as the best of the best culled from every corner of the Federation and Starfleet. They are supposed to be a group of almost amoral special agents whose only goal is to further the best interests of the United Federation of Planets. As originally envisioned, they were agents so deep that no one knew they were agents until necessity or the discovery of clues lead to a character learning the truth. Not so anymore.

In the opening moments on the gaudy space station she has retreated to since stepping through the Guardian of Forever, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) easily spots these horribly unprofessional individuals who are obvious secret agents that clearly don’t belong in her place of business. Is this meant to show how smart she is or how terrible the agents of Section 31 are? They are there seeking her help to get back a sinister bioweapon. Based on the flashback that opens this movie if you do not see some of the things coming then I do not know what to say.

There’s a great deal of attention paid to cool sequences and cool visuals by director Olatunde Osunsanmi but not much attention given to logic. This is designed to appeal to surface level attention, and not somebody looking for a story with more than you can get from looking at the top.

The weapon in question is no bioweapon but rather some device that when activated destroys a whole bunch of star systems without much explanation on how it works. At least the Genesis Device got some logic even if it needed some buss$hit for it to work. The Godsend (they have a running gag over the name) is going to be deployed by the Terran Empire to destroy half of our galaxy so they can come in and conquer the other half because they are low on resources and they have a gateway they can move ships through. So they’re gonna destroy half the planets and get only half of what they could if they conquered everything. Right…

This is just a terrible film. When it tries to be funny it’s not. When it tries to be serious it’s unintentionally funny. When it tries to be intelligent it’s just plain dumb. And exciting? Not really. It’s not just bad Star Trek. Star Trek: Section 31 cannot do in 90 minutes what other Star Trek shows have done in 45. Think of two parters like The Best of Both Worlds from TNG. Exciting, intelligent, and emotional. It had it all. This may be a standalone TV movie but at least when it comes to the main character there is tons of backstory built up behind her yet this can’t do a 16^th of what other two part episodes of any of the Star Treks have done. 

The augment Alok (Omari Hardwick), Rachel “From One Episode of TNG” Garrett (Kacey Rohl), the chameloid Quasi (Sam Richardson), the microscopic Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), the exoskeleton wearing Zeph (Robert Kazinsky), and the Deltan woman Melle (Humberly González) all have one overt defining trait that gets dialed to 11 because characterization is hard. Philippa Georgiou is tasked with being everything for this movie despite the ensemble cast. It falls to her to make them interesting. It is a grab bag of characters not designed to each contribute something unique but because somebody somewhere along the line thought they looked cool or could do something cool.

A lot is made in this film of Philippa Georgiou developing a conscience and feeling bad for the things she’s done. Originally she was a genocidal madwoman who ate Kelpians as a delicacy. Now she feels bad about things and that wipes away all her evil just because she started feeling bad. By the end she’s kind of neutered as tough and as a character becomes extremely trustworthy. This is after we see she killed her family to get the position of Emperor of the Terran Empire.

Clearly they wanted to go for a spy thriller but writer Craig Sweeney had no idea how to write one in the present day let alone in the fictional future of Star Trek. The dialogue used is brutally antiquated and cliché when it aims for spy dialogue. Star Trek has done spy thriller episodes in the assorted shows. That’s when the movie is trying to be thrilling. Much of Section 31 involves characters bickering amongst each other like they’re a bunch of children. These are supposed to be pros but come off as trainees winging it.

This is something with juvenile logic and juvenile dialogue. There are plenty of explosions and cool gadgets and cool aliens. It tries to have cool one-liners such as Garrett uttering “Chaos is my friend with benefits” and you just laugh. The laughter is not because it is funny but because it is that bad. Then again you’re laughing at most of the bad dialogue because it’s just that bad.

The stories is supposed to be about Philippa Georgiou confronting her past and as far as I know never mentioned former love interest San (James Hiroyuki Liao) who is seeking revenge. Georgiou burned his face and kept him as a slave for decades without ever considering he might be an issue. San is just dumped on you and that’s it. Then again nothing really matters to you. From Melle’s death to Fuzz’s turn, these significant events are no big deal because of the awkward pacing and campy tone of the project.

Star Trek: Section 31 is barely 30 minutes of narrative stretched into 90 by extended action sequences and serious padding. The characters learn the truth early in an interrogation that amounts to a punch after which arms dealer Dada Noe (Joe Pingue) who is from Georgiou’s reality and had taken the place of this world’s Dada Noe. One-Punch Man Alok took a swing and the mystery is solved. In a better film such a cliché would not have happened.

The camera is often moving across the scene or towards something making the action hard to follow. It is very distracting. Characters don’t get framed. It’s especially unfortunate when Michelle Yeoh gets to do some action. The woman can handle action scenes better than many half her age but you do not get a good view EVER.

As a movie, Star Trek: Section 31 is generic science fiction. As Star Trek it is just bad. It is dour, shallow, boring, and juvenile with poor direction and pacing. Not the worst thing I have ever watched but among the worst connected to a once venerable fictional universe.