Star Trek: Section 31 Tries to be a Dumpster Fire and Succeeds
If you’ve also been waiting since 2020 to see what happened to Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou from “Star Trek: Discovery,” she’s finally reappeared in “Section 31.” Here’s my review of this crazy TV movie.
There’s been a hole in my Trekkie heart ever since the very first episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” back in 2017. My heart broke early in the episode when Starfleet Captain Philippa Georgiou played by the wonderful Michelle Yeoh shockingly died with a Klingon blade to the heart.
More than a plot device, it was a clear message from the showrunners to all Trekkies that the old Star Trek you knew and loved was dead.
I was all set to watch another five-year mission with Captain Georgiou at the helm. But no, that wasn’t the plan. That said, this unexpected Trekkie betrayal also contained a hidden twist… with a lifeline to a future redemption.
It didn’t take that long. Soon we had a mirror universe replacement of Georgiou. And I’ve got to admit that Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou from the Terran Empire was a blast.
Yeoh was unleashed to embody a delightfully naughty version of Georgiou. Every scene with her was always a bright spot through the entire “Star Trek: Discovery” series until she was banished by the writers through the Guardian of Forever in season 3 (another disappointment).
But wait. Trekkies then heard the producers were going to create a Section 31 series with Yeoh as part of this sinister and secret Federation spy division that has popped up in so many Star Trek series, including “Discovery.”
But no… the series ended up just being a one-off TV movie, which has finally arrived.
Back to the Future
Running just over an hour and a half on Paramount+, this ‘extended episode’ feels somewhat Star Trek adjacent. It’s filled with the quirky characters you might find in a “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie but pulled from the back pages of a “Star Trek” encyclopedia.
When the movie begins, Georgiou has already been transported back to the past a few decades before “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” She’s set up shop running a ritzy space station bar just outside of the Federation. The opening credits explain she had previously joined Section 31 but then disappeared (to apparently follow in the ‘legendary’ footsteps of Quark from Deep Space Nine).
But a threat of galactic proportions sends a Section 31 team led by Agent Alok Sahar (played by Omari Hardwick) to find and re-recruit Georgiou to help save the Federation.
It’s Good to be Evil
Section 31 isn’t as scary an organization as I remember, and the team that finds Georgiou initially acts like a second-rate band of misfit thugs.
Thank goodness they’ve got the ‘evil’ Georgio to save the day. Clearly Section 31 needs her anti-hero vibe to stop a terrorist with an uber-destruction device called the ‘godsend.’
As the story likes to remind us, you can’t escape your past, and so the Terran Empire plays a prominent role in the story.
Warped Sense of Fun
“Star Trek: Section 31” is sometimes clever, but often silly. The writers are clearly Trekkies, but tonally, this story is out of control. The closest parallel might be “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” And that’s a cartoon.
The Terran Empire in the mirror universe used to be the place where the writers and directors allowed the actors to chew up the scenery, but the producers have flipped that equation on its head. Here, all the Terran Empire scenes feel like normal Star Trek. And now it’s the Federation that looks like an extended frat party.
Does that mean “Star Trek: 31” is bad?” Not necessarily. It tries hard to be irreverent, fun and completely over the top. Yes, it’s mostly absurd, which is not your typical Star Trek formula. And you’ve got to be a Trekkie to really appreciate all the hidden references in plain sight.
This movie ends up being an absolute dumpster fire, but intentionally so (both figuratively and literally).
Mayhem with a Touch of Heart
In the middle of the mayhem highlighted by near-constant fighting, shaky camera work and fire spitting out of almost every orifice in the scenery, you can find a small core of Star Trek humanity still aglow. It takes the form of lost love and impossible redemption. This gives Yeoh her only opportunity to stretch her role a bit.
For a movie specifically built for her character, the script doesn’t really offer her enough and instead needs to focus on the new characters, especially due to all the twists in the plot.
Plus, the script requires the film to burn precious minutes with an opening Terran Empire flashback sequence featuring a younger Georgiou played by Miku Martineau.
A Guilty Pleasure
The final scene with our newly congealed team feels like any TV series’ pilot, and as Shatner’s Kirk liked to say, “There are always possibilities.”
Is this gritty, crazy but imperfectly lightweight “Star Trek: Section 31” good enough to stream?
Sure.
It’s a nice diversion… perhaps even a guilty pleasure. And it’s always great to watch the awesome Michelle Yeoh. And yes, I could get used to spending more time with the new characters, who thankfully became more likable by the end of the movie.
No Future for “Section 31?”
But is “Star Trek: Section 31” deserving of getting its own sequel ahead of the non-greenlit “Star Trek: Legacy” spinoff from “Star Trek: Picard?”
I’m not totally feeling it, and no sequel has been announced. But it doesn’t matter, because we’re all going to “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” soon enough with Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti.
Happily, next up is season 3 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”
Hit it.
(please)
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