REVIEW - Star Trek: Section 31

After what seems like forever since it was first announced as another new Star Trek series, Section 31 finally arrives as Trek’s first streaming TV movie. Indeed, it’s a first for the franchise in a number of ways: the first production not to focus on Starfleet characters; the first to be set in the “lost era” between the original cast movies and The Next Generation; and the first to be headed by an East Asian and non-Anglosphere lead.

It’s also not very good, which is pretty much the worldwide consensus on the film. Much of this stems from its origins as a series, which was scuppered by COVID and Michelle Yeoh’s status as one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. The reworking into a one-off film (ostensibly, the sequel hook is as clear as it is unlikely to lead to anything) shows what a hack job was needed to make it fit. With more room to breathe, and time to get to know the characters enough to actually give a shit about them, it may have worked a lot better.

Even accepting that, Star Trek: Section 31 is an inherently flawed production. It’s a real pity, as there is stuff to enjoy here, and frankly, the idea of a different sort of Star Trek is always welcome. While there are many, many fans who would be happy with TNG clones forever, the franchise has to move with the times and try new approaches, as the recent burst of new series has shown. For better or worse, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds and Prodigy have all delivered different takes on Star Trek, and while each has its flaws, they all succeed in different ways as well.

There’s room for all kinds of stories in the Trek universe, but one as cynical as this is a tough fit. I’ve long thought that a ragtag antihero gang, in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy or Farscape, could work well in Trek, but the critical point of those is that while flawed, the characters were essentially decent when the chips were down and had each others’ backs. Guardians and Farscape are both about criminals and dropouts from different backgrounds who are forced together by a common cause, and end up becoming a found family. What’s more, there’s a sense of optimism to their stories, which is essential to Star Trek and missing from Section 31.

But let’s consider the good parts, for there are plenty. Michelle Yeoh is a real leading lady who deserves her own show, with former-Emperor Philippa Georgiou succeeding in spite of being a fundamentally monstrous character thanks to Yeoh’s charisma. The obligatory gang of aliens from all manner of origins is done well, even if individually they don’t all work. Visually it’s stunning, with some of the most impressive battle and space scenes seen in the franchise. It even manages to be funny, occasionally, although not often enough.

One thing that’s really welcome is the lack of legacy characters in this story. Yeoh is the only actor to return from a previous production, this being her own Discovery spin-off. The only character to return from the old days is Rachel Garrett, who’s obscure enough that only the hardcore fans will mark her inclusion as noteworthy. While we have some familiar aliens, they’re from previously seldom seen races, or tweaked in interest ways. The only major elements being carried forward with little explanation are the Mirror Universe and the Empire, which are such basic sci-fi concepts that they barely need explaining.

Let’s look at the rest of the gang. The only one who, for me, works completely is Sam Richardson’s Quasi, the anxiety-ridden shapeshifter. We can buy the idea of an incredibly powerful being hamstrung by indecision thanks to his sympathetic performance, and he stands out thanks to being the only actually likeable character in the whole film. There’s no shortage of metamorphs in Trek, but making him a chameloid is a nice touch, calling back to one of the most memorable characters of the classic Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country without being a copy in any way.

I also found myself enjoying big cyborg guy Zeph, which surprised me, as his character is uninspired. Robert Kazinsky (born in my hometown only one year before me, fact fans, so no wonder he looked so familiar) plays him dumb-but-fun, which downplays the absurdly overpowered threat played by his mechanised suit. The big dumb mech is cliched sci-fi character but a new one for Trek, and the idea of someone suffering from mecha-dysmorphia, while thrown in as a joke, is worthy of exploration.

The other character I enjoyed was Fuzz, played by the very cute South African Sven Ruygrok, for reasons best known to himself, with an outrageous Irish accent. Fuzz is a whole bunch of fun ideas together: a microscopic alien intelligence with small-man syndrome, piloting an android body around, is a daft, Men In Black-esque idea that really works. Add to that severe emotional regulation problems, and then making the android a Vulcan, and you’ve got a wonderfully bizarre combination. Both Zeph and Fuzz have some of the best lines, which is to say, lines that were actually kind of funny, if only because they were sufficiently ridiculous. Frankly, the entire script could have done with being more stupid; it would have been a lot more fun.

As for the rest: Alok Sahar makes an OK male lead, with Omari Hardwick giving a decent enough performance with little to work with. The Augments are by now as tired a trope as the Mirror Universe, but being from the grimmer side of Trek had to have some kind of involvement here. There’s an added spin with Alok, though, in that he was originally an ordinary human and was augmented later by one of the Eugenics Wars despots. This, and his man-out-of-time nature, could have been explored and provided much needed depth; another thing doubtless lost to condensing this to a single sitting.

Humberly Gonzalez as the Deltan Melle does exactly what a Deltan needs to do: be incredibly hot and distracting. She might have had more to offer than that, but doesn’t get a chance. Finally, we have Kacey Rohl as Lt. Rachel Garrett, the solitary member of Starfleet along for the ride. Garrett seems like the real missed opportunity. A chance to flesh out the least-known captain of the Enterprise, she’s given next to no actual character, existing solely to have an officially moral character to chide the various criminals she has to work with. I can’t help but feel terribly sorry for Rohl, who seems to be a decent actor but has very little to work with here.

There’s potentially a good story to be told with this bunch of characters, but you won’t find it here. The first act has enough madcap action to at least be reasonably entertaining. Once they’re off the Baraam, Georgiou’s elaborate and impressive space station, and on their actual mission, there’s little to enjoy. There’s precious little to mark this out as Star Trek beyond the name and the surface trappings. It’s not that we can’t follow the dangerous and disreputable parts of the Trek galaxy – there’s enough of them, after all, and they’re often favourite characters. At the end of the day, though, something of Star Trek’s spirit always shone through even the grimmest tales of the past. All this can muster as an endorsement for Starfleet is that they don’t commit murder, and the best it has for a moral “there are no benevolent dictators.” Which, while distressingly topical, is a bit hollow coming from someone whose leadership style was best described as “gleefully genocidal maniac.”

This is wrapped up in a script with some of the most witless (and somehow already dated) dialogue ever, with a storyline involving a faceless villain with the most painfully obvious secret identity, which eventually devolves into the surviving characters standing around pointing out their own cliches to each other.

Yeoh pitched a Georgiou spin-off this to Alex Kurtzmann before Discovery was even broadcast, mainly because she reportedly loves playing her. You can see that in her performance on Discovery, even when the character isn’t written well. Throughout Section 31, though, she appears jaded and tired, and I can’t escape the feeling that this isn’t acting. You can’t blame her; Yeoh is absolutely wasted on this.