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Star Trek: Section 31 Is Organized Chaos

For Star Trek, Starfleet was not and is not a military organization. Its main mission in exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations was to bring alignment and expansion through diplomatic means. Star Trek: Section 31, premiering on Paramount Plus potentially expands on why governmental organizations need people willing to get their hands dirty to protect a fractured peace. Then again, the Olatunde Osunsanmi-directed streaming film plays best as organized chaos.

During its time on television and then again on streaming, the Star Trek franchise has dealt with the less savory elements of societal pressures with indirect, subversive means. Starfleet itself cannot get its hands dirty, similar to some historical events unfolded in our history; hence organizations like the CIA, MI: 5, Mossad, or even the KGB thrived while the news covered their exploits. In television parlance, stories from these exploits would make their way to salivating audiences just waiting to see what Jim Phelps and his “Mission: Impossible” team might face each week.

Serving as the fourteenth movie in the franchise, Star Trek: Section 31 is a story with well-defined, if not completely-off-their rockers, supporting characters, led by Academy Award-winning Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) reprising her Philippa Georgiou role from Paramount Plus’s Star Trek: Discovery television series. Joining Yeoh is Section 31 agent Alok (Omari Hardwick), Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl, The Killing, Hannibal the television series), the Chameloid, Quasi (Sam Richardson, Veep, Detroiters), Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), Zeph (Robert Kazinsky, EastEnders, Warcraft, True Blood) and Melle (Humberly Gonzalez).

Star Trek: Section 31
L to R Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Omari Hardwick as Alok in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

For someone who was only peripherally aware of Philippa Georgiou, Craig Sweeny’s (Star Trek: Discovery, The 4400) script serves as an unremarkable entry point for a variety of elements that were either carried over from NuTrek (Star Trek: Discovery) and that which was created by Gene Roddenberry’s richer universe of ideas he gave rise to. Sweeny gives far too much credit to the stylized Mission: Impossible references that pervade the story while focusing on a theme of convergence of sins perpetrated by Georgiou.

For audience members unfamiliar with Philippa Georgiou, Star Trek: Section 31 serves as a starting point for the character, Yeoh’s slinky performance as the character is stunning. Osunsanmi’s direction is fast-paced and nearly electric, moving fluidly throughout the 100-minute run time. Thankfully, Star Trek: Section 31 is the shortest movie in the long-running franchise.

The story takes barely enough breaths to get to know the supporting cast and their idiosyncrasies. Unlike “Encounter at Farpoint,” “Emissary,” “Caretaker” and, “Broken Bow” would introduce audiences to the environs that would serve The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and, Enterprise, respectively, Star Trek: Section 31 is more character-driven than the majesty behind the times those earlier characters would live in. These comparisons exist because those series’ premiere episodes were also feature-length introductions to new worlds. Star Trek: Section 31 feels frigidly standalone in that it serves as a bridge between two universes, NuTrek, and Classic Trek, primarily focusing on moving a singular character’s journey forward. Star Trek: Section 31 is more personal. Anecdotally, Yeoh had campaigned for a spin-off for the character vehicle before Discovery’s launch on Paramount Plus, and Star Trek: Section 31 was sidelined, but not dead. As it was resurrected in its current incarnation, time was not kind enough for this project.

The one strength in Star Trek: Section 31 is the chemistry between Yeoh and Grammy Award-winning, Omari Hardwick’s (Power) Alok. Their relationship is fractious at best, but when they both fire on all cylinders, Star Trek: Section 31 hits. For now, the tension between them keeps the characters moving forward, as Sweeny points the story toward a who-done-it mystery and why. From that perspective, the story seems like old hat and does not break new ground.

Star Trek: Section 31
L to R Omari Hardwick as Alok, Sam Richardson as Quasi and Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

As introductory supporting characters, Melle, Zeph, Fuzz, Quasi, and even Rachel spend most of their time together quarreling rather than providing solutions, a byproduct of Star Trek being on a mission clock. Though they are full of humanistic idiosyncrasies that drive modern society today, seeking self-enlightenment for the better of all, this isn’t what Star Trek started as. The most important aspect of each of the new characters is their confidence in the mission, with one of the characters cheekily remarking, “this is organized chaos.” Star Trek: Section 31 subverts its subversive source material, stemming from its earliest inception when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced the Section 31 concept. Star Trek: Section 31 brings that subversion into the open as a flash in the pan form of “organized chaos.” It does not work.

Star Trek: Section 31
L to R Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Omari Hardwick as Alok in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

There is one, rather major issue with Star Trek: Section 31, something that Star Trek cannot move away from: the submarine-like warfare mixed with the obscurity evoking excitement as warring craft play cat-and-mouse upon one another; this concept served Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan brilliantly 43 years ago. Unfortunately, Sweeny layers that old dog with not-so-new tricks, making the statement piece less effective; it moves swiftly with all the characters having something to do. However, its recycled feeling is cliched. The Mission: Impossible themes overlaying Star Trek don’t work either. It is more stylistic for Star Trek than it needs to be.

Star Trek: Section 31 has elements that are shoehorned in from Trek’s “prime timeline” while appealing to a new generation of Trekkies. As someone who was put off by JJ Abrams’ features, and has actively avoided NuTrek, including Picard, Star Trek: Section 31’s strengths lie in Michelle Yeoh’s performance and the tension between her and Omari Hardwick’s characters. It struggles in its teases at possibilities that the alternate timelines can bridge new life into Trek while playing into cliched and tired statement pieces with an overreliance on the espionage style.

Written by Ben Cahlamer

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