With Star Trek: Section 31 available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription, one of the franchise’s most controversial additions has again reared its head. There have been conversations about whether Section 31 was an affront to Gene Roddenberry’s vision for Starfleet since Deep Space Nine and EP Alex Kurtzman and director Olutande Osunsanmi assured CinemaBlend they did their best to ensure they didn’t help the argument it doesn’t have a place.
While critics haven’t been kind in their reviews of Star Trek: Section 31, there’s been far more criticism of other parts of the movie rather than how the shadow ops sector of Starfleet was portrayed. Kurtzman explained to me why the team stayed away from doing a darker storyline like some might’ve expected, and how he felt Section 31 is justified within the utopian ideals of the universe:
Obviously, there’s a lot of conversation among fans about Section 31 and what it means in the Trek universe and is it a violation of Roddenberry’s vision or not. Part of our choice about the tone had to do with exactly that question. Because I think if we had done a dark, dark, dark Star Trek story that was just purely dark, people would have felt like that doesn’t really feel like Star Trek. And yet the thing that we kept anchoring back to that was so important to us is this idea that Starfleet acts by a certain charter. It operates within Federation space. It operates according to very specific rules, and those rules really cannot be broken. There are certain problems that cannot be solved by those rules, and that’s what Section 31 is for. Section 31 exists so that Starfleet can keep its nose clean.
One thing that wasn’t up for debate was Section 31 being a part of the plot, given that Star Trek: Discovery tied the organization so closely to Michelle Yeoh‘s Philippa Georgiou. The movie was originally envisioned as a series, but when Yeoh won an Oscar, plans shifted to better accommodate her busy schedule in Hollywood.
A movie made it harder to explicitly outline the ways that Star Trek: Section 31 adventure didn’t violate Starfleet protocol, but Alex Kurtzman assured that the evidence is there. He talked about the early point made at the start of the film, and walking the fine line between new storytelling and keeping it all within what the franchise is:
It was also really important to us, as we say at the beginning of the film, to say that this movie does not take place in Federation space. They are acting outside of Federation space to solve a problem that could make its way into Federation space right in the same way that the CIA’s charter is to operate outside of the United States so that we can be what we are. That felt like the way to tell the story and it was important to us to front-load that so that if you are a Star Trek fan and you love what you love, what we all love about Star Trek, you understand, OK, we’re actually deliberately doing something kind of different here. But ultimately, it has to go back to Roddenberry’s essential vision of optimism. To me, that’s what Star Trek is about, and we definitely reinforced that by the end of the film. I think the tone allows us to keep reinforcing it and to keep telling you. Don’t worry; we’re anchoring back to the thing you love too.
Star Trek: Section 31 set the stage for a sequel, and while the reviews haven’t been glowing, the fact that Michelle Yeoh is committed to continue playing Philippa Georgiou may convince Paramount+ to greenlight another installment in between the other upcoming Trek projects. There’s been no word on whether a sequel will happen or not as of writing, but it will be interesting to see if another movie could polish some of the issues viewers had with this movie. Lest fans forget, we had to get Star Trek: The Motion Picture before The Wrath Of Khan.
While waiting on sequel news, Star Trek fans will enjoy the return of Strange New Worlds later this year. There’s also a theatrical film said to be an origin story in the works, but Alex Kurtzman told CinemaBlend he’s not involved in what’s happening in Trek on the theatrical side. Here’s hoping we’ll get more information on that movie before the year’s end, and maybe even a trailer to get excited about.
As mentioned, Star Trek: Section 31 is over on Paramount+. I think it’s worth a watch for anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, and I certainly think there have been worse movies in the franchise. Readers can check it out and decide for themselves what they think.