Star Trek: Section 31 Review: Badly Goes Where Everyone Has Gone Before

Anyone worried that Star Trek: Section 31 would completely undermine the central ethos of Star Trek as a franchise has those fears confirmed within the first 10 minutes of the movie. Section 31 opens in the Mirror Universe, where we see a teenaged Phillipa Georgiou (portrayed here by Miku Martineau) give an arch, sub-Game of […]

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Anyone worried that Star Trek: Section 31 would completely undermine the central ethos of Star Trek as a franchise has those fears confirmed within the first 10 minutes of the movie.

Section 31 opens in the Mirror Universe, where we see a teenaged Phillipa Georgiou (portrayed here by Miku Martineau) give an arch, sub-Game of Thrones monologue before committing an atrocity, the final step in securing her role as Terran Emperor. The scenes of course lack any of the hope and optimism that define Trek, the belief in fundamental good of collaboration and understanding that the Mirror Universe (and Section 31 for that matter) was designed to underscore.

But when Section 31 shifts to the movie’s present, something unexpected happens. Section 31 becomes so boring and ugly that it no longer can be seen as bad Star Trek. Heck, it can’t even be called bad sci-fi or bad genre work. It seems to have no interest or understanding in doing any of them well.

Section 31 catches up with Georgiou after she left the 32nd century in the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery. As those who watched Discovery will recall, Georgiou was an evil double of Michael Burnham’s beloved late Captain. Even though her vicious tendencies led to her joining Starfleet’s black ops division Section 31, she remained a regular visitor on the Discovery and even traveled with the ship into the far future, until she was forced to return to the past.

Section 31 reveals that Georgiou has been living on the edges of Federation space, operating a disreputable bar under a pseudonym. She’s pulled back into service when a Section 31 team under the command of augment Alok (Omari Hardwick) needs her help to find an incredibly destructive weapon. Rounding out the team is Vulcan (sort of, but I won’t give that away here) Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), the shapeshifting Quasi (Sam Richardson), the Deltan Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), a mech-suited warrior called Zeph (Robert Kazinsky), and human and Starfleet true believer Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl).

As that cast list shows, Section 31 is fond of making references to Trek lore. Garrett, of course, will become the Captain of the Enterprise-C and a major character in the beloved Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Quasi is a Chameloid, a member of the alien race played by Iman in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Alok’s augments tie him to the Eugenics War and Trek big bad Khan Noonien Singh.

But these references only serve as surface level easter eggs, which makes Section 31 more like a game of Fortnite with Star Trek skins than a feature-length continuation of the beloved franchise. In fact, Section 31 seems to pull most of its visual inspiration from video games, with shiny graphics and ostentatious camera movements. After the Mirror Universe prologue, we’re treated to a mission summary delivered directly to the audience, as if we’re players getting ready for the next level.

To those without much investment in Star Trek, the video game analogy may not sound so bad. After all, we’ve had some really great video game adaptations lately, with Fallout and The Last of Us. But Section 31 feels more like last year’s doomed Borderlands movie, done so much worse.

Yes, you read that right. All of the