Words – Ryan Parish & Mat Lovell
This isn’t a sponsored post.
Geeky Brummie were invited to the press screening by the Paramount Plus UK. but covered their own travel costs.
Airing January 24th 2025, on Paramount Plus, Star Trek: Section 31 is a fun romp in the Star Trek Universe, but hampered by production hell.
Star Trek: Section 31 is a made-for-TV film Set in the franchise’s “lost era” between Star Trek: The Original Series films and Star Trek: The Next Generation. It sees Michelle Yeoh reprise her role as Emperor Phillipa Georgiou as she joins the titular Section 31 to save the galaxy—but to do so, she must face the sins of her past.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny, both of whom worked on Star Trek: Discovery. It was originally envisioned as a full series, but due to the pandemic and then filming commitments, it’s been transformed into a 90 minute movie exclusively for Paramount Plus.
Section 31 Cast
Yeoh features alongside a strong supporting cast including Omari Hardwick as Alok Sahar, Sam Richardson as Quasi , Sven Ruygrok as Vulcan (or something else?) Fuzz, Robert Kazinsky as mech enhanced Zeph, Humberly González as Deltan Melle and Kacey Rohl as a much younger Rachel Garrett – the future captain of the USS Enterprise-C.
Less explored Trek
Section 31 is a stylish space romp which does an admirable job of showing a less explored side of a loved character and the world outside of the federation while still retaining that feel of modern era trek (for good or bad depending on personal preference). Think of a more dark-humoured Lower Decks or Brave New Worlds with a plethora of action set pieces. Saying this, however, you don’t have to have watched Star Trek: Discovery, or anything else, to watch the film, but it’s useful to have context to how Georgiou has ended up here.
Yeoh is as brilliant as ever as Georgiou, bringing complexity to the character as we see her both as a ruthless tyrant and vulnerable anti-hero.
Echoes of other franchises
Either by design or by happenstance, Section 31 invokes several other sci-fi franchises. Its premise of a Macguffin hunt, to stop a sector-size catastrophe with a rag-tag bunch of loveable misfits chimes with James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series and The Suicide Squad, while scenes set in Georgiou’s club-come-spacestation (and hideout) had us panging with nostalgia for “The Diva Dance” in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. or the heady feeling of your first visit to Aria T’Loak’s Afterlife in Mass Effect.
Tonal Shifts & Lost Opportunities
One thing which is common in the film is a few jarring tonal shifts, especially the transitions between the terran empire scenes and the present time setting. This feels mainly down to a lot of pacing due to what is ostensibly a full series cut to 90 minutes. It’s a shame as going into the cut seems a significant portion of the character development with only Omari Hardwick’s Alok afforded some screen time as the leader of this band of merry misfits. this lessens the impact of some on screen deaths as we lost the opportunity to bond with the characters before having to say goodbye properly.
Cast
The cast however, seem to have bonded well and there is some engaging banter between them all, though some references may date quickly. Rob Kazinksy (no stranger to a Sci-Fi and fantasy franchises with previous work on Pacific Rim, Warcraft and Mass Effect: Andromeda particularly enjoying being along for the ride. Sven Ruygrok engages Warp Factor Ham, with lots of exaggeration to give an outlandish flamboyancy to Fuzz. We’d like to have seen Sam Richardson and Kacey Rohl more as just not enough time was spent with them before the film’s finale to really engage.
Conclusion
If you don’t think about too much of what opportunity was missed in the making of Section 31, you’ll get a fun 90 minutes of Michelle Yeoh and friends. It’s a high octane experience with brilliant action sequences, set pieces and beautiful visuals without missing a beat, the runtime means some story beats lack the emotion or gravity they deserve
We both felt it could have had at least another half an hour of character development weaved back in to help with the set up of some beats later on, but if you’re a fan of the modern era of trek, you’ll more than likely enjoy this..
Section 31 Q&A
Post screening we got the chance to hear from Michelle Yeoh, and Robert Kazinsky. Rob gave us insight to behind the scenes and what Section 31 meant for him, and for Michelle, the opportunity to return to the franchise.
Michelle on returning as Georgiou, and her as a person when we meet her:
You’re on your own. It’s like survival mode. But while she was in Discovery, she met Michael Burnham, she met the rest of the crew there and she discovered that humanity. And this journey for her is really about Redemption. And do we really get a second chance and when you are given a second chance, Can you really take it?
We see quite an accepting version of the Emperor in this [compared to] Discovery. There’s still the massive badass side but [she’s] very happy to own the vulnerability and the character in this film. I think that’s what I love about this character right from the beginning.
When I was given the opportunity to play the beloved Captain Phillipa she was a really good mentor, leader, and compassionate, but still tough. Then you meet someone like [Emperor Georgiou], who was so entitled with so much self belief – there was so much fun in playing that character as well.
But at the end of the day it was so lovely that the ones who disapproved of her turned around and wanted her to be better.
Rob on first arriving on set of Section 31
I’ve never had instant chemistry and camaraderie with the whole cast and crew that quickly. I mean, it was something else when we walked onto that set, and it was like family immediately. [Star Trek] brings people together and when did you step into that [you become] family. We’re there for each other and we protect the legacy and we know there there are so many of you out there that love what we are doing and you make us better and we love you as much as you love us.
It’s a very different kind of atmosphere because you know you’re walking on very solid ground but at the same time as storytellers, we also have to try and tell a story in a different kind of way and to […] make it evolve, […] and see something else, something different and something new. And that’s what stories we tell. Tell us to do otherwise, you’d be so bored.
I’ve been disappointed. I mean and I’m one of you guys, you know what I mean? And then to go into a set and have exactly what Michelle was talking about there. That I’ve never it was just such a you know, you don’t want to be your Heroes because what if they do suck and, I’ve been like crushed but it was honest to God, the best experience with the best (people).
Rob on Section 31 and the future:
I was asked kind of asked this question about what made Star Trek, such an enduring thing for people and I was asked this earlier and I came up with something off the cuff, but I’m going to try and repeat it even though it’s not spontaneous now, but It’s it’s feeling quite prevalent to me at the moment. The way the world is, you know, we’re living in a post-truth world. We’re living with the truth. Is, whoever says it first whoever says it now, doesn’t whoever says it most and, you know, there’s that famous girl’s quote, if you repeat a lie enough times, eventually it becomes the truth.
We’re living in a time where our societies and the systems that we’ve relied on are failing us. Capitalism is eating us. We’re falling to global unrest, and we’re feeling very lost and unmoored. But, what Starfleet and Star Trek presents us with is a time where we’ve got past that where and to quote Picard, as I did earlier. “The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth, historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based.”. I know my s***. And that is the guiding fundamental principle upon Starfleet and therefore Star Trek is founded and what it presents us is this too shall pass this moment in time where we are so torn, Why wouldn’t you want to escape to that world?
That’s saying, hey, we’re gonna gonna be all right? And we’re gonna be all right, to such a degree. That we will never need a Section 31 again. We will never need these kind of things where we are living better and kinder. And if you can’t get behind that and if you don’t want to spend your days in that, I don’t know.
I don’t know, man. For Section 31, we need Starfleet, and for Starfleet to exist, you need Section 31.
The Sisko quote of, “It’s easy to be a saint in paradise”, he was referring to the Maquis and about how the key don’t have the luxury of living the way that they do in the Federation, that safety. I think Section 31 is the most interesting thing in the world. It’s not just because I’m being paid to say it. But we are in a world really a universe where there’s the Dominion, where there’s the Romulans, where there’s, you know, the Klingons, where there’s all of these things who don’t live by the ethos of the Federation.
They don’t embrace those same things. We’re dealing with people that have gone in different directions politically and different machinations and the Terran Empire and all of these things. And you cannot have a society that isn’t prepared for those. It is wonderful that the people in the Federation get to live like that idealistic way, but to keep them safe, there has to be people on the frontier ensuring that they can stay safe. Now, [this is] where Section 31 steps in . I mean in every show that has ever been is when it starts to affect the Federation and the way the Federation runs itself, is actually it’s not where Section 31 should be, they should be on the frontier, keeping the people safe.
And that’s what I think is so interesting to play with and what’s going to become so fascinating. If Section 31 goes on to be many more movies… I’ll show up.
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