When the prisoners are being brought aboard Discovery in ep 3, they mention the black comm badges (and we see a few). Any guess as to what those mean?
Then why doesn't Lorca have one? And even so, it would be extremely sloppy for Section 31 operatives to openly put evidence of it on their uniforms. It's supposed to be a secret and borderline-illegal organization, after all.
I don't think it's an enlisted vs. officer thing. We've already seen enlisted types on the show, haven't we? Cadets such as Tilly do have a different badge, but it's not all black. Perhaps this is the return of the little known (and less understood) Starfleet Marine Corps?
Todays military has several levels of "law enforcement", some are just regular MP types and others are more black ops or fast responder units. Black badges could be anything.
Likely Starfleet Black Ops. They're doing a hell of a job considering how easy Burnham broke into the grow room.
Yep, it totally makes sense for a super secret organisation that no one is supposed to know of to have a clear way to visually identify its agents. I mean it still can be the case, but it would be hella stupid. It is also funny how the prisoners are saying that they've not seen black SF badges even though Michael has been wearing one the whole time she's been with them...
I think it's Section 31 but it's possible that not everyone on the ship is Section 31 and many were drafted like Burnham and the spore guy. I also think the only ones who might know about Section 31 is Lorca and security though i'm not sure Lorca himself is section 31. Perhaps Starfleet high command and Section 31 are working together in secret and Lorca is regular starfleet who was put in charge to make whatever plan they have come together. Jason
Not the same type of badge. She was in a prison jumper that marked her as a prisoner. Hers was part of the Jumper. They were active duty and had an actual badge, just like other crew, but black. Also In this era, we do not know much about section 31. They have always had their own resources. Why not their own badges?
Maybe the black badges is just starfleet intelligence? Or some kind of 23rd century equivalent of a private military contractors? Enlisted guns for hire? I doubt they bring Section 31 into play. Maybe they are pulling the strings in the background, but it has become convenient to blame every shady operation on 31, with Into Darkness being the low point. Remember when evil flag officers used to be just evil flag officers?
Originally S31 was just rogue element, a secret society. As stupid as that was, it isn't quite a stupid as some sort of Starfleet Gestapo it became in Kelvinverse and apparently in the heads of many fans.
In the 24th century. It could also be an assignment based one. To let folks on ship know they are to be obeyed. No, in the 24th they were called "rogue" even though later on it was clear the higher ups in starfleet knew of them. They have been established as starfleets black ops unit.
"That's right, Dougal. You see, ordinary shops sell what look like black socks, but if you look closely, you'll see that they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue" "That's true. I thought my Uncle Tommy was wearing black socks, but when I looked at them closely, they were just very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue"
Well, no, they've been established as an illegal organization, bordering on terrorism. Starfleet does have black ops, but that's why they have Starfleet Intelligence. If SI can't do it, it doesn't deserve to get done.
Going way back to DS9 season 7, I loved how they led us to believe that it could all have been an element of Sloan's twisted mind. To be honest, I always pictured Sloan as some sort of crazy Bond villain (which would thematically fit with Julian being his antagonist) with lots of connections and money, but not neccessarily the head of a secret Federation/Starfleet operation. Maybe he believed to work for the Federation, but in reality it was just a way to justify his actions. Starfleet's upper echelons knew about him, just letting him do his thing. Maybe he was even trained by Starfleet, then went rogue (or kind of rogue, as they seemed to tolerate what he was doing). I simply preferred to think that "Section 31" was just another layer of lies to cover up his true motives and affiliation. And then Enterprise made it pretty clear that Section 31 was indeed a thing, de-mystifying Sloan and those DS9 episodes. STID just picked up on that, so I cannot even blame them. Everybody went crazy for the idea, 31 popped up everywhere. Yet it would have been so much cooler if, ultimately, we found out that there was no 31 to begin with.