I doubt its section 31. Why would a secret organization advertise themselves like that? Its like the illuminati who dont want anyone knowing they control the whole world and dont want anyone to know it, but they apparantly leave calling cards everywhere.
From what i know Section 31 is black ops. A section of Starfleet Intelligence. They do the covert nasty stuff. They don't go around flashing badges or letting people know who they are. Complete secrecy on their part. Those with the black badges might be Starfleet Security special forces or something. They guard top secret facilities. They are more overt. A Federation version of Russian OMON or French Gendarmes.
Section 31 is in no way a legitimate organization. It has no authorization, no authority, no allegiance to anyone except itself. It's no better than terrorists, really. Section 31 is not a part of Starfleet Intelligence; it's a rival to it.
Fine . Maybe those black badges could be special forces of either Starfleet Intelligence or Starfleet Security then.
Perhaps they're there in case one of Discovery's "black alert" spore jumps manifests a giant monster, as happened on the USS Glenn.
Troopers who don't want to give away their position to say the Klingons with their highly reflective metal badges?
My first thought was that the black badges could be what is worn over the top of the body armour. That being said, it is implied that this particular badge is new or unfamiliar, so who knows. Same reason why they would have their own uniform!
I suspect that starfleet had no need for MACOs from the end of the Romulan war until this 2250s war with the Klingons, where discovery paves the way. In the Kelvin timeline this war didn't happen, thus still no need for them, and no Colonel West. Were those minions ever confirmed not to be holodeck characters? Either way the uniforms could just be the equivelent of a lounge suit. Perhaps they got the idea from watching "keeping up with the Cardassians"
*than. Therefore = Not Canon Also, not how nondescript they are. They don't signal any specific affiliation, let alone broadcast Starfleet. ...And how they do shout gestapo. Are these really the people we actually want more of?
They have Starfleet personnel and academy cadets serving on the Discovery, not a handful of handpicked, highly intelligent operatives like S31 is supposed to be. I hardly imagine you'd have Saru or Tilly mingling with S31 in the open. Only in Into Darkness have we seen them as a big and open operation with giant ships and Starfleet admirals on board.
Pretty sure we are dealing with temporal cold war black ops soldiers, activated by 34nd century Starfleet. The mushroom drive was installed by Daniels in order to support Starfleet during the Klingon War, which was accidentally started by mirror universe Burnham.
Well they are part of Starfleet and at this time and maybe this universe if you believe the rumors of the show being in a alternate universe that Section 31's existence is not so secret. It's seen as just another branch of Starfleet that people don't know what is really going on behind closed doors. I think we might need to start looking at "DIscovery" in terms of basically being a flying version of Area 51. Black badges could be almost be seen as a key card in showing who is able to go to certain area's of the ship or who is privy to different levels of information. Regular starfleet most likely doesn't have the same access as Section 31 members might unless Lorca allows it. Jason
Well we don't know for sure those prisoners were sent back to prison. The shuttle taking them back could have easily had a "accident" where they all died. Also it's possible they had their memories erased. Jason
When the prison shuttle departs the ship, Saru's spines pop out. I guess we are supposed to think he is sensing three approaching deaths... For all we know, the black badges are for cons, and Lorca has a 30% criminal crew to keep his ops more secret. The black badge was spotted on a random security goon, after all, and getting those from prisons would be simpler than getting Burnham-caliber material. Timo Saloniemi
Well, sort of - all we know is that others believed Sloan - such as Ross. Sloan was good at getting others to go along with him (even Bashir). But what we can't be sure of is whether section 31 actually exists in the manner he said it did, at least until ENT came along and couldn't resist using every single 'cool' thing from the earlier series.