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Spoilers Section 31 General Discussion Thread

A Section 31 series. Yay or nay?

  • Yay, a Section 31 series!

    Votes: 80 40.0%
  • Nay, give us anything else instead!

    Votes: 120 60.0%

  • Total voters
    200
Look, I get it. Starting with DS9, Trek took the MU completely usuriously, treating it as some weirdo comic-book universe where somehow, the clones of the characters we know and love aren't just evil, but are also often huge powers in their own right. But DS9 never tried to pluck one of them out of their once a year excursions and making them a series regular.
No.

They just decided to retraumatize Sisko with Jennifer's death.
 
Discovery was about $10 million dollars an episode, it wasn't low budget.

The first season they pretty clearly blew a ton of money on the first two episodes, and then pulled way back on the budget for the rest of the season.

For example, look at how little on-location shooting there was. The show went to friggin Jordan for filming for a throwaway five-minute scene in the pilot, but after that? We had a scene from a Toronto library used in Lethe, one nice away mission in Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, and a brief foray to the gravel pit planet in The Wolf Inside, and a brief shot from Vaughn City Hall in the Season 1 finale. This is very different from Seasons 2/3, where most of the episodes had location shooting (it began to decline once they used the Volume for the last two seasons).

Not only did Season 1 have little location shooting, but it was constructed in such a way as to allow for sets to be reused repeatedly. Episode 3 took place partially on a twin ship to Discovery. The MU arc allowed them to reuse the Shenzhou set. The Klingon Ship of the Dead sets were also heavily reused across the first half of the season. But mostly, the crew just stuck to Discovery - so much so that people began remarking early in Season 1 when they'd actually leave the ship (reportedly Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum was forced on the showrunners by CBS, because they understood Trek fans wanted away missions).

I could also put casting here as an example where the show seemed to cut back money over time. The show all but stopped introducing new guest stars after six episodes (when Admiral Cornwell was introduced) with the remainder of the show just involving the characters already established or their MU alters. The number of extras is also notably thinner the later in the season you go. For example, the spore drive chamber in Episode 3 is full of crew, while by the time they hit the MU, we're explicitly told Tilly is the only person working under Stamets.

Again, all of this is just an issue for Season 1. The budget ramps up in every way starting with Season 2. But it's hard for me to re-watch Season 1 and not see all the ways they clearly were trying to reduce costs to salvage the season budget.
 
The first season they pretty clearly blew a ton of money on the first two episodes, and then pulled way back on the budget for the rest of the season.

However they spent it, it averaged out to roughly $10 million an episode. Did they spend wisely is a different conversation.
 
I'm actually pleased this is a movie now not a series.

It actually looks to be quite fun between all the action. I expected this to be as dark as DSC 1-3 and Picard 1-2, but it seems quite light hearted.

And while I think this will be self-contained, after all this is a vehicle for Michelle Yeoh, I hope that fans get some substance in the time setting - the Lost Era! With Garrett being as old/young as she is it seems this is *roughly* around the Tomed Incident, though I doubt it will play into the story. I wonder if we'll see contemporary Star Trek uniforms? Will we get namechecks for Spock/Uhura/Sulu/Chekov etc
 
his is *roughly* around the Tomed Incident
How do you figure that? Assuming Garrett is supposed to be the same age as the actresses playing her, which seems likely for reasons I'll elaborate on in a minute, than this movie will be set about a dozen years before the Enterprise C's destruction in 2344, so around 2332. This does seem plausible given in a recent interview, actress Kacey Rohle implied Garret's current rank in the movie is Commander. Anyway, the Tomed Incident was in 2311, twenty-one years prior to the likely date this movie takes place in.
 
This does seem plausible given in a recent interview, actress Kacey Rohle implied Garret's current rank in the movie is Commander.
I must've missed that interview. A Commander? Interesting. I wonder... if by the end of the film we'll see her promoted to Captain. Being as Garrett is the thing that actually got me interested in this film, I'd love to see her take command of The Enterprise.
 
I do think some in the very top levels of Starfleet must have known about Section 31. Maybe even approved of it. Help fund some of it but also clearly wanted to be kept in the dark on purpose. They don't want to know what Section 31 is doing most of the time. I am guessing so their existence wouldn't taint the Federation's credibility.
Admiral Ross knew about them. They have moles within the organization as Bashir was able to trick Sloan to coming to the station by sending a false report to Starfleet Medical.

Sloan was able to pose as a Fleet Captain, and as whoever he was in 'Inter Arma', so they're well organized

And there this Exchange from "Inter Arma" as well

SISKO: That was my instinct as well, but after talking to Ross I think we might have an opportunity here we can turn to our advantage. Officially, Starfleet Command has said that they are appalled at the very notion that an organisation like Section Thirty one might exist, and that they plan to get to the bottom of this entire business.
BASHIR: And unofficially?
SISKO: They have quietly pushed the investigation aside, which means either they don't take Section Thirty one seriously or someone at Starfleet Command is protecting them. Either way, we now have a chance to get someone inside and I think I want to take it.
 
I wonder if Section 31 is just unofficially part of Starfleet Intelligence. They do stuff that even they can't do because they understand that Federation folks might be okay with things like spying on potential enemies of the Federation for security reasons they would not be okay knowing they were doing political assignations and creating a virus that will in essence cause genocide on the Founders.
 
I must've missed that interview. A Commander?
It's this interview posted earlier in this thread:
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Though after rewatching it, it's possible I could be reading too deeply into things. Around the 9:10 point, Omari Hardwick refers to Kacey Rohl as a "Starfleet Commander" which may just be casual talk and not anything definitive.

Still, it not completely unreasonable that Garrett was a Commander a dozen years prior to Yesterday's Enterprise. Presumably she'd already spent at least a few years commanding the Enterprise C plus she'd likely have commanded at least one other ship prior to that.
 
I will admit to appreciating that the computer consoles on the Section 31 ship do bear a resemblance to previous consoles we've seen of the era. They got the blue/green colour combo correct. Genuinely can't wait to see some more technology from the "Lost Era."
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It would be great if we got a cool ship out of it.
Presumably, this is their primary ship.
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Which makes sense. If I was running some covert operation, I wouldn't be flying my dudes around in some 400m long Starship, painted jet black, that just screams "I'm a Section 31 ship."

I'd be in the ship that looks like the 24th century equivalent of a garbage truck. Which this thing certainly looks like.

So while I definitely hope to see some early 24th century Starfleet ships, I do like what little we've seen so far.
 
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