Spoilers STAR TREK: SECTION 31 - Grading & Discussion

[Tosk]

It's just like Guardians of the Galaxy, except the writing is bland shit and the directing is fucking atrocious.

I was sometimes bored, sometimes annoyed, and frequently both at once.
It's desperate to be stylish, but has no identity of its own, only worn-out and overused moves from elsewhere. The flourishes have all been seen before, and are absolutely done to death here. The unmotivated zooms (both in and out) were the JJ-flares of Section 31. So much of the directing and editing choices seem to have nothing to them beyond, "Is this cool?" (No) and are done so often that even if they were cool they would outstay their welcome.

Instead of fast-paced fun, it's just flat and empty. Any vaguely interesting ideas are dropped moments later. The "banter" is pure tedium. The never-ending "fancy" transitions are nothing but the old star-wipe cliche writ large.

My attempt to not judge it as Trek (a kind but ultimately pointless gesture) helped not a jot, as the direction and writing weren't remotely good enough to make the endeavor enjoyable beyond a few scant moments.

And good god, the flame-pots are back?!
One joke about the name Godsend is plenty. And almost amusing. So let's just run that shit into the ground!

Just when I thought the worst was behind me, we get the Three Weeks Later coda, an absolute torrent of dogshit dialogue.


I'm not actually angry, just disappointed. (And bewildered.)
I can only hope my disdain for it is partly a product of first viewing. I would love to think that subsequent watches might give me a more temperate opinion of it, except I can't imagine ever watching it again. Not beyond skipping through it or jumping to a moment to refresh my memory while discussing it with my peers, all you nice people.

 

[CommanderTrip]

Havent watched it yet, but plan to later today. From the buzz I have seen/heard, seems to be an OK sci fi action flick with a Star Trek sticker or two sprinkled about. If that's the case, I'll be a little disappointed as this is the quality of product that I was anticipating, but it is what it is.

 

[I am not Spock]

i mean as far as pilots go, it was better than Encounter at Farpoint. Thats what this essentially felt like . A TV pilot

 

[Romulan_spy]

That’s too limiting

How is it too limiting? We've literally had hundreds of Trek episodes across multiple TV shows and movies exploring every theme imaginable like racism, life, death, immortality, godhood, poverty, gender identity, slavery, unity, peace, war, religion, prime directive, sentience, what is means to be human, sexuality, etc... The themes of Trek are limitless. The whole idea is that the spaceships and weird aliens are just a writing vehicle for telling any story you want, exploring any philosophical idea you want.

 

[Citiprime]

This was awful.

I went in with low expectations based on the trailers and still thought it was bad when the bar was already in Hell. I just think it's a huge waste. They've been floating the idea for some form of a Section 31 show or movie since season 2 or 3 of Discovery. It would be one thing if this were rushed into production with no time to work on a script. But they've had the better part of 4 to 5 years to refine this concept.

And this is what they have to show for it?

From a story perspective, Section 31 is just totally misunderstood in this. In fact, I would argue that every writer since DS9 and ENT have not understood what Section 31 is and how to use them to create a story. Section 31 is not a CIA black ops team working "off the books." They're meant to be this dark sin in Starfleet's past that works independent of the Federation, claiming to be its protector, but in reality is basically a terrorist network that commits war crimes in the name of defending everything decent about the Star Trek universe. The tension of that is a means to give the characters and institutions, which Roddenberry had set up as quasi-Utopian by the 24th century, some degree of doubt about everything they've believed in (since they don't know what's true about Federation history and what happened in a secret history they didn't believe was possible in their Utopia).

But Section 31 also represents a choice. They can either stay true to their principles, or collaborate with them "for the greater good." By making Section 31 just Starfleet-adjacent, where Rachel Garrett is a Starfleet Lt. the Federation has keeping tabs on them, it robs the entire concept of that edge.

I think the tone for this is all wrong. When I first saw the trailers, I immediately got they were trying for an action/rag-tag group vibe. But I always thought the material should have been more Captain America: Winter Soldier than Guardians of the Galaxy. And this gets into some of my struggles with Strange New Worlds. There are points in this where it feels like they almost want to break the fourth wall. The quips are sometimes meant as in-jokes with the audience, and a look at us making fun of ourselves to the point that we know how stupid this sounds. And Strange New Worlds does that sometimes too (imo to its detriment). Where they're almost winking at you, and I think it's totally wrong for this.

I sometimes felt like I was watching the 1960s Adam West Batman series where everything is over the top. I mean no one talks like this. Some of Georgiou's banter would be right at home with Eartha Kitt purring her lines as Catwoman.

 

[Forsythe]

I could be wrong, but I feel like I got a small seasons worth of the usual quest to get the thing that does the thing, inside of 90 minutes as a proof of concept. I won't get into spoiler specifics.
Clunky exposition, and some cliched last minute character turns. Again with the universe ending/changing consequences. I saw a cast that was well suited to do something infinitely more interesting than this.
I thought the opening showed promise, and became a mildly OK bog standard romp from there.
In a giant blank canvas on which to paint, it's baffling that they would choose to produce something as clunky and sub mediocre as this. Wasted potential, IMO.

 

[Roald]

I actually liked it..! Thought the humour worked well, and I felt there was a lot more depth beneath the surface involving themes such as redemption. I loved the characters, and would I want to see more if this were the pilot for a season.? Hell yeah..!

 

[Yistaan]

Am I the only one that thought that Guardians of the Galaxy was a terrible movie? Yes it was financially successful but the storyline was trash and Yondu had no signs of genuine remorse or redemption the way Mirror Georgiou did here.

As for everyone saying this wasn't the spirit of Star Trek or whatever, I wonder if they remember that Assignment Earth was supposed to be a cliche spy spinoff of the original Star Trek way back in the 1960s. Basically, if Gene Roddenberry had the money and visual effects back in the day to make a spy spinoff like Section 31, chances are high he would've done it (especially now as the aspect of the original DS9 concept of Section 31 being genocidal terrorists who commit atrocities to protect the Federation has now been watered down into being a generic Bond/Mission Impossible style spy agency).

 

[The Wormhole]

wonder if they remember that Assignment Earth was supposed to be a cliche spy spinoff of the original Star Trek way back in the 1960s.

Assignment Earth wasn't really meant to be a Star Trek spin-off, it would have been its own original series. When it didn't go through, the pilot episode was rewritten to insert the Enterprise and its crew and it was turned into a Star Trek script instead. Which is why Kirk and Spock have support roles in the episode and Gary Seven is the central character.

 

[El Maestro]

How is it too limiting? We've literally had hundreds of Trek episodes across multiple TV shows and movies exploring every theme imaginable like racism, life, death, immortality, godhood, poverty, gender identity, slavery, unity, peace, war, religion, prime directive, sentience, what is means to be human, sexuality, etc... The themes of Trek are limitless. The whole idea is that the spaceships and weird aliens are just a writing vehicle for telling any story you want, exploring any philosophical idea you want.

You are exactly right. I do not understand the TBBS memetics that seem to have collectively decided that the franchise can't adhere to its *core identity* of being an adventure show set in space that has the ability to tell a huge variety of stories. It would appeal to the widest audience possible! We know this because it has happened before! This is why every time we get a Trek show that has some kind of imposed concept limitation the audience for it shrinks. Most TBBS posts these days about where the franchise should go seem to be a variation on "we must explore this one very narrow time period/place/thing" that would never draw what passes for a mass audience these days.

I don't know if you listen to the Greatest Generation podcast but one thing they say a lot is that "Star Trek is a place." This means that you can do all kinds of stories, tropes, etc. in a Star Trek setting and it can usually work well, especially when set in a way that reflects the Star Trek universe.

The tragic irony here is that S31 in DS9 was exactly this! Through S31, the franchise explored the excesses of the state in a time of crisis. It explored the moral quandaries when the ends always justify the means, and to what extent that could be true.

This movie is modern nihilistic edgelordism. Which in some ways I kind of get....we live in The Crumbles, when everything is slowly falling apart and the absolute worst of us are looting and pillaging everything they can before it all falls down. But you know what? The 1960s were pretty bad too, and Trek managed to show what else could be possible. We need that again.

 

[eschaton]

Man, that was dumb. Not even dumb fun, just dumb.

I've never seen anything save Rebel Moon which fails show not tell as badly as this movie. I'll freely admit that's probably in part because it was compacted down from a miniseries into a movie. This felt like at least four episodes crammed together (Georgiou's flashbacks and the three different acts). But it feels like it goes beyond that, with the tight 95-minute runtime. I feel like there was a more coherent yet even more boring 120-minute movie left on the cutting room floor. Regardless, tons and tons and tons of the dialogue was just straight out telling us about scenes we should have seen onscreen, or characters explaining who they are. So many shortcuts to get to A to B. Things like the betrayal may have actually landed well with more runtime, but it means little to nothing here, as there's too many characters, and they're all broad stereotypes, rather than people.

Aside from the pacing being too fast, each of the acts seemed a step down from the last. It seemed like a lot of money went into Act 1, with the nightclub. By Act 3, it had descended into modestly competent hand-to-hand combat between four people onboard a ship's bridge. The story told us the stakes kept rising, but it didn't feel like it in terms of production.

The story setup was also pretty odd. Yes, ultimately the story had personal stakes for Georgiou, but those stakes were not revealed until later in the runtime, meaning she decided to join this misadventure essentially on a whim. This is one case where I feel like the "mystery" made the movie worse - that the survival of San (how old is he supposed to be by this time?) should have been clear right off the bat, to give her character a real sense of motivation, rather than just being a chaos goblin.

Speaking of which, I guess Rachel Garrett at least got a tiny bit of an arc here. Can't say that for a single other character.

It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but I do think it's the worst Trek movie. Even in Trek movies I genuinely dislike there's often little character moments that ring true, but there were no great scenes here. Everything was so perfunctory.

Bleh.

 

[eschaton]

From a story perspective, Section 31 is just totally misunderstood in this. In fact, I would argue that every writer since DS9 and ENT have not understood what Section 31 is and how to use them to create a story. Section 31 is not a CIA black ops team working "off the books." They're meant to be this dark sin in Starfleet's past that works independent of the Federation, claiming to be its protector, but in reality is basically a terrorist network that commits war crimes in the name of defending everything decent about the Star Trek universe. The tension of that is a means to give the characters and institutions, which Roddenberry had set up as quasi-Utopian by the 24th century, some degree of doubt about everything they've believed in (since they don't know what's true about Federation history and what happened in a secret history they didn't believe was possible in their Utopia).

As Berman Trek constructed it, Section 31 was much closer to the popular conception of the Illuminati than anything. An explicitly evil, shadowy cabal pulling the strings behind the curtain.

 

[El Maestro]

From a story perspective, Section 31 is just totally misunderstood in this. In fact, I would argue that every writer since DS9 and ENT have not understood what Section 31 is and how to use them to create a story. Section 31 is not a CIA black ops team working "off the books." They're meant to be this dark sin in Starfleet's past that works independent of the Federation, claiming to be its protector, but in reality is basically a terrorist network that commits war crimes in the name of defending everything decent about the Star Trek universe. The tension of that is a means to give the characters and institutions, which Roddenberry had set up as quasi-Utopian by the 24th century, some degree of doubt about everything they've believed in (since they don't know what's true about Federation history and what happened in a secret history they didn't believe was possible in their Utopia).

Right! S31 are the bad guys. Always were. But I guess they couldn't resist the antihero urge because I guess(?) it's popular at the moment...but this isn't really compatible with the wider ST universe and really cheapens it.

ST can have antiheroes! But they shouldn't undermine the fundamental basis of the universe. Otherwise Trek just becomes generic space show.

 

[fireproof78]

Right! S31 are the bad guys. Always were. But I guess they couldn't resist the antihero urge because I guess(?) it's popular at the moment...but this isn't really compatible with the wider ST universe and really cheapens it.

ST can have antiheroes! But they shouldn't undermine the fundamental basis of the universe. Otherwise Trek just becomes generic space show.

How does it undermine and cheapen it in one installment?


That's a damn impressive achievement for one film!

 

[Yistaan]

As Berman Trek constructed it, Section 31 was much closer to the popular conception of the Illuminati than anything. An explicitly evil, shadowy cabal pulling the strings behind the curtain.

That got taken to its ultimate absurd conclusion in Star Trek Into Darkness and Admiral Marcus and the USS Vengeance and all that. Not to mention that unfortunately it fed into Orci's real life conpiracy theory issues and all that. Considering Alex Kurtzman knows Orci very well, and that there's probably much more to the end of their collaborations than they're telling fans, I don't blame Kurtzman for wanting to move the Section 31 concept away from all that and just turn it into a generic spy heist type thing (especially as Paramount/CBS' other spy franchise, Mission Impossible, has been hogged by Tom Cruise for 30 years).

Speaking of the USS Vengeance, apparently James Hiroyuki Liao was on Trek before as a USS Vengeance crewman. Considering the timeframe of Star Trek Into Darkness roughly matches up with what we're told in Section 31 about the San character, I think we can safely assume that this is actually Kelvin Timeline San.

 

[eschaton]

The thing is, they really even fail as antiheroes. Michael Burnham had a way higher bodycount of random mooks who did nothing but get in her way. We don't see a single questionable murder. We don't see anything beyond some perfuntory light torture.

There's really zero reason for Garrett to be minding them at all.

 

[Yistaan]

One valid S31 criticism is the forced "conflict" and arguing among the team especially early on in the introductions. You don't realistically believe that these guys could be serious or work realistically together, much less for high stakes missions.

There's an Agents of Shield vibe to the show, not in a bad way. I remember when that show came out and Marvel artist/writer Jim Steranko was bashing it repeatedly as the worst show ever, not unlike how people are ragging on S31 now, but Agents of Shield was enjoyable enough and ultimately ended up lasting 7 seasons (136 episodes total, which is a lot considering the now extremely limited number of episodes we get on shows in the streaming/post-streaming era)

 

[The Wormhole]

Otherwise Trek just becomes generic space show.

Star Trek is a generic space show. Always has been.

 

[Campe]

I'm about 35 minutes in right now (watching it bits before I can sit down at lunch and finish it), and so far, its fine. Nothing amazing. Nothing that is keeping me from continuing. But sometimes its just downright annoying. Very by the numbers. Very solidly middle 5 as I go along. We'll see if that holds in the next hour.

Its obvious that this is a lot of plot and character built into 95 minutes. They should have cut back the cast a little bit to help actually develop some characters. Or simplified the plot. Or gotten rid of the mirror universe angle (I'm gathering that pays off though.) Just too much in too little time.

I don't have a problem saying this is in the Star Trek universe, because its a big universe. People complain all the time that there is not enough different in Star Trek (or they complain that there's too much different.) From that perspective, why can't it be Star Trek?

 

[The Wormhole]

There's an Agents of Shield vibe to the show, not in a bad way. I remember when that show came out and Marvel artist/writer Jim Steranko was bashing it repeatedly as the worst show ever, not unlike how people are ragging on S31 now, but Agents of Shield was enjoyable enough and ultimately ended up lasting 7 seasons (136 episodes total, which is a lot considering the now extremely limited number of episodes we get on shows in the streaming/post-streaming era)

Agents of SHIELD is also the redheaded stepchild of the MCU which the rest of the MCU goes to great lengths to avoid acknowledging.