Spoilers STAR TREK: SECTION 31 - Grading & Discussion

[Citiprime]

What's that?

Comedy?

Submarine warfare?

Time travel? ()

Action?

Think of the list of episodes and movies that people who are fans of this franchise gravitate towards.

They're not getting by with characters eating eyeballs for shock factor.

They're not about going pew-pew-pew with a phaser with no meaningful story to underline it.

They're adventures based in science-fiction concepts that at its core wanted to say something thoughtful about the human condition in an entertaining way. Whether that be with a laugh through Quark when he makes incisive commentary about humans. Or whether it be through tears with Spock when he makes the ultimate sacrifice.

And I would argue that's why Section 31 has a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with an audience score of 18%). There's no substance to it. It feels superficial to what people expect from Star Trek.

 

[Fateor]

Not sure why a break is considered a bad thing.

Everyone is taking all their time and energy and opting to watch this horrible movie instead of watching something they enjoy. At this point I truly feel the only way there might be any way of change is for Star Trek to stop being produced and viewers start appreciating what Trek they have.

I don't see any other way because even with poor reviews the views still are going to Section 31.

We have no idea if views are going to Section 31.

But poor reviews usually match to poor viewership as other people read those reviews and just don't bother.

It's fine because fans will continue on regardless of the actions of executives.

Yes, it's fine. What's the worst that happens?

Poor movies. Well, y'all are watching any way so clearly y'all are fine with it.

The worst that can happen is they make a 90 million dollar flop that the studio was relying on at least making back it's budget and then when it doesn't the studio ends up having to take from other parts of the budget to make up for the loss.

Other parts of the budget that were previously set aside to produce things people would have liked.

 

[AntonyF]

I am shocked but I kinda enjoyed it.

It was a hot mess in many ways, and I'm sure that's been discussed already a lot. The mini alien thing was just absurd. But I won't dwell on everything that's wrong...

In some ways I saw this as Star Trek adjacent. It didn't feel very Star Trekky, so in some ways perhaps that makes me give it more slack. But I felt like I could see what they were trying to do, and just expand a crack in the Star Trek universe and show us something else.

My main complaint of Star Trek of late is 1) it's fucking miserable. 2) it's very insular, inward looking... it's not expanding. 3) and to that end they keep going for the same story threads and like scratching a patch of skin until it bleeds they want to retreads small portions of Trek history. (SNW is the best of recent Trek but still suffers a bit from some of this.)

Recent Trek also desperately wants you like it, despite its earnestness. Look at that reference we made, look at how we know Star Trek. We know Star Trek so you must love us.

Section 31 didn't do any of these things really. It felt like it just wanted to tell a story, have some fun, and expand the universe we know a bit. And Star Trek could be so rich and diverse and it's nice to get a dash of that again. A bit of adventure. A bit of twinkle in the eye, a spark of life.

I think if it had been a series this collision of ideas could have been spread out and made more of. I think I could see sparks of 'what could have been' there, which we'll never get to see.

But now let's get back to normal programming, where Scotty's long lost cousin who is related to Q and knew Lwaxana Troi's grandmother gets transported to 21st century earth on the USS Sisko to stand and tut at the state of affairs of modern day America...

 

[Danja]

Curious how much they used.

It was intended as a series. Paramount then asked for a limited series.

When Michelle won the Oscar and her asking price went up, it was further cut back to a movie.

 

[fireproof78]

The worst that can happen is they make a 90 million dollar flop that the studio was relying on at least making back it's budget and then when it doesn't the studio ends up having to take from other parts of the budget to make up for the loss.

Other parts of the budget that were previously set aside to produce things people would have liked.

Given Paramount's financial state I'm not expecting them to make much at all.

They tried and I'll give them that. Regardless, the franchise is fine. Even if nothing is made it's still fine.

But poor reviews usually match to poor viewership as other people read those reviews and just don't both

Perhaps but there is still talk and chatter about it instead of ignoring it.

 

[Vulcanoid]

Given Paramount's financial state I'm not expecting them to make much at all.

They tried and I'll give them that. Regardless, the franchise is fine. Even if nothing is made it's still fine.



Perhaps but there is still talk and chatter about it instead of ignoring it.

That is the eternal bit of Section 31 then, with people ragging on it becoming a thing to do over and over whenever new Trek things are announced. Not to mention the people who make money talking about media they dislike. Kind of sad.

 

[Fateor]

Given Paramount's financial state I'm not expecting them to make much at all.

They tried and I'll give them that. Regardless, the franchise is fine. Even if nothing is made it's still fine.

That's a very authoritative statement to make given you aren't one network executives who actually know whether the franchise is doing fine or not.

Perhaps but there is still talk and chatter about it instead of ignoring it.

Doesn't matter, what matters is the minutes watched.

 

[fireproof78]

That's a very authoritative statement to make given you aren't one network executives who actually know whether the franchise is doing fine or not.

As long as there are fans it's fine.

Not sure what else is needed, given I'm not an executive nor have any financial stake in it.

Doesn't matter, what matters is the minutes watched

I don't see the minutes being all that big but people talk about it like they're watching it so hard to gauge.

 

[Farscape One]

That Map is very inaccurate to other maps we've seen.


And yet somehow the executives okayed all the spending that went into this.

Including Michelle Yeoh's 12m dollar paycheck.

Regarding Yeoh and her salary...

I completely understand why the executives okayed it. Why? She had just won her Oscar and basically the FIRST thing she wanted to do was do STAR TREK again. Aa an executive, you find a way to make that happen because such opportunities are extremely rare. (As proof, look at the low number of Oscar winners we've had acting in a franchise that's almost 60 years old across 11 shows and over 900 episodes. Even Whoopi Goldberg didn't get her Oscar for GHOST until she had already been Guinan.)

That's not an opportunity or resource you just easily say no to.

And I was happy to see her again. I just wish they gave her better material.

 

[Firebird]

Nobody really wants that but we are getting it.

You don't want it. Stop projecting onto or trying to speak for the rest of us.

 

[Trekker4747]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Interesting, rational, review on it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Jessie Gender says this movie was "sent out to quietly die like a Tuvix."

Ouch. Says a lot that she doesn't like it.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

That raises the question of what you'd get if you used a transporter to split Section 31 into two other movies.

 

[Danja]

The worst that can happen is they make a 90 million dollar flop that the studio was relying on at least making back it's budget and then when it doesn't the studio ends up having to take from other parts of the budget to make up for the loss.

Other parts of the budget that were previously set aside to produce things people would have liked.

They'll write off the loss as a tax deduction.

This isn't their first rodeo.

 

[I am not Spock]

ir says a lot to me that Trek Culture, who are very positive to Trek, even struggled to find nice things to say about this.

I'm sad, because Ive defended Trek for decades . I defended Nemesis, I defended the first two seasons of ENT, I defended Discovery. It is admittedly quite hard to defend this film against the people who are paid to say negative things about media, like the Nerdrotics and Critical Drinkers of the world

 

[Tomalak]

That raises the question of what you'd get if you used a transporter to split Section 31 into two other movies.

An annoying film and a boring one?

 

[TRON JA307020]

You don't want it. Stop projecting onto or trying to speak for the rest of us.

I gave my opinion and am sticking with it. If you don't like it fine but im not changing it.

 

[Tomalak]

ir says a lot to me that Trek Culture, who are very positive to Trek, even struggled to find nice things to say about this.

I'm sad, because Ive defended Trek for decades . I defended Nemesis, I defended the first two seasons of ENT, I defended Discovery. It is admittedly quite hard to defend this film against the people who are paid to say negative things about media, like the Nerdrotics and Critical Drinkers of the world

Being a Star Trek fan is recognising when some episodes are just clunkers. It happens. There have been plenty in the past 59 years.

It's no big deal. Those bad faith YouTubers would have spun it as a disaster even if it was objectively a good film. Ignore them.

There's been plenty of hysterical comment about what is ultimately just a forgettable TV movie. It's not the first and won't be the last.

 

[fireproof78]

Being a Star Trek fan is recognising when some episodes are just clunkers. It happens. There have been plenty in the past 59 years.

It's no big deal. Those bad faith YouTubers would have spun it as a disaster even if it was objectively a good film. Ignore them.

There's been plenty of hysterical comment about what is ultimately just a forgettable TV movie. It's not the first and won't be the last.

All this has happened before and will happen again.

 

[Danja]

Not really. Its taken them a decade to even think of getting another kelvin universe movie off the ground since the last one lost money. STD was cancelled adter they filmed the last season so they filmed an obvious tacked on ending. Thankfully its gone. Picard season 3 ended on a high note and we wanted more of the early 25th century following the TNG timeline but instead we get another 32nd century production with starfleet academy. Nobody really wants that but we are getting it.

Kurtzman and Co. wanted a clean slate. They wanted to be able to work without bumping up against "caNoN."

He's also said that it was important to give today's teenagers a Trek of their own -- something that speaks to THEIR issues and THEIR generation (no one wants a graduate seminar every week).