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Spoilers STAR TREK: SECTION 31 - Grading & Discussion

Rate the movie...

  • 10 - Excellent!

    Votes: 4 1.7%
  • 9

    Votes: 6 2.5%
  • 8

    Votes: 11 4.6%
  • 7

    Votes: 20 8.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 31 13.1%
  • 5

    Votes: 36 15.2%
  • 4

    Votes: 16 6.8%
  • 3

    Votes: 26 11.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 27 11.4%
  • 1 - Terrible!

    Votes: 60 25.3%

  • Total voters
    237
So, keep it all the same and don't call them Klingons and fans accept without questions?
I think it would have made for one less problem they had to deal with. Whether fans would have accepted them without question would be up to how well they were written, and I didn't think what we got (even leaving aside the arguments about the makeup) was all that great.
 
Sum up the situation in the 2320s. The Romulans are out of the picture, the Klingons are still recovering, the Cardassians are on their radar but not a problem yet, have all this in a briefing where they talk about the status quo (and bring the audience up to speed), then shift the focus what else is going on in the galaxy. Then they're acknowledging, "We can't do anything with the major AQ powers because they're locked into their status quo until TNG, but we can do something with these other races that we don't know anything about!"
The novels did a whole series on the lost era. Tzenkethi... the Tholians making attacks, Cardassia slowly taking over Bajor...

Hell, there's the Betreka Nebula Incident (which there's a novel about, but that could have especially applied here). A conflict between the Klingons and the Cardassians. Section 31 obviously knows about the mirror universe. The Terran Empire was toppled by an alliance of Klingons and Cardassians. So pull some cold war spy intervention bullshit and have Section 31 behind setting that conflict up so that the Klingons don't fall off their post Khitomer path to reforms and become a renewed threat thanks to the risk of them forming an Alliance in the prime universe.

I think it would have made for one less problem they had to deal with. Whether fans would have accepted them without question would be up to how well they were written, and I didn't think what we got (even leaving aside the arguments about the makeup) was all that great.
It's not like some random species we'd never heard about before turned out to be very historically important (cough, cough, the Xindi...). Not an ideal fit, but I always come back to DISCOVERY could have done 80% of what they wanted to do and still stuck with prime universe canon. A lot of it was just arrogance and unforced errors.
 
Is there anything about the Discovery season 1 Klingons that is intrinsically Klingon? Anything that you can point to where they wanted to tie it into any event or continuity from any previous series that becomes significant?
Yes, it’s literally explained in the episodes. And It ties forward to Star Trek 6
 
Early-Disco is the only Pre-TOS thing I'm a fan of, specifically because it was so different that it made me forget about it. As far as the Klingons, I've already said everything I wanted to about them back in 2017-2019. As soon as Picard was announced, I knew they'd work their way back to TNG Klingons because I thought if Worf were to ever appear, there was no way they'd make him look like a Disco Klingon and Michael Dorn wouldn't have agreed to it anyway.

My final thoughts about what I would've wanted for Section 31:

If you look at "Inquisition" and "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", something in that style is what I wanted. Keep Georgiou, keep Alok, keep Garrett, and keep Quasi, but drop everyone else. Go more into these specific characters. Show more of their backstory and motivations.

Sum up the situation in the 2320s. The Romulans are out of the picture, the Klingons are still recovering, the Cardassians are on their radar but not a problem yet, have all this in a briefing where they talk about the status quo (and bring the audience up to speed), then shift the focus what else is going on in the galaxy. Then they're acknowledging, "We can't do anything with the major AQ powers because they're locked into their status quo until TNG, but we can do something with these other races that we don't know anything about!"

So that's the tone I want, the greater emphasis on the characters, and we have the framing of the Lost Era and it looks like a deliberate choice instead of a random one.

Also show that Section 31 and Starfleet are two different sides of the Federation Coin. And address head-on the biggest debate in Star Trek: "Humanity has evolved" vs. "Human nature will never change". Throw in "we have to do what we do so you can do what you do."

All of that would sum up Section 31. This movie didn't go into any of that. They purposely went out of their way to avoid all of it. What I wanted was a movie that has its own specific viewpoint even if someone doesn't agree with it. This movie gave all that up just to be popcorn entertainment that can't measure up to other popcorn entertainment.

Fin.
I was thinking about this, and the best fit for a Section 31 film or tv showwould have been modeling it on the TV series 24 and put Georgiou in a Jack Bauer-ish role.

That's the basic dynamic that Section 31 is meant to serve within Star Trek. A group of people who belong to an organization that are forced to make the ends justify the means.

The problem was they didn't want to make that kind of show or movie. They wanted a "fun" action romp, where if you made something along with the original intention of the material, that would be a tragedy. That's something where it leaves you uncomfortable and contemplating what's right.
 
It wasn't legible on the televisions of the time. Not by a long shot. Regardless, the size you stated is even smaller and more problematic than the "official" length of 289m.

As I mentioned, we also have this cutaway of a Constitution that was seen on screen.
5yCUrFT.jpeg

It was originally designed by Doug Drexler for the PC game The Captain's Chair, before being used in Enterprise.

I cannot remember the exact size, but I recall reading that Drexler had attempted to make everything work in terms of the Shuttlebay, deck height, etc. And came up with a ship well over 400m in length.

Strange New Worlds finally came along and canonically gave the ship a length of 442m, as seen on its Dedication plaque, which is legible on screen.
Tr1WbQG.png

There was an example of the incorrect size being on a screen in Season 2 of Discovery, but that was an admitted mistake as they used the supposed dimensions of the TOS Enterprise, which don't work at all with the updated design of the DSC/SNW Enterprise.

Ok fair enough. Everyone keeps says that everything didn't originally fit within 289m. so the ship has to be at least 400m. So if that is the case why didn't they do the interior dimensions like we saw in TMP??? Instead we get crew quarters the size of ten forward. The bridge is at least two times the size of the original and that's not even mentioning the turbolift interior. So now we are in the same pickle as before if not worse.

The truth is movie/tv set interiors never match the exterior set in size. This is true in A lot of tv shows. Brady Bunch house, Bonanza Ranch house, Bewitched house, millennium falcon etc.
 
The novels did a whole series on the lost era. Tzenkethi... the Tholians making attacks, Cardassia slowly taking over Bajor...

Hell, there's the Betreka Nebula Incident (which there's a novel about, but that could have especially applied here). A conflict between the Klingons and the Cardassians. Section 31 obviously knows about the mirror universe. The Terran Empire was toppled by an alliance of Klingons and Cardassians. So pull some cold war spy intervention bullshit and have Section 31 behind setting that conflict up so that the Klingons don't fall off their post Khitomer path to reforms and become a renewed threat thanks to the risk of them forming an Alliance in the prime universe.
I have one of those novels... looking it up... Serpents Among the Ruins. I haven't read it in 20 years, but I loved how it addressed all the TUC aftermath and the lead-up to the Tomed Incident.
 
The bridge is at least two times the size of the original and that's not even mentioning the turbolift interior. So now we are in the same pickle as before if not worse.
The SNW bridge is located in the bigger dome right on top of the saucer, so that's explained at least.
 
Instead we get crew quarters the size of ten forward. The bridge is at least two times the size of the original and that's not even mentioning the turbolift interior. So now we are in the same pickle as before if not worse.
The crew size in SNW is half what it was in TOS. As for the large quarters, so far that's only been for senior staff. We saw Uhura sharing a room with multiple others in season 1. For all we know, that could be the case for much of the crew. There's also just the fact they make the rooms bigger because they can. They obviously have more studio space than they did in the past. For a ship the size of the Enterprise-D, Ten-Foward was ridiculously small. Obviously due to production limitations at the time.
 
The crew size in SNW is half what it was in TOS. As for the large quarters, so far that's only been for senior staff. We saw Uhura sharing a room with multiple others in season 1. For all we know, that could be the case for much of the crew. There's also just the fact they make the rooms bigger because they can. They obviously have more studio space than they did in the past. For a ship the size of the Enterprise-D, Ten-Foward was ridiculously small. Obviously due to production limitations at the time.

But the crew will be bigger...right??? So they will shrink the bridge. Make the hallways half the size, shrink the crew quarters etc?? Get rid of the turbolift fun house?? I doubt it.
 
But the crew will be bigger...right??? So they will shrink the bridge. Make the hallways half the size, shrink the crew quarters etc?? Get rid of the turbolift fun house?? I doubt it.
Did the SNW Enterprise have the turbolift fun house? I can't remember seeing it.
 
The novels did a whole series on the lost era. Tzenkethi... the Tholians making attacks, Cardassia slowly taking over Bajor...
The Tzenkethi weren't featured in The Lost Era novel series, aside from the Enterprise B having to outrun one of their ships in the climax of One Constant Star. There was a Tzenkethi novel planned, or more accurately a novel about Sisko and Leyton on the Okinawa detailing their encounter with the Tzenkethi referenced heavily throughout Homefront/Paradise Lost. The novel was eventually abandoned and the stuff about the Okinawa were included as flashbacks in the Typhon Pact novel Rough Beasts of Empire.
 
Sigh, DS9 could have solved the Klingon thing just by not acknowledging it and give the impression Klingons always had ridges, but TOS couldn't afford to present them with their production limitations of the time.

I would have loved it if once they beamed aboard K7 that Worf suddenly looks like a TOS Klingon with no explanation.

O’Brien: “Worf, is it me or do you look different?”
Worf: “It must be the lighting.”
O’Brien: “Huh. I guess we’ve been on the station for too long.”
 
Ah, well I was just wondering if we've seen it in SNW itself. I think it's been quietly forgotten.

Haha. Yeah. I will say it was one of the oddest decisions concerning interior design I have ever seen on a star Trek show or almost any show to be honest. Yeah st iv had the error with the number deck plaques and what not. The point is set design doesn't have to be exact just believable. I think the only other one I can think of that was completely unbelievable was the interior of the Jupiter 2 on the original lost in space. It was believable enough with 2 levels. Yeah they would not have totally fit to scale but believable. Then they went and had an episode with an entire third level in a season 3 episode... 😂..

Ok I need to stop this. This topic deserves its own thread one day somewhere. 😂
 
The Tzenkethi weren't featured in The Lost Era novel series, aside from the Enterprise B having to outrun one of their ships in the climax of One Constant Star. There was a Tzenkethi novel planned, or more accurately a novel about Sisko and Leyton on the Okinawa detailing their encounter with the Tzenkethi referenced heavily throughout Homefront/Paradise Lost. The novel was eventually abandoned and the stuff about the Okinawa were included as flashbacks in the Typhon Pact novel Rough Beasts of Empire.
My examples of potential plots open to S31 do admittedly span the continuum between "touches upon" and "extensively features" from the novels. But it is the internet...

And with the "well, actually..." card in play, Day of the Vipers is branded a novel of the Lost Era and does include Dukat hijacking a Tzenkethi ship and using it for a false flag attack. It's amazing. Much better than the two Cardassian occupation of Bajor novels that follow.

People unaware of and potentially interested in Lost Era Star Trek novels should check out the Trek Literature section of this BBS for recommendations (the Enterpise-C one has a very mixed reputation fwiw).
 
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