News Star Trek: Section 31 Movie with Michelle Yeoh Announced!

I love how blinkered some people are as to think that Michelle Yeoh has only recently become a big deal.

 

My first exposure to Michelle Yeoh was in 1997, when I went to see Tomorrow Never Dies. An underrated Bond movie with a message that means even more today.

Ellis Carver: "Mr. Jones, are we ready to release our new software?"
Jones: "Yes, sir. As requested, it's full of bugs, which means people will be forced to upgrade for years."
Elliot Carver: "Outstanding."

I love when James Bond and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh's character) are fighting over control for who rides the motorcycle during one of the chase scenes.

 

Bond girl in '97, but she's only just made it now...

 

I thought she was good in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" but that was only *checks notes* 23 years ago.

Doubt she'll make it any further.

 

Yeah, Crouching Tiger. That movie didn’t make any kind of splash at all…

You know, before she did Star Trek she was anointed as a Knight Commander several times… but yeah, no biggie.

 

No argument from me but I remember having to debate this very issue against posts like the below.

 

Isn’t that the real issue - mediocrity - and not franchise fatigue? Since Trek only came back to tv 6 years ago.

 

How can you not call 4 different Trek related series (two animation and two live action) 'More Trek'?

If Star Trek wasn't seen as valuable by Paramount, you would have seen more cancellations (either of Lower Decks or Prodigy) soon after the Discovery sunset announcement. And I doubt you would have seen a new Live action series (Starfleet Academy) announced and put into production. Noor would you have seen the Section 31 streaming film with Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh attached (you can bet the award up her pay grade/rate too).

So yeah, your underlying thought of "We should have even more Trek and since we don't, Trek must be a failure at P+..." is utterly ridiculous.

At this time (and pending the resolution of the WGA strike and upcoming other Hollywood Union strikes); we have five major studio backed Star Trek productions ongoing or in the works.

If something's 'failing' - you don't greenlight two new projects (One with an expensive and in demand personality), and keep 3 more running.

 

The underlying premises of most of their opinions are utterly ridiculous.

 

The underlying premise is simply that they don't like Discovery. Is Discovery the greatest ever? No. Is it popular enough to have gone on for several seasons? Yes, obviously yes. The premise simply goes back dissatisfaction with Discovery and wish for it to disappear. It's not enough for it to no longer be made. It must be erased.

 

Look at it this way: the longer they're still beating a dead horse after the fact, the worse they'll look. Most people will wonder, "What's going on with you?"

It's what's happened to bashers of every other series who went too "X-Treme!!!!" They always shoot themselves in the foot and destroy their credibility.

 

Yes, absolutely.

 

For me, personally...

DSC --> You know how big of a fan of it I am, so obviously I don't think it's mediocre.
PIC --> See above. S2 was the weakest of the three, but otherwise I like it just as much as Disco.
SNW --> I've said it's not my thing. I've never said I thought it was bad. I think it's good. I'm just not a fan of "Back to Basics". That's not the same as thinking it's mediocre.

LD --> I ignore it. It's an "adult" cartoon. I'm not a fan of those. Again, that's more it's not to my tastes than thinking it's mediocre.
PRO --> I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It caught me by surprise. I don't think it's mediocre at all.

So, no, I don't think Kurtzman Trek is mediocre. Sorry.

Berman Trek, on the other hand? Let's look at that:

TNG --> Every season had some mediocrity. Some more than others, but it was there.
DS9 --> Not a lot of mediocrity, I agree, but some of the good is really overrated now.
VOY --> The quality was all over the place. That includes mediocrity.
ENT --> I thought this series was aggressively mediocre for most of its run. By the time it turned around, it was too late.
TNG Movies --> I thought all of them were mediocre, except for First Contact.

I was sick of Berman Trek because it had a lot of mediocrity. At worst, I can only say some of Kurtzman Trek isn't to my tastes. With this much variety in the Kurtzman Era, that's to be expected.

 

Last I heard this was a series idea that had been scrapped. It's amazing what an Oscar can do to the minds of studio execs.

I'm looking forward to it myself. I've loved the concept of Section 31 ever since it was first introduced in DS9. Plus Michelle Yeoh is a wonderful actress who is perfectly capable of carrying a movie.

 

You know this is an open forum and all opinions are allowed right?

 

I'm glad that Section 31 is being developed as a movie instead of a TV series. Although personally a little bit of Section 31 goes a very long way for me, I think it's better if it's something that remains vaguely mysterious rather than something that would likely be explored in great detail and eventually become less special. That being said, a Section 31 movie could show a dual nature of the organization--one that staunchly defends the Federation ala MI5 or MI6, and also one that's morally ambiguous and ruthless in destroying the Federation's enemies through questionable methods. Maybe that duality is something that comes into conflict with itself at times between its members.

I hope this movie is closer in tone to "Jason Bourne In Space" than something so dark and depressing that it's not recognizable as Trek anymore. I believe you can still craft a story that explores the underworld of the Star Trek Universe without completely losing itself in that darkness.

 

Section 31 worked in the context of DS9's story. Not one iota of what made them interesting has carried over to subsequent iterations.

Yeoh on the other hand is always welcome. It's a pity she is tethered to S31, though.

 

I liked Section 31's pre-Federation incarnation in Season 4 of ENT. Since then...nope.

 

Kurtzman Trek is a lot more consistently good than Berman Trek. I'll give the older Era some slack due to the production rate and ungodly schedules of the time, and of course less money. There's no real arguing about it though. Even season 2 of Picard that no one seems to agree on is generally better than a few seasons of TNG and most of Voyager and so on.

 

I really liked S31 portrayal in DS9. You just saw the mysterious Sloan character, who would appear to give Bashir orders or manipulate him. We never saw S31. I fear the S31 movie will turn S31 into some generic espionage organization with a fancy ship and a crew that go on missions with lots of explosions and action. S31 should be elusive and mysterious, always behind the scenes, where you are not sure if they even exist. That is what DS9 did so well.