Star Trek: Section 31 ... THE MOVIE

[FitzTheRuke]

I met Michelle Yeoh once at a film festival gala. (I was serving). She was absolutely breathtaking. This was 20 years ago, but she's still just as beautiful as far as I can tell. (And I'm not one to gush over actors). I've been a big fan since Supercop. She's the best.

 

[Mort]

If Section 31 are the bad guys, and even the ex-Empress herself finds that she has to sort them out/set them straight/shoot all of them, great.

If Section 31 are Hard Men Making Hard Decisions and essentially "the good guys", absolutely kill me now. That is literally, I do mean literally the antithesis of everything, absolutely everything Star Trek has stood for, for decades.

I mean, if it's the latter, hopefully the next series of Doctor Who can feature him as square-jawed, musclebound slightly-dim American man who subscribes very strongly to "Shoot first and ask questions later" and just absolutely blasts his way through every problem. But he has a natty scarf on so it's fine!

Fully agree. I REALLY hope that section 31 are shown as the bad guys and that their entire approach is shown as wrong and harmful!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Maybe. But we've been seeing a lot of the streamers pivot from "Original and exclusive" to "Original and also released in theaters," and given that Amazon, Apple, and WB/Universal have already made it pretty explicit, I wouldn't be surprised if there's wriggle room based on the lack of the word "exclusive."

Right, but think about what this is. The premise is that she is the refugee empress of an alternate timeline working for the black ops unit of Star Fleet in a time period that only viewers of certain streaming service exclusive series are familiar with. That's way too complicated a premise to produce a product that is both suitable for people familiar with the Paramont+ series and movie-goers who just have a basic Trek knowledge.

It makes way more sense to make this as a tv movie with an enhanced budget vs. a comparable run time of Trek show, but still well below what people expect for a name-brand theatrical release in the genre, targeted at retaining subscriptions, and getting a few more lapsed trekkers to try Paramount+, than to blow a cinematic budget and a cinematic promotional budget on something too niche to make back the money.

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets some ultra-limited theatrical release, or even if it is is actually a theatrical release in certain countries where the Paramount+ series were more widely distributed on Netflix or whatever and where cinema releases work a little differently or the Trek brand has a different status. But I seriously doubt this is going to hit American theaters as the next Star Trek major motion picture under any circumstances.

 

[JAMUMU]

Actually, as I watch this documentary about Hunter S Thompson and think about the A-Team, I'd like a drama about the early days of Section-31, when it was necessary and proportionate to leverage Earth's relative weakness vis a vis the space aliens, and then everything went south, and the best Section 31 commando squad went on the run trying to uphold the ideals of the Federated Dream, with Amy embedded as the journalist, but Michelle Yeoh is appointed to hunt them down and they get hoisted by "In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught".

BOOM! DISCOVERY!

 

[beta-ray]

i'm glad it ended up being a movie instead of a series. Nothing against Yeoh, but I think Section 31 should have stayed more mysterious (and wasn't interested in its inclusion in Discovery).

 

[trappedslider]

Depends on how it turns out, this can either be successful at showing that In the Pale moonlight can work for more than an episode or even Sisko's line: I laid the first stone right there. I'd committed myself. I'd pay any price, go to any lengths, because my cause was righteous. My intentions were good. In the beginning, that seemed like enough." works more than a one-off.

and if it doesn't work this will give more ammo to Star Trek is meant to show humans have moved beyond being bastards.

 

[Hex08]

I love Star Trek and I think Michelle Yeoh is awesome. However, I have never been a fan of Section 31 (although there have been good stories built around them) and anything Discovery related leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I planned on skipping the TV show unless the reviews were amazing but since this is a movie I'll probably check it out since my total time invested will be less.

On a scale of 1 to 10 my interest level is about a 4.5.

 

[cranberry]

I'm looking forward to this. I think exploring the workings of Section 31 will be a fun ride.

Finally, we'll see someone other than Picard save the universe.

 

[Hex08]

I'm looking forward to this. I think exploring the workings of Section 31 will be a fun ride.

Finally, we'll see someone other than Picard save the universe.

Isn't that Michael Burnham's job?
(I'm just basing that on what I hear since I only watched 3 seasons of Discovery.)

 

[cranberry]

Isn't that Michael Burnham's job?
(I'm just basing that on what I hear since I only watched 3 seasons of Discovery.)

I refuse to accept DISCO as canon.