Star Trek: Section 31

[payn]

I agree with the latter comment. I stopped watching DS9 around the time TNG ended, so I'm not familiar with the later seasons of that show.

As an aside, one thing that I thought was weird about Discovery was how when Burnham first boarded the ship, she noticed a bunch of black-pinned guards standing around. I remember her asking about them and being told they were Section 31. But then I'm pretty sure we never saw them again. And when Section 31 showed up later in the series, it was a separate group who had their own ship and didn't wear uniforms let alone black pins. I guess maybe the black-pinned guards were an idea that got quietly dropped from the show.

Right, super secret unit that has its own uniforms and identifying pins.

 

[Mort]

Hmm. Yes. I see he was also responsible for Star Trek Into Darkness.

Really? I can't believe they would let anyone associated with writing, directing or even producing THAT movie anywhere near Trek ever again! I found the entire movie absurd.

But then in it has an 84% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes so what do I know!

 

[nevin]

ok.

Right, S31 in DS9 was clearly not a good outfit. They used genocide as a means to end a war. Operated above any system of check and balances. It was an interesting take becasue all Trek up to DS9 was the galaxy through the Federation's eyes, but DS9 was the federation through the galaxy's eyes. Again, S31 was so good because even in the darkest hour, Federation ideals win out.

did they. i dont recall S31 being disbanded or destroyed. they just slunk away forgotten to do the same stuff again.

 

[Dire Bare]

I was looking forward to this . . . I really enjoyed Emperor Georgiou's arc in Discovery and I think a show focusing on the darker side of Trek could have worked very well . . .

But sadly, this movie fell flat. There were a few things here and there I enjoyed about it, but overall, bleah.

The team was a bit to rag-tag-collection-of-misfits for me, and they mostly didn't work as individuals or as a team. Melle the sexy Deltan honeypot was reductive, Zeph the mech was a lot of fun, the actor delivered his lines with a lot of energy, but the mech-suit itself was a bit much. Borg would have asked this guy to tone it down a bit. Fuzz the tiny alien piloting a robot Vulcan . . . simply too weird and with that awful stereotypical Irish accent on top of it. I enjoyed Quasi the shapeshifter and Sahar the team leader, although Sahar was a bit one-note. Georgiou was busy chewing the scenery, and even her fight scenes felt off. And Garrett, I kept forgetting she was there!

Cool space station though! I liked the ships, San's Terran ship was fun. I don't feel like I wasted an hour-and-a-half. But this isn't a Trek show I'll be watching a second time.

 

[Mort]

Zeph the mech was a lot of fun, the actor delivered his lines with a lot of energy, but the mech-suit itself was a bit much. Borg would have asked this guy to tone it down a bit.

I didn't like how useless they made the guy seem. He was supposed to be "the muscle" but just seemed like a bumbling ineffective lug. They even had him uselessly stumbling through walls at one point.

Fuzz the tiny alien piloting a robot Vulcan . . . simply too weird and with that awful stereotypical Irish accent on top of it.

I like that they went for a weird, at least it was different. But it did come off as just too much.

I enjoyed Quasi the shapeshifter

Except what was the point of him being a shapeshifter? I think he changed shape exactly once, at a point where it completely didn't matter (literally a "what if" sequence that was not relevant to the plot). Did I miss any others? It was just an odd choice.

and Sahar the team leader, although Sahar was a bit one-note.

It was an odd choice to present him as this badass augment (smarter, stronger, faster, "better") and then have one of the climactic moments be him struggling to overcome an opponent literally on autopilot.

Georgiou was busy chewing the scenery, and even her fight scenes felt off. And Garrett, I kept forgetting she was there!

Garrett was mostly just boring, which I guess was her point?

Cool space station though! I liked the ships, San's Terran ship was fun. I don't feel like I wasted an hour-and-a-half. But this isn't a Trek show I'll be watching a second time.

The scenery and ships were well done.

 

[overgeeked]

Really? I can't believe they would let anyone associated with writing, directing or even producing THAT movie anywhere near Trek ever again! I found the entire movie absurd.

But then in it has an 84% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes so what do I know!

It’s not a mystery. No matter how bad STID was as a Star Trek movie it made money. That’s all that matters. Ideals and ideology don’t matter.

At least we’re getting better stuff like LD and SNW. I really hope Starfleet Academy is…better than average.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Just finished it. It was not meant for me. (spoilers follow).

Turning Section 31 into the IMF (complete with "if you should choose to accept it" recordings) tries to capitalize on Tom Cruise movies to make us like, or at least root for, what the characters here are doing. It all felt very forced, and was so contrary with the way that Section 31 has been presented in other ST series. I was never given a reason to feel invested in the characters, and so I didn't care when they were killed or when they turned on each other. It would literally be a better movie if they had called it Section 30, and just made it a different thing.

This movie has been hyped... Like, they've invested a lot in it, and at no point did anyone say "we've got the tone of this flat wrong". Oh well.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Also, the completely gratuitious Aeschylus quote at the beginning, which has no relation to what follows.

(The passage, since the precise source is not cited, is Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 647-48).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So yeah the opposite of star trek its a shame we dont have some other IP like say Game of Thrones or Watchmen where they could do that stuff without messing up the Star Trek IP

Blake's Seven.

 

[Morrus]

The team was a bit to rag-tag-collection-of-misfits for me, and they mostly didn't work as individuals or as a team.

Also... this is the best that the elite Secton 31 has to offer? The Guardians of the Galaxy? I guess the Federation's enemies have nothing to fear.