Spoilers STAR TREK: SECTION 31 - Grading & Discussion

[Commander Richard]

The 14th Star Trek movie is here and it's direct-to-streaming, which is a first. The story follows the mirror universe's Philipa Georgiou, former Empress of the Terran Empire, as she leads a motley crew of misfits and badasses to protect the Federation from its greatest threat ever. Their moniker? "Section 31", a somewhat secret division within Starfleet Intelligence whose mission is to do the dirty work to protect the Federation and its ideals. The movie gives us a glimpse into Trek's Lost Era, a time between Kirk's era and Picard's. And this means a big easter egg in the form of Rachel Garrett who will go on to become captain of the Enterprise-C. While the movie has been met with skepticism, Garrett's presence has caught fans' attention more positively, thus paving the way for another spin-off. Okay, not quite but we'll see. The movie promises to deliver a new flavor of Trek. Will it succeed in doing so? Will it offer up any good commentary on what Section 31 brought to Trek? January 24th will tell.

Official Website | IMDb Page
Rotten Tomatoes Page | Memory Alpha Page

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[Tuskin38]

You linked the M-A page to the organization, not the movie

Star Trek: Section 31

Memory Alpha contains spoilers for released material only. No information about this film can be added until CBS or an identified source discusses information with a press outlet, such as a news service. Make sure to cite your sources when making additions to this article. If you are unsure...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[James Cole]

Just realized this'll drop ~Thursday night~ PST, not Wednesday night as per usual with NuTrek projects in recent years.

 

[HotRod]

Give us the Legacy we deserve.

 

[Michael]

Pinning this, cause why not?

Looking forward to finally seeing it this week. The least I expect from it at this point is that I like some or even all of the characters. I can forgive lapses in plot logic, clunky dialog, so-so special effects or a clichéd story, but usually if there’s something to like for me about the characters, their backgrounds and the way they play off each other, then I feel at least somewhat entertained and like it’s time well spent.

What I don’t really expect but would be a welcome surprise is if they somehow manage to bring Georgiou’s redemption arc to a satisfying point. I just so bad want her to be more than the arrogant badass shooting wannabe-edgy one-liners we saw on Discovery. Diving a bit into her youth and showing her “villain arc” play out could be the way to do that. (Although at this point I’m not super confident this won’t be just a hodge-podge of clichés.)

In terms of the plot: I’d be very happy if the early reviews comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy and Mission: Impossible turn out to be correct. If this involves some halfway decent caper that manages to employ the ensemble in an interesting way then I’ll be a happy Trekkie.

 

[locborg]

Thanks for letting me vote early…

 

[Michael]

Thanks for letting me vote early…

You can vote however you please, but let this be the last time I’ll let an obvious attempt at riling people up slide. Watch this thing or don’t watch it, like it or don’t like it … and anything in-between — that’s all fine and I don’t care. But if you’re posting to make other posters angry, this won’t be tolerated. Consider this a friendly warning.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The best way to get an accurate aggregate score in these kind of polls is to ignore all of the 1s and all of the 10s. I'll accept a 10 if they can justify it in the thread, but 1s rarely mean anything except for exactly what Michael described above.

 

[locborg]

Depends on your personal valuation guidelines. If this were any other direct-to-streaming Netflix movie, I’d happily give it a score somewhere between 4 and 6. That’s the norm, and so far, there hasn’t been a streaming-only movie (at least in my opinion) that exceeded a 7.

We can all agree that S31 is not going to be a masterpiece. There are already reviews from people who have seen the movie. Masterpieces usually don’t sneak up on you.

Realistically, S31 will also land somewhere between a 4 and a 6. And here’s the catch: a mediocre Star Trek streaming movie must automatically be adjusted to a score of 1, because it would be wrong to judge it like any other movie. It’s either good and deserves an 8 or more (which is never going to happen), or it follows the streaming standard, which automatically justifies the lowest score possible.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The best way to get an accurate aggregate score in these kind of polls is to ignore all of the 1s and all of the 10s. I'll accept a 10 if they can justify it in the thread, but 1s rarely mean anything except for exactly what Michael described above.

That doesn't seem to work in practice, you can end up with the most acclaimed episodes getting the lowest ratings.

Though we can certainly ignore one of the 1s, if the guy who voted admits they haven't seen it.

 

[NCC-73515]

When LDS came out, someone asked everyone to vote low because of the name

 

[Dukhat]

Depends on your personal valuation guidelines. If this were any other direct-to-streaming Netflix movie, I’d happily give it a score somewhere between 4 and 6. That’s the norm, and so far, there hasn’t been a streaming-only movie (at least in my opinion) that exceeded a 7.

We can all agree that S31 is not going to be a masterpiece. There are already reviews from people who have seen the movie. Masterpieces usually don’t sneak up on you.

Realistically, S31 will also land somewhere between a 4 and a 6. And here’s the catch: a mediocre Star Trek streaming movie must automatically be adjusted to a score of 1, because it would be wrong to judge it like any other movie. It’s either good and deserves an 8 or more (which is never going to happen), or it follows the streaming standard, which automatically justifies the lowest score possible.

So, uh, then why did you vote 1 when you haven’t even seen the movie yet?

(This is a rhetorical question, as we all already know the answer.)

 

[Michael]

Let’s please drop the issue. Not interested in a discussion about this as I’ve already called out the behavior (not the voting 0 per se, but doing it to seemingly taunt others). I assume @locborg has gotten the message, so let’s move on. Thank you!

 

[Lord Garth]

I've watched a ton of Michelle Yeoh films, starting from 1985. I took a deep dive. I'm up to 1997 now. I have capsule reviews of her early work in this thread. I also re-watched "Vaulting Ambition" and "What's Past Is Prologue" last night and posted a review of those in that thread as well, with a Georgiou and Michelle Yeoh angle.

This is my viewing line-up for the rest of the week.

Wednesday Afternoon:
"The War Without, The War Within" (DSC)
"Will You Take My Hand?" (DSC) + S31 Deleted Scene
"Point of Light" (DSC) --> Klingon & Georgiou Scenes

Wednesday Night:
"Inquisition" (DS9)
"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" (DS9)
"Yesterday's Enterprise" (TNG)

Thursday:
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Crouching Tiger (2000)

Friday:
"Terra Firma" Parts I & II (DSC)
Section 31 (2025)

Weekend:
The Soong Sisters (1997)
Section 31 (2025) --> Re-Watch & Quick Review

TBD:
Selection of Post-2000 Michelle Yeoh Films (I already have a list)
Mission: Impossible (Movies 4-6 only)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Suicide Squad (2016)
Section 31 --> In-Depth Review

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

And I thought I was going overboard when I watched Forbidden Planet and an episode of Wagon Train before writing about The Man Trap!

Honestly, I think it's a great idea, but then I'm the world's biggest and only Tomorrow Never Dies fan, so I would say that.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Depends on your personal valuation guidelines. If this were any other direct-to-streaming Netflix movie, I’d happily give it a score somewhere between 4 and 6. That’s the norm, and so far, there hasn’t been a streaming-only movie (at least in my opinion) that exceeded a 7.

We can all agree that S31 is not going to be a masterpiece. There are already reviews from people who have seen the movie. Masterpieces usually don’t sneak up on you.

Realistically, S31 will also land somewhere between a 4 and a 6. And here’s the catch: a mediocre Star Trek streaming movie must automatically be adjusted to a score of 1, because it would be wrong to judge it like any other movie. It’s either good and deserves an 8 or more (which is never going to happen), or it follows the streaming standard, which automatically justifies the lowest score possible.

And believe me, anybody who voted a "one" before the show even airs is not a person whose opinion I will take seriously on any subject at any time.

 

[Lord Garth]

And I thought I was going overboard when I watched Forbidden Planet and an episode of Wagon Train before writing about The Man Trap!

Honestly, I think it's a great idea, but then I'm the world's biggest and only Tomorrow Never Dies fan, so I would say that.

My instincts told me I should look at this as a Michelle Yeoh film first and a Star Trek movie a distant second. Look at how tiny the Star Trek font is on the logo. So it makes sense to me that I should become way more familiar with her work than I was and get to see how her career and filmography evolved. It's been very insightful.

I love Tomorrow Never Dies! Not quite as much as Goldeneye, but still. Pierce Brosnan was my first James Bond, so I'm biased towards his take. And I feel like an evil business man with an evil tech empire holds up even better today than it did in the '90s, for obvious reasons.

Like most everyone else here, Tomorrow Never Dies was my first exposure to Michelle Yeoh. So I super-look forward to re-watching that unintentionally very timely movie.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Going in cold. Haven't rewatched any DISCO or Yeoh.

 

[HotRod]

Same. But I have watched Yesterday's Enterprise recently.

 

[The Wormhole]

My only preparation for this movie was done in the fall when I re-read Lost Era novels which feature Garrett. The Art of the Impossible, where she only plays a relatively small part in the plot, in which she's a Commander and XO of another Starfleet ship and Well of Souls, which is an Enterprise C centered novel and thus Garrett plays a central role.

And while I'm under no illusions about this movie being consistent with those novels, I did find somewhat interesting if completely unintentional connection in Well of Souls, where Garrett expresses disdain when Starfleet Intelligence gets involved due to her low opinion of intelligence agencies in general.