While the dystopian mirror universe is an intriguing concept – with a total of 14 mirror universe themed episodes in The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise and most recently, Discovery – the concept can prove somewhat marmite-y. However, with big screen adaptations of the franchise grinding to an unfortunate halt following Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond a whole nine years ago, Paramount has turned to Alex Kurtzman’s TV universe for a spinoff Trek TV movie – wisely centring around one of Discovery’s best characters.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, Star Trek: Section 31 centres around a mysterious weapon which is soon to be making it’s way through the doors of Philippa Georgiou’s (Michelle Yeoh) nefarious space club. An eclectic team of misfits from the secretive division of Starfleet, led by agent Alok Sahar (Omari Hardwick), have been tasked with intercepting a deal for the weapon before it finds itself in the wrong hands, recruiting the former Emperor along the way, as she has to face her own reckoning.
While Section 31 does give viewers a little more insight into the Terran Empire and their ruthless customs, the narrative oddly pivots from a strong start – with an intriguing prologue delving into Georgiou’s brutal past and a fun heist ‘phasehopping’ fight sequence – to a more generic outfit unfortunately missing all the hallmark Star Trek elements. As a result, this straight-to-streaming instalment lends itself more to a Guardians of the Galaxy crossover with Mission Impossible, as opposed to any of the big screen Trek outings.
An intriguing mystery revolving around the central macguffin (a weapon called the Godsend) quickly descends into a generic race-against-time mission with plenty of predictable twists and turns, along with several conveniently sticky situations to draw the runtime out. The team discover a mole amongst their ranks, they also find themselves stranded on a barren planet with no outside communication and to top it off, there’s less than four hours to stop the Terrans etc – you know, the usual!
And while there are some positives, namely Michelle Yeoh’s surprisingly comedic turns (“so you’re into mecha boom boom, no shame. Lots of humans are” and “she’s got a stick so far up her arsehole, it’s coming out of her mouth” are particular highlights) and Yeoh’s evolving dynamic with Hardwick, it’s a shame that the Oscar winner becomes lost in the mix due to the sheer size of the team. Plus a certain actor’s attempts at an Irish accent should have been cut from the get go due to how much he butchered it.
Still, there’s plenty of chases, heist sequences, space shoot outs and action scenes to get stuck into – that’s if you’re a fan of the more action-packed Trek outings of course. Despite some of the more impressive sets and action sequences, it’s clear to see that this became a victim of the pandemic and various scheduling issues, as there’s little to no extras, making the majority of sets, ships and planets feel surprisingly sparse. Aside from Yeoh’s wardrobe, the costumes are also underwhelming, unfortunately especially Zeph’s mecha suit.
Verdict
Despite some fun quips and excellent action sequences from Michelle Yeoh, Star Trek: Section 31 unfortunately feels like an underwhelming pilot for a larger series which probably won’t happen. Which is a real shame, as the mirror universe Emperor Philippa Georgiou is undoubtedly one of the best characters launched in Star Trek Discovery. Paramount should have gone for a holodeck themed spinoff instead, (here’s looking at you, Data x Sherlock.)
