Star Trek: Section 31 Could Become the Spin-Off Fans Wish Never Happened

The age of the franchise means that we get an endless supply of spin-offs and insights into the sci-fi universes. But perhaps studios need to get more used to thinking twice before pushing spin-offs nobody really asked for. Section 31 may be an example of Star Trek boldly going where no man should have ever gone before…

Perhaps this is unfair. The premise of Star Trek: Section 31 sounds fine.

Why Did Star Trek: Section 31 End Up Being a 100-Minute Miss?

It follows former emperor Philippa Georgiou from the Mirror Universe as she joins Section 31, a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets through shady tactics and off-the-record activities.

The implementation? Well, the reviews speak for themselves. Reviewer Polygon said that the film the “strangest” in the “Star Trek” series. IGN panned the film as “100 minutes of nonsense with micro-elements of the original.”

Reviewer Matthew Razak explained:” This is a film without any sort of purpose other than to get Yeoh back on the screen and hopefully suck in a few more subscribers to Paramount+ with the promise of more Star Trek. It’s a promise the movie can’t keep.”

It is hard to find any reviews with much more positivity to offer than these. A 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes shows that people are struggling to get on board.

Michelle Yeoh Can’t Save Star Trek

The television movie has a superstar leading its cast. Philippa Georgiou is played by Hollywood hot-property Michelle Yeoh, whose recent works have been largely met with criminal acclaim. From the outside looking in, it feels like the project may have been doomed to fail from the start.

Originally, this started shooting as a television series. In 2020, the show was not only shooting as a TV show, but it also had a second season planned in order to be shot back-to-back. In the end, this was shelved and the idea ended up being a 100 minute film that feels clunky at best, and offers little for those that enjoy the lore of Star Trek.