Cormac
1966
Unfortunately, as I found that whole storyline extremely tedious… If they are really spinning them off for their own show, I hope they split it off completely and thus it’ll be easier to ignore.
I did not realize they were getting their own show.
Though I find the idea of having multiple concurrent shows with a shared timeline and some shared characters/actors (like the Arrowverse on CW) intriguing.
CraigM
1968
Section 31 makes some sense in the setting and tone of a series like DS9. And they use it to some effect with characters like Bashir playing an interesting role with it.
However a series built around it sounds aggressively unlike what the universe as a whole should be like.
Yeah, paranoia about the government isn’t very Trek-like.
Because they have Michelle Yeoh?
There’s a good chance they might have done the same even without Michelle Yeoh.
It just seems like a lazy way to add tension to the show, like shaky cam when it is overused.
Section 31 has never been used well except for DS9 and a couple of the books.
I thought Discovery used them pretty well (so far). I must have quit Enterprise before they got that far.
I got a little confused and conflated Section 31 with the Temporal Cold War. I don’t clearly remember the former in Enterprise, but greatly despised the latter.
They were there towards the end.
Section 31 comes and goes as needed. Sometimes they are center stage and huge, sometimes they are a small outfit and working undercover.
Guap
1976
If Section 31 = Time Travel Police, then count me out.
If you want time travel cop, I’ll take JCVD, thanks.
JCVD in a Star Trek series would be cool. I’d be down with that.
He MUST do the leg splits at least once tho.
It doesn’t, and never has. They are all about using underhanded, immoral means to make sure the Federation stays safe. They are the people that believe the ends justify the means. They are the opposite of what Star Fleet is all about.
Guap
1979
Ok, so more like the CIA, or whatever Bester’s org was in Babylon 5.
An occasional “dirty cop” episode is interesting. An entire faction with major roles in episodes throughout an entire season is not.
“But it’s realistic!”
The Federation as envisioned by Gene Roddenberry was supposed to be a utopia with society growing beyond those limitations.
And yet, we have Deep Space Nine, the greatest Star Trek Series ever made, holding a minor to the Federation and its flaws.
I would be willing to watch a whole series of people doing underhanded things to save the Federation, to watch them slowly sacrifice their morality for the greater good, to see it all spiral out of control.
I mean, you tell me if this isn’t the greatest episode that Star Trek has ever produced?
Followed by this.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father.
Quaro
1983
I wish Discovery would make a Short Trek every single week. It’s the best use of the Trek setting.
Leinad
1984
But DS9 works because Sisko’s decission was a genuinely big thing for HIM despite the fact that a few lives are indeed a “low” price to pay in the context given.
There was still a real struggle here and it was more than just “great men making hard decissions”.
So I’d argue DS9 works because it explores the grey areas of the Federation while never going complete dark. That’s why Sisko and co. are NOT okay with genociding the Founders and why it’s always Section 31 and not the Federation doing things like that.
Also while I love Ds9 I can kind of understand why it can bother people at times because the whole role of Section31 and the Federation’s reaction to it certainly muddies the waters but that has always been a Trek problem (see Trek Admirals that have a 50% chance of turning into villains for some reason).
I think Ds9 took it as far as you could without undermining the whole concept of the Federation.
Imo that’s not possible if you base your show around an organisation like Section 31. In Ds9 you could at least argue Section 31 only acted the way they did due to the extreme circumstances and that also somewhat excuses the Federation’s actions but if you need to have them around and active all the time you are forced to give them something to do and that is a huge issue because it will lead down a path in which Section 31 will be involved in so many things that you really have to question if the Federation isn’t just a sham.
Section 31 worked in the context of the Dominion war just like “In The Pale Moonlight” and they needed seasons of setup. That particular episode is so great BECAUSE of Sisko and what we know about him, his values, his frustration with the war, his relationship with Garak etc.
You could do a similar story in Discovery and I pretty much guarantee that it wouldn’t work at all.
So yeah a mirror is nice to have but if you don’t know what you are even looking at that doesn’t help much and I think that’s the problem of Discovery. There is a lot of lip service, big speeches and so on but it lacks the characters and the world building to fill it with life.
Discovery feels disconnected and small despite having ridiculous stakes in each season.
Btw the second vid of Quark talking about the Federation is a great example of why DS9 works so well. It’s character development, world building (an outside view on the Federation) and an emotional moment all in one and it’s once again only possible due to an investment in it’s characters, an area Discovery completely lacks and will continue to lack because it doesn’t want to broaden its scope.
Discovery doesn’t want to use a mirror on the Federation, all we get is Burnham’s view on everything.
Sometimes you have to make something really bad first before you can hold a mirror up to it, I guess. Nobody tunes in when you hold a mirror up to something good.
