Star Trek: Section 31

[PeregrineFalcon]

 

[biostem]

They should have set it during the events of DS9;  Even if it isn't feasible to de-age the original actors, it could have been a "somewhere else in the quadrant" story involving steps they surreptitiously took to aid the Federation alliance, involving questionable or at least amoral actions, (like poisoning ketracel white for newborn/newly spawned Jem'hadar)...

[Techwright]

4 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

 

 

What's the "origins cinematic movie" they refer to?   I hate even having to ask that question.  Back through the run of Enterprise, I was pretty knowledgeable for all things Trek.  Discovery threw this fan under the runabout nacelle and I've never been deeply interested since, though I do have a curiosity about Strange New Worlds. 

[InvaderStych]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

 

What's the "origins cinematic movie" they refer to?   I hate even having to ask that question.  Back through the run of Enterprise, I was pretty knowledgeable for all things Trek.  Discovery threw this fan under the runabout nacelle and I've never been deeply interested since, though I do have a curiosity about Strange New Worlds. 

 

Apparently this ...

 

https://trekmovie.com/2024/07/17/star-trek-origin-movie-tidbit-reportedly-set-mostly-on-earth/

 

As to Strange New Worlds, give it a go. Except the stupid "Everyone Is Singing Because of [Reasons]" episode. Okay, maybe my natural inclination against musicals is talking there, but it was pretty weak as ST:SNW episodes go. There are some things about it that I could do without, but Anson Mount's Pike makes up for them for the most part.

 

2 hours ago, biostem said:

They should have set it during the events of DS9;  Even if it isn't feasible to de-age the original actors, it could have been a "somewhere else in the quadrant" story involving steps they surreptitiously took to aid the Federation alliance, involving questionable or at least amoral actions, (like poisoning ketracel white for newborn/newly spawned Jem'hadar)...

 

At the very least they should have done it as more of a spy-thriller than a vehicle for action set pieces. Yeoh is great in that character, could have done anything around it, didn't need to be Section 31. I figure I'll watch it and pretend it has no connection to anything at all. Besides ...

 

Yeoh's character had to go back to her own "mirror-verse" anyway, so it would be a stretch to even connect it to Discovery, which got placed in an alternate universe thanks to the finale of Lower Decks.

[Voltor]

Was hoping for it to be a story that follows up on the fact that Kirk is in a medical vault at their secret base in Picard S3 ep6

 

A vault that does have a life monitor beeping noise before the music obfuscates it.....

[ShardWarrior]

As much as it pains me to say as an enormous Michelle Yeoh fan, this is probably the first work of hers that I will not see.  This looks absolutely awful.  Real Star Trek died with Enterprise back in 2005 in my opinion.  Star Trek was not always good, not always bad during the Berman era, but you could tell that the creatives back then cared about the property.

 

Everything since then has been a hot mess of VFX spam and garbage writing.  The moment I read that Alex Kurtzman and Michael Chabon were specifically hiring "writers" who never watched a single episode of Star Trek, I knew the franchise was dead. 

 

The one and only redeeming quality of this new garbage is that it makes anything Brannon Braga was involved with look less bad. 

[ZacKing]

21 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

 

 

I am very comfortable saying that beyond any shadow of a doubt this is going to be a complete steaming pile of garbage.  Star Trek is a dead property.  Hopefully someone at Skydance sees the potential of it, kills everything in development for a good while until they can find people who actually give a shit about it. 

[Without_Pause]

January is an infamous dumping place for movies. Add in being a TV movie as well. 

[Oubliette_Red]

On 1/12/2025 at 8:30 AM, ShardWarrior said:

As much as it pains me to say as an enormous Michelle Yeoh fan, this is probably the first work of hers that I will not see.  This looks absolutely awful.  Real Star Trek died with Enterprise back in 2005 in my opinion.  Star Trek was not always good, not always bad during the Berman era, but you could tell that the creatives back then cared about the property.

 

Everything since then has been a hot mess of VFX spam and garbage writing.  The moment I read that Alex Kurtzman and Michael Chabon were specifically hiring "writers" who never watched a single episode of Star Trek, I knew the franchise was dead. 

 

The one and only redeeming quality of this new garbage is that it makes anything Brannon Braga was involved with look less bad. 

 

I actually enjoyed Enterprise until the Alien Vampire Nazis.

[Ulysses Dare]

16 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

 

I actually enjoyed Enterprise until the Alien Vampire Nazis.

I'm both saddened and relieved that I stopped watching Enterprise early enough that I have no idea what this is referring to.

[Techwright]

21 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

 

I actually enjoyed Enterprise until the Alien Vampire Nazis.

 

5 hours ago, Ulysses Dare said:

I'm both saddened and relieved that I stopped watching Enterprise early enough that I have no idea what this is referring to.

 

It's a reference to Troi and Riker sucking the last vestiges of life out of the show.  😉🙃

(not really...but yes.)

 

Enterprise was wobbly, but it had its great moments and characters.  The amazing character actor Jeffrey Combs returned to Star Trek to give us a better insight into Andorians, and the late Gary Graham (Alien Nation)had a good role as the Vulcan ambassador.  There were other fine characters as well.  It was unfortunate how the last episode was written/handled, but overall I enjoyed the show.  It's probably a toss-up for me as to whether I liked Enterprise or Voyager better, but they're both down around the 4 or 5 mark on the list of Star Trek shows for me.  

[Oubliette_Red]

16 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

 

It's a reference to Troi and Riker sucking the last vestiges of life out of the show.  😉🙃

(not really...but yes.)

 

Enterprise was wobbly, but it had its great moments and characters.  The amazing character actor Jeffrey Combs returned to Star Trek to give us a better insight into Andorians, and the late Gary Graham (Alien Nation)had a good role as the Vulcan ambassador.  There were other fine characters as well.  It was unfortunate how the last episode was written/handled, but overall I enjoyed the show.  It's probably a toss-up for me as to whether I liked Enterprise or Voyager better, but they're both down around the 4 or 5 mark on the list of Star Trek shows for me.  

 

I'd put Enterprise above Voyager, mostly due to Janeway. Not because of Mellgrew or being a female captain but because she struck me as a Star Trek Hermione Granger, an insufferable know it all. I often found myself wondering why she had a crew. Robert Picardo was the one saving grace of Voyager for me.

 

Another reason I side with Enterprise over Voyager is that it broke away from the Roddenberry optimistic view that the STU Federation was exceedingly peaceful. Much of Enterprise predates the creation of the Federation of Planets (if memory serves me correctly) and while there was the beginning of the Prime Directive being observed by Archer and the crew, they were willing to suspend their morals when the fate of Earth was in the balance. Very much like the DS9 episode 'In the Pale Moonlight', probably one of my favourite episodes of the entire franchise.

[Techwright]

21 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Another reason I side with Enterprise over Voyager is that it broke away from the Roddenberry optimistic view that the STU Federation was exceedingly peaceful. Much of Enterprise predates the creation of the Federation of Planets (if memory serves me correctly) and while there was the beginning of the Prime Directive being observed by Archer and the crew, they were willing to suspend their morals when the fate of Earth was in the balance. Very much like the DS9 episode 'In the Pale Moonlight', probably one of my favourite episodes of the entire franchise.

 

I can agree with that.  DS-9 is my favorite Trek series because it is so morally messy.  Federation personnel try upholding their ideals while the corner of the universe around them constantly reminds them that they have to compromise at times or die, effectively ending their ideals for good.  Quark may just have the best lines when telling his nephew to beware of the humans' nature which can turn dangerously savage if they get pushed too far.  Allegedly the Andorian Shran of Enterprise agreed saying "beware of pushing the Pink Skins to the thin ice."

 

As to Voyager, well, I've so much I can say.  There's a humorous tale that I actually predicted to friends both DS-9 and Voyager long before they appeared in any announcement.  For Voyager, I'd told friends that a big problem that I had with The Next Generation was that the ship was safe or could so easily run back to Mommy Federation for repairs at the end of every story.  What needed to happen on one of those many times the ship was tossed across the galaxy, was that it had to limp back home, unaided by the Federation.  While it would afford new opportunities for exploration, it would mean a lot of challenges and compromises to keep the ship running and the crew alive (more or less).  I'd initially envisioned a full season of this, then when DS-9 came out, I started talking about "the next Enterprise" as a series of "lost in space".  Not long after that came the announcement of Voyager.

 

The problem is that Voyager didn't stick with the plan.  There were overtones of it in season one, but it gradually became a "reset button" series.  The closest they got was the "Year of Hell" story arc, which may have gone too far in the other direction of storytelling with negatives and casualties mounting too fast (but I loved it anyway), only to have, yep, a reset button on it.  There was also the back story of "Admiral Janeway" at the end of the series, which seemed to imply a tale once again closer to concept, only to learn that Admiral Janeway was herself a reset button.

 

*Sigh*

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15 by Techwright
added material

[ShardWarrior]

On 1/13/2025 at 8:33 PM, Oubliette_Red said:

I actually enjoyed Enterprise until the Alien Vampire Nazis.

 

As I remember it, the Na'khul  were not vampires and the reason they sided with the Nazis was to alter Earth history and prevent the Federation from ever existing.  I did not care for the whole temporal war arc either.  I would have preferred the writers and producers came up with something different for the post-Xindi war arc.