This week, Star Trek returns to the world of movies with a very different spin: not just in format, in the first streaming-exclusive movie the franchise has ever seen, but in perspective, as Section 31 shines the spotlight on one of the darkest ideas to ever emerge from Trek‘s utopian vision. From the moment it was introduced in Deep Space Nine, Section 31 has been considered an affront, not just by the heroes of these stories, but by fans who reject its very existence, and what that means for Star Trek‘s idealized vision of the future. But that just makes the creators and stars behind the new movie want you to give them the benefit of the doubt even more.
“[Gene] Roddenberry created a universe that was utopian in his ideals. It’s a beautiful idea, that we’ve evolved past these kind of things—but people need to understand that these things don’t happen without sacrifice,” Rob Kazinsky, who plays the mech-suited Zeph among Section 31‘s primary group of agents, told io9 recently over Zoom. “You don’t reach the Federation’s levels of equality, and kindness, and peace, and all of these beautiful things without fighting for it. And to fight for it and get it, then you have to fight to keep it.”
Section 31’s existence as an organization within the Federation—disavowed to the point of almost mythology, ready and willing to break every rule established in its charter to preserve the peace—has always made it a highly controversial piece of worldbuilding. The context in which it was first introduced in Deep Space Nine, as its climactic narrative about the Dominion War (and with its outbreak an existential threat to the Federation unlike anything contemplated by Trek before), for stars like Kazinsky, is vital to understanding why the idea is so compelling in the first place, even as it remains so heavily contested by Star Trek fans.
“The people in the Federation exist in a bubble of safety and happiness, but there are outsiders to that sphere of the Federation—surrounded by the Dominion, the Founders, the Klingons [of this era], the [Romulan secret police] Tal Shiar, that don’t have the same moral relativity that we do. They would see [the Federation] destroyed to fit their moral relativism,” Kazinsky argued. “People need to understand why people don’t like the idea [of Section 31], but it hasn’t changed the idea.”
“The Federation, humanity and all of the planets that represent all the other species, strive for these great ideals of who and what we should be… but they don’t just happen by magic,” the actor concluded. “Do you want to expand the universe of Star Trek, where we get to tell great stories of how we ever got to things like the Treaty of Alliance [between Starfleet and the Klingons before The Next Generation], or how we ever counter that kind of malevolence? Then Section 31 is a crucial part of that story, and I think we explore that.”
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Kazinsky, an unabashed Trek fan himself, may be the most passionate of his fellow Section 31 stars about the subject matter of the film, but he’s not the only one who sees Section 31’s darker side as a way to amplify the highest ideals of Star Trek. “I think Section 31 is pushing that envelope of ‘hey, here is the reality of a policing group that we need because we need to get back to the belief, and not just the belief but the actuality, that egalitarianism can exist, that equality can exist.’ Let’s believe in that again,” Omari Hardwick, who plays Section 31‘s team leader Alok, added. “I believe we really pushed that envelope in ways that Star Trek hasn’t prior. They have other episodes, films within the franchise that have pushed that, but I think Section 31 does a very, very aggressive push of that narrative, and I think that’s a good thing.”
“I think one of the big messages of the film is redemption, that even people who’ve committed heinous acts have within them an opportunity to redeem themselves, to heal and to make things right,” Kacey Rohl, who plays Starfleet officer Rachel Garrett—the future captain of the Enterprise-C as seen in the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise”—told io9. “That’s something to think about [right now].”
“Section 31 plays in a really unique time, to Kacey’s point,” Hardwick interjected. “We’re in that moment, there’s conflicts [in the film] that are relatable as it pertains to Section 31 and to Star Trek in general. We’re [doing this interview from] the comfort of a hotel, with a lot of human beings asking us great questions, we’re premiering a movie this week—we’re okay, but there’s kids out there right now figuring out their own conflicts that they are actually going through and seeing in the world. Redemption is their key—you’ve gotta figure out how to not cast a stone, because all of us could be caught up on what we did wrong. I think this movie really pushes that narrative again, in a pretty cool way.”
It’s not just what Section 31 has to represent for Star Trek from a narrative perspective, but a tonal one too, something that has long been a question of debate in the franchise’s movie legacy. “I think if you’re a fan of Star Trek, you see the world of the Federation and the world of Starfleet as being a world that hews to Gene Roddenberry’s very specific vision of optimism, and plays by very specific rules within the Federation’s space,” Alex Kurtzman, executive producer and Star Trek‘s broad architect at Paramount, reflected. “The notion of Section 31 as it was originally conceived on Deep Space Nine suggests that the Federation that we know and love cannot exist without the people who live in the shadows, who are operating outside of Federation space, protecting the thing that we all treasure about Star Trek. That’s a really interesting conversation, because like all things Star Trek, it mirrors conversations we’re having about our real word, and to me that’s what makes it beautiful: it’s a mirror, it holds itself up to our world and asks us to reflect on the lives we’re living, and the way we’re living them. Section 31 is doing exactly that.”
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How is Section 31 doing that? For Kurtzman, it’s an idea of tone–breaking as many preconceived notions about what Star Trek is as much as Section 31 itself does within the wider fiction. “I believe the takeaway [from the film] is a reinforcement of Roddenberry’s essential vision, which to me is the beating heart of Star Trek, and the tone is so important to that,” Kurtzman continued. “If we did a dark, only serious, grim Star Trek movie I think fans would be well within their rights to say ‘that is not Star Trek, that is not the Star Trek that I know and love.’”
“This movie is fun, and it’s funny, and it’s an adventure and it’s emotional—and it touches on darkness but I don’t think it’s a dark movie. Our goal was to figure out a way to address, exactly, those fan concerns because we share them. At the beginning of the film you’re told that this story does not exist in Federation space, you’re travelling outside of Federation space to protect the Federation. Hopefully, I think skeptics will see that we are ultimately trying to do what they want, which is to reinforce that essential vision of Star Trek.”
Star Trek: Section 31 begins streaming on Paramount+ on January 24.
Additional reporting by Cheryl Eddy.
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