Star Trek: Section 31 is Paramount Plus’ attempt to add spies to Trek

Star Trek: Section 31Paramount Plus’s first foray into feature-length Star Trek films needs to do one thing and one thing only to be successful. Starring Michelle Yeoh Star Trek: Discovery The spin-off follows Philip Georgiou, a former emperor from morally inverse parallel universein her work with Starfleet’s notorious Section 31, a centuries-old space CIA that operates without the knowledge or consent of Federation leaders.

Overall I don’t need much from Section 31. I’m a Star Trek fan who always allows the show’s room to fail a little. It’s good to give your favorites the freedom to play aggressively in the middle from time to time.

But I have to draw the line here, no further. Section 31 it is necessary to explain why the very idea of ​​Section 31 does not destroy the entire concept of Star Trek from top to bottom.

The spy who escaped from Omelas

First introduced in recent seasons Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and returned to the prequel show Star Trek: Enterprise and early prequel seasons Star Trek: DiscoverySection 31 claims to have been founded and sanctioned by the original Starfleet charter, which is a nice touch of dimensional-Masonic paranoia.

What is Section 31? Simply put, it is an unofficial spy organization that may or may not have gone against its mission to protect the existence of the Federation while keeping its activities completely secret. from Federation. Whether Starfleet leaders are unaware of Section 31 or are simply looking the other way is a matter of some mystery, as well as a matter of evolution over time. However, according to Section 31, without their covert assassinations, illegal scientific research, and other black book operations, the Federation would have fallen centuries ago. (Although we are told this only by Section 31 agents, it is a fruitful aspect of potential internal propaganda that the Trek writers could exploit if they choose.)

We understand that the Federation is a utopia. Egalitarian, diverse, cruelty-free, post-scarcity are all buzzwords. But, to paraphrase Captain Kirk, The Last Frontierwhat does utopia need? starship — I mean the secret program of the CIA?

If the existence of your utopia depends on a bunch of secret, inconsequential war crimes, then it simply is not a utopia. His Omelas. The debate over whether Section 31 betrays the fundamental ideals of Trek has raged since 1998, when Deep space nine The episode “Inquisition” established the concept, as it should be!

Section 31 is not only philosophically bad for Star Trek, but also emotionally destructive for viewers, implying that Pike, Kirk, Spock, Picard, Janeway and the rest owe some of their moral and diplomatic triumphs to an inexplicable group committing atrocities in their Name. And in a setting that prides itself on internal consistency, it’s a deceptive mash-up of genres, with operatives often written along the lines of spy fantasy rather than hard science fiction.

How does Agent Sloane’s ship have untraceable transport systems that he can use to kidnap Dr. Bashir and subject him to mind-blowing holodeck recruitment/compulsion to confess? This doesn’t need explanation; they are super space spies.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t depict espionage and covert operations in the context of Star Trek. The irony is Deep space nine The introduction of Section 31 into the canon is that the show also contains the most subtle and devastating look at espionage in Trek history.

The irresistible romance of spies in space

Never has Trek been more in love with the romantic fantasy of espionage than Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But he was also equally in love with the dramatic potential of the reality of spycraft: immoral drudgery that destroys the psyche of those who practice it, and in most cases creates more problems than it solves, in an escalating cycle of paranoia from state to state.

One of Station Doctor Julian Bashir’s greatest pastimes was pretending to be a non-infringing James Bond on the holodeck. DS9 produced a series of episodes in which Bashir’s infatuation with the famed fictional spy contrasts with his crush on his friend (or more?) about local tailor Elim Garak, a slick former Cardassian Empire expert operative whose bubbly charisma is matched only by his dark past. Ultimately, this personality trait was one of the reasons why Section 31 came into contact with Bashir and, after his refusal to join, embroiled him in a series of conspiracies and schemes.

But Deep space nine also seeks to show the Federation at war rather than détente with a volatile alien empire, and therefore seeks to deal in much more detail and drama with what circumstances might require honest Federation officers to compromise their utopian principles. And the top DS9The look at espionage and the Federation takes place in an episode that has nothing to do with Section 31 at all.

“I’ll learn to live with it”

“In the Pale Moonlight” is so memorably associated with Avery Brooks’ Captain Sisko that all you have to do to find its iconic ending is Google “Captain Sisko speech.” It takes the form of a personal journal entry that summarizes the events of the episode: through forgery, bribery, murder, and the cover-up of all three events – that is, through espionage – Sisko manipulated the Romulan Empire into joining the Dominion War. against Dominion. At the cost of two lives and his conscience, he may have almost single-handedly saved the Federation from bloody conquest by a supremacist imperial state.

What disgusts him is that he is not disgusted. The most terrible, most outrageous, most unnerving thing that war has done to Captain Sisko – and this long the path to completion is the erosion of his morality. At this point, Sisko becomes a microcosm for the Federation.

The tricky thing about depicting an established utopian society at war, especially an existentially necessary war, is that it implies that the war itself may be a utopian act. What makes “In the Pale Moonlight” one of the best episodes of The Path ever made is how deftly and decisively it establishes how the Dominion War poses an existential threat to the Federation on two fronts: from the Empire, which wants to dominate her. , and through the act of war itself.

The Federation is a system of principles, and if it abandons these principles, it will cease to exist as surely as if they were abolished by Dominion rule. Through forgery, bribery, two murders and a cover-up, the Federation will survive, but it destroyed itself to do so, and that is not a victory.

Conceptually, this speech is the mirror opposite of Section 31, which states that extralegal, immoral actions are necessary for the existence of a utopia. Rather than undermining the diplomatic and moral triumphs of Trek’s great heroes, In the Pale Moonlight imbues them with new urgency: which is why Starfleet’s vaunted, frustrating, and sometimes myopic commitment to diplomacy matters. Because when a utopia abandons its principles, even in the face of a true and complete existential threat, it ceases to be a utopia.

All Star Trek: Section 31 what really needs to be done is to clearly and decisively recognize Article 31 as contrary to the principles of the Federation. Perhaps the smartest thing to do would be to reveal most of what Section 31 agents think about their organization: that it is sanctioned by unidentified Federation leaders, that it has been the secret key to the Federation’s survival for centuries, that it is creepy and untouchable. and you will never destroy it completely – it is a self-perpetuating internal propaganda.

Because either Section 31 is a betrayal of everything the Federation stands for, or the Federation is not utopian, there is simply no way around it. If we think of Star Trek as anything more than just an empty and gold-plated military fantasy, then Starfleet’s victories cannot rest on a sanctioned and unaccountable covert operations department.

If Star Trek: Section 31 just wants to have some James Bond fun without infringing, Michelle Yeoh would probably be a lot of fun! This is Michelle Yeoh! But will I watch a Star Trek movie? I’m interested to know.

Star Trek: Section 31 It premieres on Paramount Plus on January 24.