“I’m not feeling motivated to be valuable to anyone but myself.”
When Alex Kurtzman took over the television side of Star Trek, he started with Star Trek: Discovery. Michelle Yeoh played one of the better characters on the series. She started as a ship’s captain and was soon killed off. But then the ship heads into the Mirror Universe, where Yeoh’s character of Philippa Georgiou wasn’t a Starfleet officer. She was the emperor of the Terran Empire. She ended up on our side of the looking glass and had some rather interesting stories. It turns out that almost from the beginning Yeoh had some ideas of a spin-off she hoped to do. That series was Section 31, which involved a black-ops agency within the Federation, and she thought our kind of evil emperor might be a perfect fit. Section 31 was first explored on Deep Space Nine during the Dominion Wars and was left alone for decades. Now it’s back in the form of a Star Trek feature film instead of the series. Why the drastic change, you may ask? A lot of things happened since the idea was first proposed.
The big change happened with Michelle Yeoh herself. She starred in the runaway hit Everything Everywhere At Once, which dominated the Oscars that year, including a Best Actress nomination and win for Yeoh. It was no longer likely the actress might be reliably available for the demands of a series. The cool part is that as big as she’s gotten, she was still very much interested in that old idea, and so the series was crunched into a feature film with an ending that leaves open the very big possibility of more. I’m not so sure we’re going to get more, however. More on that soon.
The film begins with a flashback of Georgiou in her dark universe as a 15-year old girl, played exceptionally by Miku Martineau. She has just returned from a tradition that brought young people from all regions of the empire and pitted them against each other. Yeah, I thought the same thing. It’s Hunger Games, but with a twist. Instead of getting things like food and glory, this game gave the top job of emperor to the winner. Since we know she got the job, there’s no spoiler as to how this turned out. The flashback was intended to give our character a little sympathy by explaining how she became such a ruthless killer.
Jump to “current” Trek time, and we find she’s been running a big nightclub in space and is pretty much the boss of all the illegal activities in her territory. She enjoying her “retirement” until a team from Section 31 come calling. This is the part where you hear that voice in your head. It’s Al Pacino, and he’s telling you that just when he thought he was out … they pull him back in. These agents come with a proposal. She helps them out on an important “save the Federation” thing, and she’s free and clear. She agrees, and the team sets off to play the anti-hero/hero bit.
It’s a diverse team. We have human Rachel Garret, played by Kacey Rohl. If the character name is familiar to you, then you must have watched Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode was the third season’s Yesterday’s Enterprise, where Picard and the band meet a ship that came out of the past. It’s a tragic story where Captain Rachel Garrett must sacrifice herself and her crew to keep bad history from happening. Now we meet a younger, more perky version than the one played by Tricia O’Neil. She’s the by-the-book, law & order member of the team. The team is led by a guy named Alok, played by Omari Hardwick. He’s the tough-as-nails leader who also has some flirtatious moments with Georgiou. He’s the one making the offer she can’t refuse. Next up is Deltan Melle, played by Humberly Gonzales. You might remember from the franchise’s first feature film Deltans have a powerful sexual attraction, but she has the perfect friend in Quasi, played by Sam Richardson. He’s a shapeshifter and of the only race immune to Deltans’ sex power. Our muscle is provided by Zeph, played by Robert Kazinsky, and he’s a guy who built an illegal suit of powerful mech that sort of makes him a precursor to the Borg. There’s also a Vulcan who is not really a Vulcan. You figure that out fast, because when you meet him he’s laughing his behind off. He’s a machine controlled by a sentient microbial species with a heavy Irish accent and a bad attitude. You could say he thinks rather small. His name is Fuzz, and he’s played by Sven Ruygrog. The stage is set; we get a couple of surprise bad guys, but unfortunately little else.
Look; the show looks great. The f/x are top-of-their-game stuff, but the film never really goes anywhere. As a series pilot it would have been fine, and perhaps that’s where it should have remained with a more merciful 50 minutes of running time. There’s just not enough story here, and you have a Guy Ritchie heist film with no cast chemistry and not much real plot movement.
The worst thing about the film is Michelle Yeoh herself. She’s a wonderful actor, and this character was one of the best things about Discovery, but she’s just not playing this thing straight at all. The character is completely unrecognizable from the one on the series. Her body movements are so over-the-top and stilted that this almost looks like she’s playing a spoof of her original character, and for all I know, maybe she was. If that’s true, someone forgot to tell everyone else. I never thought I would use this sentence: Michelle Yeoh is awful in this film. And that’s from a real fan of her work.
Video
Section 31 is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 55 mbps. The ultra high definition does look pretty incredible. I’m happy Paramount sent over the UHD/4K disc, because that’s what made this at all enjoyable. The detail is quite awesome, and there are some brilliant set and ship designs here. Black levels are extremely deep and inky, which is just perfect for a movie in space. There are some nice textures on the costumes, and the f/x are seamless. If you don’t get this in UHD, there is absolutely no reason to get it at all.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. I was also impressed by the nature of the audio presentation. The surrounds are used to near perfection to give you a completely immersive experience. There are some sweet little nuances to the sound that really sells the action as much as the loud, bombastic stuff that abounds here. Dialog cuts well, and the score has some truly emotional beats here that complete the presentation. Throw in nice sub response, and you get as much as you could ask for here.
Special Features
The extras are found on each disc. There is a Blu-ray copy, and the version I reviewed was a nice steelbook edition.
Alpha Squad: (26:25) This was the best and most interesting feature in the bonus materials. It concentrates on the cast and gives you a very detailed idea of who each of these main characters are with behind-the-scenes footage and plenty of input from the actors who play the parts.
Stunts Squad: (12:49) You guessed it. This one looks at some action scenes and takes us to choreography rehearsals.
Art Squad: (11:08) This one looks at production design with a focus on some sets and dressings. There’s a bit here on the practical f/x work, as well.
Gear Squad: (11:37) Here we look at the props.
Georgiou: (15:22) A closer look at the history and evolution of the character. There was a major fashion label that collaborated on Yeoh’s wardrobe, but something must have gone wrong on the clearance end of things, as just when the company is about to be named, we get an awkward cutaway.
Final Thoughts:
It appears that little was changed when this was imagined as a series. I’ll repeat, it would have been an OK pilot. There are plenty of Star Trek Easter eggs here, which just continues to prove that Alex Kurtzman is where great franchises go to die. He did it with my beloved Universal monsters universe, and with the exception of Strange New Worlds, he continues to do it to Star Trek. What will he butcher next? The film has those links to classic Trek, but this never feels like a Star Trek property. Not for a single minute. “So what’s our next assignment?”
