Star Trek: Section 31 Review - A Lifeless Plot Drags Down Michelle Yeoh's Discovery Spin-Off

It feels like every few years, we go through a new golden age for the "Star Trek" franchise — even when it has lulls, it's never down for long. Right now, we've got a handful of different "Star Trek" television series to enjoy, from "Strange New Worlds" to "Below Decks." But, well ... then there's "Star Trek: Section 31." It sort of feels as though it should have been launched as a TV show, and indeed, all indications point to the fact that this was the original plan. But instead of a slightly silly, character-driven series that spins off Michelle Yeoh's Emperor of the Terran Empire character, we get a hastily thrown together buddy comedy that lacks any semblance of humor or, for that matter, buddies.

Section 31 is sort of a black-ops team for Starfleet — they're given assignments that the idealistic peace-keeping organization doesn't exactly want to be officially involved in. After all, Starfleet can't afford to be seen getting their hands dirty. In the events of this film, Section 31 is sent to liaise with Empress Philippa Georgiou (Yeoh), a formerly tyrannical leader from the Terran Empire, who has spent her time in this universe lying low. Together, this ragtag group of misfits — and former despots — must work together to save the world. You see, during Philippa's time as a genocidal maniac, she commissioned the creation of a world killer, the Godsend, so that if she were ever deposed, no one else could control the empire either (on account of it all being totally destroyed). But, predictably, it's fallen into the wrong hands, and to get it back, Philippa will have to confront the ghosts of her past.

From basically the first moment of "Star Trek: Section 31," it's clear that this film is all over the place tonally. You get the sense that it's going for a "Guardians of the Galaxy" vibe, with the quirkily mismatched members of Section 31, but there are two main problems with that. Firstly, "Star Trek" is a lot of things, but it often struggles with humor, especially the kind of off-the-cuff irreverence that would make something like this work — most of the time, "Section 31" feels like it's trying too hard, even with comic veterans like Sam Richardson in the cast. And secondly, the camaraderie doesn't feel earned. We don't know any of these characters, and they barely feel as though they know each other despite apparently having worked together for quite some time.

This is where the issue of the film's origins are most clear. Philippa Georgiou originally appeared in the entertaining but somewhat convoluted "Star Trek: Discovery," and given the success of the character, producers intended to create a spin-off television series that would put her front and center. But with the COVID-19 epidemic and then the WGA writers' strike, those plans were put to the side and eventually reverse-engineered to serve as a single television movie.

Ordinarily, that might not be a problem — except "Section 31" is essentially tailor-made to function as a television series. This kind of cast of eccentric ensemble characters only works if the script is impeccably written (which "Section 31" is, ahem, not) or if they're given time to cook — say, over the course of 10-12 episodes. We need time to get to know all these delightful little weirdos, otherwise we won't care about them.

And that's what happens in "Star Trek: Section 31." In just an hour and 40 minutes, the audience is given absolutely no time to get to know the team, and the plot itself isn't strong enough (by far) to make up for it. The result is a ploddingly-paced, would-be action comedy that struggles to hold our attention for more than a few minutes at a time. We would say that we want to get a chance to learn more about all the different members of Section 31, but we're given so little it's hard to even pinpoint where there are moments of potential that could be expanded upon. And no offense to Michelle Yeoh, but it quickly becomes evident that with her character, a little goes a long way — perhaps not the best choice to build an entire film around.

Essentially, what we have here is a souped-up backdoor pilot episode — and not even a great one at that. The plot goes nowhere yet somehow takes forever to get there, the cast of characters that we're clearly supposed to find endearing are so thinly written they could be blown over by a stiff breeze, and the stakes feel shockingly absent despite the fact that we're dealing with an end-of-the-world scenario. The only way this conceivably could have worked is as a series, and given the material and production values they're given to work with, even that is questionable. We're not exactly sure which number "Star Trek" film this technically is, so it's hard to tell if it falls into the famed even/odd "Star Trek" movie curse, but this is definitely not among the best the franchise has to offer.

"Star Trek: Section 31" premieres on Paramount+ on January 24.