Commentary: ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Illustrates The Power Of Building Upon Canon
by Frank Martin
Long-standing franchises have an advantage freshman stories do not have. After years of building plots and characters within a shared universe, there are multiple opportunities to build upon that canon and create something new. It’s as if each new installment creates a new foundation, using elements from what came before it as ingredients. Star Trek is an excellent example of this. Over the years, new series and movies have successfully taken concepts from Star Trek lore and implemented them into their own production. Regardless of how it was received, Star Trek: Section 31 is an excellent example of this.
The film follows Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), an emperor who came from the Mirror Universe and is now stuck in the Prime Universe. Considered an outcast with no allegiance or place to go, Georgiou was recruited by Section 31 — a clandestine arm of Starfleet that works independently and without oversight in order to stop threats the United Federation of Planets would otherwise be hindered from battling due to bureaucracy and legality. The film follows Georgiou as she and a team root out a threat from within and save the galaxy in the process.
It’s clear to see a path through the generations of Star Trek to create Section 31‘s storyline. The Mirror Universe was a concept first introduced way back in the original Star Trek series. It featured evil versions of the characters everyone was familiar with. The concept was reintroduced in subsequent series, notably with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That program also introduced Section 31, a new concept at the time that was later utilized in Star Trek: Discovery. It also created a version of Georgiou from the Mirror Universe, who then went on to star in Section 31. These are three distinct and separate generations of Star Trek that all contributed to Section 31’s creation while also building upon the elements that came before. It’s a very complex way to build a story that only an expansive franchise like Star Trek can pull off.
Star Trek: Section 31 is now streaming on Paramount+.
