Everything to Remember Before Star Trek: Section 31

This week Star Trek boldly goes with the first major movie of its streaming era: Section 31, a long-in-the-works former series turned into a streaming movie vehicle for Michelle Yeoh, returning to the franchise for the first time since she exited Discovery in 2020. But aside from the controversial spy organization that gives the film its name, here’s what else you need to know coming into the film.

What Is Section 31?

First introduced in the sixth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Section 31 is a clandestine intelligence branch of the Federation—separate from the public facing intelligence wing of Starfleet—intended to act as a black ops organization with the remit to act against existential threats to the Federation. Named for a clause in Starfleet’s charter that allowed for “extraordinary measures” in the face of extreme threats, Section 31 operated without official knowledge or guidance from the Federation or Starfleet at large, performing wetworks, subterfuge, and counterintelligence operations throughout the history of Starfleet.

Although introduced in Deep Space Nine at the height of the Dominion War arc, Section 31 would make appearances in Enterprise and Discovery to establish their roots earlier within Star Trek‘s primary timeline, but ever since its debut, the group has been seen as deeply controversial by Star Trek fans for what the existence of secret police within the franchise’s utopian setting means for the idealistic nature of that utopia.

The Brief, Universe-Hopping History of Philippa Georgiou

Discovery first introduced Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou as the captain of the USS Shenzhou, only for her to be killed in action at the outbreak of the Klingon-Federation war portrayed throughout the show’s first season. However, Yeoh would return to portray the character later that same season during a plotline set in Star Trek‘s infamous parallel reality, the Mirror Universe. There, Georgiou was not an officer in the Terran Empire, but its Emperor—and after surviving a coup attempt, she was brought back with the crew of the Discovery to Star Trek‘s prime universe at the behest of Michael Burnham, who had been a protégé of the prime Georgiou and first officer aboard the Shenzhou.

Mirror Georgiou was recruited into Section 31 after the conclusion of the war, acting as an agent initially tasked with maintaining the stability of the Klingon Empire’s post-war chancellor, L’Rell. But she eventually made her way back aboard the Discovery when the ship was forced to send itself thousands of years in to the future to the 32nd Century to destroy a rogue artificial intelligence developed by Section 31, Control. However, temporal distance from both her home reality and her home timeline caused Georgiou to begin destabilizing on a molecular level. After encountering the Guardian of Forever, who tested Georgiou to see if her time in the prime universe had changed her as a person, she was sent back to an undisclosed time period (more on that later) where the Mirror and Prime universes were still aligned, allowing her to stay in the latter universe without the threat of destabilization.

Who Else Is in Section 31?

Yeoh’s Georgiou is the primary returning character in Section 31, but she’s not the only familiar character among its cast of mostly new characters. Here’s a brief rundown of the main Section 31 agents we’re set to meet in the movie:

When Is Section 31 Set?

While we don’t have an exact setting for the movie just yet beyond the fact that it’s set in Star Trek‘s prime reality, the existence of Rachel Garrett in the cast suggests that the series has to be set some time in the early 24th century, given that she has not yet ascended to the rank of captain nor taken command of the Enterprise-C. This would set Section 31 in a period largely uncovered by Star Trek on the small screen, commonly known as the “Lost Era.” The original series was set during the late 2260s, with its successor films taking place from the 2270s through to the 2290s, while The Next Generation began in 2364, shortly after the commissioning of the Enterprise-D almost 20 years after its predecessor’s destruction.

The Enterprise-C itself operated in a period of time where the Federation and the Klingon Empire’s relationship after the signing of the Khitomer Accords peace treaty at the end of the 23rd century was still relatively strained. It took the Federation flagship’s sacrifice safeguarding Klingon forces to strengthen relations between the two factions, eventually leading to the formal Treaty of Alliance established some time between 2344 and the events of The Next Generation—which could give us some hints as to what the state of the universe is like by the time of Section 31.

Section 31 hits Paramount+ starting January 24.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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