Star Trek: Section 31 has a sharp premise: what happens when Starfleet’s secret police do the work the Federation cannot admit it needs? But the film turns that moral tension into a glossy, campy spy-action romp without giving its characters or ideas enough room to matter. Michelle Yeoh remains a compelling presence as Philippa Georgiou; the movie around her is both a thin action picture and a frustratingly shallow use of Star Trek.
What Star Trek: Section 31 is trying to be
Released on Paramount+ on January 24, 2025, Star Trek: Section 31 is a PG-13 film starring Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, a character who first appeared in Star Trek: Discovery. The official synopsis sends Georgiou into a covert Starfleet division charged with protecting the United Federation of Planets while forcing her to confront her past. Olatunde Osunsanmi directed; Craig Sweeny wrote the screenplay. Paramount Global Content lists a 90-minute runtime, while Paramount+ lists 1 hour 35 minutes—a minor platform-listing discrepancy, not a meaningful difference in the film’s scale. (Paramount Global Content; StarTrek.com; Paramount+)
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The title promises a story about the gap between the Federation’s public principles and the dirty work done in its name. The film’s central question is whether covert action can protect an ideal without hollowing it out. That is a promising Star Trek problem. The movie’s trouble is that it mostly treats the problem as permission for familiar spy-movie plotting, rather than a conflict it must seriously examine.
Why the premise fits Star Trek—and why the film underuses it
Section 31 is not an invention of this movie. StarTrek.com describes it as a secretive sect of Starfleet Intelligence, an institution that operates in the shadows of the Federation’s official mission. In a March 2025 feature, executive producer Alex Kurtzman explained the intended rationale: “The Federation has a certain charter that they can only operate within Federation space and according to certain rules,” he said. “But sometimes, there are problems that exist outside of that. The real premise of Section 31 is that in order for Starfleet to maintain the integrity of what we know about Starfleet, Section 31 needs to operate in the shadows and do what they do, and they operate outside Federation space.” (StarTrek.com, “Section 31’s Place Within Starfleet”)
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That description offers a strong dramatic engine: if an organization breaks the rules to preserve the system, who gets to decide when the compromise is justified—and what happens when the exception becomes the rule? The movie gestures toward that contradiction, but its energy is directed more toward covert missions and stylized mayhem than toward the consequences of operating beyond accountability. A setting built around an ethical argument is not the same thing as a film that follows the argument through.
As an action movie, it has movement but little momentum
The film’s action is busy and conspicuously heightened. Its mix of criminal-underworld imagery, camp and sci-fi spectacle may appeal to viewers who want Star Trek to go deliberately pulpy. But movement alone does not make an action sequence exciting. The set pieces need to build suspense, reveal character or change the stakes; here, the rush of incidents often feels like an end in itself. The movie reaches for attitude and escalation without consistently making the action feel consequential.
Rank #2
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That weakness is especially noticeable because the film’s most valuable asset is Georgiou herself. Yeoh can make a line land with a look and give an otherwise broad scene a sense of danger. Yet the screenplay too often relies on her established coolness instead of giving her a clear emotional progression. The story invokes her past, but the character work does not make every turn feel earned. Viewers who followed Georgiou through Discovery may find the return appealing; they may also wish the film had done more than use recognition as shorthand for depth.
The supporting cast includes Omari Hardwick as Alok Sahar, Sam Richardson as Quasi, Robert Kazinsky as Zeph, Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett, Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz, James Hiroyuki Liao as San and Humberly Gonzalez as Melle. The ensemble gives the film different personalities to play off Georgiou, but quick introductions and shifting loyalties leave limited room for those characters to develop into more than pieces of the operation. (Paramount Global Content)
Its Star Trek identity is the bigger disappointment
Director and executive producer Osunsanmi acknowledged that the project deliberately enters less familiar territory: “Section 31 goes to places that aren’t normal and aren’t as familiar in the Star Trek world.” He also pointed to Starfleet officer Rachel Garrett as an anchor to a more traditional perspective. (StarTrek.com, “Section 31’s Place Within Starfleet”)
That contrast could have made the film’s franchise identity its strongest feature. A covert outfit that acts outside Federation rules offers a natural counterpoint to Starfleet’s ideals; Garrett could have embodied the perspective that asks what those ideals are worth when they become inconvenient. Instead, the film too often uses the Star Trek name and institutional backstory as flavor for an action-and-spy story. It is not a problem that a Star Trek film leaves the familiar bridge or asks viewers to follow morally compromised characters. The problem is that it does not make the departure feel like an inquiry into what Star Trek believes.
That is why the “worse Star Trek one” part of the verdict matters more than genre purity. The franchise can accommodate comedy, political drama, horror, adventure and espionage. A darker story is not automatically a betrayal. But if a film borrows the Federation’s name and history, it should do more than place familiar vocabulary around conventional plotting. Here, the covert premise raises a question about power and accountability, then rarely presses it hard enough to distinguish the film from a generic operation thriller.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What critics disliked—and what that can and cannot tell you
The critical reception has been predominantly negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, the October 8, 2026 snapshot showed a 24% Tomatometer from 51 reviews and a 15% Popcornmeter from 1,000+ ratings; those are live, changing totals, not permanent measurements. The site’s critics consensus reads, “Beam it out of here, Scotty.” (Rotten Tomatoes)
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The aggregate is not an explanation, but the individual objections help identify the film’s pressure points. The New York Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis called it “a dog’s dinner of head-snapping reversals and explanatory dialogue — a movie with little on its mind but mayhem.” IGN’s Jordan Hoffman described it as “100 minutes of generic schlock containing only trace elements of Star Trek.” Total Film’s David Opie questioned the fit between the criminal-underworld setting and the film’s camp, saying it “doesn’t know what it wants to be.” These are critics’ judgments, not neutral facts, but they point to the same issues: screenplay coherence, tonal consistency and a weak connection to recognizable franchise concerns. (Metacritic)
Not every viewer will want the same thing from the film. Metacritic’s review page also includes positive audience opinion praising its campy, gritty story and action. If heightened style is the attraction, that response is understandable. But a taste for camp cannot supply the missing dramatic connective tissue, and energetic genre play does not by itself make the action effective or the Star Trek ideas substantial.
Is Section 31 worth watching?
It may be worth a try for Michelle Yeoh, for viewers curious about Georgiou after Discovery, or for anyone who enjoys a deliberately campy sci-fi spy story. It is a harder recommendation for viewers looking for a thoughtful examination of Starfleet’s ethics, a carefully developed ensemble, or action that builds through clear stakes and character choices. The film has a premise capable of supporting all of those things; its execution rarely rises to the premise.
Paramount+ lists the film on its platform, and StarTrek.com describes it as streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the United States and in international markets where the service is available. Catalogs and geographic access can change. For physical media, an Amazon Prime Video Dutch storefront listing displayed DVD and Blu-ray options when accessed; availability and editions depend on the regional store. (Paramount+; StarTrek.com; Amazon Netherlands)
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