WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Section 31Star Trek: Section 31introduced a new leader of Section 31, but her name makes no sense. Following Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and a team of black ops Section 31 agents,Section 31is aStar Trekfilm unlike any other. Alok (Omari Hardwick) and his eclectic team recruit Georgiou for a mission to save the United Federation of Planets from a mysterious and devastating weapon. Early in the film, theSection 31 leader known as Control (Jamie Lee Curtis)explains the details of the assignment to find Georgiou and neutralize this new weapon.
TheSection 31 organizationwas introduced inStar Trek: Deep Space Nineas a covert intelligence operation that did the dirty work necessary to keep the Federation safe. As revealed inStar Trek: Enterprise,Section 31 had existed since the earliest days of Starfleet,thanks to a line in the original Starfleet Charter (Article 14, Section 31) that allowed for extreme measures to be taken during"times of extraordinary threat.“Section 31 operates mostly in the shadows with very little oversight, but it is technically part of Starfleet Intelligence.
Section 31’s Leader Named Control Makes No Sense After Star Trek: Discovery
Why Would Section 31 Continue To Use The Name Control?
InStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2, Control was the name of Section 31’s artificially intelligent threat assessment system in use in the 23rd century. After the Battle of the Binary Stars, which kicked off theKlingon-Federation war of 2256-2257, Section 31 poured more resources into their threat assessment program, feeding more and more data into Control. Initially, Control was only used to make recommendations, but some officials wanted to hand decision-making power fully over to Control.After acquiring so much knowledge and power, Control attempted genocide by planning to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy.The USS Discovery had to permanently jump to the 32nd century to stop Control from rising again after it was destroyed.
How Star Trek: Section 31’s Tone Compares To The Rest Of The Franchise Explained By Director
EXCLUSIVE: Star Trek: Section 31 director says the movie encapsulates a wide variety of tones that will fit nicely with the modern Star Trek era.
Star Trek: Section 31takes place in the early 24th century, decades after the events ofStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2. Consideringthe death and destruction attached to the name Control,not to mention the blight it has on Section 31 as an organization, why would they name their leader that? The Control ofStar Trek: Discoveryattempted to wipe out all of civilization, and the USS Discovery had to travel over 900 years into the future to keep the vital Sphere data out of Control’s grasp. This seems like something Section 31 would want to scrub from their history books entirely.
Jamie Lee Curtis Continues Star Trek’s Casting Coups
Modern Star Trek Has Attracted Some Surprising Talent
Although Jamie Lee Curtis appears briefly as Control near the end ofStar Trek: Section 31,it’s not clear whether she is a hologram or a real person. It seems odd that Section 31 would place any lever of power in the hands of another artificially intelligent being like a hologram, but the truth about this version of Control remains unknown. Still,it’s cool to see an actress like Jaime Lee Curtis pop up inStar Trek.Curtis becomes another in a long list of names of high-caliberactors who have joined theStar Trekfamily.
Michelle Yeoh and Jaime Lee Curtis also starred alongside one another in the 2023 Best Picture winnerEverything Everywhere All at Once. Both actresses also took home Oscars for their respective roles.
With actors like Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs,Star Trek: DiscoveryusheredStar Trekinto the streaming era with big-name talent, and modernTrekhas continued this trend. The upcomingStar Trek: Starfleet Academyhas been confirmed to be starring Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, both of whom have impressive and award-winning careers. As such a long-lived and beloved franchise,Star Trekattracts its fair share of famous faces, whether they grew up as fans of the series or not.Star Trek: Section 31continuesStar Trek’strend of casting major movie stars with Jaime Lee Curtis' turn as the somewhat confusing Control.
Star Trek: Section 31
Cast
Star Trek: Section 31 follows Emperor Philippa Georgiou as she joins a clandestine Starfleet division tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, confronting the consequences of her past actions.
