Star Trek: Section 31 is a 2025 American science fiction television film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny for the streaming service Paramount+. It is the first television film, and the fourteenth film overall, in the Star Trek franchise and part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. A spin-off from the series Star Trek: Discovery, the film is set in the franchise's "lost era" between the Star Trek: The Original Series films and the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It follows Philippa Georgiou as she works with Section 31, a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, and must face the sins of her past.
Michelle Yeoh stars as Georgiou, reprising her role from Discovery. Development on a spin-off series with Yeoh was confirmed in January 2019, but production was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A different Discovery spin-off series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, was then prioritized. Section 31 was redeveloped into a film, which was announced in April 2023. Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Robert Kazinsky, Kacey Rohl, Sven Ruygrok, James Hiroyuki Liao, Humberly González, and Joe Pingue also star. Filming took place in Toronto, Canada, from January to March 2024. The film was produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout, Action This Day!, and Roddenberry Entertainment.
Star Trek: Section 31 was released on Paramount+ on January 24, 2025. Many critics gave it a negative review, with several finding it to be the worst entry in the Star Trek franchise. The film received several accolades, including a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination for its sound editing. It was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards.
Plot In the Mirror Universe, an alternate universe governed by the ruthless Terran Empire, a teenage Philippa Georgiou returns home from a deadly contest to determine the next Emperor. She reveals to her family that she befriended a boy named San and they defeated the other young contestants together. To claim the throne, Georgiou cuts all ties to her previous life by poisoning her family. Imperial officials arrive with San, who failed to kill his own family, and Georgiou enslaves him as she ascends the throne.
In the Prime Universe in the early 24th century, agents of the secret Starfleet division Section 31 are sent to the space station Baraam outside Federation space. Georgiou, having traveled to the Prime Universe and joined Starfleet for a time, poses as Baraam proprietress "Madame du Franc". Section 31 agent Alok Sahar convinces Georgiou to join his team, which includes: Melle, an irresistible Deltan; Quasi, a shapeshifting Chameloid; Zeph, the user of a mechanical exoskeleton; Rachel Garrett, a no-nonsense Starfleet officer; and Fuzz, a microscopic Nanokin who pilots a robotic suit that looks like a Vulcan. They intercept arms dealer Dada Noe on Baraam and Georgiou puts a "phase pod" on the weapon he is selling so only those with their own phase pod can touch it. A masked figure with a phase pod takes the weapon and kills Melle. Before the intruder transports off the station, Georgiou recognizes the weapon as the "Godsend" which she had ordered the development of in the Mirror Universe. It is designed to destroy everything in its path.
Alok gains Georgiou's trust by revealing his backstory: he is originally from the 20th century and his family were murdered during the Eugenics Wars by a genetically-enhanced warlord named Giri, who enhanced Alok and had him commit atrocities in her name. The pair question Dada Noe in a Section 31 safe house and learn that he is from the Mirror Universe, he stole the Godsend from a weapons facility, and he was selling it to the Terran Empire who are planning to enter the Prime Universe through a wormhole and conquer it. When the safe house is sabotaged and their ship is destroyed, the Section 31 team believes the masked man was tipped off by one of their own. Zeph disappears and the others suspect him of being the mole, but they find him dead and evidence implicates Garrett as the killer. Georgiou deduces that Fuzz infiltrated Zeph's exoskeleton, forced him to sabotage their communications and then kill himself, and planted the evidence. Fuzz is transported away, but first he reveals that San—who Georgiou thought was dead—is the masked man.
The team uses an abandoned garbage scow to follow San. Quasi and Garrett take out San's shields with the scow's tractor beam while Georgiou and Alok transport onto his ship. Alok fights Fuzz's robotic suit, but Fuzz leaves the suit to attack the scow. San intends to destroy the Prime Universe with the Godsend and create his own empire that will be ruled with "righteous mercy" in contrast to Georgiou's cruel dictatorship. As the pair fight, the Godsend is inadvertently activated. Garrett rigs an explosive from the scow's garbage which Quasi jettisons into space, seemingly killing Fuzz. San tries to stab Georgiou but she blocks him and he fatally stabs himself, dying in her arms. Alok and Georgiou decide to fly San's ship through the wormhole, sacrificing themselves while directing the Godsend into the Mirror Universe. Quasi transports them off the ship at the last moment.
Three weeks later, the surviving members of the team reconvene on Baraam. They are joined by Fuzz's wife, Wisp, who pilots an identical Vulcan robotic suit and believes her husband survived the explosion. "Control", the director of Section 31, contacts the team about their next mission which is on Turkana IV.
Cast Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou:The leader of the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe who has travelled to the Prime Universe and joined Starfleet. Yeoh hoped the character would not lose her "edge" as Emperor Georgiou, despite learning lessons about compassion and humanity during her time on Star Trek: Discovery. Georgiou left that series and travelled to a different point in the Star Trek timeline, where she is the owner of the Baraam, a nightclub outside Federation space. Miku Martineau portrays a young Georgiou. Omari Hardwick as Alok:A Section 31 agent from the 20th century who is a "strategic mastermind" with "a lot of mental issues". Alok wants Georgiou to pay for her past by joining his team for a covert mission. Sam Richardson as Quasi:A Section 31 agent who is "disinterested in the delusion of 'utopia. Quasi is a Chameloid, the shapeshifting alien species introduced in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Robert Kazinsky as Zeph: A Section 31 agent who lives and works in a mechanical exoskeleton Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett: The future captain of the USS Enterprise-C, who represents Starfleet on the Section 31 team. Rohl described Garrett at the start of the film as a disciplined, rule-following officer who grows more comfortable operating in moral gray areas as the story progresses. Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz and Wisp: Microscopic Nanokin Section 31 agents who pilot robotic suits that look like Vulcans James Hiroyuki Liao as San: Georgiou's former love and rival for the Terran throne who she enslaved on her ascension. James Huang portrays a young San. Humberly González as Melle: A Section 31 agent who uses her "irresistible magnetism" to the division's benefit, unlike other Deltans in Starfleet who take an oath of celibacy Joe Pingue as Dada Noe: An arms dealer from the Mirror Universe
Additionally, Jamie Lee Curtis makes a cameo appearance as "Control", the cybernetically-enhanced director of Section 31.
Production Background During production on the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, special guest star Michelle Yeoh suggested to executive producer Alex Kurtzman that they make a spin-off series featuring her character Philippa Georgiou. Yeoh made the suggestion because she loved playing the character, and because she wanted to be a role model for young Asian women. Kurtzman was enthusiastic about the idea, but was unsure if a spin-off would be feasible since Discovery had not yet been released. After Yeoh's performance received positive responses, the writers of Discovery began exploring the black ops division Section 31 as part of her storyline in the second season. That led to further discussions about a potential spin-off series. In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of Discovery, Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Yeoh was in talks to star in a spin-off series by November, which was expected to follow her character's Section 31 storyline.
The streaming service CBS All Access confirmed it was moving ahead with development on the spin-off in January 2019, with Discovery writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt set as writers and showrunners. Kurtzman said the project was intended to be an ongoing series rather than a limited miniseries, and added that Kim and Lippoldt had begun writing while still working on the second season of Discovery. It was his hope that the new series would be ready to begin production once the third season of Discovery was completed. In March 2019, CBS Television Studios president David Stapf said the spin-off would be produced in Toronto, Canada, like Discovery, but it was "a good couple of years away", with Kurtzman expecting it to be released in 2021 or 2022. Yeoh confirmed that she was working on the series the next month. Kurtzman said Discovery writers were aware that their portrayal of Section 31 was inconsistent with the organization's introduction in the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the spin-off would show its evolution from their version to its original depiction, specifically why it becomes an "underground organization". Kurtzman cited Killing Eve and the Mission: Impossible franchise as influences and said Georgiou would be "a protagonist who's entirely unreliable. At the end of the day, she's going to do the right thing, but in the exact wrong way." In July, Shazad Latif indicated that he could be reprising his Discovery role of Ash Tyler in the spin-off. A writers' room had been established by the end of November, and Kurtzman said the completed pilot script "occupies an area of the Trek universe that's never really been explored geographically. It has a new mythology to it". He also compared the series to the film Unforgiven (1992).
By the end of January 2020, the series was set to be filmed from May to November 2020, in the newly opened CBS Stages Canada in Mississauga, near Toronto. In February 2020, the series was reportedly renewed for a second season to allow the first two seasons to be filmed back-to-back. Production on the third season of Discovery was completed that month, but filming on the spin-off was delayed by Yeoh's commitment to the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) which was set to be filmed from January to May. Plans to instead begin filming the spin-off series in May were soon delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Kurtzman later stating that their plans for the series had been "thrown completely into whack" by the pandemic. By August 2020, Kim and Lippoldt were working with Discovery writer Craig Sweeny to build the series; Sweeny previously served as showrunner on the Kurtzman-produced series Limitless. Kurtzman said the writers had been able to "get quite ahead in scripts" due to the production delays. A month later, frequent Star Trek director Jonathan Frakes said Kim and Lippoldt were optimistic that the series would be made despite work starting on a different Discovery spin-off series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Frakes had asked to direct Section 31 pilot episode but said a female director would likely be hired since the series was primarily a "woman's story". In March 2021, ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+.