Last week Paramount released the Section 31 (made for TV) movie, set in the Star Trek Universe. As a fan of Trek I watched it, so here are a few thoughts, along with spoilers.  Don't claim you weren't forewarned ;-)

There's a lot of hate about this film online, even before it dropped on Paramount+.  The familiar chorus of "It's not Star Trek" or "This isn't Star Trek, where's the optimism" was audible through the comments...which I have started to ignore anyway.  Listen, the film does have some issues, but it's a good first attempt at this concept. I don't buy the argument that because the federation was built on optimism and idealistic values that it negates the existence (or even the need?) for three-letter agencies like Section 31. As misguided as some of the things done by three-letter agencies are, the broader population is largely ignorant of them.

Section 31 also brings to life Tim Russ' concept that is presented in Star Trek: Renegades, in its own way, so it's interesting to see a FanFilm concept given space on the big (and official) screen.

Anyway - about this film.  When we last saw Emperor Georgiou, she was leaving Discovery to join up with Section 31.  At the beginning of this film, we see that Section 31 is hunting her (ha!) because she escaped, presumably because she was bored. The core idea is that an ion disturbance is bringing mirror universe people over to the prime universe, with the intent of conquering and pillaging things here because the mirror universe is f*cked. I saw this as an allegory for climate change and the pillaging of nature more broadly.  Anyway, a figure from Georgiou's past shows up, and this is a useful mechanism to explore a bit of Georgiou's f*cked up upbringing and how she evolved as an emperor of the Terran empire.

All this is perfectly fine and it would make an awesome season of Star Trek. I think the overall problem with this movie is the pacing. They took a story that needed a season's worth of raw materials and story, placed it in a 10-episode crockpot and left to simmer and develop its flavor. By compacting it into 90 minutes you really didn't get any of the spice and seasoning to seep in. You got a slightly overcooked burger and fries.  Now, I did enjoy the Mission: Impossible (or Suicide Squad) vibe of the movie, but I think the characters really needed more room to breathe and be explored (like, why tf did that microscopic alien choose an Irish accent? for a Vulcan body!).

The movie is worth a watch, but I think it needed more.