I am really struggling to get excited about a Trek entry for the first time in my life with this one.
Ironically, I’ve always thought a S31 show could work if handled like “Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy” in space. However how they handled it in Dis makes me think this will be Mission Impossible in space and that doesn’t sound appealing to me.
The latest rumours before the strike characterized the movie as a cross between MI and Guardians of the Galaxy.
If they broaden out an ensemble to include other legacy characters across the franchise with S31, intelligence and/or temporal shenanigans, it could be a lot of fun.
They’ve been trying to give The Empress her own show and Worf said they were necessary. Depicting them as an official branch of Starfleet instead of a conspiracy within Starfleet also grants them legitimacy that they didn’t have in DS9. Even their plot in DSC S2 is specifically depicted as their AI going rogue rather than S31 doing anything wrong.
The way he says it implies he’s not being entirely truthful.
BASHIR: So which department are you with? SLOAN: Let’s just say I belong to another branch of Starfleet Intelligence. Our official designation is Section thirty one.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say, “let’s just say,” and had it been followed by a truthful statement.
It’s not a phrase people use to indicate they’re lying - it suggests a long story or a complicated arrangement, but a fundamentally truthful one. This is backed up at the end of the episode, when Starfleet Command tells Sisko to take a hike when he asks about S31.
I still don’t get the impression that S31 being legitimate was the writer’s intention at the time. That Sloan is or was from Starfleet Intelligence and uses Starfleet resources while Starfleet Command looks the other way also works for interpreting his statement. Starfleet Command refusing to confirm or deny S31’s existence can be used to back up basically any position. For instance, if S31 is a conspiracy within Starfleet, then Command can’t acknowledge it or they would have to do something about it; acting like they don’t know anything means they can keep letting S31 do what they want.
Even the bit of the charter mentioned in ENT implies that Harris and S31 are taking a very liberal interpretation of the Starfleet Charter. “Reread the Charter, Article 14, Section 31. There are a few lines that make allowances for bending the rules during times of extraordinary threat.” But S31 operates day-to-day against ordinary and mundane threats, like everyday Romulan politics. And that bit doesn’t seem to mandate the creation of a special branch just for extreme threats. Rather, it seems like it’s there to cover the random crazy things that Starfleet crews run into once every few years, like taking a BoP back in time to gather some whales not resulting in punishment because of the extreme threat posed by the whale probe, even though they blatantly violated a bunch of rules regarding time travel.
I think of Section 31 as the Federation’s dirty little secret, operating off the books, weapon of last resort. I wasn’t surprised that the Federation was capable of things that didn’t fit its public doctrine when the utter destruction of the people of Federation by an outside, more powerful force was nigh. The Federation leans into diplomacy, but I never thought it impossible for them to have bag of tricks – Section 31. To me, the Federation would let the Federation fall because, say, member worlds left. But, not when something is about to destroy most or all of the people of the Federation.