Mastodawn

Radical Edward's Field Trip

Tonight, I'm watching Star Trek: Section 31. I won't do the full live toot since this is my first time watching. Instead, I'll do my thoughts with context method which is a lot less verbose.

I'm aware that S31 is not a huge fan favorite but, as ever, I'll keep the Trek Bashing to a minimum.

The modified live toot will likely start at some point between 6-7PM EDT (UTC-4). Please be careful when interacting with potential parallel universe doppelgängers and changeling infiltrators, and see you then!

#StarTrek #StarTrekMovie #Section31

Star Trek: Section 31 - Wikipedia

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Given the format change for the evening, I won’t be giving a tight start time. We will start soon though.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

I've seen this opening a bunch of times. The bits before the movie plays. Everything is reversed and then swaps in the correct way. It's kind of clever.

I like the kind of location title card saying we're seeing the Terran Empire. If someone was coming to Trek for the first time, this isn't going to do anything for them.

Philippa's father(?) is making swords There's some kind of wind mill situation going on. Not enough to that wind mill to actually be useful though.

Phillipa describes a very Hunger Games scenario played out over months. The last task to complete is apparently to kill off her family. She killed them before the conversation started by poisoning their broth.

Roommate: Well, damn. I'm glad they didn't make it a TV show.

I'm guessing because they would have made us love these characters and then had Pip call them off.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Having legions beam in a rough thousand at a time is kind of impressive. "You have won the contest. Claim your victory." I half assume Pip is going to kill him. She holds a hot blade against his face. He probably survived that.

Having Control do the exposition is kind of wild. Also, it's not a very good voice over? Not as a performance and not as a way of conveying information.

Hard to tell if the music is fully or partially diegetic. Virgil has a vibe that was evident in my skimming of the beginning. There's a reason I made Virgil my user icon for the night. I don't think he's a major player in the movie but I hope he will be.

Pip doing the character intros is kind of wild. "Starfleet: where fun goes to die."

I need the rest of "Say Yes Tonight."

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Either Alok is misinformed or this movie doesn't know Pip. She's already done the galactic scale thing. She does things that interest her and challenge her.

The supposed Vulcan has a ... pseudo Irish accent? Reintroducing all the characters is kind of redundant in a way that could have been fun.

Seems a little premature for the heist explainer. We don't yet have a reason to care about anything.

I forget about Zeph's existence every time he's not on screen.

Pip doesn't like their heist plan. I already agree and I have no idea what her alternative is.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Pip's plan was certainly simpler. I like the concept of the phase box or whatever she called it. Having someone else show up with the same tech is a little too convenient as a complication.

I'm mystified as to what Pip got out of using the phase box again when her rival still has his. Also, not sticking to floors begs the question how they're not falling through floors A La The Next Phase.

The Rival opens the box and pulls out a steampunk looking device. Pip recognizes it and says it's impossible because she had that destroyed.

Flashback to an adult San and Pip discussing the device the Rival stole from Pip.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

The flashback to earlier in Pip's rule is kind of silly contextually.

I thought the Rival was San but San died. This is frustrating.

I had a feeling the head S31 guy was an augment. He's implying he's not but fought the Augment in the 1990s ... and then an Augment made him an Augment. That doesn't really work but it's interesting.

This transition is the kind of thing you do because you think it looks cool but you don't know why movies and TV shows do the thing.

It seems Dada Noe is also from the Mirror Universe, suggesting we now have three people from MU in the 'prime' universe ... in one movie ... unconnectedly. That's really rather a lot, considering.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Fuzz inhabiting a Vulcan body just makes him really hard to ignore.

As silly as her hair was on the Baraam, I'm not a fan of her newest hair.

Oh, that gives me some ship interior design ideas ... in the way that I want to do something radically different. :cough:

People are implying that Zeph is the one who's the mole. I'd kind of rather he wasn't and this was a misdirect.

"A monster with regrets is useless."

I don't know if he was the mole but Zeph seems pretty thoroughly dead.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Over-explaining Fuzz's scheme is a little unfortunate.

I like Garrett getting out of her chair unassisted. Car chase mixed with train top fight is fun but the action is a little too muddled to really get into it.

Fuzz pushed Pip over the side and laughed. Fuzz knows details about Pip's story he can't have. He reveals that San's alive. Maybe he is the Rival.

He took small bits of poison until he was immune a la Princess Bride.

The new ship reminded me of a Narn cruiser until stuff started unfolding.

Pip: The past always catches up with you.

Alok: Doesn't mean it always wins.

Alok did his own little Deus ex Machina, meaning their immediate predicament was a ploy.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

I'm not sure why they're not using the tractor to deal with the incoming torpedoes.

Quasi isn't thrilled by Pip's plan to use the nebula's radiation to take care of the origami ship because it's going to hurt them too.

This moment between Pip and Garrett makes no sense. It feels like it could have been fun if its context was in place.

Pip: There are no benevolent dictators, San.

Pip's motivations are all over the place.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 18, 2025

Surprise. I thought were going to make it through without one. Usually I'd say back in 15-20 minutes but given the light structure, maybe a bit longer than that.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 19, 2025

Pip and San both go for the sword but San gets it and cuts Pip's face with it. Pip gets the sword from him and strikes back. She accidentally cut his neck. Revisiting the the scene from when they were kids when they told each other they loved each other.

I'll probably write more about this later but it's not working out well for them.

Pip gets the doomsday box and activates it. It says it will go off in 60 seconds. She shares a moment with Alok. The passageway is open to the Mirror universe. Looks like they're going to wipe out a quarter of the people in the mirror universe instead. What the hell?

Apparently they're going with it? The box goes off.

Pip wakes up Garrett. Quasi got them out and Garrett hugs Pip.

Pip: Perkiness is disgusting.

Part of the TOS theme plays as the passage collapses. I'm so confused. Did they kill a quarter of the mirror universe milky way folks or not?

Back at Pip's bar. Quasi pretends to be Alok.

The Mrs. Fuzz has the same Vulcan exterior but now has a fake southern accent instead of a fake Irish accent.

Their next mission is on Turkana IV.

Brief thoughts to follow.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 19, 2025

I don't mind having a band of amoral ruffians playing in the Star Trek universe. That could be a lot of fun.

I have a problem with it being so hamfisted. You have to care about the characters. It would be great if you believed and cared about the stakes too. None of that is here and the characters we do know make no sense whatsoever.

Is Pip generally a little scattered and contradictory? Yeah! That's not what happened here though. I don't give a single shit about any of the other characters because we never got a reason to care about them.

They way they wrote the characters, they were more performing tropes at us and it just never connected.

Annie Jul 19, 2025

@HabitatRing Performing tropes... that's a good way to put the weaknesses of this film. Every shortcut in book was used.

I liked it more than most fans did but it had more than its share of issues.

I think there is some potential, if they do a sequel(I've seen rumors it's being considered though I don't know how credible the original sources are) I hope they don't have such a massive format change partway through. All of my serious complaints seem to be the results of attempts to save time.

Radical Edward's Field Trip Jul 19, 2025

@anniethebruce I feel like someone thought “the second Suicide Squad was so great, why not do that with Star Trek?” And that is a really great idea. It’s just … completely flubbed at that.

I hope they do get a second movie and it’s as much an improvement as the second Suicide Squad was.

I’d love to see them turn this around. And if they want someone to take a second pass at it, I’m their enby.

Still Nmyownworld Jul 19, 2025

@HabitatRing I enjoy it, but there are weak parts. Section 31 started as a series, and was changed to a film. It felt like a multi-episode story smushed into a film. Maybe a series would have helped with some characters, given them depth. Except Zeph and Fuzz/Wisp. Absolute nope for them (the characters, not the actors).

I wish the film's title was "Georgiou: (something)." Maybe as a series Section 31 would rate as the title. The film is about Georgiou. Section 31 is peripheral.

1/2

Still Nmyownworld Jul 19, 2025

@HabitatRing I love Georgiou, Alok, and San. Keep!

I love Quasi, too. But, he served no purpose, other than well acted moments of levity.

I could have done without:

Zeph, Fuzz/Wisp, Melle (seriously, why was that character included?), Garrett, and Control.

Garrett was okay, but her reason for being there was, at best, thin. I love me some Jamie Lee Curtis. Her appearance did not add to the narration.

Overall, I like more things than I dislike in the film.

2/2

Annie Jul 18, 2025

@HabitatRing There is a lot going on in this movie. I suspect they used the same story outline when they reformatted from series to movie, and were too reluctant to cut things out entirely. They just converted a few things from actual scenes and arcs into exposition dumps and called it a day, is how it feels that ended up happening.