This week was supposed to be a different video, but life happened. So, here is my editor, Tim, with a video on Section 31. Section 31 is a terrifying idea, a rogue organization that has existed since the very foundation of Starfleet. They assassinate foreign leaders, spark wars, and conduct clandestine espionage operations without any accountability from higher up. They see themselves as the last line of defense for the Federation way of life.
Their existence poses the question: Is a utopia possible without a group like them? If not, is there even any point in trying? The writers of Star Trek Deep Space 9 understood this concept. They knew how to flesh it out, making it interesting. They created a villainous force that shakes up the entire premise of the show, while simultaneously using this force to strengthen the overarching ideals of Star Trek and its Federation.
What initially made Section 31 as brilliant as they were boils down to one simple idea: They're wrong. Luther Sloan, their leader in the DS9 era, constantly talks about how their existence is a necessary evil. The show spent a lot of time peeling back the layers of Gene Rodenberry's vision of a utopian future, repeatedly asking whether such a future is feasible, sustainable, or even worth the effort. DS9 depicted the Federation as flawed but ultimately trying its best to make the right calls, a government body that, despite the occasional screw-up, still does genuinely stick by its values where it counts.
Section 31 changed things. Does the Federation really mean well? Does it even believe in its stated ideals of unity and coexistence? What's the point in fighting for a society that relies on the existence of an agency that flagrantly disregards the principles it claims to uphold? All of this comes to a head in the 10-part series finale. Section 31 distributes a deadly disease throughout the entire changeling species, the leaders of the Dominion. DS9 calls it what it is: genocide. Aside from the moral issues, it doesn't even work.
When the Federation acts on its stated ideals, when Bashir steals the cure from Sloan's mind, and Odo gives it to the rest of his species, that the Dominion finally surrenders and attempts to peacefully coexist with the rest of the galaxy. Section 31 are ultimately wrong. That's DS9's entire point. There is no lesser of two evils. Section 31 is just pure evil. Despite this obvious message, it feels like the writers of New Trek just didn't get it.
Like a lot of things, you can trace the decline of Section 31 back to Star Trek Enterprise. Admittedly, they weren't too bad here, but they lacked the thematic cohesion they had in DS9. Discovery was really the beginning of the end. The whole current era of Star Trek has a really strange idea of Section 31. It's less like a conspiracy and more like an open scandal that everyone pretends not to know about. Even Captain Pike, Starfleet's golden boy, knows about and accepts them. In season 3 of Star Trek Beard, the main villain, Vatic, is a changeling who was tortured by section 31.
The show ignores any wrongdoing on Starfleet's part, barely mentioning Section 31, and just resolves things with a typical 'oh no, the borg are back' moment. The lack of acknowledgement makes our heroes look incompetent and morally repugnant. Section 31 missed the point. They are supposed to be the bad guys who have the less practical and morally worse worldview. Instead, they prove themselves right by winning in the end, ensuring the Federation gets to live on as a utopian paradise thanks to their work. Lately, the writers have consistently framed Section 31 as a necessary evil, the exact opposite of DS9's message.
DS9 recognized that flawed as Gene Rodenberry's idea of a future paradise may have been, it can be achieved without resorting to Section 31's dirty tactics. Why can't modern Trek writers do the same?