“Star Trek: Section 31” on Paramount +: an interstellar farce!

Here it is launched into the galaxy, this very first "TV movie" of the Star Trek saga, available on Paramount + since this Tuesday. Already rich in 8 series that have renewed their plots and their characters since the 1960s , as well as 13 feature films derived for the big screen that have also evolved over time, the cycle is therefore enriched today with a film specially produced for a streaming platform.

A "Section 31" in which we find a star, the Malaysian Michelle Yeoh, who reprises her role as Empress Philippa Georgiou of the Terran Empire that she played in 2017 in the series "Star Trek Discovery".

A bloodthirsty despot, mean as a moth, but with infinite power and very gifted for diplomacy, the Empress is recruited, at the beginning of the film, by Starfleet (the organization responsible for exploring and protecting the United Federation of Planets of the galaxy) to join Section 31, a shock unit that must flush out a very dangerous terrorist who threatens, on behalf of mysterious sponsors, the fragile interstellar balance. With a handful of accomplices no less formidable than her, she will have to navigate between several dimensions to stop these terrible enemies. Which will force Philippa to confront the horrors she perpetrated in the past to gain power, especially with her own family...

A sort of flashy space opera, "Section 31" combines just about everything that can go wrong in a science fiction film: ugly and disastrous special effects, a ridiculous plot that makes no sense, grotesque or non-existent characters, absolutely poor dialogue, cardboard sets covered too much in gold paint... Worse, if there are two or three touches of humor to be saved, the tone of the whole thing makes the saga tip into a spirit of giant buffoonery that no longer has much to do with the Star Trek universe.

The performances of the actors prove to be in keeping with the poverty of the concept: all of them, including Michelle Yeoh , seem to be passing by to collect their check and get it over with as quickly as possible... Avoid!