Annotations for Star Trek: Section 31 (SPOILERS)

To be honest, I found it a bit pedestrian and the continuity geek in me is a bit annoyed with some bits.

Sigh. Okay, here we go.

The opening Star Trek Universe sequence features the old scow used in this movie as well as a mirrored version of the Star Trek logo, referencing Philippa Georgiou’s Mirror Universe origins and the plot’s connections to the MU.

Aeschlyus was a playwright of Ancient Greece often considered the father of tragedy. The full quote is actually, “The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.”

The opening scene takes place in the Terran Empire, the Mirror Universe counterpart of the Federation, although exactly where (or when) is not specified.

San was first mentioned in the DIS novel Die Standing as a friend of the younger Giorgiou, and then subsequently seen in flashbacks in DIS’s third season. We know little about him except that Giorgiou saw herself standing over his body and she believed she was dead (DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”).

This version of Giorgiou’s rise to power, by participating in a Hunger Games-esque event and murdering her family, is different from the “official” version seen in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1”, where Giorgiou, as a peasant girl, is said to have driven back a Klingon invasion single-handedly. Why precisely the Empire chooses its Emperor like this I leave it for my fellow Daystrom researcher to ponder.

Control was the name of a rogue computer system used by Section 31 that attempted to gain sentience to destroy all organic life in the galaxy in DIS Season 2. It was destroyed in 2258, so the name was given to another Section 31 operative which served the same purpose.

The unredacted text reads:

PHILIPPA GEORGIOU

PRIORITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED

The subject is EMPEROR Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the TERRAN EMPIRE She’s an established threat and tyrant with a vast history of calculated atrocities, against her people as well as others.

Located in a PARALLEL UNIVERSE with the highest criminal population in recorded history. After an unexpected event, thought to have been around circa 2257, Georgiou was brought to our universe. Starfleet lost contact after a short time with Section 31.

There’s some fragmentary text visible in the close-up, “Recently spotted using an alias”, “located outside federation space, where we are tracking”, “new black market threat.” Section 31 lost contact with Giorgiou because, like the rest of Discovery’s crew, she was transported to 3188 (DIS: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”).

The starmap, like all starmaps from DIS on, is based on Geoffrey Mandel’s *Star Trek: Star Charts”, but with some alterations. One thing I spotted is the existence of a demilitarized zone around Chin’toka - but smaller than the one depicted in Star Charts which circa 2378 or so.

Georgiou’s location is near Hupyria (where the species of Maihar’du, Grand Nagus Zek’s servant, hails from). While not marked on the map, it is in proximity to Ferengi space as well.

The Treaty of Ka’Tann was negotiated the Vulcan ambassador V’Lar in the 21st or 22nd Century (ENT: “Fallen Hero”). This is the first time we have details of it forbidding Federation entry beyond the borders delineated by the treaty. Known states in that part of the Galaxy include the Talarian Republic, the Cardassian Union, the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Ferengi Alliance and the First Federation (TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver”). As pointed out to me, this might explain why we never saw these species that much during the TOS era.

But that being said, we can see Starbase 17 (two of them, in different locations!), Starbase 25 and Deep Space 3 across the treaty line, and a few places Kirk and Pike’s Enterprise did visit, including Sarpeidon (which shouldn’t be there since it got blown up when its sun went nova in TOS: “All Our Yesterdays”), Gideon (TOS: “The Mark of Gideon”), Gamma Trianguli (TOS: “The Apple”), Galen (SNW: “Children of the Comet”) and Kiley (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”). There’s also Maxia, where Picard’s Stargazer was lost in 2355. So it’s all a bit of a muddle as far as production art is concerned.

The Stardate is 1292.4, at a space station called the Baraam. This is a TOS-style stardate, but back then stardates were pretty much random, and given the state of stardates these days, tells us absolutely nothing about when this is set

Virgil is a Cheronian (TOS: “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”), specifically of the ruling half-white class (white on the left side), who hold the half-black class in contempt. Cheronians are extremely long lived (Bele was chasing Lokai for over 50,000 years), but were assumed to have been extinct since 2268, casualties of a civil war which wiped out Cheron’s population.

Quasi is a Chameloid, a shape shifter whose species first appeared in ST VI as a prisoner on Rura Penthe, a Klingon prison planet. Like the other Chameloid, his irises are amber and don’t change when he shape shifts.

Melle is a Deltan, a species known for their extreme sensuality which most other species find irresistible. Those serving (officially) in Starfleet have to take an oath of celibacy so as not to take advantage of sexually immature species.

Giorgiou suggests Vulcans never laugh, which is a generalization because it doesn’t take into account v’tosh ka’tur (Vulcans without logic, first appearing in ENT: “Fusion”), who eschew arie’mnu (passion’s mastery). She also suggests he lost his mind during pon farr, the Vulcan mating frenzy (TOS: “Amok Time”).

Rachel Garrett first appeared in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as the Captain of the USS Enterprise-C, which was destroyed with few survivors during the Battle of Narendra III in 2344. Given that this is her younger counterpart, and that she appeared in her 40s in 2344, this would place the events of Section 31 in the mid 2320s, some 860 years in the past since Giorgiou entered the Guardian of Forever seeking redemption in DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 2”. Her presence on the team appears to be official, so that means Section 31 at this point in time is still operating as part of the Starfleet chain of command, unlike by 2374 (DS9: “Inquisition”).

Part of the reason Giorgiou did this was to stave off her impending death because of her separation both in time and universes between her rightful location in the Mirror Universe c. 2257. 2325-ish is still nearly 70 years separated from her rightful time, although that’s not as bad as 8.5 centuries and she’s obviously she’s dealing with it well.

“Where fun goes to die” is also the nickname given by the crew of Pike’s Enterprise to First Officer Una Chin-Riley and Security Chief La’an Noonien-Singh (SNW: “Spock Amok”).

Fuzz, a Nanokin (first species appearance), drives a Vulcan body much like the Teselecta in Doctor Who’s Series 6.

According to the readout, Minosians are a thriving, technologically advanced humanoid civilization allegedly from Minos Korva, and ruled by a High Council called the Minosian Sway. They also are arms merchants whose motto is “Peace Through Superior Firepower”.

Minos Korva is best known as a planet the Cardassians wanted to annex in 2369 (TNG: “Chain of Command, Part II”). However, production art in that episode suggested that the Class-M planet in that system was uninhabited when the USS Berlin surveyed it in 2343, and it was later annexed into Federation territory. The map seen here shows Minos Korva in proximity to Betazed, as it is in Star Charts.

Section 31, however, makes Minos Korva host to a thriving civilization of arms dealers, equating them with the Minosians of TNG: “The Arsenal of Freedom” (who had the same motto). Those Minosians were from the planet Minos in the Lorenze Cluster and were destroyed by the very weapons they were trying to hawk by 2364. So once again it’s a bit of a muddle.

Much like how Ro and Geordi somehow don’t fall through the floors of Enterprise in TNG: “The Next Phase”, Georgiou’s phase pod has the same effect despite her being otherwise out of phase.

San mentions that Giorgiou could have created something beautiful, which suggests this scene takes place before she was replaced by her future self in “Terra Firma, Part 1”.

Alok Sahar says he was born in the 20th Century and was alive during the Eugenics Wars. However, as we know now from SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” the Eugenics Wars no longer took place in the 1990s but in the 2020s instead thanks to time agent tampering. He was baseline human but augmented as a child much like Julian Bashir was (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”). Did I say muddle?

Georgiou’s titles, “Her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgie Augusus Iaponius Centarius”, were first mentioned in DIS: “Vaulting Ambition”.

An ion storm, a perennial hazard in Star Trek, was the cause of Kirk’s foray into the MU in TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, as well as part of the confluence of factors that caused the Narada to split off the Kelvin Timeline (ST 2009). An anomaly allowing passage between universes reminds me of the overarching plot of LD’s final season.

The Crescent Nebula doesn’t show up in Star Charts but does in this movie’s starmap. It is in the same approximate place as the Tong Beak Nebula (DS9: “Children of the Empire’).

The collapsing Terran Empire described by Mirror Dada Noe is consistent with the conquest of the Empire before 2370 by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance of the MU (DS9: “Crossover”).

Terbium is 65 on the period table and first mentioned in TNG: “Manhunt”. The metal reacts with water, giving off hydrogen.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! But wait, if San died before 2257, how does he still look so young? LD comes to the rescue: since we saw during Season 5 that people from different time periods can enter through the portals. It’s possible that San just found a portal from 2257 (or thereabouts) to 2324 (or thereabouts).

Georgiou performs percussive maintenance on the scow to get it going, something Jankom Pog was fond of in PRO.

The lack of shields and weapons locks in a nebula is long established in Trek lore dating back to the Battle of the Mutara Nebula in ST II. Generally, one needs shields to be down to transport through them, although there are known workarounds (TNG: “The Wounded”).

Garrett identifies the toy as coming from a “Droom planet”. Coincidentally or not, Droomplanet is a learning platform from India for storytelling to kids. This is the first mention of Droom technology, terrenium or tomohite.

Control is portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis, who co-starred with Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Turkana IV was the home planet of Tasha Yar, the first Security Chief of Picard’s Enterprise-D, who died in 2364 (TNG: “Skin of Evil”). While civil unrest and secession from the Federation would lead to chaos and Tasha escaping from the colony around 2353, that collapse wouldn’t start until around 2339.

If we’re going to take that last shot literally, Baraam is warp-capable. We wouldn’t see warp-capable space stations until the 32nd Century (Federation headquarters, the Pax-class USS Federation, in DIS: “Coming Home” ).