Although Star Trek is preponderantly set in autopian futurewhere humanity has solved its problem and hazard out into the principal to explore the cosmos and forge peaceful new alliances , every once in a while the series likes to show a sorry mirror to the price of maintaining paradise — and Starfleet does it with Section 31 .
First introduce inStar Trek : Deep Space Nine’ssixth season , Section 31 has since made appearance in Enterprise , the alt - timeline “ Kelvin ” reboot film Star Trek Into Darkness , andmost recentlyStar Trek : Discovery — with Michelle Yeoh ’s Mirror variation of Phillipa Georgiou get together the clandestine grouping for theshow ’s second season(and evena whole spinoff showwith her that could be follow the organisation ’s exploits ) . These appearances have made part 31 less of the dark cost of the war Deep Space Nine ’s back one-half plunged itself into , and more of a dirty secret that has always existed beneath the nonesuch of Starfleet and the Federation . But if you in reality need to know what they do , here ’s all you need to know .
segment 31 has been part of Humanity ’s story since the foundation of Starfleet , predating not just the United Federation of Planets , but also the United Earth Government that was officially unify by 2150 in Star Trek ’s timeline . make its name from the 14th article of the 31st department in Starfleet ’s foundational charter — which declare that in times of grave terror to Earth ( and , after its introduction in 2161 , the Federation ) the idealistic regulating that maintained Starfleet ’s moral core could , and should , be bent .
Although other races in Star Trek have like word organisation — the Cardassians , for example , had the Obsidian Order , while the Romulans most infamously had their secret police , the Tal Shiar — what sets Starfleet aside is that it in reality had two rival group act as intelligence service operatives . The prescribed public “ side ” of spycraft in Starfleet is , unsurprisingly , Starfleet Intelligence , which primarily monitored information and gathered it to watch for potential threats to Earth and the Federation at tumid . But Starfleet Intelligence , like the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order , is a public - face official branch of its government . Section 31 , Earth ’s other intelligence activity radical , is n’t . In fact , it ’s so secretive , barely anyone in Starfleet out of doors of the organization in reality get it on it even be .
But exist it has . While we ’ve not seen a whole pile of Section 31 in Star Trek ’s TV story , what we have seen tells us that it ’s been influencing the way of life of Starfleet and the Federation for a very , very long time . Enterprise unveil that Lieutenant Reed was an operative of the group before he retort Starfleet at large as a tactical officeholder — although Section 31 can re - task former members with operations at any sentence , as we project with Reed in the show ’s quaternary season . Set a century later on , Discovery never name the mathematical group untila deleted scene releasedat Wonder Con earlier this year , but it ’s drape in the shadows of what the group represents ; after all , the Discovery itself and its experimental spore drive technology are top hugger-mugger Starfleet technical school . The black delta insignia of what would eventually be reveal as discussion section 31 is seen on crewmembers all over the Discovery , so even if most of the Starfleet crew alongside do n’t exactly know it , the group had a major part in overseeing the Discovery ’s early trial run with the spore drive .
Unsurprisingly , we determine the most about Section 31 in the most chronologically recent serial it ’s appeared in through the Star Trek timeline — the serial the sect first appeared in , Deep Space Nine . Although still a extremely secretive organization ( here , it ’s established that incision 31 not only operates beyond Starfleet ’s legal power , but is pretty much an totally autonomous electrical outlet that act , as Doctor Bashir describes them , as its own judge , panel , and public executioner ) , the Section 31 of Deep Space Nine has become more undetermined compared to is predecessors of hundred prior , even if their existence is still formally denied by Starfleet and the Federation . Multiple time we see them actively trying to recruit Starfleet officers like Bashir during the eruption of the Dominion War — a threat that does indeed seem like it would easily fall under Article 14 ’s purview — through the human action of kidnapping and extensive inquiry , but recruits who refuse to sign on up ( like Bashir ) are never actually told they have to keep mum about Section 31 ’s universe . It just becomes a sordid secret everyone pick out to dismiss to maintain the magic of decency .
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The operations “ New ” department 31 got up to in Deep Space Nine are also much bigger in scurf than the missions we saw the Enterprise - era Section 31 mucking about with , too — even if the remit of the Dominion War meant the organization could push itself to the limit . blackwash , infiltration , even proxy wars all become part of the radical ’s playbook in its attempts to make unnecessary the Federation from almost certain destruction . incision 31 plays a fundamental role in the denouement of the Dominion War and Deep Space Nine at large . They were the group that develop the virus killing the Founders in the state of war ’s final years , having used Odo as an ignorant transmitter in an endeavor to commit genocide . Without Odo put up a cure in exchange for the de - escalation of hostilities , Section 31 might have gotten forth with enact one of the high warfare crime conceivable in the Federation , a true marker of just how coloured things had become .
In an age where television dramatic play relishes in the gritty realism of even our space - bind adventures , segment 31 has become Star Trek ’s window intocritiquing the establishmentof its unassailably idealistic Federation . For better or defective , Star Trek has find out itself fascinated with prove the price of the ideals that have made the enfranchisement endure as one of the hopeful and most inspirational portrayals of our futurity on TV .
It might seemsuitably misanthropical for 2018that we ca n’t possibly imagine Trek ’s diplomatic future without it come in at the monetary value of some underhanded misbehaviour , but it ’s an estimate that ’s been around in the series for decades now — and it ’s one that show no polarity of going away any time soon .
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