• “Star Trek: Section 31” is the 14th feature length Star Trek film, and and the first film made specifically for streaming.
• Other Star Trek films include: “Star Trek: The Final Frontier”, “Star Trek Nemesis” and “Star Trek Into Darkness”.
• The film was originally announced in 2020 as a series, before being transitioned to a movie in early 2023.
• The film’s title refers to the Section 31 organization first introduced in the DS9 episode, “Inquisition”.
• “Star Trek: Section 31” was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, who was the co-showrunner for DIS beginning with season three, and directed several episodes of that series.
• The screenplay was written by Craig Sweeny, who also a consultant on season one of DIS, and co-wrote the teleplay for the episode, “Context is for Kings”.
• Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt are credited for the story; they were the going to be the showrunners for the “Section 31” television show, and wrote the pilot.
• The movie opens with a quote from the Greek playwright, Aeschylus. Michael Burnham also quoted Aeschylus in “The Sound of Thunder”.
• In a scene featuring a young mirror universe Phillipa Georgiou, we learn that the emperor of the Terran Empire is chosen via a battle royale of children ”culled from every corner of the Empire.”
• In “In a Mirror Darkly, Part II”, we saw mirror Hoshi declare herself empress after taking control of the Constitution-class USS Defiant, and demanding Starfleet’s unconditional surrender. Granted, finding a ship from the future of an alternate universe is probably not a reliable enough occurrence to make it the basis of selecting your head of state.
• In “Mirror Mirror” Kirk encourages mirror Spock to use the Tantalus field to change the course of the Empire, and in “Crossover” it is stated that he became the commander in chief, but he’s never referred to as having been the emperor.
• Georgiou tells her family the candidates for emperor were taken to Terra, implying that the scene takes place elsewhere. We know that the prime universe Georgiou was born in Malaysia, as per “Will You Take My Hand?”. Mirror Georgiou was aware of the fact.
• The character of San was first mentioned his body was seen in Georgiou’s flashbacks in “Scavengers”.
• The sword young Georgiou uses to maim San appears to be same one we saw her wielding later in life in “The Wolf Inside”. Or that one was modelled on this one.
• We learn that the head of Section 31 of the early 24th century apparently goes by Control, which was previously the name of the threat assessment artificial intelligence that went rogue, attempted to gain sentience, and kill all organic life in the galaxy in season two of DIS.
• Control is portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s a big reveal at the end!
• The name Control originated in the Section 31 novels, “Disavowed” and “Control”, written by David Mack
• Control’s file on mirror universe Georgiou contains clips taken from season one of DIS, as well as the two episode mirror universe interlude in season three. According to Carl, the events of “Terra Firma, Part 1” and “Terra Firma, Part 2” took place in a test, not the actual mirror universe.
• Controls’ file says that Georgiou was brought to the prime universe in 2257, ”but after a few years we lost contact.” The events of season two of DIS take place almost immediately after season one, unless there were ”a few years” between the resolution of the Klingon war, and the USS Discovery setting out from Earth to pick up her new captain on Vulcan in “Will You Take My Hand?”.
• The Treat of Ka’Tann was mentioned in “Fallen Hero”, though it predates the Federation. Presumably the Federation still upholds the treaties established by Vulcan and other member states.
• According to the map, shown, there are at least five Starfleet starbases on the other side of the border.
• According a chyron, it is stardate 1292.4. Which, if stardates were meant anything would place the film in season one of DIS, between “Battle at the Binary Stars” [stardate 1207.3] and “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” [stardate 1308.9]. However, stardates don’t mean anything, and are a mind trap.
• According to a display in the film, this would take place sometime after 2314, and would be before Rachel Garrett’s death in 2344, as per “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, but there is not much information available to narrow it down beyond that. Alok says he was
• We learn that Georgiou has set herself up as the owner/operator of a space station lounge, the Baraam. A deleted scene from the end of season one of DIS showed Leland recruiting Georgiou to Section 31 in brothel in the Orion district on Qo’noS that she took over.
• The Baraam’s majordomo appears to be from Cheron, which is notable only because according to “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, no one was left alive on Cheron falling the conflict between their two cultures. Granted, they are extremely long lived, and warp capable, so it’s entirely possible that Bele and Lokai were not actually the last of their people.
• Unlike Bele and Lokai, who were both brunette, Virgil’s hair colour is also half black and half white.
• Among the weapons in Georgiou’s office are:
• A bat’leth - Perhaps notably a TNG style iteration, as opposed to the DIS style
• A mek’leth - One of the varieties introduced in DIS
• A Romulan dagger
• Georgiou reveals that she was able to clock all of Alok’s Section 31 agents, as they are not particularly discrete. When they were introduced in “Inquisition”, Sloan, and the other Section 31 agents posed as regular Starfleet officers, with nothing particularly remarkable about them. In “Point of Light”, when Ash Tyler was recruited, he spoke of Section 31 as being something mostly viewed as a rumour among Starfleet officers.
• ”And since Vulcans never laugh…” We’ve seen Vulcans laugh, such as Sybok in “Star Trek: The Final Frontier”, as well as Tuvok in “Riddles”. Spock is half-human, but we’ve also seen him laugh in “Q&A”, and in “This Side of Paradise”. Granted, in “Riddles” and “This Side of Paradise”, both characters had their faculties compromised.
• There is a song titled “The Laughing Vulcan and His Dog” mentioned in “Disaster”.
• It’s Rachel Garrett! From Star Trek! Garrett was introduced in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as the doomed captain of the USS Enterprise C.
• We learn that Fuzz is not actually a Vulcan, but a microscopic being called a Nanokin piloting a robot facsimile of a Vulcan. The crew of the USS Endeavour seen in “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” was microscopic, though they were from an alternate universe where everything was smaller, so perhaps they don’t actually count and I’m just using this to explain Fuzz’s whole deal.
• ”Noe’s on his way to the Baraam to sell his latest creation to the Minosian High Council.” The planet Minos was first seen in “The Arsenal of Freedom”. The people there had reputations as arms merchants, and they wiped themselves out with their own weapons, which the USS Drake investigated.
• According to a display Garrett brings on, the Minosian Council was responsible for the destruction of the USS Stratford in 2314.
• When we see Quasi change his shape, he first becomes a mass of pseudopods. In “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”, Martia’s transition from one appearance to another was much smoother and quicker.
• Georgiou -- and San -- has a device called a phase pod, which allows her move a person or object out of phase with the rest of the universe, enabling whomever is phased to move through things. The effect is very similar to what accidentally happened to Geordi and Ro in “The Next Phase”, via transporter mishap. Unlike Geordi and Ro, Georgiou remains in phase enough that light still reflects off her.
• Also similar to Geordi and Ro’s experience, Georgiou and San do not simply fall through the floor.
• The mostly nude Andorian is played by David Benjamin Tomlinson, who played Linus on DIS, as well as a variety of other characters.
• Dada Noe informs Alok and Georgiou that he was able to cross over from the mirror universe due to the intersection of two ion storms opening a rift. Ion storms played a part in: Kirk, Uhura, Scotty and McCoy being transported to the mirror universe in “Mirror Mirror”; and Mirror Lorca being transported to the prime universe, as per “Despite Yourself”.
• We learn that Alok was born in the 20th century, and fought in the Eugenics Wars against the augments before being captured and made an augment himself. As per SNW, we know that the Eugenics Wars didn’t begin until the early 21st century.
• Alok says he slept most of the time between the Eugenics Wars and current day, after being exiled. In “Space Seed” the USS Enterprise located the SS Botany Bay, on which 84 augments were traveling in cryostasis.
• The bridge of the garbage scow is a redress of the bridge set of La Sirena.
• ”He played you, Emperor; San’s alive.” Georgiou was born in 2202, and in 2256, she experienced a six month time jump while being transported to the prime universe. Then, in 2257, she ended up accompanying Discovery to the 31st century, where she had a brief stay before the Guardian of Forever booted her back to the early 24th century, 2314 at the very earliest. Young San appeared to be the same age as young Georgiou, so, unless San used some form of stasis, or hopped around time a bit himself, he should be, roughly 112 years old, at minimum.
• San’s ship has Georgiou’s sword displayed.
• “We’ll reign over this universe with righteous mercy, not like you!” Through the course of the film, we’ve had multiple characters state just how monstrous Georgiou was as emperor of the Terran Empire, and her killing her own family and building a weapon so horrific its engineers took their own lives certainly aren’t doing much for her perception here. However, in “What’s Past Is Prologue”, Lorca berated Georgiou for being weak on border security, and not doing enough to preserve the Terran way of life.
• Turkana IV is the colony where Tasha Yar grew up.
• It appears that the Baraam is not stationary, and is actually a warp capable ship in it’s own right. And it also has a significantly large fleet? And Alpha Team is going to take all the Baraam’s guests with them on their mission to the planet with the roving ”rape gangs.” Anyways, we’ve seen stations serve as ships before, specifically the 31st century Federation HQ was used as evacuation lifeboats in “Coming Home”.