Section 31

posted on August 28th, 2011, 5:13 pm

How would you feel about a series revolving around Section 31.
Right now Section 31 has always been an antagonist, the evil shadow of the federation.

posted on August 28th, 2011, 5:18 pm

I'd support it, you don't often see things from the extremists point of view.

posted on August 28th, 2011, 5:28 pm

could be intresting

posted on August 28th, 2011, 5:31 pm

I'd support it, you don't often see things from the extremists point of view.

i never really saw section 31 as extremists. extremisim usually dentoes an extreme viewpoint or position, but section 31 seemed to have only 1 agenda, defend the federation from anything that could hurt it. a rather simple agenda that most would agree with, its the methods they use that set them apart from starfleet.

on methods they used similar methods to pretty much every other major power (klingon intelligence, obsidian order, tal shiar). just they didnt let their own citizens know about it.

i would be happy with more about section 31, problem is they work in the shadows, they have very little exposure to anyone. so stories would be pretty scarce. it wouldnt be a new thrill a week, as most moves they make would be very well thought out and calculated. they dont explore space, they dont fight wars. i just wouldnt see a show being able to revolve around s31. maybe if it was a show with 1 character having links to s31, kinda like in enterprise, but stronger.

posted on August 28th, 2011, 5:33 pm

S31 would make for a horrible show.

S31 is supposed to be the epitome of stealth, even most of SFI and the Tal Shiar dont know about them, and a show would require they be a tad obvious or else it would get boring real fast.

posted on August 29th, 2011, 12:45 am

S31 would make for a horrible show.

S31 is supposed to be the epitome of stealth, even most of SFI and the Tal Shiar dont know about them, and a show would require they be a tad obvious or else it would get boring real fast.

Actually i think it could make a nice show. Fill in blanks which exist today such as Earth - Romulan war, was the explosion of Praxis really an accident? Federation - Cardassian War. Events leading up to the USS Pegasus.

And so forth.. a darker perspective on the Star trek Universe.

posted on August 29th, 2011, 2:01 am

Don't need them to be obvious, have them go undercover as normal Starfleet personnel, then hav a regular trek episode (maybe even more mundane than TNG, less energy beings and the ship about to explode)...except a few key scenes revolving around the S31 character(s) that show what S31 is up to.
Essentially some Starfleet slice of life but with the viewer getting to see what most of the people on the ships don't.

posted on August 29th, 2011, 3:55 am

Good point Nebbie, I considerd mentioning that as the only way it would work, but it would still be too much of a strech even then, you have your agents and whatever their cover ID is, and their IDs alternate as the A or B plot of the episode, with prehaps the section31 bit not being that big of a deal execpt every few episodes when the opprotunity strikes. So you end up with  a trek show, with a few characthers occasionally doing other stuff. Admitedly there would likely be long term plot arcs get in a cover to eventualy do something about covert threat 1, deal with overt threats 1 2 and 3 under the guise of your cover ID with 31 resources, wait until the time is right, deal with the covert threat, then move on to new cover ID or get your cover ID transfered. However I'd see temporal investigations as a better choice in that case, they could investigate and/or fix stuff related to all the time travel in various episodes, occasionly fight other time travelers, and have more time travel from non-plotarmored characthers exposed and investigated/fixed. Of course the problem there is that they'd run into The Sisko time traveling to bring back baseball, and he would win because he is The Sisko.

Andre, anything spanning that length of time wouldn't be done as a TV show I dont think

posted on August 29th, 2011, 4:12 am

If Section 31 wouldn't work well as a tv show, perhaps a film based around section 31 would be more appropriate?

posted on August 29th, 2011, 4:18 am

Well a trek series based during one of the various between TV series wars that get alluded to would be interesting, and then they could go and have a characther (it'd have to be a minor one too tho) be section31. But the thing is that to do it right the s31 agent would have to remain unknown to anyone but the viewer or at most eventualy the captain, and I doubt that'd get handled right.

As for a movie, well I doubt that'd get done simply because S31 is too unkown to non-trek fans.

Shame too cause it could be done good if it were done right, but the SOP for trek these days seems to be lensflare crapfests.

posted on August 29th, 2011, 8:19 am

You could almost maybe pitch a Section 31 movie to spy movie fans 

posted on August 29th, 2011, 9:33 am

The thing is they don't care about the fans, they care about mass market appeal.

posted on August 30th, 2011, 2:37 am

I think a series that had S31 interfere a lot would be better than a s31 show, a show solely dedicated to them would be cancelled pretty early and would make ENT's run look long. 

Though I do like the idea of finding out more about them.

posted on September 11th, 2011, 8:10 am

I support this as maybe a book or comic series but probably not as a show, simply because it would be much more difficult to have a revolving storyline, whereas each book could feature a new person/mission. I don't think this would survive as a show though, simply because of how difficult it would be to create a storyline for it.

posted on September 15th, 2011, 3:52 am

Trekkiefan2, a book/comic would be easily done with a single characther or set of characthers, the whole point is that they are secretive, and it could easil take place at times in the background of previous movies/series.

However the main pitfall would be having the author avoid having them get noticed by their own people, as everything (very little) we've seen of S31 indicated that almost noone ever heard of them (and one could assume that the DS9 bunch was an exception simply due to the dominion war forcing them to step out of the shadows ever so slightly)