Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) of the Mirror Universe is hiding out in the far flung reaches of outer space when the secret Section 31 division of Starfleet approach her to help with an off the books mission. 

Forming a ragtag group of anti-heroes their goal is to stop the sale and use of a super weapon which just so happens to have ties with Georgiou. 

Alok Sohar (Omari Hardwick) is the leader of the group, a super strong human who is a survivor of the Eugenics War. Quasi (Sam Richardson) is a shapeshifter whose super intelligence tends to make him see too many options to make a quick decision. Zeph (Robert Kazinsky) is a human permanently in a mech suit so that his brawn will make up for his lack of brains. Melle (Humberly Gonzalez) is a siren of sorts able to manipulate minds. Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok) is a tiny bug piloting a robot Vulcan with an egregious Irish accent that could be considered a crime unto itself. And finally there is uptight Starfleet Officer Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl) who is supposed to keep them in check. 

Star Trek movies used to be events. Section 31 however has released to virtually no fanfare on a streaming service that it would be fair to say is less popular than its competitors. Which is perhaps quite good for the reputation of Star Trek because Section 31 is absolutely dire! 

Originally planned as a spin off series to Star Trek Discovery, where the character of Georgiou derives from, it was all scrapped when COVID struck. Some replanning and rewriting later and the planned series is now a 95 minute film which apparently covers some of the planned episode plot lines. Ruygrok who plays Fuzz has said in interviews that there would have been a whole episode explaining and exploring his species for example. 

There are no redeeming features here I am afraid. 

A hodge podge of Mission Impossible, The Dirty Dozen, Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad. But with no memorable or interesting characters apart from perhaps Fuzz whose Irish accent has to be the worst heard in any film ever made. Given the actor playing him is South African they may have been better off having him use his local intonation. Action sequences that are nauseating thanks to large amounts of cuts augmented by camera shakes and swooshes. A poorly conceived structure earmarked by secret communication titles. And a leading character that you will only know if you have watched Discovery. 

Even though it only runs for 95 minutes with credits there is a belief that you will probably find yourself on a secondary screen whilst streaming it resulting in plentiful call backs to events earlier in the film just to remind you of the plot.

Ultimately this feels like a poor imitation or bad parody of Star Trek rather than the real thing and I suspect even die hard Star Trek fans will struggle to find something to enjoy.