Ask any Star Trek fan and they’ll no doubt tell you a spin-off based around the shady cloak and dagger exploits of Section 31, the covert intelligence and defense organization of the Trek universe, seems like a no-brainer. They’d also probably tell you that a Star Trek spin-off starring Oscar-winning acting powerhouse Michelle Yeoh also seems a no-brainer of equal stature. So it’s understandable how excited die-hard fans will be for Star Trek: Section 31, yet having seen the film, it’s understandable how disappointed those die-hard fans are likely to be once they see it.

Star Trek: Section 31 has had a troubled development process, starting life as a TV series pitch back in 2018, before ultimately being retooled and condensed down into this one-off streaming movie following several years of delays. To say it shows would be an understatement, as there’s a real unshakable sense throughout the film that the planned 10 hour-long episodes have been hacked and slashed to a piddling 90 minutes with little compensation or adjustment for cinematic aesthetics, pace or character development.

The plot is simple enough, with Michelle Yeoh‘s Emperor Philippa Georgiou being recruited by Section 31 to recover a powerful MacGuffin whilst accompanied by a ragtag group of agents, including a shapeshifting Chameloid (Sam Richardson), a mech-suited heavy (Robert Kazinsky) and the future captain of the Enterprise, Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl). It’s an interesting assortment, but the way the film handles them and its rather average premise is anything but. The mystery villain reveal is laughably obvious and underdeveloped, the stakes never feel high, and the characters incredibly one-note.

The tone of the film is all over the place too, opting for an insufferably forced whackiness that feels totally at odds with the Section 31 witnessed in previous Star Trek shows (think The Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy, but bad). It’s oddly schizophrenic in style, veering from overly camp lunacy to broodingly dark character beats at a whiplash-inducing pace. It doesn’t help that nearly every character seems to think they’re the comic relief, cracking terrible jokes and incessantly yelling throughout, nor does it help that the intermittent flashbacks to Georgiou’s villainous past all feel tacked on and out of sync with the film’s overall vibe.

It would help if the film was more watchable from a visual standpoint, but director Olatunde Osunsanmi overcompensates on the action shots and wild camera angles to a nauseating degree, spinning or shaking the camera at every opportunity to the point that everything feels blurred and indecipherable. No doubt trying admirably to inject some energy into what is a rather lifeless story, Osunsanmi’s kinetically haphazard direction and editing instead only serves to confuse and induce headaches.

Section 31 on paper is a must-have Star Trek project, packed with enough dramatic potential to fuel a series or movie trilogy like no other. Here though, all that potential is wasted on annoying characters, dull plotting and flavourless drama, which especially rankles when one considers what a goldmine of storytelling the concepts of both Section 31 and Georgiou brings to the table. Whether Star Trek: Section 31 ranks as the worst Star Trek movie ever made is ultimately up to the hardcore fans in the long-run, but for this reviewer, it most definitely is. Easily the most chaotic and ramshackle film the franchise has ever produced, it’s a failure of imagination and possibly the most wasted opportunity in decades.

Star Trek: Section 31 premieres on Paramount+ on Friday 24th January