Deep Space NineUnderstood the Fantasy of Spies—and Their Reality

In just under a week , the nextStar Trekproject arrives in theform ofSection 31 , a pour movie starring Michelle Yeoh diving into the titular calamitous ops system — one that , at least in all the footage we ’ve seen so far , put an emphasis on the meretriciousness and glam of secret agentive role work . There ’s military action , there ’s bedazzle costume , there ’s even , perhaps most amazingly in the context of it all , direct Federation oversight , like a co - worker with a stick up their can who ’s here to finish you from having fun .

It ’s no wonder then that someStar Trekfans are concerned about just whatSection 31really think its namesake is — and perhaps even a few of its stars are concerned about that . “ I ’m terrified of how it ’s blend in to be received , because it ’s not theTrekpeople require . TheTrekthat people want , theTrekthat we all need , is just 1,000 more episodes ofTNG , ” Rob Kazinsky , who wreak the cybernetically enhance Zeph in the film , recently toldSFX Magazine . “ Everyone ’s always tempestuous that they ’re not getting moreTNG , whilst at the same time , whenTNGcame out , everybody hated it . So this is choke to come along and it ’s not going to feel like anyTrekthat they ’ve ever go steady . “

But when it comes to theStar Trekthat multitude need — especially aStar Trekgrappling with the idea of subdivision 31 as its primary centering — perhapsThe Next Generationshouldn’t be the example we reverse to . To get a actual perspective onSection 31 ’s roleinStar Trek , and its self-contradictory beingness as the “ necessary evil ” thatdestroys its Zion , we need only look back at the show that give it to us in the first lieu : Deep Space Nine . Crucially , in the band - up before that intromission , DS9had whisked us and Dr. Julian Bashir , the persona who takez on the thrust of its electric arc with Section 31 , on another journeying in “ Our Man Bashir . ” It’saJames Bondpastichethat put Bashir at the center of a glitzy , glamorous , and all - together kitschy love life varsity letter to classic spy - fi .

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In “ Our Man Bashir ” , spycraft is sexy , elegant , and take with activity . Bashir come to be the unabashed hero of his holosuite program — there ’s gorgeous retro costume , casinos and glamour , clear - cut villains with comically dastardly game to take over the creation . Even with Garak — an factual former undercover agent , one that Bashir has always been obsessed with crack the closed book of — go after along in Bashir ’s risky venture to playfully remind him just how unlike actual spywork this all is , it ’s an episode celebrating cinematic spycraft as we have intercourse and love it . Even with the dramatic quandary that it plays with ( it ’s a classicTrektrope , the holodeck - gone - wrong scenario with a “ die in the biz , die in genuine sprightliness ” chemical element to boot ) , it ’s an sequence that almost vindicate Bashir ’s romanticized dream of what being a undercover agent is entirely , even when he ’s forced to save the actual day by losing at his fantasy .

Two seasons later , DS9introduced Section 31 in its sixth season in “ Inquisition , ” when Bashir is aim by the establishment as a potential recruit at the height of its story arc pierce the galax into chaos with the irruption ofthe Dominion War . At this peak , the show had already done much to penetrate the harsh reality of what Captain Sisko hadonce draw other oninDS9‘s tenure of it being gentle “ to be a saint in paradise , ” see just how Starfleet and the Federation at great responded when present with interstellar conflict on an unprecedented exfoliation . If “ Our Man Bashir ” had treated Garak ’s side - jabs about the reality of spywork as a joke for Bashir to cut , “ Inquisition ” makes them the drive of its text : from the get - go , Section 31 is deliver as an antithesis of everything Bashir and the rest ofDS9‘s crew hold dear .

The piece of work Agent Sloane does , even just to the extent of what he depart through just to try and raise Bashir , is trespassing and commonplace . Sloane himself , the embodiment of segment 31 as we amount to know it , is weight with a sense of paranoia that cuts against anything we ’d expect of a Starfleet functionary , disastrous ops or otherwise . Bashir is not excited to break Section 31 exist , but is downright horror-struck — and his immediate response , as is the rest of the crew ’s , is to essay to ruin it wholly , either through bringing it into the light or , as Sisko ultimately hint to him at the end of the installment , to turn on cave it from within . Over the trend of Section 31 ’s stay appearances acrossDS9 — the direct follow up to “ Inquisition , ” “ Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges , ” which work Bashir and the show at large on plane section 31 even further , and the trippier “ Extreme Measures”—the literary argument Sloane nowadays of the organisation as a necessary evil is never considered as a feasible finale by either the show or our protagonists . If anything , division 31 becomes as much as an antagonist in its appearance as the Dominion themselves are , an existential threat to the very moral fiber ofStar Trek .

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This is no more telltale perhaps not in the follow up part 31 episode , but in the sequence that aired directly after its intromission : the iconic “ In the Pale Moonlight ” , create a cause of death one - two punch . If “ Inquisition ” introduce the idea of a conventional apparatus to spycraft within the Federation , “ In the Pale Moonlight ” is about the very deed of spycraft itself — the wetworks , the conspiracy , the subterfuge that is inbuilt to its grim reality . Again , this is nothing like the romanceDS9had with the genre in “ Our Man Bashir , ” the road to hell Captain Sisko go down with Garak in “ In the Pale Moonlight ” is one invariably shown to us as repugnant , not just for the acts taken along it , but for the moral decay that work acts upon Sisko and onStar Trekitself . The ultimate horror of “ In the Pale Moonlight ” is n’t that Sisko is accessory to an assassination that brings the Romulans into the state of war against the rule , guaranteeing the deaths of meg more as it wage on in the name of redeem billion more from the Federation ’s potential defeat . It ’s that , as he grimly say to camera recording the personal logarithm he love he ’s about to delete , he can live with the cost that has on his someone . The instalment ends with the Romulans ’ formal declaration of warfare on the Dominion , which is what Sisko wanted , but it never considers that this is a triumph within the narrative : there is no good close to the real reality of espionage outside of a holoprogram ’s fantasy .

Deep Space Ninemight have cast off the bomb in the first place by giving us the macrocosm of division 31 , but it understood the peril of wield such a weapon in the first place — because it already set out to its audience and to its characters alike that the fantasy of a top - confidential spy organization inStar Trek‘s existence was nothing more than that , and that its reality was something far , far unworthy to get the picture . If theSection 31movie wants to avoid this fear of being seen as not being theTrekthat people require , then it has to realize this too . Otherwise , unlike Sisko , it can not learn to live with presenting an idle fantasy , and nothing more .

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