Star Trek: Section 31 might be the weirdest Star Trek movie ever made.The film, which arrives to Paramount Plus on Jan. 24, was originally pitched as a television series showcasing Star Trek: Discoverys Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), former emperor of the (evil) Terran mirror universe, who became a space secret agent in the core Star Trek setting. But after the show was announced in 2019, production was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 writers and actors strikes, and even Yeohs own overdue meteoric rise and increasingly packed schedule after she earned the Best Actress Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All at Once.So the version of Section 31 hitting Paramount Plus is a movie, instead and its packed with a TV series worth of ideas. Some of them are chewy and fascinating in a classic Trek way, while others are wildly outside the franchises norm. And in both cases, its a pity, because all these ideas could have used more room or, perhaps, more space? to breathe.Star Trek: Discovery fans will remember Yeohs slippery Georgiou, the unrepentant conqueror-survivor of a much harsher universe, from the shows first three seasons. But even they might need help remembering where exactly in her timey-wimey story Section 31 fits: The movie takes place between seasons 1 and 2 of Discovery, which came out more than half a decade ago.Section 31 tells the story of how Georgiou came to work with the titular group, Starfleets own barely sanctioned, extra-black black ops division: A team from that division recruits the most dangerous woman in the galaxy to recover an even more dangerous device. Georgiou is joined by a whole cadre of weirdos who dont fit into Federation society in one way or another, but who work to safeguard its existence in secrecy, and with fewer regulations than most Starfleet officers.That hook feels like something out of Guardians of the Galaxy or The Suicide Squad, which is to say, its a very different setup than the plot of pretty much any Star Trek movie or show to date. Director Olatunde Osunsanmi and screenwriter Craig Sweeney try to make Section 31 different on purpose, and whether that works for a given Trek fan may depend on how well theyre able to take it as it is, not as what they expect from Trek.For example, theyll need to accept that Section 31 is making no excuses and providing no explanations for the fan-controversial basic concept of Section 31. The movie is just here so Trek characters can have a rollicking adventure while defending the galaxy. Section 31 provides these characters with that assignment, but Section 31 (the movie) offers little insight about its organization or hierarchy.In pursuit of this sense of further frontiers, Sweeney who produced and wrote for Elementary and penned the Star Trek: Discovery episode Context is for Kings populates the movie with a mix of Star Trek ideas old and new. The Deltan species (longtime Trek fans may remember the bald Deltan lady in the rather excoriated Star Trek: The Motion Picture) returns in the form of agent Melle (Humberly Gonzlez), while the teams Starfleet minder is none other than a younger version of Rachel Garrett (played by Kacey Rohl), first female captain of the USS Enterprise, who appeared in one 1990 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.On the other hand, theres Alok (Omari Hardwick), whose secret backstory is directly linked to an unjust systemic prejudice in the heart of Federation law, a rare black note in Treks utopia that recently formed the backbone of one of the best episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. And theres Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz, a strangely emotive Vulcan whos hiding a twist so wild, it feels like its from an entirely different genre of science fiction. In both cases, Section 31 only has time to glance off these characters secrets before the movie comes to a close.Aloks secret origin as a man who fights illicitly to protect a society he can never be accepted into is a story Id have loved to have seen explored in a full season. Fuzz, though Well, OK. Frankly, I think Fuzz is a bridge too far for Star Trek. But if he was on a series, Id at least stick around to see whether the writers could convince me otherwise. More time means more space to integrate him more naturally into Trek canon or to place more weight on Sweeney making such a strange narrative addition. At the very least, a series would give fans time for the shock to wear off.By trying to make Star Trek: Section 31 everything regular Star Trek isnt, Osunsanmi and Sweeney fulfill the shows promise to boldly go where no one has gone before. But its one-and-done story concludes without the plot itself ending up anywhere particularly unexpected. This is certainly due in part to how it sits in the middle of its leads story Georgiou has to be around to meet back up with Star Trek: Discoverys main crew in its second season and in part how the activity of Section 31 agents must remain secret to the wider galaxy. But the creators focus their ending on a pack of misfits coming together as a team, in an emotional payoff thats undercut by the incompleteness of their personal arcs.Its the weirdest Star Trek movie in tone, character lineup, and setting, and it doesnt exactly work as a standalone Star Trek story. But in part, thats due to how finite it is, and how limited it feels. As far as we know for the moment, theres no Section 31 sequel movie or series spin-off coming. But I would watch one just to see where the hell it could go from here.