‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Director on How Michelle Yeoh Was a ‘Force’ In Turning a Stalled Out TV Series Into the First ‘Trek’ Streaming Movie

variety.com:

Lauren Coates In the galaxy of Gene Rodenberry’s 59-year-old “Star Trek” franchise, humanity enjoys an idyllic, utopian, primary-colored future in which a non-lethal phaser and a persuasive argument can put an end to even the messiest of conflicts.

But even squeaky-clean Starfleet needs someone to get their hands dirty every now and again, which is where the crew of the new streaming movie “Star Trek: Section 31” comes in.

The project was first imagined in 2019 as a spinoff series centered around “Star Trek: Discovery” scene-stealer Michelle Yeoh, who plays Philippa Georgiou, the benevolent mentor figure who is killed and replaced by her sadistic counterpart from the Mirror Universe, an alternate reality in which Georgiou is the emperor of the totalitarian Terran Empire.

Though the crew of “Discovery” initially bristles against the twisted version of their former leader, Emperor Georgiou’s propensity for backstabbing and fondness for bloodshed made her a perfect candidate for a different part of Starfleet: Section 31.