By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Recently, Paramount released Section 31, a direct-to-streaming Star Trek movie focusing on Starfleet’s secret spy division that handles the Federation’s dirty work. Unfortunately, the fandom quickly decided “dirty” was the nicest thing they could say about this stinker of a movie, and its Rotten Tomatoes score has continued to tumble down faster than Captain Kirk falling off a mountain. Speaking of which, Section 31 now has the dubious honor of being the worst Star Trek movie on RT, eclipsing previous record holder Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
What Section 31 Beat Out As The Worst Star Trek Movie
Before Section 31, the worst Star Trek movie was The Final Frontier, which has the distinction of being the only film in the franchise directed by iconic Kirk actor William Shatner. It seems that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Leonard Nimoy, the beloved Spock actor who directed The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home. Unfortunately, Shatner’s directorial debut was a complete flop, and the movie combined broad humor and a nonsensical plot into something that belonged in the ship’s waste extraction department rather than the big screen.
Interestingly, after Section 31 initially came out, The Final Frontier was still the worst Star Trek movie, with the assorted critics featured on Rotten Tomatoes declaring that Paramount’s latest film was just barely better than William Shatner’s infamous blunder. However, the way Rotten Tomatoes works is that it examines all of its featured’ critics reviews and determines whether they ultimately would or would not recommend watching a film. With Section 31, more reviewers chimed in this past week, and enough of them hated the new film to lower its score far below that of Star Trek V.
Section 31 Is As Bad As Star Trek Gets
As of the time of this writing, the film’s critical score is 21 percent. Correction, in the time it took me to write that sentence it fell to 20 percent.
The critical consensus for Section 31 humorously reads, “Beam it out of here, Scotty.” In comparison, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has a critical score of 23 percent, with the ironic critical consensus reading “Filled with dull action sequences and an underdeveloped storyline, this fifth Trek movie is probably the worst of the series.”
“If Paramount has any sense of shame or decency, it will now shutter the entire company and auction off its assets to the lowest bidder.” – Joshua Tyler reviews Section 31 for GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT
Going by Rotten Tomatoes, Section 31 is now the worst Star Trek movie, and we can only hope that future franchise entries (like the Star Trek origin movie reportedly in development) don’t manage to be somehow worse. The latest film is awful enough to make me do what once seemed impossible: say something nice about The Final Frontier.
William Shatner’s directorial debut remains a deeply flawed movie with an inscrutably stupid plot, but it at least provided some great character moments (like the sad lore regarding Dr. McCoy and his father) and interesting ideas (like the notion of God quite possibly being an evil alien hidden deep within our galaxy). Section 31, however, has mostly disposable characters and no truly original ideas. It’s the distillation of the prevailing NuTrek ethos where writers and producers assume fans want nothing more than violence, bloodshed, and one-note villains.
With any luck, Section 31 officially being the worst Star Trek movie and will serve as a wake-up call. It’s clear fans want adventures focused on exploration (like Strange New Worlds) and stories that manage both humor and heart (like Lower Decks).
Unfortunately, it’s more likely that this latest film is an indicator of how bad the next Star Trek movie will be. If and when that happens, Trek will find itself in the same position that Star Wars and the MCU are currently in: desperately in need of a complete creative reboot.
