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Comment on The Official Teaser Trailer for Star Trek: Section 31 Is Here

ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

It should be a conspiracy of like-minded individuals that exists parasitically within Starfleet, not an official (or an unofficial official agency).

In fairness, Sloan said they were a branch of Starfleet Intelligence with an official designation in his very first appearance on DS9, and nothing that came after that really contradicted him (other than his obvious lies in “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”.

Whatever liberties have been taken since then, that wasn’t one of them.

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setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I always took that explanation as the thinnest of lie meant to give an air of legitimacy. Given the methods used to control Bashir, they seemed to clearly be working not just to hide their operational details, but their existence from the legitimate chain of command.

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- ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  I always took that explanation as the thinnest of lie meant to give an air of legitimacy.
  
  I think a lot of people did, but the episode doesn’t really make the case that it’s a lie - in fact, Sloan is protected at the highest levels of Starfleet Command, which supports the idea that Sloan was being completely truthful when he was trying to recruit Bashir. It’s a legitimate reading of the episode, at any rate.
  
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  - Zorque@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Is he protected, or was he using Starfleet personnel for his own ends? I don’t recall that it ever explicitly shows them officially working together. With Inter Arnim Selim Legis, the Admiral is working with Sloan, not for him or commanding him. A relationship of convenience, not an official one. Similar to when they’re looking for the cure for Odo, it’s not specific people working directly for Section 31, just people who are either working with them out of convenience… or being manipulated similar to Bashir and the Admiral whose name I can’t remember from the aforementioned episode.
    
    That doesn’t speak to an official relationship, just the manipulative one of a parasitic organism pretending to be a mutualistic one.
    
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    ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    BASHIR: Captain, is there any word from Starfleet about Sloan or Section 31?
    
    SISKO: There’s no record of a Deputy Director Sloan anywhere in Starfleet. And as for Section 31, that’s a little more complicated. Starfleet Command doesn’t acknowledge its existence, but they don’t deny it either. They simply said they’d look into it and get back to me.
    
    BASHIR: When?
    
    SISKO: They didn’t say.
    
    KIRA: That sounds like a cover up to me.
    
    BASHIR: I can’t believe the Federation condones this kind of activity.
    
    ODO: Personally, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t. Every other great power has a unit like Section 31. The Romulans have the Tal Shiar, the Cardassians had the Obsidian Order.
    
    When the top brass of Starfleet are covering your ass, you’re an official agent, whether you’re “on the books” or not.
    
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  - setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It could be, but it’s brought us to the point where Section 31 has narratively usurped the role of Starfleet Intelligence in its entirety and has kind of lost the point. Reading S31 as a conspiracy is the smarter play for people in charge of Trek, and I am disappointed that they’ve gone completely the other way. Like I mentioned, the S31 in ENT was the only expansion I liked because it took the conspiracy angle.
    
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