Star Trek: Section 31 officially makes Michelle Yeoh’s impact on Star Trek movies the equivalent of what Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway meant to Star Trek TV shows. Premiering January 24 on Paramount+, Star Trek: Section 31 is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny. Section 31 is the first Star Trek movie made for streaming on Paramount+, and it marks the return of Michelle Yeoh as her iconic anti-heroine, Emperor Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery.
There have been 13 theatrical Star Trek movies since Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi franchise to the big screen in 1979. Every previous Star Trek movie has been about a version of the USS Enterprise. The first six Star Trek movies were about Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. Star Trek: The Next Generation then had four movies before J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek with three films set in the alternate Kelvin Timeline.
Star Trek: Section 31 breaks the Star Trek movie mold by not centering on the Starship Enterprise just as Michelle Yeoh makes Star Trek history.
Why It Took Michelle Yeoh To Become The First Female Lead Of A Star Trek Movie
Yeoh Is Star Trek’s First Academy Award-Winning Leading Lady
Michelle Yeoh is the first woman to be the lead of a Star Trek movie. Further, Michelle Yeoh is positioned as the first and best possible woman to lead a Star Trek movie. Star Trek: Discovery scored a coup in 2017 by casting Yeoh, an acclaimed and respected international film star, to play the doomed Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery‘s premiere. While Sonequa Martin-Green was indisputably Star Trek: Discovery‘s series lead, it was the star power of Yeoh and Jason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorca that initially gave Discovery a boost in prestige. Yeoh then returned as the Mirror Universe’s Emperor Georgiou, which became her signature Star Trek role.
Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Georgiou proved popular with fans as well as Star Trek: Discovery‘s producers, to the point that a spinoff was planned to center on Georgiou and Section 31. Then Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All At Once. Suddenly, Star Trek boasted a newly-minted Oscar winner. Demand for Yeoh, along with the COVID-19 pandemic altering plans for a Section 31 TV series, transitioned the project to become the first made-for-Paramount+ Star Trek streaming movie.
Michelle Yeoh’s global fame and prestige are amplified by her status as an Academy Award winner, and Yeoh now becomes the first Oscar winner to headline a Star Trek movie. Even better, Yeoh loves the Star Trek franchise and pushed for Section 31 to be made, working it into her increasingly busy schedule. Because every prior film centered on the (male) Captain of the Starship Enterprise, Star Trek movies never had a female lead before, and it’s only logical that Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh would break that glᴀss ceiling.
Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou Couldn’t Be More Different From Captain Janeway
One Is A Starfleet Captain, The Other Is A Former Dictator
As Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, Kate Mulgrew made Star Trek history 30 years ago by becoming the first woman to lead a Star Trek series. Of course, Captain Janeway could not be more opposite to Emperor Philippa Georgiou. Janeway is a compᴀssionate leader who courageously performed an impossible task by bringing the USS Voyager and her crew 70,000 light-years through the uncharted Delta Quadrant back home to Earth. In Star Trek: Prodigy, Admiral Janeway helped save the multiverse while inspiring a new generation of young Starfleet heroes.
Captain Janeway has much more in common with Captain Philippa Georgiou, the noble Prime Universe counterpart of Emperor Georgiou.
In contrast, Emperor Georgiou was the authoritarian dictator of the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe. Georgiou ruled through fear and murder, and she was responsible for the deaths of millions as well as the subjugation of numerous alien races. Through flashbacks, Star Trek: Section 31 will depict how the young Philippa Georgiou (Miku Martineau) rose to power. And yet, Georgiou is also on a path to redemption. Philippa’s time with Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) on Star Trek: Discovery sparked Georgiou’s better angels, though she remains as insidiously ᴅᴇᴀᴅly as ever in Star Trek: Section 31.
It’s rather remarkable that a Star Trek movie is being built around a character like Emperor Georgiou, to begin with. Georgiou has a sordid history as a murderer and despot. Philippa embodies decidedly anti-Star Trek traits, even for a questionable black ops agency like Section 31, which ultimately does its dirty deeds to protect the Federation. A Star Trek movie led by Emperor Georgiou speaks to the popularity and stature of Michelle Yeoh, and the indelible impact she made on Star Trek: Discovery.
Michelle Yeoh Continues Star Trek’s Women Making History
Star Trek Has Come A Long Way With Female Representation
Michelle Yeoh is the latest woman in Star Trek to shatter the invisible glᴀss ceiling to make history. Star Trek actually introduced the first female Starfleet Captain seen on-screen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when Madge Sinclair played the unnamed Captain of the USS Saratoga. This also makes Sinclair, who returned in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Silva La Forge, the mother of Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), the first female African-American Star Trek Captain.
It took 22 years after Star Trek: Voyager premiered for Star Trek: Discovery to introduce Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham. Martin-Green is the first African-American woman to be a Star Trek series lead, and Burnham became Captain of the USS Discovery at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 3. Star Trek: Lower Decks debuted Black mother-daughter Starfleet Officers: Ensign/Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) of the USS Cerritos. Mariner is also co-lead of Star Trek: Lower Decks with Ensign/Lieutenant Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid).
Jeri Ryan’s Captain Seven of Nine could be another female Star Trek series lead if Star Trek: Picard‘s proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy, happens.
After Michelle Yeoh headlines Star Trek: Section 31, Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter will headline the next Star Trek series on Paramount+, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Hunter plays the unnamed Captain and Chancellor of the Academy, and she is joined by Academy Award-nominated Paul Giamatti as Starfleet Academy‘s main villain. The women of Star Trek continue to make history and achieve great heights for the franchise. Michelle Yeoh as the first woman to be the lead of a Star Trek movie automatically makes Star Trek: Section 31 a historic endeavor.
