Star Trek: Section 31 has hit a franchise low on Rotten Tomatoes. The feature-length Paramount+ тιтle, which was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny, is the first TV movie in the long-running multimedia sci-fi franchise and acts as a spinoff of the show Star Trek: Discovery, which ran for five seasons between 2017 and 2024. The upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 stars Michelle Yeoh, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All At Once in 2023, reprising her Star Trek: Discovery role as the Mirror Universe version of her character Philippa Georgiou.

Rotten Tomatoes has now aggregated 19 different critics’ reviews of the TV movie, giving Star Trek: Section 31 a thoroughly Rotten 21% score thanks to an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. This score could still fluctuate as more reviews are added, but at the time of writing it is the worst score that any Star Trek movie or television series has ever earned, falling behind the previous lows of 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (23%) and 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis (38%).

What This Means For Star Trek: Section 31

It Is A Standout Among Star Trek Projects

These Star Trek: Section 31 reviews are unusually negative, as the franchise has typically been well received across a variety of mediums. In fact, of the two dozen television shows and features that have received scores on Rotten Tomatoes, only seven have been deemed Rotten, which means they earned a score of 59% or lower. Meanwhile, 16 have scores of 80% or more, while eight have enough positive reviews to be deemed Certified Fresh by the platform. Below, see a breakdown of every Star Trek project with a Rotten score:

The fact that the new Star Trek movie has hit such a dire low for the franchise could bring their TV movie experiment to a swift end. While there were not any other officially announced TV movie projects being developed for the franchise ahead of Section 31‘s release, it seems likely that its dismal reception could prevent the idea of making another one from being floated again, at least for quite some time. This could especially be the case if audiences respond to the movie with the same level of derision as critics.

Our Take On The Star Trek: Section 31 Rotten Tomatoes Score

The Oscar Curse Has Finally Struck Michelle Yeoh

There is something of an “Oscar curse” where acting winners follow their award with one of their worst-reviewed movies. This has happened to Julianne Moore, who followed Still Alice (85%) with Seventh Son (12%) and Roberto Benigni, who followed Life is Beautiful (81%) with Pinocchio (0%). While Yeoh had mildly Rotten scores after her 2023 win, she seemed to have largely avoided this curse with A Haunting in Venice (75%) and Wicked (88%). Star Trek: Section 31 has finally struck a major blow, though her upcoming roles in Wicked: For Good and more should redeem her Rotten Tomatoes status soon.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes