A new action-packed sci-fi movie is available to stream at home now

Stephen Porzio

In an interview with JOE, its Oscar-winning star explained how the idea for the film came from her.

Star Trek: Section 31, the latest movie in the legendary Star Trek franchise, is available to stream now on Paramount+.

A stand-alone spin-off to the series Star Trek: Discovery, the film stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as the anti-hero and fan favourite character Philippa Georgiou.

This is as she gets swept up in a new adventure with a ragtag group of Starfleet agents that forces her to “face the sins of her past”.

In an interview with JOE ahead of the movie’s release, Yeoh explained how it was her idea to make a spin-off about the character because she loved playing her so much.

She told us:

“I was in Star Trek: Discovery and I was playing the benevolent much-loved Captain Philippa Georgiou of Starship Enterprise, of USS Shenzhou – that’s the name of her ship.

“Unfortunately she was tragically killed by the Klingons, right. But then [Star Trek: Discovery co-creator and Section 31 producer] Alex Kurtzman said: ‘No, she comes back,’ but I did not expect her to come back as the mirror universe Emperor Philippa Georgiou who scares the hell out of everyone.

“And it was such a fascinating and fun character to play. Very quickly I was enamored by her and all the complexities that come with her. How are you the villain and not just be one tone?

“So, I did go, I had lunch with Alex and I said: ‘We need to do this. We need to have a spin-off.’

“And at that point, we hadn’t even launched Star Trek Discovery yet. And he was like: ‘Maybe a step at a time, let’s make this a success and then we might have a better chance.’ [Yeoh says, laughing]

“But it took us a little while. Now six years later, we have Section 31.”

An action superstar – we also spoke with Yeoh about appearing in the James Bond franchise – the actress brings a lot of that genre to Star Trek with her new spin-off.

In fact, in our interview, she compared Section 31 to Guardians of the Galaxy – as well as calling it “Mission: Impossible in space”.

Michelle Yeoh

To the screenplay by Craig Sweeny’s credit, however, the spin-off allows Yeoh to play a cool and charismatic badass, while also giving her an emotional redemptive arc tied to her anti-hero’s past.

Speaking about Philippa Georgiou’s backstory, the actress said:

“The most important thing – the script was written brilliantly by Craig Sweeny. We didn’t really lock him up [she jokes] but he was locked up away for two years slaving away on it.

“And then he would come back out, meet with us. We would read it and we would give him notes.

“This has been a true collaborative exercise for all of us. It really is a labour of love because there’s so many emotions going into this and much love, not just for Section 31, but for Philippa Georgiou and that was demonstrated when Craig gave us the backstory.

“It’s not to excuse her for all the things that she’s done but to tell you: ‘This is how it started and for better or worse, that was how it was in her world.’

“If she had made a different choice, she would not be the emperor but she would be dead. There would be no Philippa Georgiou.”