Article & interviews by Avery Kaplan
RED ALERT! This article includes spoilers for Star Trek: Section 31, currently available for streaming on Paramount+. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, consider returning to this page after you’ve viewed it.
At long last, Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) returns in the special event movie Star Trek: Section 31. After disappearing into the Guardian of Forever in the 31st century in Star Trek: Discovery season 3’s “Terra Firma, Part 2,” fan-favorite Terran despot Georgiou has finally returned for an all-new adventure.
To mark the occasion, Comics Beat Trek Team Captain Avery Kaplan caught up with several members of the cast and crew over Zoom on January 22nd, 2025. Read on to be debriefed on what she learned. And on the same day, Trek Team crewmember George Carmona 3rd had the chance to attend a special premiere of the movie in New York City. His photos are included throughout the article, alongside official PR images from Paramount+.
These interviews have been edited for clarity, length and context. Cover image credit Carmona 3rd.
It’s a long road, getting from there to here
Trekkies have been impatiently waiting for the return of Georgiou since the second the character stepped out of the narrative in “Terra Firma, Part 2.” And now, in the second of three (and counting?) spinoffs of Discovery, our prayers to the Koala have finally been answered. But the long-gestating Section 31 was changed during its journey from concept to Paramount+.
In fact, as explained by Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman, Section 31 was originally envisioned in a different format all together. Section 31’s journey to the screen was “long and winding,” said Kurtzman, “because it started as a television show.” After a year of work on the series, COVID-19 shut down work on the prospective series. The shutdown changed Paramount+’s show release schedule.
Plus in the meantime, as you may have heard, Yeoh won an Academy Award. “Her schedule changed very radically after that,” said Kurtzman. “And then we went into writer’s strike. So there was a series of things that really affected the timing of it.” However, Yeoh doubled down on Section 31, declaring that she still wanted to find a way to make the movie work with her schedule.
Kurtzman further explained, “Craig Sweeny, who had been the showrunner on the show and had developed a couple of scripts, said, ‘I think what we can do is take what probably would have been Georgiou’s arc over the course of the first season and condense that down to a two-hour story.’”
The result? “It worked out great,” said Kurtzman. “Because it really is the story of Georgiou’s redemption. So she’s almost the Clint Eastwood in a Star Trek Western. And it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise; it turned out to be good for the story, to be able to tell it in the time that we had.”
From DISCO to SECTION 31
And how did the work Olatunde Osunsanmi put in directing Section 31 compare with directing fourteen episodes of Discovery across all 5 seasons?
“Directing a feature is very much a sprint,” said Osunsanmi. “And directing a television show is a marathon. You are packing an incredible amount of story, character and logistics into a very short period of time. We shot Section 31 in 37 days. It’s very exciting, because everything is new and fresh. As opposed to a series, you start to get used to it, particularly as you get to the end of that first and second season.”
There’s also an effect on the cast a crew, Osunsanmi remarked. “The amount of effort put out and the amount of intensity for each individual person on the crew and the cast is much higher, because everything is new; it has to be awesome. And at the same time, maybe the hours are a little bit more. Because it takes a little bit of time to realign to what Section 31 is asking for specifically as opposed to the automatics that you get into when you do a whole season.”
Osunsanmi used an apt metaphor to describe the experience: “At the end of the day, it was like building a rocket ship and getting into it and launching into space. And those G-forces that you feel? That was what it was like making Section 31.” But Osunsanmi emphasized that the experience was great fun for those involved, and he believes that the amount of fun they have translates to the final product on the streaming screen.
You know that every captain needs a crew
But of course, leading lady Georgiou needs some backup for a mission like Section 31. Some of these characters are new, including a brand-new species. At first glance, Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok) appears to be a Vulcan. But that’s just a mechanical conveyance operated from within by Fuzz’s true self, a microscopic entity called a Nanokin.
Throughout Section 31, viewers see both Fuzz’s conveyance and his microscopic form. But what went into portraying this microscopic form onscreen? It turns out it’s also Ruygrok, wearing a prosthetic head created by the wizardry of Discovery alum Glenn Hetrick at Alchemy Studios. In conjunction with digital enhancement by Jason Zimmerman (“JZ”), Fuzz’s true form appears truly alien.
“We actually shot Fuzz physically, in a real pod,” Osunsanmi explained. “Sven wore this head. And then all the octopus arms were JZ adding the visual effects in. Ruygrok would move as if those octopus arms were there, and then he’d give an interesting accent.” While wearing the prosthetic, Ruygrok was unable to see, since Fuzz’s eyes don’t align with Ruygrok’s human physiology.
Ruygrok shared his thoughts with The Beat on performing from within the prosthetics. “It was quite tricksy,” Ruygrok explained. “I was grateful that it separated into three pieces. There was a body armor that went underneath, and then a helmet and then it was finally enclosed. I was glued in. I was grateful that we shot all of that in half a day.”
“What was both difficult and nice was that I couldn’t see,” Ruygrok continued. “And I couldn’t hear. So people were having to hold me as I climbed up into my little shuttle, and then I’m encroached in this tiny little cavity of a space… But in that, there was this sense of being boxed in. And I think that speaks to the Nanokin species. They’ve been boxed in, they’re dwindling in numbers, they want to get out. There was just this sense of frustration of being seen as an equal. And I think that informed everything I did.”
Built for Action
The magic of Hetrick’s prosthetics also came into play with another character, human cyborg Zeph (Rob Kazinsky). Kazinsky shared what it was like wearing the mech suit. “It was fun, but incredibly difficult,” Kazinsky said. “They had to give me a special chair, because you can’t sit or lie down. You carry around this thing that’s digging into your back… It just hurts, the thing hurts. But it’s still easier than putting on Humberly González’s bald cap (Melle) or Joe Pingue’s head (Dada Noe). It was difficult.”
However, the suit did inform Kazinsky’s portrayal of the character. “I was talking to Hetrick about this this morning,” said Kazinsky. “I was saying to him, he had done sixty percent of my job by the time I got there. Because the way you have to move, the way you have to walk, the way it looks, the fact that it’s made up of all these different parts and pieces, informs so much of what I did and who this character was… It made my job really, really easy.”
Unfortunately, Zeph does not survive the second act of Section 31. However, given that it’s far from unprecedented that killed-off characters may return in some form or another on Star Trek — you do know about the Black Mountain, right? — I was curious if Kazinsky might be interested in reprising the role in some form.
“I mean, being in Trek is all I’ve ever wanted to do in my whole life,” Kazinsky said. “And I would do it for the rest of my life for free. Trek is my thing. I’m hoping we get to do many more Section 31 movies and Zeph gets to come back, and we get to do all of these a hundred times over. And I get to do a Worf, because Michael Dorn’s got the most episodes of anybody. If I exist in Star Trek for the rest of my life, I’d be extremely happy.”
Kazinsky isn’t opposed to playing another character, either. “If it’s not Zeph, it could be his brother Jeph, I don’t care,” he quipped. “As long as I get to stay in Star Trek, it’s everything that I ever wanted.”
Titans of Franchise Canon
Rounding out Section 31’s Alpha Team are two characters who have significant ties to Franchise canon: human augment Alok (Omari Hardwick) and a young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl). I was curious if Rohl or Hardwick had a personal history with the Franchise before joining the cast.
“I had tangential experiences with Star Trek,” Rohl said. “I grew up without a TV, so I wasn’t in it. But I have found my way into it now, and I understand the ask of coming aboard. I don’t take that lightly — I’m doing my homework, I promise.”
Rohl continued, “Being able to step into a character that’s existed, that was played so brilliantly by Tricia O’Neil in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’… Big boots! Really excited to be able to fill them. It’s just an honor. And I had so much fun with Rachel, I love her so much.”
Hardwick was approaching Alok from a different trajectory. “I absolutely grew up with Star Trek,” Hardwick said. Along with the performances of other actors — including William Shatner (James T. Kirk) — Hardwick was particularly influenced by Leonard Nimoy’s portrayal of Spock. “As a young man, a man of color, who sometimes felt alienated by life just in general, particularly in America,” Hardwick said, “Spock might have been the first person to make me feel pretty cool about the things that maybe people don’t find too cool.”
“I grew up in the midst of racism — I’m a 70s baby,” Hardwick continued. “Our castmate Kazinsky often says it: you can definitely find a haven in that which Star Trek provided. So to be asked to add to that haven of sorts, particularly to represent Black people… To be adding to that which Avery Brooks (Benjamin Sisko), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), to which women of color were equally able to add — Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham), what she did of course, shout outs to her — it means a lot to me. I’m super aware of the responsibility of being asked by Kurtzman, Osunsanmi, Paramount+ and Yeoh.”
Star Trek: Section 31 is now streaming on Paramount+
Did you get a chance to stream Section 31 on Paramount+ yet? What did you think of the special event movie? Be sure and let The Beat know, here in the comment section or over on Bluesky @comicsbeat.bsky.social.
Star Trek: Section 31 is currently available for streaming on Paramount+.