Section 31 Turkana IV reference explained

Warning: this article contains mild spoilers for “Star Trek: Episode 31.”

At the very end of Olatunde Osunsanmi's new TV movie, Star Trek: Chapter 31, the film's group of criminals and unethical mercenaries have gone through their main adventure and come to a bar/casino for a drink. their success. They narrowly escape their mission, but are happy to be bound by mutual danger. It has been revealed that the survivors of the adventure, led by Empress Philippa Giorgi (Michelle Yeoh), will now become a permanent installation in Chapter 31, Starfleet's black ops organization. “Chapter 31” isn't a pilot series, but it ends as if it could be, establishing a new cast of characters, their home base, and what a potential series would look like. At least the filmmakers are teasing a sequel.

Sipping high spirits and joking with each other, the film's anti-heroes receive a call from Control (Jamie Lee Curtis), their new boss. The control says her better judgment has warned her against assigning new missions, but in this case “better judgment” should not be ignored. She then asks if any of the Section 31 crew have been to a planet called Turkana IV.

This name will make Trekkies cheer. Turkana IV was the planet where Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) grew up. Tasha Yar, of course, was the chief security officer aboard the Enterprise-D in the first season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The character was infamously killed by a tar monster at the beginning of the series because Crosby felt she didn't have enough to do and wanted to film instead.

However, Yar often talked about Turkana IV and how terrible it was. Turkana IV appears to have been a sort of failed colonization experiment that eventually turned into a criminal hellscape.

It's fine language, but Tasha Yar has often noted that Turkana IV is overrun by “rape gangs” who stalk the colony looking for victims to attack. Some flashbacks in the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before” show the Turkana IV as crumbling, shadowy and scary. It looks like a haunted house. According to Yar's many descriptions, Turkana IV was meant to be a widespread Earth-like colony with its own government. However, the planet quickly descended into civil war between two factions. The parties were referred to as the Coalition and the Alliance, leaving the audience clueless as to what their split might be. Yar said that both factions declared the colony independent from the Federation, and the entire planet has fallen into lawlessness.

It was a stark contrast to the utopian optimism of Gene Roddenberry. It looks like even Federation colonies could fall. Money wasn't part of the future of Star Trek, but money and the poverty of its siblings seem to have come into play. Yar talks about how drugs were used a lot, even though they barely know about substance addiction on the Enterprise. And yes, sex gangs roamed freely.

Starfleet sent ships to Turkana IV to try to restore order, but no Starfleet officers were allowed to beam. It was like a prison from the movie “Escape from New York” and no official contact had been made. In The Next Generation episode “Legacy” (October 29, 1990), the Enterprise-D visited Turkana IV to rescue a small escape pod that had crash-landed there. Legacy revealed that all the cities on the planet's surface had been destroyed and that all the criminal gangs had moved underground. Turkana IV has not been mentioned since this episode, and the Federation seems helpless to prevent its continued descent into violence and crime.

At least we know an escape from Turkana IV is possible. Tasha Yar escaped the colony at age 15, found her way back to civilization, and eventually became a Starfleet officer. It is tragic that she was killed in the line of duty.

Of course, “Section 31” takes place in the late 2250s or early 2260s, before the events of the original “Star Trek” and about a century before the events of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” If this is the case, then Turkana IV has not yet fallen and is still in an idealized location (Yar mentioned that the colony's government did not begin to seriously collapse until the 2330s). Since Turkana IV was still in good shape (supposedly) during the events of Section 31, there is reason to believe that Empress Georgia and her retinue of misfits went there and did something evil to offend the locals. the government.

Given that the final line of dialogue in “Star Trek: Section 31” teased that the possible sequel would take place on Turkana IV, it stands to reason that Section 31 will be actively responsible for the colony's fall. It may take decades of decay to reach what Trekkie saw in Tash Yar's flashbacks, but the impact of Section 31 will certainly be a catalyst. It cements it even more Article 31 as a nefarious organizationand one that does not mind killing people and deliberately corrupting governments to achieve its goals.

So “Title 31 Part II” is certainly well-placed to tell a relevant and timely story about the corruption of an otherwise idealized republic and how it's all too easy to slip back into authoritarianism in the hands of demagogues. Perhaps Section 31 is why Roddenberry's utopia is not possible in all colonies. It would certainly make for a touching story.