Star Trek: Section 31 is the first live-action Trek project taking place in the “Lost Era.” That’s the name Trekkers have given to the 75 years between the end of the Captain Kirk era and the start of The Next Generation. As such, there are several roles, both large and small, that showcase aliens and other beings not seen in Star Trek in a very long time. In some cases, several decades. Here are our favorite Star Trek deep-cut pulls, character-wise, from Star Trek: Section 31.
Deltans
The franchise introduced Deltans in Star Trek: The Motion Picture via Enterprise officer Lt. Illia (Persis Khambatta). All we learned about these new humanoid (and bald) aliens from Delta IV is they were hyper-sexualized. So much so, that they had to take a vow of celibacy to join Starfleet. We barely saw any Deltans again outside of background cameos in larger Starfleets scenes, until Star Trek: Picard season two. In Section 31, we have our first Deltan main character since 1979 with Melle, played by Humberly Gonzalez. This Deltan is a Section 31 agent, and has no problem using her seductive Deltan powers on the job.
Human Augments
In the timeline of Star Trek, we know that in the late 20th century, a race of genetically engineered superhumans emerged and took over a portion of the world. Khan Noonian Singh was the leader of one faction. Eventually, humanity deposed these Augments, exiling them from the Earth in cryoships. We met the first Augments in the original Star Trek episode “Space Seed.” In Enterprise, we encounter another group. Section 31’s Alok (Omari Hardwick) is also an Augment from the 20th century who served a female Augment warlord at one point. He too was then cryogenically frozen, waking up in the 23rd century. Although not technically one of Khan’s men, he’s definitely an enemy (or ally) of his.
Chameloids
The most famous shapeshifters in Star Trek are the Changelings from the Gamma Quadrant, introduced in Deep Space Nine. Constable Odo from DS9 was one of these shapeshifters, as were the Founders of the dreaded Dominion. But before Odo, Star Trek introduced a different shapeshifting alien race called Chameloids. These cat-eyed beings first appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with a Chameloid named Martia, played by supermodel (and Mrs. David Bowie) Iman. We never encountered another one until now, with actor Sam Richardson playing a Chameloid Section 31 operative named Quasi.
Future Enterprise Captain Rachel Garrett
Starfleet’s attaché to this Section 31 operation is none other than a young Lt. Rachel Garrett. Her name may be unfamiliar to casual Trek fans, but it is iconic to diehards. In the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” we meet an older Rachel Garrett. We learn she was the Captain of the Enterprise-C, the immediate predecessor to Jean Luc Picard’s Enterprise-D. She commanded the Enterprise a good 20 years before Picard. Eventually, her ship was lost in battle to Romulans. The first canonical female Captain of any Enterprise, Picard season 3 also referenced Captain Garrett. There, the show mentioned she had a statue built in her honor. In Section 31, we see her promoted to Lt. Commander. Clearly, she’s well on her way to eventually becoming Captain of the starship Enterprise.
The “Conspiracy” Aliens
Vulcans are not exactly a deep-cut reference when it comes to Star Trek aliens. Quite the opposite. But Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), who appears to be a Vulcan, is actually just a Vulcan body controlled by a microscopic alien species. This species actually acts as a puppet master, “piloting” him from inside. This recalls the alien race of tiny parasites who once took over Starfleet Command officers. These appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Conspiracy,” and we never saw them again. Clearly not the same species, based on their design. Nevertheless, Fuzz is very similar and is probably an homage to those unnamed “Conspiracy” aliens.
The Cheron
The original Star Trek contained plenty of socio-political allegory, some subtle, and some very on-the-nose. One of these on-the-nose alien races was from the planet Cheron, in the third season of TOS. In the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” we met the two sole survivors of Cheron. One alien is black on one side and white on the other, with his adversary being the exact opposite in terms of which side the black and white landed on. This was all Gene Roddenberry’s commentary on the absurdity of racism. We never saw one of these aliens again until now, as one appears in a small role in Section 31. That original episode made it seem like that species was extinct, but now we know at least one survived, and is now working for Phillipa Georgiou.