Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Section 31
1. Some Fans Complained That Section 31 Undermined Gene Roddenberry
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series produced after Gene Roddenberry's death. With characters including a commanding officer who resented Jean-Luc Picard, a former resistance fighter who resented Starfleet as first officer, and a greedy Ferengi bartender, it was clear from the very first episode that Deep Space Nine would have a darker take on Roddenberry's utopian Federation.
In a series that regularly dealt with genocide, crime, authoritarianism, and PTSD, Section 31 was one of the most controversial elements of the show. According to Deep Space Nine writer David Weddle , some Star Trek fans were appalled by the addition of Section 31. They saw it as a betrayal of Roddenberry's vision and morals. Other fans shared Ira Steven Behr's view that the Federation was a paradise because Section 31 was able to do the morally questionable deeds that other Starfleet officers couldn't or wouldn't do.
The two sides regularly had what Weddle characterized as "long ethical and political arguments" about Section 31. In the magazine Cinefanstatique, Ronald D. Moore offered the opinion that while the inclusion of Section 31 was provocative, it didn't question on a "fundamental level" the "principled Federation we have known."