Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Section 31

Babylon 5, the rival space station-based show created by J. Michael Straczynski, featured a clandestine organization similar to Section 31, Bureau 13.

Bureau 13 was a division of the Psi Corps, the government agency responsible for recruiting, training, and regulating telepaths. While Section 31 claimed they acted in the best interest of the Federation, Bureau 13 existed to help the Psi Corps gain greater influence over Earth's government. Like Section 31, it was involved in covert activities such as illegal research, assassinations, and brainwashing. Like all telepaths, future Bureau 13 operatives were recruited by Psi Corps when their abilities first manifested and indoctrinated to see the Corps as surrogate parents. Anyone who tried leaving the Corps was hunted by Psi Corps's security force, the Psi Cops, and brought to heel by the Bloodhound units.

Section 31 was described variably as a division of Starfleet Intelligence and outside of Federation control. Operatives were seemingly recruited from every Starfleet division, including science and medical. Sometimes they were ruthless civilians such as mirror universe Georgiou. Their compartmentalized lives let them plan genocide in the morning and enjoy family in the evening. Operatives who tried leaving discovered that there was always one more mission.