10 Biggest Missed Opportunities in Star Trek: Section 31
7. Paris, Milan, Monster Maroon?
Section 31 is set in 2323, placing it in the 'Lost Era'. It is rarely explored on-screen outside of flashbacks. Starfleet should be piloting Excelsior, Miranda, and even some older Constitution-class vessels. Phaser technology devolved from the 'assault phaser' from The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country to the style introduced in The Motion Picture. Combadges had yet to see widespread implementation.
Why does this film resemble a mish-mash of different periods, rather than the one in which it's set? Our previous entry decried the lack of Starships, whereas this one focuses on the threads.
While undercover, of course, Rachel Garrett isn't clad in the Monster Maroon uniform that she would don for Yesterday's Enterprise, though should that negate any scene depicting it?
Gersha Phillips designed beautiful costumes for the cast of Section 31, returning after her tenure on Star Trek: Discovery, as well as the Short Treks and the pilot of Strange New Worlds. A collaboration with the fashion house Balenciaga produced black-and-chrome futuristic designs, with splashes of red and blue dotted here and there.
A single shot of Garrett in a Monster Maroon - even the beautiful Bernadette Croft-designed update from Strange New Worlds - would have helped to lock this film in the Lost Era. Without it, the film goes without the most recognisable visual clue for the period.