10 Biggest Missed Opportunities in Star Trek: Section 31
4. A Meditation On The Mechanics Of Mobility
Rob Kazinski is a die-hard Trekkie, evidenced by the many interviews he's given in the lead-up to this film's release. While at a screening of Section 31 in London, he proceeded to deliver Picard's speech from The First Duty almost verbatim, while highlighting the relationship between Section 31 and Starfleet.
In a recent interview for SFX Magazine, Kazinski spoke about his character Zeph. The mecha-donning man explains that he is his suit and his suit is him. There is a throwaway name-drop of 'mecha-dysmorphia' and it never gets deeper than that.
Kazinski wrote a backstory for Zeph that involved the man losing the ability to move, and then acquiring a new lease on life via the machine. This is firmly headcanon, as it is not revealed on-screen.
Zeph, likeable as he is, is a casualty of the truncated runtime. This idea of mecha-dysmorphia is both fascinating and prescient, as discussions of neural links and augmented bodies exist today. Zeph was an opportunity to extrapolate what this would look like in a few centuries, rather than reducing him to 'the muscle', for the little screen time he has.