4 Ups & 4 Downs For Star Trek: Section 31

Prescriptivism and proscriptivism are rarely helpful to any process, let alone the creative one. Nevertheless, when it comes to the writing, Star Trek has, from its inception, relied on a structure of 'morality play in space'. More than that, the play has been so much the thing that deviating even a syllable from the rigidly Shakespearean has reportedly required all manner of conversations with the 'higher-ups'. On Star Trek: Section 31, as on other recent Trek projects, things were allowed to be a little looser — lines ad-libbed.

At its best, improvisation works wonders. Whether it works for Star Trek is still up for debate. It didn't work here. And that in spite of some rather talented improvisers. Of course, we can't know in advance what is off the cuff and what was on the page. Scripted or not, "chaos is my friends with benefits" simply does a disservice to a character we already know so little about.

Star Trek has always kept up with the times in which it has been broadcast. It has also made a point, made it the point, to transcend them. To use such an array of contemporary colloquialisms, contemporary slang — "chaos goblin," "straight up sh*t," "Your Mama IV," "badass," "bad bitch," "whatevs," "I love that for us," "keep things lively" — brings us right back to the contemporary, rather than, in this case, transporting us to the future of the 24th century.