Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Ranking Every Major Character Worst To Best
18. Luther Sloane
Luther Sloane was Section 31. While the organisation had gone all the way back to the original Federation Charter, he was the cool and commanding, yet sly face of the secretive group.
Later incarnations of Section 31 have all failed to match this master tactician. He remains one of the few humans to outwit Dr. Bashir, playing him like an expensive fiddle as he manipulates the doctor into increasingly desperate scenarios. His first appearance portrays him as an overly zealous security officer, though this front quickly fades.
He is, eventually, quite open in his intentions and tries to recruit Bashir, although the latter refuses. This would not be the last time they would meet.
Sloane had what Ash Tyler and Phillipa Georgiou need - he has believable charm, while playing his hand. Georgiou is an action hero while Tyler, at present, is still honorable and conflicted. Sloane is not honorable. Sloane gets the job done.
His eventual death suggests that Section 31 was simply an operation that was passed from person to person, rather than that supports a base. However, Discovery has shown this to be, at one point in history at least, not the case.
Whatever the situation with Section 31 is in the franchise going forward, Luther Sloane was one of the best, most devious humans that has ever been introduced into Star Trek. Frankly, the jury is still out on whether he's really dead at all...