Warning: this article contains mild spoilers for “Star Trek: Section 31.”

At the very end of Olatunde Osunsanmi’s new TV movie “Star Trek: Section 31,” the film’s scrappy, ragtag group of criminals and ethics-optional mercenaries have gone through their central adventure, and have reconnoitered at a spacebound bar/casino to drink to their success. They barely escaped their mission, but are happy to have bonded over their mutual peril. It’s established that the adventure’s survivors, led by Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), will now become a permanent installation inside of Section 31, Starfleet’s black-ops organization. “Section 31” is not a pilot episode, but it ends as if it might be, establishing a new cast of characters, their home base, and what a potential TV series would look like. At the very least, the filmmakers are teasing a sequel.

While sipping on strong spirits and joking around with each other, the film’s antiheroes receive a call from Control (Jamie Lee Curtis), their new boss. Control says that her better judgment has warned her away from assigning new missions, but that “better judgment” should be ignored in this case. She then asks if any of the Section 31 crew have been to a planet called Turkana IV. 

That name will cause Trekkies to perk up. Turkana IV was the planet where Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) grew up. Tasha Yar, of course, was the chief security officer on board the Enterprise-D during the first season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The character was notoriously killed by a tar monster early in the series, as Crosby felt she wasn’t being given enough to do, and wanted to pursue movies instead. 

Yar frequently talked about Turkana IV, however, and how terrible it was. It seems that Turkana IV was a failed colonization experiment of some kind that eventually devolved into a criminal hellscape.

It’s indelicate language, but Tasha Yar frequently noted that Turkana IV was overrun by “rape gangs,” who stalked the colony looking for victims to assault. A few flashbacks in the episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” show Turkana IV as crumbling, shadowy, and scary. It looks like a haunted house. Going by Yar’s many descriptions, Turkana IV was meant to be a widespread Earth-like colony with its own government. The planet, however, quickly devolved into Civil War between two factions. The sides were called the Coalition and the Alliance, leaving audiences with no sense as to who their dividing ethos might be. Yar said that both factions declared the colony independent of the Federation, and the whole planet devolved into lawlessness. 

This was a stark contrast to Gene Roddenberry’s utopian optimism. It seems that even Federation colonies could fall. Money wasn’t a part of the future of “Star Trek,” but it seems that money — and its sibling poverty — took hold. Yar talks about how drugs were frequently used, even though on the Enterprise, they barely know about substance addiction. And yes, sex gangs roamed free. 

Starfleet sent ships to Turkana IV to try to re-establish order, but no Starfleet officers were allowed to beam down. It was like the prison from “Escape from New York” down there, and no formal contact had been made. In the “Next Generation” episode “Legacy” (October 29, 1990), the Enterprise-D visited Turkana IV to rescue a small escape pod that had crash-landed there. “Legacy” established that the cities on the planet’s surface had all been destroyed and that the criminal gangs had all moved underground. There has been no mention of Turkana IV since that episode, and the Federation seems helpless to prevent its continued descent into violence and criminality. 

At the very least, we know escape from Turkana IV is possible. Tasha Yar fled the colony at the age of 15, found her way back to civilization, and eventually became a Starfleet officer. It’s tragic that she was killed in the line of duty. 

Of course, “Section 31” takes place in the late 2250s or early 2260s, before the events of the original “Star Trek,” and about a century before the events of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” If that’s the case, then Turkana IV hasn’t fallen yet, and is still in an idealized place (Yar mentioned that the colony’s government didn’t begin breaking down in earnest until the 2330s). Because Turkana IV was still in good shape (presumably) during the events of “Section 31,” there’s every reason to believe that Empress Georgiou and her retinue of ne’er-do-wells went there and did something wicked to foul up the local government. 

Given that the final line of dialogue in “Star Trek: Section 31” teased that the potential sequel would take place on Turkana IV, there’s every reason to believe that Section 31 will be actively responsible for the colony falling. It might take several decades of decay to reach what Trekkies saw in Tasha Yar’s flashbacks, but Section 31’s influence will definitely provide the catalyst. This further cements Section 31 as a villainous organization, and one that doesn’t mind killing people and deliberately corrupting governments for their own ends. 

“Section 31 Part II” is, then, certainly well poised to tell a salient a timely story about the corruption of an otherwise idealized republic, and how backsliding into authoritarianism is all too easy in the hands of demagogues. Perhaps Section 31 is the reason why Roddenberry’s utopia isn’t possible on every colony. It would certainly make for a poignant story.