On Wednesday night, TrekMovie spoke to members of the cast and crew of Star Trek: Section 31 at the premiere and junket in New York City. One of the actors we spoke to was Kacey Rohl, who plays one of the few familiar characters in the streaming movie: She’s Rachel Garrett, first seen as the USS Enterprise-C’s captain in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Section 31 takes place years before those events, when she’s a mere lieutenant at the beginning of her career.
Your character is really the only one representing Starfleet in this movie. Did you feel pressure to sort of carry yourself a certain way because of that?
Love that question. Yeah, pressure or opportunity? Pressure makes diamonds. I think it’s just an incredible honor to be asked to play Rachel Garrett. Tricia O’Neill did such amazing work in “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” so getting to carry or sort of build something up to where she worked, was just really, really exciting. I think there’s an expectation of how to comport oneself as Starfleet, so definitely in the beginning of the film especially, I think representing a particular way was important to me, and especially in contrast towards the other characters in that situation. And then as the movie goes on, I hope to represent some different colors, and to watch how her programming is challenged.
Did you feel like Section 31 rubbed off on Rachel Garrett more or Rachel Garrett on Section 31?
I like to think it’s a bit of both. But you know, I track Rachel’s journey, and I think she really she learned some valuable lessons around embracing chaos… In terms of who uploads more to who, I absorb some of the chaos by the end. But I do think Garrett keeps her spine. She’s still Starfleet at the end of the film. Like she’s not completely swayed to full chaos goblin mode… I think by the end of the film what Garrett brings in terms of her staunchness and her very clear ideas of what is right and wrong – while they’ve softened throughout the film, I think the team sees the benefits of having those sort of guardrails.

L to R Kacey Rohl as Rachel, Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Omari Hardwick as Alok in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+
I forget, does she call Georgiou a bad bitch at the end?
She absolutely does. Yeah, I got to say that to Michelle Yeoh’s face. And that felt right.
How was it working with her?
A dream come true. I mean, she’s just incredible as as an actor, but also just as a human… all of the all of the charitable work she does, who she is as a person, how she is in space with us, so generous, so kind, so powerful and empowered, which is infectious and beautiful to be around.
What would you say is Rachel Garrett’s arc in this movie as a character?
I think when we when we find Lieutenant Rachel at the beginning of this film, she’s a company man. She’s tightly wound, she’s a rule follower, she likes order, she likes control, she likes “This is right and this is wrong.” And I think over the course of the film and spending time with the rest of Section 31, she learns to soften around those or to see where coloring outside the lines or operating in a little more of a gray area might actually be the better way to achieve our goals sometimes.
They sort of made it ambiguous in the movie, but do you think it was a punishment or a promotion that she ended up in Section 31?
Yeah, that’s an interesting question. Nobody has asked me that yet! I like to think that there was something in her, that somebody was testing her a bit, but she saw it as a challenge. She didn’t see it as a demotion. She saw it as somebody trusting her with a very important job, and she wanted to deliver well.
More Section 31
Read more Section 31 coverage from this week:
- Interview: Michelle Yeoh Talks Georgiou’s Ongoing Redemption In ‘Star Trek: Section 31’
- Interview: Sven Ruygrok Explains Fuzz’s ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Species Backstory
- New Preview Images Reveal More From ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Streaming Movie
- 5 Clips From ‘Section 31’
- Watch: Michelle Yeoh Brings ‘Section 31’ Clip To Colbert, Talks Love Of Star Trek
- Interview: Alex Kurtzman On How ‘Section 31’ Embodies Star Trek Values, And The Future Of The Franchise
- Early Thoughts On ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ (Spoiler-Free)
- All Access Star Trek podcast review of Section 31
There are many more interviews to come from the premiere and from the junket as well as more analysis.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com
Sounds like they she took theJob pretty seriously.
Unlike the people *behind* the camera. 😕
Along with Michelle, she was the real highlight of the film. I would love to see her again in the future.
I thought Kacey Rohl was quite good in this, to tell you the truth. She was definitely a high point! It would be cool to see her in the role again at some point.
As for the film in a broader sense, I’m sorry to see that so many fans seem to truly hate it. I can’t really disagree with many of the specific criticisms, nor would I feel the need to try. But for myself, I certainly don’t hate this, nor do I see it as any kind of unholy, cannon-wrecking abberation of Star Trek’s values. I like it when Star Trek tries new things… and when you try new things, sometimes you’ll get a dud. I guess this is a dud.
I find the film enjoyable enough for what it is. Chances are good that I’ll rewatch it in the next few days. And I’ll happily add it to future rewatches more broadly.
There are even some things I really like — for example, the use of the Godsend triggering a cataclysm in the mirror universe that adds to our understanding of what happened between “Mirror, Mirror” and “Crossover.” That was unexpected and cool.
I also like the closure we got to the hints about San we got in Discovery season three. I’m glad that’s no longer a dangling story thread.
And even though the specifics of how this film was executed didn’t resonate with me, I like the concept of a Mission: Impossible-style team having all kinds of fun adventures. We almost certainly won’t see any of those adventures, and I’m not exactly sad about that, but I’m appreciative that this exists in the broader Star Trek story.
Most importantly of all, I hope we get more standalone TV films and more experimentation as the years go by. This was only fair to middling at best (not abysmal), and I hope it doesn’t dissuade the powers that be from taking chances.
Much as I do dislike the film, this post is deeply insightful, and I’m glad you enjoyed it to a point. I agree wholeheartedly that there ought to be more standalone films in the future!
The other way around would have been the right approach, her being kind of a young loose cannon, hyped to be around the “spies”, and through dealing with Section 31 she would become a rule follower, liking order and control, and gaining some new traits that would eventually make her a better Starfleet officer. It would also have made for some interesting dynamics & dual contrasts: two loose cannons, Garrett, who grows through the experience, versus Georgiou, the evil & irredeemable one, who remains only a catalyst for the other characters, and both of them versus the Section 31 agents. (Hell, you could have even told the story from Garrett’s point of view!) But all that would imply that this Section 31 would have been like the one we had come to know in earlier canon under Berman, this tight, clinical & efficient agency utterly dedicated to saving the order & controlling the security of the Federation at all costs, ethics be damned. Alas, the filmmakers & producers clearly did not understand existing canon, let alone Section 31 and its divisive, but critical role.
They probably thought ‘let’s do a reverse Beckett Mariner and slap Rachel Garrett’s name on her’
I bet you a mountain of gold-pressed latinum bars that detractors of this movie would love if it Paramount made a Rachel Garrett spin-off series that falls more in line with their (narrow) preconceptions of what is an acceptable Star Trek series…
Good actor. Unfortunate and embarassing film. It wasn’t that “it wasn’t Star Trek.” It was that it was unwatchably bad and poorly executed in every respect. Sad. Cringe.
OK, I can sorta see a through-line from Rachel Garrett in S31 to the captain of the Enterprise-C. She would have to be willing to bend the rules to order her ship to defend a Klingon colony, likely having to violate the Empire’s borders to do so.
Yeah but everyone from Kirk to Janeway would of answered that distress call. In Kirk ‘s case grudgingly but he’d still do it.
I would enjoy seeing a limited series of Section 31 that forces it to hide in the background then a limited series about Rachel Garrett until she commands Enterprise-C.
To me, this was a good movie. It was fun, interestingly paced, interesting action pieces, and good history (Augment?). I am not a critic, but I liked it.
“Chaos is my friend with benefits.” Wow….
Yeah, that line was awful. All of that “chaos, chaos, chaos” nonsense was cringeworthy.
Her casting was good, but her dialogue was horrible.
I think the actress did a fine job with what she was given to work with. That’s about as far as I can honestly go with it. Did she resemble a younger version of a character who was featured in one episode 35 years ago? Guess that’s up to the viewer. Her dialogue was pretty weak, imo. As it was for the rest of the cast.
I don’t blame the actors in this. They work with the script they have.
I think she was good in the role but I did enjoy her since her days in Hannibal. I think the bigger problem with this film was the script. Lets face it Star Trek doesn’t realy do “hip” dialogue. It always comes out cringeworthy and they keep on trying it with all the shows. The film was enjoyable in the shut your brain off and don’t think about too much way. It was basically like an full length “Spock’s Brain”.
Wait… Garrett had an arc?
Right? That was my reaction. None of these characters have an arc. This was a crappy script.
So, at the beginning of the film, she’s a company man, and at the end of the film…she’s learning to roll with the punches as a member of a Federation death squad.
Well done, Secret Hideout.
but we know she will still be Starfleet to the end
Yes. Her ‘journey’ is an inversion of Bashir’s and her purpose in the film is purely to tell you ‘Section 31 is good, actually.’
she may not feel that way if there is a sequel.
I think everyone is waiting with baited breath for TrekMovie’s full review. :)
Minor detail, but Starfleet doesn’t send officers to monitor an organization it’s NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW EXISTS
Starfleet knows about it. It always has. It’s part of the Starfleet charter. It’s individual captains, such as Sisko and Archer, who didn’t know about it.
I hope Kurtzman gets fired for this blemish on Star Trek name.
Studio’s been pinching pennies quite tightly lately. Kurtzman had a project with a bankable star, a rarity in franchise history. I would imagine the bean counters’ expectations of Section 31’s performance were quite lofty.
Is S31 the modern definition of the dreaded ‘straight to video’ release?
At least this horrible movie didn’t ruin Rachel Garret and the actress did the best job she could. I really liked her. Unfortunately they didn’t bother to do anything interesting or gave any real development to her either. I don’t think we learned one new thing about her.
I couldn’t really tell why the “Starfleet” character had to be Garrett specifically. I wish the movie had been set in a time further into her career. A subplot could have been Commander Garrett’s involvement with Section 31 somehow jeopardizes her chances of making captain, but in the end she gets the coveted spot of the new Enterprise-C about to be launched…