Star Trek: Section 31 remains the biggest debacle of content creation that the franchise has ever created. It is a universally reviled piece of entertainment that fails to appeal to the target audience (non-Star Trek fans), as well as the audience who would still give it a chance (Star Trek fans). It's an absolute waste of money and time.
If you didn't find one good thing in this film, you aren't alone. This film is utterly unwatchable. It's not even a subjective opinion. This is as close to a fact as we can get when we talk about quality in entertainment. There isn't really anyone defending the film and the rare few who do seem to like it in spite of what franchise it's supposed to be from.
Despite all that. Despite its terrible writing, horrible set pieces, and woeful attempts at being something other than Star Trek, there is still some good that came from this film.
Enter James Hiroyuki Liao. Prior to 2025. Liao was most famous for his time on the hit Fox drama, Prison Break, and the CBS drama Unforgettable and for you video game fans, he played Kenji from the hit title, Ghost of Tsushima. Yet, most recently, Liao played San, a former ally of Philippa Georgiou from the Mirror Universe.
It's arguably the biggest role of his career so far, as San was the primary antagonist for the Section 31 film. A role he dreamt of playing for years.
In a recent interview with TrekMovie.com, Liao described himself as a "Trekkie" from the Next Generation days. So for him to land a role in a Star Trek film, in his own words, "...literally a dream come true...literally living something that you dreamt about as a child."
While we're fine criticizing the film, we also have to do our due diligence and highlight some really cool things. Namely, a Star Trek fan getting to live out his dream and playing a major role in a major production. Sure, we all wish the film was better, but we got what we got. While the film is objectively terrible, we'll never say it's because of the talent involved.