When Does Star Trek: Section 31 Take Place On The Franchise Timeline?

Potential spoilers follow.

The timeline of the new TV movie "Star Trek: Section 31" is a little difficult to place in the chronology of "Star Trek," as it involves interdimensional shifts and a passage through the living time portal the Guardian of Forever. There is, however, one common character between "Section 31" and the extant "Star Trek" universe at large that can give us a vital clue. The one character in question, as far as we know, has no access to time travel equipment and doesn't often go skipping between parallel universe, so we can happily use her as a bedrock. 

To offer a brief recap before we get into the nitty-gritty: Section 31 is the black-ops arm of Starfleet, an organization first introduced in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Inquisition" (April 6, 1998). While Starfleet was typically devoted to missions of exploration, research, and diplomacy, there was a super-secret arm of the organization that worked undercover to handle less-than-savory missions that involved breaking laws or committing acts of violence. Trekkies learned that Section 31 was a long-standing organization in "Affliction" (February 18, 2005), an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise." That show was set a century before the original "Star Trek," so Section 31 had been part of Starfleet's DNA for a while. 

Section 31 also played a large role in "Star Trek: Discovery," and it would eventually recruit Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), a murdering cannibal despot from a parallel universe, to be one of its special agents. She was last seen in the two-part episode "Terra Firma" (December 10 and 17, 2022) exiting the 32nd century and being transported to a time when the evil Mirror Universe and the traditional Trek Universe were more closely aligned. 

"Section 31" catches up with what the Empress has been going since then, and explains where she ended up when she traveled through time.

Thanks to an opening exposition dump, we know that Georgiou stepped through the Guardian of Forever and landed in the year 2257 and joined Section 31. 2257, for Trek newbies, is the same year as the second season of "Star Trek: Discovery," and about eight years before the events of the original "Star Trek." The narration goes on to say, however, that Starfleet lost track of Georgiou after "a few years," and only found her after she had already adopted an alias and opened her own nightclub-like space station outside of Federation space.

The "a few years" part of "Star Trek: Section 31" is a little maddening, as it leaves the movie's timeframe a bit vague. Georgiou, of course, doesn't look too much older than the last time we saw her, so those "few years" couldn't have been as many as 20. 

Of course, if Georgiou went back in time to 2257, then there was a brief period wherein there were two of them in the "Star Trek" universe. The original Georgiou wouldn't have been whisked forward to the 32nd century until the very end of the second season of "Discovery." 

In "Section 31," Starfleet recruits Georgiou once again, this time to track down a small, portable doomsday device, about the size of a Nintendo GameCube. She is teamed up with a charming Chameloid (Sam Richardson), a comely Deltan (Humberly Gonzalez), a microscopic alien piloting a man-sized suit (Robert Kazinsky), a super-cyborg (Sven Ruygrok), a stoic FBI-like dude (Omari Hardwick), and a Starfleet overseer named Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl). Rachel Garrett is there to make sure Empress Georgiou, a mass murderer, doesn't commit any additional murders. 

The name, of course, will cause Trekkies' ears to perk up. 

Rachel Garrett was, of course, the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C, as it appeared in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" (February 19, 1990). In the episode, Garrett was played by actress Tricia O'Neill. The plot of "Yesterday's Enterprise" involved Garrett's ship flying through a time portal, arriving 22 years in the future. The Enterprise-C departed the year 2344. Judging by O'Neill's age at the time of "Yesterday's Enterprise," and extrapolating from some obscure expanded universe lore (novels and the like), we can come to the conclusion that Garrett was born in the year 2293. 

Garrett, in "Section 31" is still a mere lieutenant, and appears to be in her early 30s. Actress Kacey Rohl is, as of this writing, 33. So that tracks. If that's accurate, then "Section 31" takes place in 2326. This also falls in line with the above-mentioned expanded universe lore, which states that Garrett wouldn't become a Commander and first officer until 2328. She would be a lieutenant in 2326. 

Recall, though, that Georgiou has been part of Section 31 since 2257. So it seems that the timeline starts to get a little screwy. 2257 was 36 years before Rachel Garrett was born. How could she be in her early 30s just "a few years later"? 

Of course, if we're to use our imaginations, we can account for the 65 to 70 years that seem to be missing. Either Garrett did indeed have access to a time travel widget — which she might conceivably have, working with a super-secret organization like Section 31 — or, more likely, Empress Georgiou is very old and merely incredibly well-maintained. Those "few years" could have been six full decades, for all we know, and Empress Georgiou could be about 135 years old. This is the future, after all, and medicine is super-advanced. Also, people have their bodies augmented by mechanical devices all the time. Not to mention, the future of cosmetic surgery is probably cutting-edge.