Episode 3.7 "Dominion" Discussion Thread

As I've said, I think some sort of Section 31 is necessary. I also recall, even fairly recently, Michelle Yeoh saying it was pitched to her as Mission: Impossible in Space. That I could buy. That could be fun. That could work. But that's not what I see it portrayed as in Picard.

I can even see S31, with the Dominion War going so terribly that loss was inevitable and the Dominion was openly talking about obliterating Earth, someone on the secret Federation S31 Oversight Committee saying to S31, "Something has to happen. The course of action I'd suggest, is the course of action I can't suggest. But if that suggestion is followed through on and that went public, there have to be S31 people to take the fall."

That makes sense. It's the direst of situations. The Federation knows something has to be done, so its going to turn a blind eye, but it's still done under Federation direction.

But that's not the sense that I ever got from Starfleet and Sloan on DS9. It really felt to me like this was S31's idea and S31's show, Starfleet was doing what it was told by S31 and the whole of the Council knew but just wasn't going to lift a finger, which already suggests that this clandestine agency has a ridiculous amount of power with no oversight or control.

But that isn't what's happening in Picard. No one is against the wall and facing annihilation. This is just S31 doing some sick, Mengele-grade --- because, why not?

Unlike the Changeling virus, it's not arguably justifiable or not, it's just sick.

And if the Federation is that depraved, why should anyone look up to it? Who can look at that and see optimism?