Section 31 sees the beloved sci-fi franchise lean hard into outrageous, b-movie action ... and it somehow works better than you'd think.

Watching the "Star Trek" movies in order of release also places them in proper continuity order, since the original cast handed off the film series to the "Next Generation" cast in 1994 after the final episode of "The Next Generation," and the reboot movies follow their own continuity that branches off from the main timeline.

It's a fine excuse to occasionally watch Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh kick things, but Section 31 is otherwise a deeply incurious squandering of Star Trek potential.

Section 31, a feature film that's a spinoff of the series Star Trek: Discovery, will soon be available to stream on Paramount+. The movie immediately grips its audience by the throat, delivering a cold open about the brutality necessary to acquire power that almost rivals Anakin Skywalker's march on the Jedi temple in Revenge of the Sith.

Star Trek is boldly going where no chapter of this long-running franchise has gone before with Section 31, a Michelle Yeoh-starring vehicle that takes place in the "lost era" set between the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.