I liked Section 31. Seriously.

No, this isn’t a joke or sarcasm, it’s a truthful statement from a Star Trek fan that has enjoyed the franchise since age 9 in 1991 when I first watched “The Game” from Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation and “The Enterprise Incident” from Season 3 of Star Trek: The Original Series, both airing at 7pm and 11pm respectively on WKBD FOX 50 in Detroit at the time.

I have forgotten more about Star Trek than most humans will ever care to know, which is to say none of it. There is no other franchise on this earth that I prefer over it. If it was the only one I could ever watch again in life, I would consider myself eternally grateful. It has been my comfort franchise that has literally shaped my life for more than 34 years.

So…if you didn’t like Section 31, that’s your business, but you can’t say because “it’s not Star Trek.” Well, you can, but you would be objectively wrong in this case, not the least of which because it’s objectively part of the franchise called Star Trek, whether you like it or not.

If you subjectively believe it’s not the Star Trek you’ve known and loved your whole life, well you might be right, but that’s your own fault. First, because you expected the movie to be the same kind of Star Trek you grew up with, and second because you don’t have a mind open enough to accept that Section 31 wasn’t made for you or fans like you.

It was made for fans like my fiancee that didn’t grow up with TNG, TOS, DS9, Voyager or any of the movies. Fans that were likely introduced to Star Trek through Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk, not William Shatner’s, and now they’re intrigued that Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries on The CW, actor Paul Wesley, is playing Kirk now on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Seriously, how did you haters not level your expectations when you saw the first trailer for the movie? What made you even watch it in the first place just so that you could whine and cry about it on social media?

Oh, that’s why you watched it? Ok, that makes sense. Stupid and toxic, but it’s the reason I suppose.

The vitriolic reactions to Section 31 are largely textbook gatekeeping, which is nothing new for any longtime fandom, especially Star Trek. Nearly every complaint about how it doesn’t honor, enhance or even connect to the franchise it belongs to can be summed up in that one sentence that is the backbone of nearly every fan complaint in history:

“They didn’t do what I wanted them to do.”

It’s your business if you choose to feel that way and no one is stopping you from intentionally being miserable about it, but don’t expect everyone to agree with you, and damn sure don’t call those who don’t agree with you “non-Trek fans,” because fans like me that have been around for decades likely run circles around you in that department.

The best way I can sum up Section 31 without spoilers is “Star Trek Suicide Squad.” That’s what the trailer looked like to me, that’s what the tone of it felt like, and that’s ultimately what I got when I watched it with my fiancee who also enjoyed it. No, it wasn’t standard Starfleet morality tale, no it wasn’t galactic political intrigue, and no it didn’t involve the Prime Directive. It’s just a random tale that happens in the gargantuan Star Trek universe with more than enough connections to past and present lore if you’re paying attention, and trust me, I paid complete attention.

It’s okay to say that Section 31 isn’t for you and you’d rather watch the old stuff again. It’s even okay to say that about modern Trek, whether it’s Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, or even Strange New Worlds, the darling of the old school episodic fans.

What’s not okay is being a toxic part of the fanbase that whines and cries about how Section 31 is the worst Trek you’ve ever seen, how much you couldn’t wait for it to be over even though you had the option of pressing stop on your remote whenever you wanted, or using the term “nuTrek” as a derogatory identifier to be a close-minded jerk about the Paramount Plus era of the franchise. You people that do that have absolutely no place in this fanbase, same as any other toxic gatekeeper in any other fandom.

Most of you will conflate this as telling you that you have to like all Trek, which is of course incorrect. I don’t like “Code of Honor” from TNG, especially as a black man. “Move Along Home” from DS9 doesn’t annoy me as much as others, but it’s a low tier episode of the entire franchise for me, and don’t get me started on “Threshold” from Voyager.

See how I was able to convey my dislike for those episodes without resorting to toxic insults and exaggerated language? There are Trek fans that like all of those episodes, and they’re not wrong for that, just like I and many others aren’t wrong for liking Section 31 for what it is, which isn’t the greatest Star Trek movie by any means, but is at least entertaining for the new crowd of fans that Paramount is attempting to bring into the franchise.

It doesn’t take much to simply say that it’s not for you and move on with your life. It’s only logical.