Is Chapter 31 on the Franchise Chart?

Potential spoilers follow.

The timeline of the new Star Trek: Chapter 31 TV movie is a little tricky to fit into the Star Trek timeline, as it involves interdimensional shifts and going through the Guardian of Forever’s living time portal. However, there is one character in common between Chapter 31 and the existing Star Trek universe as a whole that may give us an important clue. The only character in question, as far as we know, doesn’t have access to time travel equipment and doesn’t often jump between parallel universes, so we can happily use him as a base.

To offer a quick summary before we get down to the nitty-gritty: Section 31 is the black division of Starfleetan organization first introduced in the Inquisition episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (April 6, 1998). While Starfleet typically engaged in search, exploration, and diplomatic missions, the organization had a top-secret unit that worked undercover to carry out less-than-savory missions involving breaking the law 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.” This show was set a century before the original Star Trek, so Chapter 31 has been part of Starfleet’s DNA for a while.

Chapter 31 also played a big role in Star Trek: Discovery , eventually recruiting Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), a murderous cannibal despot from a parallel universe, as one of its special agents. She was last seen in the two-part episode “Terra Firma” (December 10 and 17, 2022), which was set in the 32nd century and transported to a time when the evil Mirror Universe and the traditional Trek universe were more closely connected.

“Chapter 31” catches up with what the Empress has been up to since then and explains where she ended up during the time travel.

Thanks to the reveal, we know that Georgiou went through the Guardian of Forever and landed in 2257 and joined Chapter 31. 2257, for Trek newbies, is the same year as the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, and roughly eight years before the events of the original Star Trek. However, the story goes on to say that Starfleet lost track of Georgiou after “several 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 “Several Years” part of Star Trek: Chapter 31 is a little crazyas it leaves the film’s time frame a bit vague. Georgiou certainly doesn’t look too much older than the last time we saw her, so those “few years” couldn’t have been more than 20.

Of course, when Georgiou went back in time in 2257, there was a brief period when there were two of them in the Star Trek universe. The original Georgiou was not transported to the 32nd century until the very end of the second season of Discovery.

In “Chapter 31,” Starfleet recruits Georgiou again, this time to track down a small handheld doomsday device about the size of a Nintendo GameCube. She’s teamed up with a charming chameleon (Sam Richardson), a handsome Deltan (Humberly Gonzalez), a microscopic alien piloting a human-sized spacesuit (Robert Kozinski), a super-cyborg (Sven Ruigrok), a stoic FBI-like dude. (Omari Hardwick) and Starfleet Warden Rachel Garrett (Casey Rolle). Rachel Garrett is there to make sure Empress Georgiou, a mass murderer, doesn’t commit any more murders.

The name is sure to make Trekkies prick up their ears.

Rachel Garrett was, of course, the captain of the USS Enterprise-Cas it appeared in the “Yesterday’s Enterprise” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (February 19, 1990). Actress Trisha O’Neill played Garrett in the episode. The plot of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” involved Garrett’s ship flying through a time portal 22 years in the future. Enterprise-C launched in 2344. Judging by O’Neill’s age at the time of Yesterday’s Enterprise and extrapolating from some obscure expanded universe lore (novels, etc.), we can conclude that Garrett was born in 2293.

Garrett in Chapter 31 is still just a lieutenant and appears to be in her early 30s. Actress Casey Rolle is 33 years old at the time of writing. If this is true, then “Chapter 31” takes place in the year 2326. This also aligns with the aforementioned Expanded Universe legend, which states that Garrett will not become Commander and First Officer until the year 2328. She will be a lieutenant in 2326.

Recall, however, that Georgiou has been part of Chapter 31 since 2257. So it looks like the schedule is starting to go a bit off the rails. 2257 was 36 years before Rachel Garrett was born. How could she be in her early 30s only “a few years later”?

Of course, if we use our imaginations, we can explain the 65-70 years that seem to be missing. Either Garrett really did have access to a time travel widget – which she could have by working with a super-secret organization like Section 31 – or, more likely, Empress Georgiou is very old and just incredibly well-maintained. Those “few years” could have been as long as six decades for all we know, and Empress Georgiou could have been about 135 years old. After all, this is the future, and medicine is super advanced. In addition, people’s bodies are constantly being enlarged by mechanical devices. Not to mention, the future of cosmetic surgery is probably cutting edge.