Section 31 Looks So Familiar

Olatunde Osunsanmi’s new TV movie “Star Trek: Section 31” is weirdly retro in its setup, feeling reminiscent of delightfully corny B-movies of the 1980s like Peter Manoogian’s low-budget time-travel lark “Eliminators.” The main character is Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), the genocidal tyrant of the Mirror Universe, and she has been enlisted to be part of Section 31, Starfleet’s ethics-free black ops organization that handles dangerous secret missions.

The film’s cast, however, is rounded out by a rogues’ gallery of diverse aliens and specialists, each one enlisted to help the Empress on a vital mission to retrieve a doomsday device. There is the shapeshifter Quasi (Sam Richardson), a none-too-bright cyborg bruiser named Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), a microscopic organism named Zeph piloting a human-sized robot (Robert Kazinsky), an ultra-seductive Deltan named Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), and Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl), a straight-laced Starfleet officer who is there to make sure that murders are kept to a minimum.

Also present is Alok Sahar, who functions as the Section 31 intermediary who reached out to Georgiou in the first place. Alok is tough, taciturn, and implies that serving Section 31 might give the Empress a chance to redeem herself for some of her many, many crimes. He is, in short, the Company Man.

Alok is played by Omari Hardwick, an actor from Georgia who has been working professionally in film and TV since the early 2000s. He has also been long involved in theater projects throughout Los Angeles for many years and occasionally participates in poetry slams. Hardwick has appeared in many high-profile feature films as well, having worked with many known directors along the way. He even turned up in what might be the best film of 2018, so you have likely seen his face before.

Hardwick started his film career with a little-known 2002 indie flick called “Circles,” but soon after broke into the mainstream with a role in the hit 2005 comedy “Beauty Shop” starring Queen Latifah. His intensity and pliability as an actor had him instantly involved in numerous other big studio projects, including the military thriller “The Guardian” and the Dwayne Johnson vehicle “Gridiron Gang,” both of which were released in 2006. Then, in 2008, he was cast as Commander Huggs in Spike Lee’s war epic “Miracle at St. Anna.”

Alternatively, some might recognize Hardwick from his role as a gruff cop in the violent superhero riff “Kick-Ass” or from his supporting turn in the 2010 film version of “The A-Team,” wherein he played Chopshop Jay. Hardwick also worked with Tyler Perry on the 2010 drama “For Colored Girls,” which earned him a nomination for a Black Reel Award. Indeed, Hardwick has been prolific for quite some time now, appearing in multiple films and TV shows every year. In 2018 alone, Hardwick appeared in the rom-com “Nobody’s Fool,” both starred in and served as an executive producer on the romantic drama “A Boy. A Girl. A Dream.,” and was the co-lead in the Iraq War veteran drama “Sgt. Will Gardner.” On top of all that, he played the mysterious Mr. ______ in Boots Riley’s surreal masterwork “Sorry to Bother You” (a film in which he got to wear a bowler hat and an eyepatch, as seen above).

In the immediate lead-up to “Section 31,” Hardwick starred in the Jennifer Lopez vehicle “The Mother” and worked with Zack Snyder on the zombie action-horror mishmash “Army of the Dead.”  He really has been around. On TV, one might additionally recognize Hardwick from his starring role in the short-live 2006 series “Saved” or from all 20 episodes of “Dark Blue.” He’s even been in music videos for Ruff Endz, Floetry, Nasty C, Estelle, and Jay-Z, and has recorded singles of his own with artists like 50 Cent.

Most notably, Hardwick played James “Ghost” St. Patrick, the lead character of the six-season Starz TV series “Power” (which ran from 2014 to 2020). And this isn’t even his whole career. If Hardwick looks familiar, it’s because he’s been just about everywhere in the last 20-odd years. “Star Trek” is, for him, just another feather in his cap.

“Star Trek: Section 31” begins streaming January 24, 2025, on Paramount+.