ValueSubtracted

And how funny is it that there's an episode of Star Trek named after a Batman movie?

The pair then told the story of how Paul Giamatti was cast as the season 1 villain:

Alex Kurtzman: So this happened because he was doing press for The Holdovers, and when he was asked about the part that he would most want to play, he said, “I want to play a Klingon on Star Trek.”… So we called his agent and said, “Was that a thing he just said, was that a bit?”… And she called back and she said, “He’d love to sit down with you. We got on a Zoom with him and he cried. He was so excited at the prospect of playing in the world of Star Trek and he was talking about how meaningful it was him… It was just one of those moments where you’re like, “Oh, one of the greatest actors in the world, and he really wants to come join us.” So that was pretty amazing.

Noga Landau: He also chose which role he wanted to play. We came to him and we said, “You could be this guy or that guy, or that guy.” And he thought about it and he came back and told us that the part he plays is the one he wanted.

Alex Kurtzman: We thought it was going to be like one episode because his schedule is so busy, and he was like, “No, I want to play the villain.” We’re like, “That’s the whole season.” He was like, “Great, let’s do it!”

Love to see it.

Nothing says "not interested" like pulling the comment car over to tell the world.

And yet here you are...

Turns out Voyager also established an area of the Vulcan brain that's responsible for suppressing emotions:

EMH: There's a definite neurochemical imbalance in the mesiofrontal cortex.

JANEWAY: Which means what?

EMH: That's where the Vulcan psycho-suppression systems are located. This may be the result of an incompatibility with the Betazoid telepathic neural centre, I'm not sure.

You should watch

They're probably limited by the fact that the mobile game in question is a Lower Decks game, though it doesn't sound like that's an impossible obstacle.

Gwyn's rendition of "Johnny B. Goode" in the finale is going to be killer.

All I'm doing is accurately describing the way the organization was depicted on DS9.

I've said elsewhere in the thread that I think there's a difference between redemption and atonement - I had the impression from the season 3 two-parter that they'd be taking the latter route with Georgiou. I think that could be really interesting, should they go in that direction.

This teaser really didn't provide any information as to whether they will, though.

From the trailer, I don't get the impression that they're trying to come back from it - rather, they're leaning in to it.

BASHIR: Captain, is there any word from Starfleet about Sloan or Section 31?

SISKO: There's no record of a Deputy Director Sloan anywhere in Starfleet. And as for Section 31, that's a little more complicated. Starfleet Command doesn't acknowledge its existence, but they don't deny it either. They simply said they'd look into it and get back to me.

BASHIR: When?

SISKO: They didn't say.

KIRA: That sounds like a cover up to me.

BASHIR: I can't believe the Federation condones this kind of activity.

ODO: Personally, I find it hard to believe they wouldn't. Every other great power has a unit like Section 31. The Romulans have the Tal Shiar, the Cardassians had the Obsidian Order.

When the top brass of Starfleet are covering your ass, you're an official agent, whether you're "on the books" or not.

I always took that explanation as the thinnest of lie meant to give an air of legitimacy.

I think a lot of people did, but the episode doesn't really make the case that it's a lie - in fact, Sloan is protected at the highest levels of Starfleet Command, which supports the idea that Sloan was being completely truthful when he was trying to recruit Bashir. It's a legitimate reading of the episode, at any rate.