Star Trek Social Club

Although Star Trek‘s utopia might seem like a place where galactic powers would be beyond counterintelligence, the franchise has always loved spies. From loving pastiches to their role as a place to navigate shades of gray otherwise untouchable, spy work has long been a backbone of Star Trek storytelling—which means almost every galactic power has at least one spy agency.

In fact, a lot of them have two! Star Trek loves to split the difference between what it sees as honorable spycraft: counterintelligence agencies performing recon work to safeguard their powers’ interests and a second, even more secretive black-ops division that does all the dirty work in a way that can be sequestered and disavowed… depending on the power, of course. Sometimes the dirty work is all they have!

From Section 31 to the Obsidian Order, here’s a brief rundown of the agencies we’ve encountered across 60 years of Trek history so far.