There ain't gonna' be much "discovering" going on in this season of "Discovery", ain't it?
I think we now got a clear look of what a "regular" episode of DIS will look like. A clear 3 act structure, a small plot of the week (last week: save the colony, this week: save the Captain), with a plot that's a bit lacking compared to previous Trek series, but much more room for character interactions, and set-ups and resolutions for the long-term arc.
That being said: I'm not very content with this series at this moment. It's overly dark, violent. And it seems, we only ever going to see Fedration officers or klingons in dark Federation or klingon hallways. No new planets. No strange alien species. Not even to make contact with to help in the war effort. All of this feels awfully secluded from a rich, diverse universe.
Nitpicks:
- THIS was a D7? Are they fucking kidding us? The original klingon D7 design is such an iconic shape, it appears in ALL the Trek series, from TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY to even ENT. It's such a great design, it was used in a 60s television series, as well as in a 1979 big-budget movie (TMP) up until to a 2009 blockbuster (ST09). If you discount the classic saucer UFO, this is maybe the most well-known alien starship design there is in entertainment. And what did they do? Replace it with some generic organic delta shape. Yay. This could have easily been a wraith ship from Stargate, or literally any other science fiction show ever. There is nothing distinctive, less iconic, in everything regarding the new klingons. I guess the behind-the-scenes-drama was actually a lot bigger than what we even suspected...
- Nice space station tho'!
- Lorca really didn't have a plan with Burnham? Apart from letting her hang around his ship and see what happens? In the beginning, I thought he had a well-thought out evil scheme. But apparently, he's also only throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.
- This is the first episode not entirely centered around Burnham, but more of an ensemble play, in this series
- Am I the only one that think the Intros come very late? Like, almost after 10 minutes? Instead of after a short opening teaser?
- A vulcan Admiral! Cpt. April and Archer! Genetic experiments on humans are forbidden (because of Khaaaaan). All around many nice nods to the fans.
- Nice to see a little bit of morality and ethic discussions about monsters back in Trek.
- This is so fucking cool! Worked surprisingly well.
- MUDD. He was great! Ham'ed up to eleven!!!
- So Lorca off-ed his entire crew to spare them from torture? What an asshole.
- Also, Lorca leaving Mudd to the klingons? After you know what they do to prisoners? Double asshole.
- "Wanna' be right, or wanna' fix this?" I really like grumpy Stamets

- I think there is WAY too much violence in this series. Too much gore in the last two episodes. Now, we see a redshirt impaled in close-up. A prisoner tortured to death. A woman with half her face melting screaming for her life and no one helping her. This shit is way too dark, and I'm not talking about the illumination, although there's plenty of issues there, too
- I repeat myself: The subspace-funghi-galaxy-network is at least as bad science as Spock's Brain or warp 10-salamanders. But we didn't need to endure those for an entire season
- So. In the final moments of the episode. We have a Godzilla-sized tardigrade...GO TO WARP? On it's own? What?

Finally, regarding the
"Ash Tyler is secretly Voq in disguise"-theory: I
really hope it isn't true. First of all: Do we need
ANOTHER explanation why the klingons in TOS looked different? Especially since we already
have a perfectly working one, and this new klingons not looking like any other klingons anyway? There is also the
other problem of having your only middle-eastern character be the traiter. The
moooozleeem is not to be trusted. Welcome to Trump Trek!