It seems anyone who isn’t in love with STD has everyone jumping down their throats for daring to criticise it. If you are glad it is being renewed then I’m glad for you. But could I get a feel of what it is exactly you like about it?
Is it the character of Michael Burnham?
The bitching of the crew?
The camera work?
The Star Wars superficiality?
The Klingons?
The evil captain?
The Vulcan intergalactic force communication?
If this series didn’t have Star Trek in the name no one would give it a second glance and the makers know it.
Personally, I like:
- Michael: I like her combination of traits, her trying to understand being human after her education, and I just like her.
- Saru: funny, sarcastic, and a coward, though not a useless one like some minor characters - this is inherent to his make up/species, but has also shown forcefulness when needed and looks likely to grow a lot as a character, and a great performance by Doug Jones so far
- Tily: fun and energetic, like a cadet should be, and I don't find her at all annoying like some people do
- Lorca: damaged, not evil, I think he has solid principles that we will come to see even though right now they are hidden by his pragmatism and his pain
- Stamets: even though he was grouchy at first, I immediately liked him and i liked how they showed from the start that he does have a softer, friendlier side that not everyone gets to see - and we have seen more of that side since
- The Discovery: i didn't like the original teaser trailer version, but I think the final version is pretty darn beautiful and the show is doing their best to highlight it with amazing space shots
- The music and theme song: while the theme isn't as strong a Voyager's, it is good and the imagery accompanying it is cool (like Enterprise's was)
- I like the crew interplay (what you term "bitching") - they are not the more perfect TNG type characters and in only the 4 episodes on Discovery we are already seeing them starting to work well together as a team and as friends
- I like the supporting characters we have seen so far: Sarek, Admiral Cornwall, Mudd - they are all well acted and bring either touches of TOS (for Sarek and Mudd) and add to character backstories (for Sarek and Cornwall)
- I like the storytelling so far - liked the 2-hour pilot and have liked the episodes since. I think I would enjoy having it be slightly more episodic while still having serialized bits, but the balance so far has been good and better than I feared
- The Spore drive: despite it being a huge stretch in terms of science, I have liked the concept of the spore drive (the subspace network) and especially the Tardigrade
- While I don't particularly like the Klingon story, what i do like is that (at least for now) it is just a background motivation that propels our main characters actions and interactions. The Discovery is what we really care about, and if the Klingons pop up in a minor way each episode or every other episode to push things along, I am ok with that. I like that there is a strong drive behind the season - Discovery isn't just drifting out there, they have a mission (one that is a little more well defined than just warping around).
- Finally, Georgiou, though we only saw her briefly, I really liked her and am looking forward to seeing more of her via flashback or recording, etc.