After re-watching "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars" the other day, I still agree with everything Captain Georgiou said. Right down to the Klingons are looking for a fight, so greeting them with a Vulcan Hello won't deter them. If anything, it would give them what they want. Burnham really threw everything away for nothing. I've probably watched Season 1 over 10 times now, I've lost count at this point, and I keep coming to the same conclusion.
After Georgiou had Burnham thrown in the brig, she shouldn't have listened to anything Burnham said afterwards. It all led to her dying and T'Kuvma become the martyr they were trying to avoid making him. It would've been nice if they found a way to keep Captain Georgiou around.
A promotion to Admiral would've kept Georgiou around, Michelle Yeoh would've had a chance to act opposite of Emperor Georgiou later on in the season, and Lorca still gets to be Captain of Discovery, doing his Lorca thing. But I like Admiral Cornwell and her "it's complicated" relationship status with Lorca. I wouldn't want to lose that.
I liked the new Klingon ships and I liked the new costumes. I didn't like the four nostrils, overly elaborate necks, and no hair.
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Regarding the Timeframe: I think DSC should've taken place post-TUC/pre-TNG. At one point, a few years ago, I watched TUC and then watched the first episode of DSC immediately afterwards, so I could directly compare the two, and I'd have had no trouble believing DSC took place 25 years after TUC (TUC came out in 1991, DSC started in 2017, so it would've matched the time that had passed IRL). The Discovery, to me, looks like a Movie Era ship. The design originally came from Planet of the Titans and you can see it hidden away in Space Dock in TSFS. So it's a Movie Ship, not a TNG Ship.
Of course now, thanks to PIC, we've actually seen what at least the beginning of the 25th Century looks like, and it seems like the TOS Movie look is back in style, so the Discovery could've been a 25th Century ship too. But anyway...
In a post-TUC setting, a large segment of the Klingons would've been sick of the peace and weakened state the Klingon Empire had been in for the past 25 years. And someone like T'Kuvma has a stronger case for wanting to Make the Empire Great Again.
On the Mirror Universe Side: the Terran Empire could be falling apart, thanks to Spock's actions, but not completely fallen. So, Georgiou could be one of the last leaders of a dying empire, before the Klingon/Bajoran/Cardassian/Etc. Coalition took over.
Bottom Line: "10 years before TOS" wouldn't have been my first choice to set Discovery. It was an odd series to be a prequel, it never felt like one, so I'd forget it was. Being able to forget it was a prequel actually worked in its favor (ironically) since I'm not usually a fan of them. Better Call Saul is my gold-standard for prequels. If you're not going to make it blend in as seamlessly as Better Call Saul blended into Breaking Bad, don't do it at all. Or at least acknowledge it's some level of reboot. (Controversial Opinion!) So, I was a glad when DSC jumped to the 32nd Century because I didn't have to keep turning the blind eye that I knew I was turning.
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I'm not sure what I think about the angst. I've had it drilled into my head for decades that, "Conflict is the root of all drama." Which I don't disagree with. On the other hand, like I said, I thought Burnham was handled horribly in the first two episodes. Which is why it took until "Context Is for Kings" to fully hook me into the series. Burnham was really mean towards Tilly at first... but she also just spent six months in prison, so she had a massive chip on her shoulder (which is understandable), she had to deal with a lot of hardened types... and Tilly is such the complete opposite of that, that it probably felt like whiplash for Burnham. Especially a Burnham who wants to hate herself for what happened on the Shenzhou.
They killed off Landry WAY TOO SOON. I'd have liked to have seen what her deal was. She had to have had some type of past. She was hardened and gravitated towards Lorca real easy.
For me, the choice between PIC Season 1 and PIC Season 3 was really close. Ultimately, I went with PIC Season 3 because I felt like the season knew exactly what it wanted to be, went all in, and was unafraid to be what it was. With DSC, I'll probably end up giving the nod to Season 4 because Season 1 is messy with a lot to untangle (a type of messy that I like, which provides a lot of fodder for discussion, but still messy nonetheless), while Season 4 is pretty straight-forward and, like PIC S3, it too knows exactly what it wants to be and is unafraid of it. That's where I think I'll land. But I'll wait until I get to the end of the re-watch before I say for sure. This is the first time I'm getting to watch the series from any type of distance.