Honestly, I'd be happy if there were just fewer giant plot holes. The number of times they should've been able to use the transporters (or the spore drive, or drones - which are apparently a thing in early Trek now) to solve a problem in season 2 but didn't even address it is embarrassing.
I would like these characters (All the characters) to be written as people and not have the writers cutting corners to goad the audience into an emotional payoff.
My current theory is: Federation is completely compromised. Some tragedy has thrown it in disarray. However, Section 31, deep underground, has ironically become a mechanism to preserve the Federation's values and help it defeat this new menace, whether from without or within. Georgiou is part of future Section 31's past. Thus there is a closed-temporal loop that necessitates that she return to the past to make it what it becomes. She will return with the Discovery and hide it in the nebula, where it will then remain for a thousand years before "Calypso." The new Section 31 show will happen before and contemporaneously with Kirk's five year mission. The Enterprise set will find use there. Romulans etc. won't be off-limits for Section 31. As to what actually happens in season 3, in the future, your guess is as good as mine.
Control Leland was the worst offender for me. He can move like the flash, he can overpower a Vulcan with ease, but can't shoot for shit despite being an ai and he struggles to out muscle Burnham or Emp Georgiou. Also whoever suggested Spock should attempt a Vulcan nerve pinch on control deserves the boot from the show. I'd like more action taking place on the surface of planets and where the ship can't come to the rescue. That way they can save the day by making noble sacrifices and it might mean something.
Not sure if you ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the Control Leland situation is like what happened with the 'Ubervamps' in season 7. One of them almost killed Buffy single-handed and then by season end Buffy's little sister is killing them. I liked the fight between Leland and Georgiou but i think it would have been improved by Georgiou realising she cannot stand toe to toe with Leland and uses stuff like a worker bee to throw him around, hits him with an exposed power cable and just overall gets way more creative about beating the shit out of him.
1- less behind the scenes drama/ firings of writers and producers. More stability. 2- script sanity checks, preferably by people with Star Trek knowledge /experience. 3- I am done with the 14 episodes for a single story arc that could of been done in a two parter. the GOT way of spreading a major lame story arc over a single season just to be let down by a crappy plot ending at the end just sucks. 4- Dont forget to fix the ship in S3. Its been in a major battle. It needs to get a major repair job. 5- Less fantasy and emotional crap and more sci-fi exploration. How about a little more discovery.
Georgiou had all those great gadgets to kill people with back in the mirrorverse. She could have developed some of them whilst at section 31 and try use them on Control. She had that gun that made a Klingon vaporise. Why wouldn't she try use that on Control? They could have had some of the nanites vaporise after being blasted by it. The rest could rebuild, but control would be weaker and then they could have had their fist fight. Also I'm sure we saw Control learning and "adapting" during an earlier fight sequence, but it couldn't the second time? Who knew AI could be so forgetful. They went for cheap unimaginative thrills with Control Leland. It really spoiled the season for me. I hope they do a better job in season 3.
Now that I've sat with this a bit I wouldn't mind Discovery entering a future where we as the Trek audience recognize absolutely nothing at all. New races. New galactic politics. New stellar phenomena. New technology that no Sci-Fi has touched on before. New problems to solve, in general. I would enjoy this. A clean slate.
I could see the downfall scenario happen, but would prefer to see a federation evolved beyond recognition.
While they're trying to figure out their mission and goals, they could return to each character's origin planet: seeing how things have changed. They realize how things have changed, and that somehow helps them come up with a mission (and therefore a story arc) for the season.
I'm thinking DSC will serve as a good transition into a Third Age of Trek Lore (TOS being the first, TNG/DS9/VOY being the second, and ENT being the zeroth). The differences between how the Galaxy was in TOS and TNG weren't that great. The Klingons were on our side now, Humans were even more "evolved", and the Enterprise looked like a 1986 Ford Taurus, but otherwise it was pretty much the same. The 33rd Century should be much different. So we need characters who are from a time period we're familiar with. Their perspective will ground for us the new setting they've been thrown into.
If Discovery were to scrap their season long story arcs for a “monster of the week” type show like a lot of you want, I would definitely contemplate not watching. One of the best things about both seasons has been speculating about what’s going to happen and working out all the little Easter eggs scattered throughout episodes. This is what high concept shows do and why they keep people drawn to them each week.
I imagine the Nickelodeon trek is most likely to adopt the old monster-of-the-week episodic format, since you can't really do story arcs in kids TV, except for that time Boots turned evil and teamed up with Swiper.
I don't want the show to move away from season-long arcs - done well, they can be extremely satisfying, and it's really the way modern shows are done. However, we can have that while still having smaller, one or two episode stories within that arc. Other shows have done this well, and I think it's what DSC needs to feel more like Trek. They did better at this a couple of times during season 2 - with the Talos story being the best example. Yes, it was fan service in many ways, but it was also the kind of shorter, contained story within the overall seasonal arc structure I want to see more of. It also included a planet-side visit and interactions with aliens and their different way of being. More of all that, please.