He was so unlike Shatner - didn't look like him, sound like him, act like him - that I was jarring. It spoiled for me what was a pretty damn good episode in a lot of ways.
The whole modern nonsense of "well every actor should put their stamp on it" is just that. Kirk has been around for 60 years. Everyone's heard him, seen him, familiar with him. To all intents and purposes, he's a historical figure.
Cast Dame Judi Dench as Nelson Mandela in a serious biopic and tell me it's fine that she sounds and looks nothing like him, because she's "putting her own stamp on him", "not wanting to do a Mandela impression". It's preposterous, particularly when the show is deliberately cashing in on the original character AND telling us that this is the same man. They haven't even tried to make him look or sound the same.
Ditto the pointless changes to the ship, the uniform, etc etc. Trek did a fantastic job for the best part of 40 years maintaining a pretty consistent history, including look and feel. And that can be great without fiddling: the Constitution -class Defiant in In A Mirror Darkly was almost four decades after the start of TOS and it looked GREAT.
The modern arrogance of creatives that they can sell a product people buy but completely rewrite it is breathtaking.
"We've just bought the rights to Oreos. They're now custard filling and shortcake biscuits, but we'll call them Oreos and if you can't accept the change, you're just picky. It's our right to be creative "