It's my understanding that the plan was originally to do a movie in place of the fifth season, that was until the showrunners said they couldn't complete the story in a single movie, so Paramount gave them six episodes.
Again, one thing that is near universally agreed upon is that the cast of Strange New Worlds is absolutely stellar. They each have all the traits you mentioned , and more.
You don't like strong woman, and now you don't like diversity. You're a real peach, aren't you?
Yeah, no. Fuck no. I say that as someone who absolutely adores TOS and also has a real affinity for the Kelvin movies.
Nope.
Wesley does a fine job playing a younger Kirk who is still learning what it takes to be a Captain. I'll go as far as saying he's terrific. His on-screen chemistry with Spock is especially noticeable. It's been generally talked about how he gets better with every single appearance. He's growing into the role and I can only hope that we will continue to see him play Jim Kirk in some capacity in the future.
I can take this as just SNW is the bestest trek evah sentiment but I disagree based on an artistic pov. to kill a mockingbird, Gregory Peck is Ethan's grandfather and that role could only be played extremely well by Peck- Mr Flich. Casting a Cary Grant or a Clark Gable in the role would have been decent but not great. Some actors just fit extremely well in roles better than others.
This is not even a SNW thing, it's an art and talent thing.The SNW Cast would not be able to carry movie like the TOS and Kelvin Cast did to big success. The SNW Cast are not even a thing outside the trek bubble.
SNW would have gotten 10 episodes but the truth is the ratings are not good enough, the movie argument is just a cover to hide poor rating, Believe you me, Hollywood knows what they are doing and they listen to the streets. year one will never happen because they likely do not have faith in Paul Wesley to carry a show. words must have reached their ears about Paul in the role. Mount is barely carrying SNW and he has more charisma than Paul.
Don't get me wrong,The SNW cast is decent, but they have never gotten the acclaim the cast did from star trek 2009 or from TOS. the cast from 2009 were all highly praised for been just as good as their TOS counterparts. Kelvin Cast would have been good enough to get a nomination for a SAG award for ensemble which is the equivalent of best picture.
Quinto and Saldana are especially great actors with dramatic range, Saldana in particularly is an exceptionally actress. Neytiri from Avatar is all her and she brought a lot of that to her Uhura.
Pine is a good actor himself but he also had the charisma of Shatner or a Marlon Brando and could lead the movie as a captain. Urban was the living embodiment of Defrost Kelly. I read reviews deeply and most SNW reviews barely talk about the actors. What the kelvin cast had in their disposal is that they were often praised for making people remember the TOS actors.
I think Gene Rodenberry caught lightly in a bottle with the TOS actors and all those actors became iconic and well known mostly for playing TOS characters even if they went on to other successful projects like Will Shatner in Boston Legal.
the kelvin casting is a kind of casting a HBO series would have pulled off. I would not say SNW cast has gotten that kind of praise or the entire series is HBO quality both in casting or writing. Paul Wesley Kirk reception has been mixed to negative even Arson Mount does not have the commanding presence of Bruce Greenwood, who played a fantastic supporting anchor to Kirk in the first film though I do blame this more on the writing and SNW having less stakes. good luck with SNW trying to find a Kark Urban for their Bones or even a John Cho for their Sulu.
At this point I would only laugh if people still tell me Peck is better than Quinto. Peck barely even has any mystery as Spock, if I even just forget Peck and his teen romance issues. I was just on SNW reddit yesterday and someone made a thread about how Peck is nothing like a Vulcan. You are never going to see that kind of thread about Quinto.
I thing you need to keep your latent bigotry to yourself.
Mod you wound me. I am a poc and I have in the past called out many racial bias in the fandom for instance how people make excuse for the train wreck of spock/chapel in SNW while coming up with excuses to dismiss michael/book or even kelvin spock/uhura who had a healthier and long lasting mature relationship.
Mod you need to read my post of 3 days ago and how I explained how SNW Nurse Chapel benefits from pretty girl white privilege.

I explained the ...defend the snw nurse chapel at all cost phenomenon that seem to be going on around here. I wrote a social commentary on it that only a poc (person of color) is likely to do. read my commentary here.
Oh please no! La'an deserves so much better than being killed off for Spock's character growth or being killed at all. For what it's worth, I don't think that they will do this. We've established that they start and end relationships quickly so I doubt that they'll suddenly decide that La'an and...
www.trekbbs.com
I have even said Michael and Kelvin Uhura from the Post 2005 NU Trek era where better or more realistic female characters than most SNW females and with Michael I am taking into account , she is meant to be a chosen one kind of character, yet many did not like her but will die on the hill defending a nurse doing more medicine than a doctor and a nurse that treats her boyfriend like dirt.
I am not a bigot but Hollywood does seem to have a problem recently in how they try to show how diverse they are or with race-bending characters unnecessarily and the character ends up been worse off than the original character Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson is a good example. you do not even need that with star trek after TNG, DS9 and Voyager or even TOS. I think some streaming trek show have some of the same problem like the current sex and the city series that bombed hard. they are diverse but in a way that feels very superficial and not organic, is like they are trying too hard with it that it comes of many times cringe and too obvious on the nose. You cannot force diversity, you can only create it naturally. focus on great story and getting the best talent and diversity itself will fall rightly to place.
As a POC, trust me, I can tell when I am watching a show or a movie and see a poc character and I know the actor was cast for talent, star quality that also just happens to be a very good POC character than when they are just there to tick a box. maybe this is why SNW has not done a non binary couple again since Adira/Grey did not really serve on purpose or even push that subject matter forward. Meanwhile Michelle Yeoh place in star trek would still be a good thing, because Yeoh was well cast in that role. she was cast for her acting talent , screen presence and having the right physicality also and she just happens to be a poc they was wanted.
The failure of section 31 film is not Yeoh's fault. if year one was to fail, a lot of fault will lie with Paul Wesley. there is a difference.