I didn't care much for the first two but this episode felt a lot more like Star Trek. I have no problem so far with the attitudes of some of the officers towards Burnham. If she is perceived to have started a war and also mutinied then it is perfectly understandable that she is a hate figure. I also don't think that Lorca is a bad guy. I think he is being set up as an avatar to discuss the morality of warfare and whether or not it is right to try and win at all costs, and exploring that sort of question is what Star Trek does best, so if that's where it's leading I would be quite happy with that.
Likes
Lorca's hints at exploration after the war has ended.
Alien beasties and life forms.
Saru. He seemed to have a little more development here than in the first two episodes.
The design lineage. I can fully believe that Discovery is a progression of the NX-01 era and the USS Kelvin time period. I liked the little nods to past Treks in the form of the food synthesizers, data chips and the design of the shuttles. I don't get why people keep insisting this is a reboot when nothing yet doesn't fit into canon (even the Blingons in theory).
The little nerd nuggets for us older fans were well appreciated. The Tribble. The Gorn skeleton. The Preserver obelisk. The hint at Spock. The continued reuse of old sound effects (although I was sad that the Discovery bridge didn't use the TOS sound effects like the Shenzou did).
The old book and the use of Alice in Wonderland. I thought this was a lovely nod to the use of classic literature previously in Trek and past characters' love for traditional books and equipment.
Hardly any Blingons.
Dislikes
Rekha Sharma's security chief had zero depth and screamed "one dimensional obsequious bad girl" like the classic villain's lackey of old (even if Lorca doesn't end up being a bad guy). I hope her character doesn't remain this way.
Still no Shazad Latif and Wilson Cruz. I get that the show is angling for the more serialised nature of modern TV, but I always liked that during the Berman era the ensemble casts all had things to do, That seemed to be the right direction. Here we seem to have regressed back to TOS, or even pre-TOS, with the focus mostly on the main stars, particularly Burnham. It seems strange to me that three episodes in and we still haven't met some of the main crew.
Tilly is not yet my cup of tea. I liked that they have cast an atypical actress for the role who doesn't fit the sexy goddess profile. But so far I found her annoying rather than endearing. She feels Wesley Crusher and Harry Kim-ish. I've never been too keen on the brilliant cadet trope so I hope the character doesn't go down that road. Plus why is a cadet working on a top secret experiment and why is she going on dangerous away teams missions when there is an entire ship of better train officers?
On the fence
The dark tone of the show. Design wise I can handle it since it makes sense canon wise. But when this war is over they need to lighten things up in general. Trek is not doom and gloom every episode.
Hated
The gore. Sorry, but this isn't necessary in Trek. Not to this degree. I like Trek to be accessible to kids and I wouldn't want to show a kid a mangled body that had ribs exposed.
Frustrated
The trailer for next week. More pew pew pew. Blingons again. Yawn. Hope there is more to the episode than just that. After a better start this week I am loathe for more mindless action.
