(Blurring out each separate spoiler until it comes out, so you can unblur just those you wanna know)
The good:
The scene with
Vance on Bajor was beautiful, great location, writing and acting.
Family separation is addressed, and
people resigning in protest (contemporary issues in the best Trek tradition). My favorite scene was Athena flying
to San Francisco with
that song! Absolutely beautiful, it moved me to tears.
The bad:
That cringey
school bullying scene about binoculars, but at least it ended with a humorous climax.
And the ugly:
Another ear ringing moment, but at least not as long as in SNW and just once.
Characters:
Jay-Den is our fist Klingon
birdwatcher, who is all about life, which is great! I also somehow didn't expect such a deep voice, and he looks beautiful with that hair and those eyes.
Caleb has more depth than I expected, again great writing and acting.
SAM is only a little annoying, much less than I feared, and it fits her character.
Darem being a
transforming blue alien that can live for 8 min in the cold vacuum of space is a nice new concept. Could he be one of the known
shapeshifting species (Allasomorph, Chameloid?)
Genesis was also not as superficial as I worried she might be, another good actor so far.
Thok is great, she considers herself a Klingon as much as a Jem'Hadar, and she has
white blood (does it have ketracel in it?). She shouts a little too much, I don't like drill instructing that's just yelling for pushups etc, but when she's funny, she's funny.
Ake is fine, her introductory speech to the crew is good, but I'll have to see more to figure out if I like her or not.
Braka is not too bad, only the
tongue wiggling was too much for me. He's a villain with a seemingly good cause, or at least not totally irrationally bad just for badness sake

The
EMH is of course hilarious, especially in that
fangirl scene with SAM.
The bridge crew is introduced by name, one by one, similar to Pike's roll call in Disco S2.
Eastereggs:
Dal and Gwyn are mentioned, there's a
female Cheron, a red
exocomp, fish that might be the ones from
Trill in Disco S3. The Disco
Ferengi only appeared briefly on the side, other Disco aliens show up (a reddish
Saurian, an
Osnullus type, and one that could be right out of MiB)
Funniest moment:
Thok
throws Jay-Den across the room as she thanks him, then SAM says
no need to thank her.
Future tech:
The coolest new tech feature is
snapping from disheveled in rags to groomed in uniform with a flash - I need that every morning!
Storytelling, cinematography, direction:
The one thing that I didn't like that much was that some of the quiet dialogs were too slow and drawn out. But things made sense, fit together nicely, and the eastereggs are nice to see for those who are looking for them, and just as easy to ignore in most cases for those who don't care about them. As in most of today's Trek, everything looks great, often quite beautiful, and the music stood out to me more than in other shows. No distracting camera tricks, wild shaking, etc., and good acting all across. This is a version of the Academy I would like to attend
