Was Burnham right?

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

The writing was a bit muddled in the first episode. I'm not entirely sure why firing first at the Klingons would do anything but get everybody on the Shinzou, as somebody mentioned above. Looking at it from a television production standpoint, it just seems like a cheap way to create drama and put Burnham where they need her to be. In universe, Burnham seems to have briefly lost her mind. And Sarek didn't do her any favors. Maybe she just imagined she was communicating with him, and he actually disdains her and only talks to her on Surakmas.

 

[Prax]

She speaks to the Captain as an equal, from when their on the planet, and on the bridge before the EVA thing, and almost talks down to her.

She did get one thing one thing right, but didn't explain it, leaving the Captain and everyone else to guess. I'm not sure if they were trying to present her as more in charge, or that she just acts that way, or if it was yet another way to try and build up suspense. Anyways the thing she got right was when they were trying to identify if there were indeed Klingons. Burnham says "lock torpedoes." Everyone is like "What? Huh?" After a moment the Captain gets it. If they lock weapons it will get the Klingons to reveal themselves. And it worked.

Starfleet probably could have avoided the war by simply requiring Starfleet officers to have gone through SF Academy, especially if they are going to hold the rank of Commander. If they had not killed Tkuvma, making him a martyr, and Tkuvma couldn't get the support of the other Klingins, no war.

 

[Prax]

Sorry for the excessive posts

Burnham seems to have briefly lost her mind

You know, I thought this as well. When she goes to the Captain's ready room, she says "I'm not feeling like myself." I thought something happened to her with the radiation maybe, or she was possessed be the Klingons lightbearer or something(I know, weird). It took me a while to realize that, nope, it's because of her childhood experience with Klingons, and I had overestimated the plot.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

It would have made a difference if they had fired first, disabled the Klingons' weapons, shields, and propulsion, captured the crew and contacted the Klingon High Council to report that they had one of their radical criminals in custody and where should they drop him off?
Otherwise, no. What made a difference was killing T'Kuvma and making him a hero/martyr instead of capturing him and making him look like a fool.