After watching the three episodes... I really don't see the point of this at all. It's a shinier, modern-television re-envisioning of classic Star Trek – okay, sure, but how's that different from the Abramverse movies? So far, Discovery is not doing anything that needed to be done, or telling a story that needed to be told. Space warfare! Who hasn't seen that before? This comes back to my original concern: why not roll forward another 50 to 100 years like TNG did, and use the space to tell a new story, and do something new? It'd rather just trample over the existing series, and compete with the movies. I can squint a bit and pretend this is set in the same Trek universe, but with the effects the original production team wished they'd even known about, but the tone and history and tech are all way off.
Ah, but I know why: going further into the future would mean being as utopian as TNG, or more so, and in today's television and political climate we can't have that, no. Even Star Trek has to be cynical and po-faced serious, with Starfleet turned ruthless and warmongering, and twisting wonders of the universe into weapons.
That's Discovery's real flaw to me: it sucked all the fun, adventure, and idealism out of Star Trek, and made it just like everything else we could be watching. Just like Rogue One and Force Awakens did with Star Wars. I'm currently rewatching TNG and my main thought it: "We need something like TNG again."
It feels a bit like someone came up with an independent SF series concept, someone at the company realised "Oh, hey, we have rights to Star Trek" and the whole thing was retooled and hammered into a Trek-like shape where neither fit the other.
Specific whinges:
Klingons had one of the most recognisable and well known alien designs around. Now they have the most forgettable. I think they ripped off the Sycorax from Doctor Who. Worse, they're boring. They stand there and grunt monotonic Klingonese interminably back and forth. How does anyone make Klingons boring?
Darkness, bright lights, and lens flares. So old and annoying, making it look like most other spaceship SF series. Trek's clean, bright sets would actually be a novelty again
The main character is unlikeable. All the annoying, boring parts of Vulcans, with none of the charm or wits of Spock or even the reliability of Tuvok. Does Trek really need to do the emotions versus logic theme again? That's aside from the tacky laziness of making her Sarek's foster-child, Spock's foster-sister for no good reason.
The first two episodes shouldn't exist. They're just an extended prologue taking up space; they could be removed without losing anything. The series should have started with Episode 3: we meet Michael, known only as the notorious Starfleet mutineer. She's surrounded by mystery: what did she do, and why? She becomes more likeable, not less. Then we see the Discovery, you know, the ship the series is named for, the intended setting throughout. We meet all the regular characters, discover its secret power, and set up the setting for the rest of the series. Then, later, if you really must, do Episodes 1 and 2 as a flashback, either in bits or whole-episodes.
I'm going to recommend that now: if you haven't seen Discovery yet, watch Episode 3 first.
Good bits:
Michelle Yeoh: It's good to see her in a space setting, and she brings dignity and charm to this. I wish she'd stayed on as captain throughout.
Canonising the Black Fleet: Well, they've completely wrecked Klingons, but at least you nodded to John M. Ford's The Final Reflection & The Klingons FASA sourcebook. The perfect marriage of the TOS and later versions of Klingons, with an intriguing alien mindset and society, from their point-of-view. Actually, they should have just done The Final Reflection instead. Actually, they probably just pinched it from Memory Beta without reading any of these books.
PS: Every Trek series has started a bit rubbish and disjointed and not much like what it later became, so I would hold out hope for the rest and would give it a second chance. I mean, I'd watch it regardless. It's a good SF series, just not a good Trek series.