I waited till I saw the fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery to write a review for I didn't want to be too early to pass judgement. And, my opinion has not changed much since the first ten minutes of the series. The show has many problems. The first problem appears to be the Klingons who are re-imagined, tougher and annoying looking creatures and they -at least in my case- cause a distraction from the subject matter for they shouldn't look like that. Unless the series ends with the incident that changes them temporarily into Russian-steppe-folk like they looked in the Original Series and their genetic reformation turned them into the Klingons of sequel series, then, we have a problem there. Secondly, the ships Discovery and Shenzhou don't look like anything Cpt. Archer or later Cpt. Kirk used but there were sketches, models, etc. in several ST source material that may justify the shape of the ships. Thirdly, the aims of Discovery doesn't seem too Star-Trek-ky; but, if the fan theory is right and the NCC-1031 is actually the beginnings of Section 31, then, it is understandable. Fourthly, there are small details that might annoy the truer fans than I am: each ship should have a unique emblem and theirs is the same in all ships we have seen, Klingons again, Walker-class ships seem to be too advanced compared to Enterprise ships of both TOS and ST: Enterprise.
However, the biggest problem is in the characters: one doesn't want to be involved with them, one doesn't appreciate them, one doesn't establish empathy with them. Lieutenant Michael Burnham is aloof, problematic, and yet turns into a defendant of all Star Trek values -and, she's the adopted sister of the greatest legend of them all, Spock! She doesn't make me learn how her story develops. Michelle Yeoh's Captain Georgoiou is too nice to be three- dimensional and maybe it is good that she didn't last that much. The only interesting character is the captain of the Discovery, that is Jason Isaacs' Captain Gabriel Lorca. However, Lorca is just a vengeful, bitter character just like Ahab of Moby Dick and we had that with Picard, thank you very much. Also, I am not sure there are too many who wants to know how the Klingon war-birds had cloaking technology and Starfleet didn't have. In short, the series, despite using some new tech CGI and having great set design, is not very brilliant. The effort of explaining an "incident" referred to in series "set chronologically later" is a valiant effort but the cast, writing, and characterizations are not very good. Unless they do something really radical at the remaining 2/3 of the series, it won't be a great success story, I am afraid. Besides, knowing that Seth MacFarlane's comedic take on the Starfleet universe, The Orville does everything by the book despite not being canonical Star Trek, makes it even worse for the Discovery.
However, the biggest problem is in the characters: one doesn't want to be involved with them, one doesn't appreciate them, one doesn't establish empathy with them. Lieutenant Michael Burnham is aloof, problematic, and yet turns into a defendant of all Star Trek values -and, she's the adopted sister of the greatest legend of them all, Spock! She doesn't make me learn how her story develops. Michelle Yeoh's Captain Georgoiou is too nice to be three- dimensional and maybe it is good that she didn't last that much. The only interesting character is the captain of the Discovery, that is Jason Isaacs' Captain Gabriel Lorca. However, Lorca is just a vengeful, bitter character just like Ahab of Moby Dick and we had that with Picard, thank you very much. Also, I am not sure there are too many who wants to know how the Klingon war-birds had cloaking technology and Starfleet didn't have. In short, the series, despite using some new tech CGI and having great set design, is not very brilliant. The effort of explaining an "incident" referred to in series "set chronologically later" is a valiant effort but the cast, writing, and characterizations are not very good. Unless they do something really radical at the remaining 2/3 of the series, it won't be a great success story, I am afraid. Besides, knowing that Seth MacFarlane's comedic take on the Starfleet universe, The Orville does everything by the book despite not being canonical Star Trek, makes it even worse for the Discovery.