I fairly enjoyed this one for the intrigue around the captive life form aboard the Discovery, the Klingon scenes and some of the character moments for Burnham.
The plot generates most of its interest through Burnham's interaction with the creature and the treatment it receives aboard the Discovery, which isn't good. This situation is compelling because it feels totally alien to Star Trek. How it plays out in the overarching series narrative will be key to whether it will be fondly remembered as something that fits into the Trek vision of the future, but for me currently it is a bit early to tell.
I enjoyed the Klingon scenes and have somewhat got over the shock of how different they look as the scenes with the house politics are getting quite compelling.
Burnham as a main character is fairly understated, but you can see quite a bit of feeling in her eyes and facial expressions. This works well for the character as a human raised by Vulcans.
I struggled with some of the dialogue, particularly some of the humour which fell a bit flat for me and one scene towards the end which is a fairly emotional moment done in a quite cheesy way. There was also one sequence where someone does something so stupid it isn't even remotely plausible. You kind of get the impression it was contrived just for the shock value of what happens to the character.
All performances were to a high standard and the visuals/effects were excellent as always.
I am willing to view the whole series before passing too much negative judgement on how this fits into the franchise. Yes, it continues to be way out of sync with established canon but if at the end of it all we have a story that was enjoyable and doesn't completely contradict of Roddenberry's vision, I'll have no real problems with it.
For any hardcore Trek canon purists watching I see why it is so universally despised by you because it just totally disregards what came before it. As annoying as it might feel, you need to just live with it or stop watching, because it's only likely to cause you more frustration the more it goes on.
