Star Trek Discovery, Ep. 3 pros and cons

Well, that was something, wasn’t it? *sticks finger down throat*

I do like those phasers.

Pros:

• This should have been the pilot. That’s not an opinion.
• The USS Discovery and crew are finally here!
• Stamets is funny and I like his whole “I hate being here but shut up and sit down” vibe. (Because I also want to tell Burnham to shut up and sit down.)
• Jason Isaacs is always great but let him be British, it’s way more menacing.
• Rehka Sharma is awesome. She should have been the lead.
• The science was way more Star Trek science than before and we get an actual science plot instead of Klingons whining about whatever.
• ENSIGN CHIEFOWITZ.
• “Did he just tell you to shush?”

It’s like the first day of school, if your school had recently sentenced you to life in prison.

Cons:

• “Fan service” is not “framing the story in canon.” Yes, this episode is packed with TOS/TAS/TNG references. Almost none of them are organic. Bad fan service: a Gorn skeleton. Good fan service: the “Blink Drive” is a lot like the Iconian gateway.
• People seem to be under this ridiculously dumb…