Nitpicking: having the Klingon dialogue seems like a lift from GoT constantly using Dothraki which I don't think works too well of you're not seeing attractive people above the subtitles. The Klingons being cannibals is a bit much but I mean at this point it is what it is. Rekha Sharma is trying to be the female Sean Bean and Lorca is a manipulative bastard.

It was Trek at heart, no? Side characters thinking violence is the answer and disregarding scientific / peaceful methods to figure something out and then the morality of using the mutant Waterbear as an organic navigation computer becoming a focal point.

Very much so, the assumed vicious beast is peaceful and intelligent. Nice twist! It appears as if the beast is in pain when they use it, though.

Hence why it's defensible to set the show prior to TOS in the timeline. Beyond the cosmetic differences between set and costume design between the 1960s and current, the Mycelium trans-warp drive, holographic displays and images and the site-to-site transport are the points that people have noted are anachronistic.

If Sporewarp isn't possible without figuratively torturing a sentient being, then Starfleet would have a reason to nix the technology and not bring it up in the 'future' of TOS and TNG et al. The egregious holograph slip up so far has been Sarek "sitting" down in Burnham's quarters along with the fact it was a live conversation some untold billions of miles away from Vulcan. Beyond that, I haven't had any issue with holographic displays and projections because (so far) TNG-era hologram were extremely advanced and had a physical presence via tractor beams. Until we see Burnham use a hologram Tommy Gun to shoot some Klingons, I'm not going to care about how advanced Discovery tech is compared to TOS and TNG tech. It's a show about spaceships y'all and visual effects have caught up from using plywood panels and multicolored incandescent lights, Pepper's Ghosts and other camera tricks to make things look futuristic.

However they do need to calm down with the site-to-site transport though. That's been a little too convenient considering the canon.

I guess I was supposed to be shocked that their guild navigator killed a primary character but since they had spent zero time developing that character into anyone I would care about I was left wondering why she just did something so stupid.

As earlier poster said this show is terrible but I love Trek so I will keep watching and complaining which makes me stupid.

Landry got herself killed because she's taken Lorca's "succeed at any cost" directives too far and was egged on by him putting the Corvan(?) 2 distress call over the PA which is stupid. Her death makes sense on a meta level because it reminds you that there are consequences that even "main" characters aren't immune from to keep the stakes and therefore view interest high and to reinforce the Star Trek narrative of "acting rationally and ethically based on science and logical reasoning = good; acting impulsively on emotion and without regards of ethics and without understanding= bad."

The Klingons will kill the universal spore network at some point or Starfleet will destroy it once the Klingons find a way to traverse it as well.
How they do it will be interesting, and probably the season finale. I am sure there is a mole or spy in the crew or how else would the Klingons know where Lorca's shuttle would be. Hell, Stamets is acting all weird after using himself to guide the ship (the mirror at the end so it appears the Mirror Universe is in play now --Evil twin time!). I wouldn't be surprised if he considers himself or is now part spore and will fight to keep the network alive at all costs, even if it means giving it over to the Klingons.
I'm curious if WHEN it happens it strands the Discovery in deep space and sets up the entire premise for the second season: to go where no one has gone before, and boldly return home.

After thinking about this a bit more I could see them destroying the sporenet to strand the entire Klingon fleet in some unknown portion of the Universe to save countless lives and effectively end the war. Looking at the episode names I am guessing we are going to get a "dark night of the soul" moment in the 9th episode, which is the final one for this half of the season before starting again in January. The title is "Into the forest I go" which I am assuming comes from, "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul." This could be a Mirror Universe moment perhaps or maybe Stamets goes in for a bit of soul-searching and personal reflection (puuuuns) only to realize he must kill the sporenet and himself.

I am most likely extrememly far off on my conjecture, but I am bored and killing some time. Also, I am using some of The Expanse's story in my reasoning.

In spite of the decidedly non-Trek idea of people consciously interacting with another person's soul, we got a pay off with Frain being cast as Sarek. They needed someone with his grave mien to pull off a Vulcan struggling against emotion in order to act 'logically' and I think he did a great job of that. Further, Martin-Green has done a good job showing Burnham's loosening up and becoming more 'human.'

Story wise.. Well, Lorca is either the disguised form of Voq the albino acolyte of T'Kuvma or he's so balls deep into PTSD and anchored to the idea that he has to be the captain to win the war with the Discovery that he just abandoned a former **** buddy and superior officer to the Klingons. Ash is likable but he's also the most likely candidate to be the disguised / brainwashed Voq so it's kind of tough to buy in to any of his character development moments. Tilly's been good so far as well and is the medium to show that the writers have adopted more "realistic" dialogue first with the F-bomb last week and the banter between her and Ash in the shuttle.

Dunno what the payoff with Stamets is considering his Tommy Chong-esque mood after exposure to the Sporenet and the delayed mirror image of him from the prior episode. Next Sunday it looks like they're going to rehash TNG's "Cause and Effect" with a timeloop plot which isn't too appetizing considering all of the rehashing ENT did but we shall see.

I knew he was going to throw the admiral/his old squeeze under the bus - you could just see it in his eyes. Reminded me of when Underwood threw the reporter in front of the train. You sure you want to do this? Well, okay...... :)

Okay so it's at the midseason break. I've liked just about every post-pilot episode and the pseudo-finale tonight was pretty good and made up for a lackluster but necessary set up episode which preceded it.

Credit to the show for doing a time loop episode without being a blatant rehash of "Cause and Effect" from TNG beforehand. That was well done, though the mid-season finale outdid it.

The plot wasn't too thin though it was a bit dodgy in its execution in needing very obvious and easily discovered devices to pull off. The universal translator contrivance was used well and some more dedicated fans noted that there was a marked difference in how Kol spoke in English to Adm. Cornwell earlier in the season and the episode tonight. Speaking of the good admiral, Discovery dispensed a teaching moment in showing how PTSD (... or is it?) is experienced and how to try and deal with it.

Burnham's Vulcan upbringing makes sense too seeing her go toe to toe with Klingons and survive the ordeal in addition to her scientific knowledge. Further, her being standoffish to people allowed for an organic way to stave off "shipping" which some might find tiresome (Bechdel test and all that.)

As for shipping, tonight was the first human-on-human same sex kiss on the show. I'm not one to say how things outta be in spite of the many gay friends I have, but I still kinda feel like the Stammets and Colburn relationship seems campy to the point of it being needlessly "we're here, queer, get used to it" in a way instead of a Roddenberry-esque "It's the 23rd century; there's really no difference among people based on the gender of their romantic partners."

Speaking of romantic partners and going back to the PTSD part, either the showrunners are doing a marvelous job of depicting the ****ed up dynamic of captor-rapist and captive-victim or are just blatantly signaling that Lt. Tyler is T'Kuvma's albino acolyte Voq. For the sake of getting people to think on a meta level, I'd prefer it be the former rather than the latter.

As for the overall plot and circling back to telegraphing potential future plot points, Lorca might not be who he appears to be, Stammets might be going full Gary Mitchell and we just might be getting a reason why the Mycelium-drive wasn't proliferated through Starfleet.

The two-part pilot aside, I think Discovery has been an enjoyable, modern soft sci-fi show that has stayed true to what Star Trek is all about that people should take a chance on.

I'm kind of wondering if they aren't going to tell us that the Discovery timeline we are watching is a sort of 'Mirror' universe in of itself to the 'Prime' and 'Kelvin' universes

welp, Redditors had it figured it out