They haven't cheaped out on any of the twists - even if I would have preferred one of them not to be so. Considering what happened at the start of production, I think the writers deserve a lot of credit for thinking this stuff through and giving the audience enough respect to be capable of piecing it together. It allows me to have enough faith in them to believe them when they say this is all going to be consolidated in to the Federation we come to know by TOS.
It's such a beautiful show to watch, too. The fight scenes have been surprisingly great - even in keeping those classic Star Trek punches in there. The visuals are amazing. The whole sequence of the
throne room fight through to Discovery's
warp-then-spore-jump was one big mass of awesome.
It has been the most talked about and most accessed on-demand show in the US for pretty much the entire run and I hope it keeps it up because it could really, really go places... and it has been VERY self aware that many Star Trek hardcore fans may have been put off. It was really hammered home in the latest episode - right down to the title.
"What's Past is Prologue" indeed.
Once Fuller's vision is realised and the war ends -
it can really spread its wings - and hopefully give Airiam, Owosekun, Detmer and Rhys some screen time. But man, what a first season. I was optimistic beforehand, but it blew my expectations away. I'm glad they didn't play it safe because I think it would have been the wrong call. Genuinely surprised that of all the "hey let's do TNG again" pitches that CBS must have recieved over the years, this is what it came back to TV with.
Let The Orville fill that void and let Discovery do it's own thing.
[spoiler]Seeing Saru prepare for Command over the course of the season has been a glorious thing...[/spoiler]
