I can see where some people had problems with the show in season one - Trekkies are generally conservative about the franchise for one thing (nobody truly warmed up to TNG, DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise until their third or fourth seasons), and the story for that season was yet another war story. We had that in DS9 with the Dominion War. We had that in Enterprise with the Xindi arc. Pretty much all of TV these days is going down the dark and gritty route, it just isn't what a lot of fans feel Trek needs to do right now. My take, is that fans what the TOS and TNG-style optimism that a DS9 or Enterprise-level of serialization. I think this season is on the path towards doing that based on last week's "Brother" and this week's "New Eden" (which was great by the way, very old school Trek vibe that Jonathon Frake's directing played a huge hand in achieving).
We also know that the Klingons will be getting their hair back, walking back on last season's changes which were just atrocious. I don't mind seeing non-augment Klingons in the TOS-era - Enterprise's "Affliction" and "Divergence" established that while
a lot of Klingons lost their ridges, the entire species didn't. I still would personally prefer they go with the Into Darkness look which had them wearing helmets - say what you will about that movie, but that look is cool and does a fair enough job not stepping on Enterprise and TOS' toes without looking dated. I know Discovery is rebooting the visuals and I personally am not throwing a tantrum over it as long as the show is good, but the changes to the Klingons in season one were just too much for me. I'm glad they're walking it back.
Anson Mount is seriously blowing me away with his portrayal of Pike. I almost want a new series focused on him and his adventures in the years leading up to handing over the Enterprise to Kirk.
I remain cautiously optimistic for this year
My theory is that Section 31 in the DSC Era has a legit a public front as an intelligence organization
I'm sorry but I have to respectfully disagree with this theory, as it goes against the backstory of the organization presented to us by Bashir in DS9 (100 years later) and Archer's understanding of Starfleet's intelligence operations in Enterprise (100 years before). In both of those prior shows, Section 31 was only known after they either tried to recruit someone to the organization (Bashir) or tried to reactivate an agent who left (Reed). Section 31 is something that's only known to those who have become directly involved with it in some way or another, and it isn't something officially sanctioned by the Federation (or even known to 99% of its populace).
