Hmmmmm!
Interesting.
So this is how Discovery's quirks get ironed out of the Star Trek that has come before.
I did like this episode. I do like the potential for where this can go. I guess this could be Voyager-like, in the sense of a ship, isolated.
I wonder if Spock will simply head back to the enterprise - that torpedo lodged in its hull might have something to do with that - or if they end up somehow with a 'split' Spock. I'm guessing the former.
One of my complaints about Disco so far has been the lack of more intimate familiarity with more of the crew, the wide cast of characters, most of whom get fleeting treatment. As opposed to previous Treks, which had a fairly homely sense of family onboard. Maybe this reduced crew set will allow a more traditional Trek-like treatment of the ship and crew going forward.
But I guess the open questions are, what will be the pretext for Discovery to go 'star trekking', as opposed to simply staying around that planet Michael's Mom stayed at... and what timeframe they'll be in... will there be interaction with familiar Star Trek factions, or even a future federation, or will it be strictly isolated in new territory. Let's see!
edit - oh, and Culber :( I wonder if that's really the end. That goodbye felt emotionally complicated. But maybe they will let it sit as a nuanced ending for that relationship, rather than reuniting them.
edit 2 - am slightly annoyed about the short treks thing. I actually loved the character here, but for me it was all totally new - as far as I know there's no (legal) way to watch those if you're in the international audience? They're not on netflix. Weird to incorporate them in such an important way and as part of the 'previously...'s if your international audience cannot watch them. Maybe I'm wrong, though, maybe they're up 'officially' somewhere for the international audience?