I might be being overly harsh because I feel very burned by nu-Trek and I'm really not over how badly disappointed I've been. I lived and breathed everything Star Trek for my entire childhood and early adulthood so my expectations are sky-high and it results in me being hyper critical and probably a bit of an elitist as well. I know that's something I'm sure all of us have to a degree in common here.
I liked Uhura as well in the small screen time she had and whilst the story itself wasn't the strongest I did get a certain feeling when they beamed down in disguise to the planet, it definitely invoked a sense of Trek of old that I appreciated. It's true that this is the first episode of the show and so expecting a complete banger right out of the gate is a bit unfair. I'm more than willing to give them some room to get past initial teething problems.
There is probably an element of the whole prequel thing coming into play as well. There is a certain sense that this is shackled a bit to the existing canon and has to fit neatly into a pocket of time just before the original series continues onwards.
I still remember throwing my toys out of the pram during season 6 of Voyager because of how angry I was that the show was getting weaker and weaker and not fulfilling its massive potential and Enterprise just pissed me off (and then just as it was actually getting good got canceled) so I'm one of those that sees the end of DS9 as being the last time truly brilliant Star Trek was on the screen. As for Discovery and Picard.. enough said already.
This has a lot more potential than anything I've seen for a long time, I'll give it that.
I'll definitely be watching more though. I'm sufficiently intrigued.
