Watched the second episode now, and my opinion has not changed much! The romantic subplot was putting my partner to sleep, but I thought the two had pretty good chemistry — until that very forced argument. I guess I’ve seen young couples get into heated arguments about stupid things in real life too.

Nahla and Caleb’s scenes together were great fun as well.

One of the things I wished Discovery had taken more time to delve into was how society has changed in the burn-era isolationist Earth. Now it seems as though Academy is downplaying how much Earth had changed, but shifting that isolationist role to Betazed. A little disappointing, but I can understand the decision given how insistent so many fans are that Star Trek feel unerringly Optimistic. Maybe we’ll get to spend some more time delving into how Betazoid culture has shifted instead.