Well, I finally watched episode 2, and it was certainly better. And given that Michelle Yeoh does not captain the Discovery, that may fix one of my gripes since I thought the thickness of her accent got in the way of the emotion behind her dialogue.
I still say the Klingons were the most interesting part. Oh, and apparently the ugly “lateral transporters” is a technology that had already been phased out by Starfleet, so I gather they will not be on the Discovery.