I don't think you are alone in that sentiment among fans. I am cautiously optimistic that Discovery can be a good show. Just from the trailer it has good production values-the best of any of the television shows-and I like Sonequa Martin-Green.
I have to wonder if the Sarek connection was a poor sop to fans, or a way to connect Discovery to the TOS time in a very visceral way that old fans got, while also bringing in a legendary Trek character to mollify any fan concerns. The issue with that is the actor James Frain doesn't exude Sarek to me, either Mark Lenard or Ben Cross's take on the character. I would've rather had Gary Graham (Soval) or Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) from ENT. I like how the previous shows have found some way to pass the torch with characters from previous shows or movies. Graham could've done that while still being that Vulcan surrogate father or Blalock the mother and avoiding the whole Spock step-sister/adopted sister continuity headaches.
I'm not sure if the Discovery writers have anything fresh to say besides adding racial, gender, and sexual orientation cosmetics to a standard white production, but I am intrigued by the writers saying that the Klingons in their show would represent Americans. In the past, the Klingons were stand-ins for the USSR and later on were a mix of Vikings, Samurai, and biker gangs. So I am curious about how the show will use the Klingons to speak to this particular moment in American society and history. Discovery also seems to be a show somewhat about war and Trek has never started off a show dealing with war. War is often held off at a distance, it's a threat that is usually averted, or it's in the background. ENT was canceled before it got to the Romulan War and it's final episode jumped ahead in time to the formation of the Federation after that war. TOS had a war with the Klingons that lasted all of one episode. Around the TNG time frame they were fighting, or just had fought the Talarians and Tzenkethi and the Tzenkethi War is never mentioned on TNG. They were also fighting a war against the Cardassians around about the TNG time frame, but we never see that war, we see the aftermath of it. DS9 was the only series to feature major wars, but those war episodes were often interspersed with episodes about other things.
So for Discovery to perhaps focus on war will be different. I hope that the series canonizes the Four Years War or at least some war with the Klingons before the short one in TOS. It makes no sense to me that there wouldn't have been a Federation-Klingon War before Kirk's time. The Klingons were too aggressive and territorial for there not to be.
I do find it interesting that the two black Trek leads don't start out as captain. Sisko was a commander for like two or three seasons before being promoted. And while the Discovery lead was long touted to not be a captain, Fuller also conceived of the character early on, if from jump, as a black woman. Burnham might not even make it to captain, we'll see with the show.
