Nothing great about it, nothing terrible...a sort of interesting plot device to move the story further. Not every episode can be awesome, but this episode seems to have set the table well for the "Fall Finale".
I will use the rest of this review to address some of the critiques of it. Per Jojo, #3/4/5 Kligon(ese); you are correct, the speech pattern is very unappealing to me...but in terms of the discord; many times, the greatest technological advancements in human history came during war. Episodic TV: You need some semi self contained episodes. The two greatest works of plot-driven scifi (Babylon 5 and BSG) had to have them as well, where the main plot is secondary but gets moved forward. The "All Access": Yes, its annoying, but we need to keep in mind that these projects require money. With the internet and 80 ways to watch everything for free, people forget that things require money. Martin: Bad Writing: Kol can say that its for unifying everyone but be lying about it. JRBW: Just the same as above, they can say they are for peace but it may not be that simple...logic requires skepticism. Master: Science: Science and scientific fact are fluid things, someone from the 14th century could watch our scientists and say "thats not science, its fantasy!" SciFi at its core has the "Fi" part in it. Payoff: Ah, so you want a complete payoff for everything 9 episodes in? What was paid off in the first 9 episodes of any of the other Treks? A whole heck of a lot less than Discovery. VFX Action romp: This is something thats actually legit. Perhaps you focus on this rather than letting this blind you on everything else. The 80s and 90s was the golden age of Sci-Fi...I agree that the writing is substandard to those classics, but it is IMO the best we have now. 2nd season: This isn't netflix; being that its a subscription service to view you cant hold it to the same rules as broadcast TV.