No spoiler syntax necessary in these threads!

I recall reading somewhere that Akiva is trying to arc spock from "smiling spock" in The Cage through koh'linar and into TOS spock over the lifespan of SNW. Spock ditching his emotional blocks and starting to 'lose it' already this season would play directly into that plan. He continues unraveling for, say, this season and part of next, and then he embraces koh'linar to regain composure and control of his emotions. Perhaps McCoy is around for this particular event, witnessing Spock's 'transition' into a computer, setting up all the remarks from TOS.

I agree with a lot of your concerns. Two medical staff taking drugs and beating a mob of Klingons senseless with little hesitation and no apparent ramifications is horribly, horribly out of tone with what I’ve come to expect from Trek.

Spock is another issue. I’m fine with him undergoing growth and having a full character arc - but I really don’t see this Spock becoming the one in TOS — a Spock who disobeyed direct orders from Starfleet and was reluctantly able to potentially kill two crew members goes on to have the disastrous experience as leader in the Galileo Seven? Best I can see is he actively goes as hard as he can on suppressing his human side in the near future but that wouldn’t make him suddenly forget what emotions, illogic, and all that human baggage feels like when he’s interacting with humans later in his career.

(And for the record - I really enjoy Ethan Peck as Spock and watching his struggles with his emotional control. I just don’t feel like it’s the same character as in TOS and don’t see how he’d get there.)

The Crossfield mismatch jumped out to me as well. A response earlier in this thread suggested perhaps the Klingons put the saucer of a Crossfield with the drive section of a different class because that is what they had lying around. Not explicitly stated, but that makes sense to me.

I don't know that I agree with the characterization issues you're mentioning, but as far as the cold read as a Crossfield, she does mention that she just thinks it's one. Other than the secondary hull being hilariously overlong, the saucer cutouts are easily the most distinctive part of a Crossfield, and they weren't terribly common based on what we know from Discovery. Based on that, I could see how someone could read a Crossfield saucer bolted onto the back half of an upside down NX to be 'oh I guess that's what Crossfields look like?'.

La’an outdrinking a klingon seemed rather ridiculous and all I could think of was that it seemed like a bad D&D introduction to a stereotypical “cool” character. And then her burping? Did they really need a burp joke in this? It came across as uncharacteristically juvenile for the show.

Would've been expected by the Klingon opponent. Who when he tried to do it, nearly puked himself.