Star Trek: Discovery 3.1 Review - Ups And Downs From That Hope Is You
2. This Is Star Trek (Up)
That Hope Is You drops Burnham (literally) into the action straight away, colliding with Book's ship and sending both of them plummeting to the planet's surface below. This planet, so far as the show has yet told the audience, is not Terralesium - meaning that either the wormhole has dumped them out at entirely the wrong location, or there has been an even bigger shift in the galaxy than they are yet aware of.
There is a true sense of discovery (yes, yes, intentional) to this episode. The audience sees the new order of things through the eyes of Burnham - she truly is a stranger here, without any true idea of what is happening around her, though she manages through thanks to Starfleet training and by keeping an open mind.
That feels like Star Trek. From the earliest days of the franchise and right up to the present day, Star Trek was founded on the principals of seeking out new life and civilisations. While there were some returning alien faces here, the introduction of new and fantastic beasts, along with Book's connection to them, feels like a massive step in the right direction.