It probably sounds bad but as a life-long Star Trek fan, right now I'm looking forward more to Seth McFaralane's Orville series than Discovery.

I thought Discovery would be something I've been looking for for years - a true return to the TOS era (I don't count the new movies because to me they're more the Fast & Furious in Space and Star Trek Does Star Wars than true Star Trek).

I grew up watching original Star Trek, and of the various Trek eras, TOS is the one for me. The fact that Nicholas Meyer was attached to Discovery was a huge plus since he's responsible for the three best original movies (Wrath of Khan, Undiscovered Country and The Voyage Home).

What puts me off Discovery is what it looks like in the two trailers that have been released, especially the recent trailer.

It looks nothing like TOS despite being set 3 years after the events of The Cage and 10 years before The Original Series. No TOS uniforms (which would be a departure from standard Starfleet issue) and a ship - presumably the USS Shenzhou whose interior looks nothing like a Starfleet ship.

Then there's the female Captain played by Michelle Yeoh. I'm not against female Captains and I like Michelle Yeoh but there were no female starship captains in the TOS era (a throwback to 1960s sensibilities). It's an issue that's addressed in the Star Trek Continues "Embracing The Winds" episode.

This is an issue of continuity and canon, not discrimination. It may not fit in with 2017's view of gender equality but who's to say that in the mid 2250s, gender inequality hadn't resurfaced?

Then there's the goddamned lens flares just like in the new movies. There's nothing guaranteed more to bring you out of immersion in a movie than distracting and totally unnecessary optical effects.

There's the introduction of magic/supernatural idiocy with that character whose race was bred to "sense death". That kind of stuff has no place on Star Trek, at least in my opinion.

And there's the departure of Bryan Fuller who appears to have been fired rather than walking away under his own steam so his original vision for the series is no longer in place.

There's the talk about how Discovery will be a "grittier" Star Trek. Thanks, but no thanks. The one thing that really set Star Trek apart was its unbounded optimism that there was a bright, egalitarian future for humanity, one in which we'd overcome our failings and inadequacies. We don't need Star Trek to head into a dystopian universe where people swear a lot, we see lots of sex, there's lots of firefights and ship battles and the universe seems to be a very dark and dangerous place. We have the likes of Battlestar Galactica for that. They have their place, but not in Star Trek. They weren't needed in TOS or TNG to get the audience to think about contemporary issues.

And again, from the trailer, it looks more Star Wars than Star Trek, a criticism I'd level at the new movies as well, especially Into Darkness (you can read my review of that movie here).

Now my first impressions are based purely on what might turn out to have been a badly put together trailer that will bear little relation to the actual series. But I'm not alone in my opinions.

The fact that the new series will be behind the CBS All Access paywall hasn't gone down well with fans either. It's airing there because Trek has been exceedingly popular on Netflix and CBS want their cut of the subscription payment pie. Les Moonves, CEO of CBS said as much. There's more info here.