Well, as someone who has seen every ST episode as they were originally aired at the original times, I have to say, I like this one.
One thing I have noticed is how fast the cast has gelled. Most of the recent ST series took at least one seaon for the cast to act like they really are a team. This group seems to have gotten it together pretty fast.
I do wish Rick Berman would get over all his "temporal" fantasies though.
And, although the Vulcan is a babe, I really found the "rub some gel on me baby" scene a bit over the top for a ST series.
And what's with the startup music???? ST has always had classy music to kick it off. I really dislike what they did to the startup.
I really am enjoying the pre-prime directive stuff though. It will add a lot to the story line.
The doctor is good comedy relief. I like Bakula's dog. Nice addition. The other crew members definately draw from the other series characters, except for Hoshi.
Seems Star Fleet training is not up to what we have been used to seeing. She is anything but a ST/SF character. I find her somewhat refreshing as a character like hers has never been in any other ST series/movie.
As far as the timeline goes, they seem to have thought it out pretty well and given it a lot to work with as they evolve the SF rules and regulations.
Notice, the captain putting himself into dangerous situations, and no one having much to say about it. They explicitly brought up this point in the second episode via the Vulcan.
The prime directive is definately not in effect or the slug would have been returned to its home world.
The rules of first contact are not established yet as they boldly barge into anyone's world without a whole lot of thought.
Technically, they have a very long way to go to get to the original ST.
Quite a bit of room for a whole lot of stories. Something the series needed. Instead of building from the past, they can start anew and create and define the story line as time passes.
Overall, it has potential. The second episode was better than the opening one, imho.