I really enjoyed this episode, while I do agree that it's strange only Chapel survived (she should have remained on planet).
That to be continued hurt with the way the strike is, so I guess we'll have to see if we will actually get a follow up.
And I love the Gorn, this episode finally hinted at their intelligence. And the solar flare thing while a bit weird could be an interesting way of using biology to influence how a civilization develops. I know Arena exists but I really don't mind retconning this. Having recently looked at the Enterprise depiction of Gorn, I feel like this remains in the same vein but looks more lizardy.
SNW is still my favourite Trek, maybe its because I never actually watched TOS but I feel like even if I did I wouldn't dislike it.
Pelia knowing Scott doesn't surprise me considering she seems to be the Boothsby of the Engineers.
Scotty being introduced made me really happy ^^
As a prequel I think this still works, some people say its not the Pike show they expected but I don't get why, yes we have seen some TOS characters like Kirk and Scotty, hopefully Kirk will get less time next season, probably considering the ships has less to do together.
I get its corpo decisions but I will trust the creative team to not drop the ball with overusing fanservice characters, having scotty as a member of the Enterprise crew is also imo not a problem. If anything I hope we get to keep Pelia and have him as a underling for next season and maybe build up to him being promoted head of engineering later on.
Hopefully Paramount will dare to make a new series about an entirely new crew set post VOY or maybe even some time in the early 2300s around the time the Enterprise D was around as we haven't seen a lot of that time. But I would prefer a firmly 2400s series.