He is command track the other officers were engineering or security etc.
Maybe not "acting captain" but certainly I have seen equivalent in the merchant navy of a lower bridge officer being effectively in command of the vessel including more senior engineer
Isn't that why you have bottle episodes that keep things more like a stage show (some of best and some.of worst are bottles) and also you have episodes centered on part of the cast maybe a few to give others a break then another charecter has an episode. Even in the old series they found ways around the issues.
I think they are still trying diplomacy with the gorn, admiral april says they want to try to bring them in and see if they can be allies. Star fleet doesn't want to be outward threat
Also I think admirals are downplaying the gorn threat, maybe not to scare citizens
But it felt packed and so became a chore of too much of a thing...the fact each of 5 main character needed their own 5mintues of it
I know musicals breaks the show don't tell a bit as you can sing not show......but they seemed to use that excuse to get right back round to tell tell tell even in song form
I think many of the middle songs were pretty samey too.
Someone singing their angst alone in a Cgi set. Liked first and last and chapels was good, but agree others were a bit long which made the overall episdoe seem long.
I really respect them trying and there are some great moments