Yeah that spaceship seems painfully pedagogical along withh much else (like the cartoon you mention)... I do like Neil though, and I think his enthusiasm really does a whole lot for the series.
I have seen the episodes I have been able to, and I probably would have liked a better sense of continuity across the different episodes. Already seven episodes in it doesn't seem like they haven't got much more to say than what Aaron Paul summed up in "Yeah science, bitch". It's as if they just pick and choice topics at random. That's probably my harshest critique of it.