But you said
Nothing about the series in general would change.
You wanna know how I would’ve handled TOS if I’d been in charge? What the premise would’ve been? How I would’ve executed it? All the ins and outs?
Alright.
Here goes.
I’m going back to the '60s, now. . . .
***
The Federation would be over 1000 years old, but Mankind itself would’ve been exploring space for over 4000 years. In those thousands of years, humans spread throughout the Orion Arm of the galaxy. Due to various extenuating circumstances — war, plague, etc. — a fair number of these colonies became separated & isolated, forgotten. Some of these isolated colonies diverged significantly from baseline humanity, culturally and/or physiologically. Some, like the Vulcans, were peaceful & friendly and had little problem resuming contact with humanity. Others, like the Klingons, become warlike xenophobes. So on, so forth.
The series would be set in the late 7th millennium — 6745-6749 CE. At the beginning of the series, the Federation would not have yet made verified first contact with intelligent species of extraterrestrial origin. Ruins & relics of extinct alien civilizations have been catalogued, and spacers tell tall-tales of encounters with mysterious entities at the fringes of known space, but there’d be no confirmed sightings or encounters with living, breathing aliens.
Kirk’s five-year mission would primarily consist of
- Patrolling the borders with the Klingon & Romulan Empires.
- Delivering supplies to outlying outposts & colonies.
- Dealing with pirates & smugglers.
- Doing light exploration into areas of space which have been charted but not quite explored yet.
Most of the “new civilizations” Kirk & co. would encounter would be isolated human & near-human cultures. Eventually, however, genuine aliens would surface — truly bizarre critters like the Horlas & Excalbians & Salt Vampires & Melkot. They would remain few and far between, however, due to budgetary/SFX limitations.
And that’s my Star Trek.
P.S. – I’d also like to do ongoing character & story arcs, if the executives don’t mind deviation from the standard episodic storytelling formula. A full five seasons would be swell, too.