1) No time travel.
2) No "2-dimensions, mustache-twirling villain.".
3) Only three four major TOS characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott).
4) No major redesigns... rather, "polished" versions of things we already know.
5) Minimal presence of the Enterprise in the movie.
6) More characterization.
7) No "cheap shock ploy" of destroying a major world... Alderaan or Vulcan.
My version of this movie would have started with George Kirk on board his ship (for consistency, let's call it the USS Kelvin). He's on a subspace communication line to Earth, talking to his family... Winona, his wife, Sam, his elder son,and Jim, who would be twelve years old. During that communication, the Kelvin encounters something dangerous... ideally something related to what comes later... and communications are lost. George Kirk makes his way to his post, and we see something very much as we saw in the film, except for no "Jim being born" stuff. He gives his life to save the escaping crew and to (temporarily) overcome the problem which risks everyone's life.
We would then cut to Vulcan, where we'd see pretty much the same early Spock scenes. (I'd have made Vulcan more consistent with the Vulcan we know, however... sky color, for instance).
Another cut, to Earth, where an unidentified Starfleet officer (who would,in a "fanboy moment," be identified as Pike... though Jim Kirk wouldn't notice that at the time) delivers the news that George Kirk was killed in the line of duty. Jim Kirk goes stoney... and stays that way for years. (It'll be this movie where we see him start to break out of his hardened shell.)
Cut to Vulcan again... and the young-adult Spock turning down the Vulcan Science Academy appointment... but without the same "Screw you" tone that seemed so out-of-character to me. Think more of Nimoy's treatment of T'Pring at the end of "Amok Time." Totally cold and dismissive.
Next, a shot of Jim Kirk as an academy upperclassman... hard, unyielding, driven to the point of being a martinette. Several of his instructors are reviewing him, along with a few serving line officers. Among these are John Gill, Aaron Stone, and Kirk's academic advisor, Ben Finney. They agree to give him a starship assignment, but express concerns that he doesn't have the "flexibility" needed to serve in command. Captain Pike is present and argues that he sees something there, however.
Flash forward... and Lieutenant Kirk is returning to the Academy for his Command Course. Part of this involves teaching underclassmen at the academy (think "graduate assistant). This would permit some exposure as cameos for known characters (Sulu, Uhura) as his students, and we might see a young Pavel Chekov arriving for his first day aboard the same shuttle as Kirk. Kirk would see the Enterprise as they arrive, and would comment to the young recruit that there was nothing he wanted more than the command of a ship like the Enterprise.
Kirk was assigned to this course on the recommendation of Captain Garrovick, immediately prior to his death. Kirk, who had mellowed over time, is tortured over this and is hardening again. He's become a "walking stack of books with legs."
A few months pass, and Kirk is preparing to undergo one of the "Command School" tests... the Kobayashi Maru. Kirk would discuss this with his friend, senior underclassman Gary Mitchell, who would mention to Kirk that he needed to hook him up with this cute blonde lab technician he'd met, and that Kirk just needed to lighten up and accept that sometimes you just don't win... after all, "we're not gods, are we?" Kirk proves his skill by reprogramming the "respawn enemy vessels" mode of the simulation (which is what makes it unwinnable) to fail. Kirk fights through the scenario, and after defeating a three-to-one fight, is able to rescue the crew of the Maru. The ONLY thing Kirk did was remove the "cheat" from the program... no "smug asshole" tone from him like we got in this movie. Rather, we see him breaking his "by the book" pattern... and that's what gets him the commendation.
Immediately after this is the "evaluation cruise." Kirk was bucking to get a cruise on the Enterprise, under Pike, but while some of the Academy staff approve of his "Kobayashi Maru" solution (even so much as managing to get him a commendation), a few are still hostile to him over that, and one of those is the one responsible for assigning ships for the cruise. Instead of getting assigned to the Enterprise, Kirk gets assigned to an old police cutter. The Academy "evaluator" on this particular ship is a very competent but very unpopular officer, the only Vulcan in Starfleet... Spock.
(At this point, we're about 1 hour into the movie, by the way.)
During the cruise, Kirk and Spock "rub each other wrong," for reasons we can imagine from the TOS characters' personality traits. However, unlike in the new movie, they handle things in a very professional manner... the tension is actually stronger that way (think about how Kirk dealt with the ambassador in "The Galileo 7.")
During the cruise, this ship (let's call it the "Peregrin") receives a distress signal from a civilian vessel. Kirk recognizes the interference patterns in the distress signal, just before losing the signal, as being what he'd seen when his father died. He and Spock come into conflict over how to handle the situation... "by the book" or "by my guts." Kirk, who's usually thought of as being "by the book," instead is reacting purely "by my gut."
The Peregrine arrives, and is hit by the same "event" that has struck the civilian vessel... resulting in the bridge of the Peregrin being destroyed, killing the senior officers and leaving Kirk and Spock as the two most senior officers aboard. Kirk prevails, but not without ongoing opposition, as he's the "command school" officer (while Spock thinks that he's the logical choice).
The Peregrine, itself damaged, now has to deal with rescuing the civilian ship, a massive passenger liner, and saving itself as well.
Arriving aboard the liner, they encounter the ship's civilian engineer, a former starfleet officer named Montgomery Scott. They also find a disillusioned civilian doctor, on his way off-planet after a particularly ugly divorce, named Leonard McCoy, helping to deal with casualties.
The technical details don't matter... suffice it to say that Kirk's command skills, Spock's logic and analytical capabilities, and Scott's technical talents combine to save the personnel aboard both vessels, while McCoy and Kirk bond, Kirk and Spock develop a strong mutual respect, and Scott becomes known to Kirk as a "miracle worker."
At the end, Kirk is granted a position as first officer of the USS Alexander, a destroyer-class ship... and Scott decides to rejoin Starfleet, asking if Kirk thinks the Alexander could use an old engineer... and McCoy realizes that Starfleet (and men like those he'd just met) could give his life meaning again.
As Kirk is preparing to report to the Alexander, he encounters Spock, who is preparing to return to his assignment aboard the Enterprise, under Captain Pike. There is a "warm" moment between them.
During the final scene, we see the Alexander leaving orbit, and Kirk is making a log entry. The Alexander flies past the Enterprise on the way, as Kirk talks about his optimism about the future ahead of him.
THAT is the movie I would have made. No "villain." No tossing out history (but no slavish "fanboy moments" either). Different design work, because we'd be seeing different ships... but we'd see the familiar designs as well. No "everything happens at one moment and stays that way forever after, amen."
The next movie could be about Kirk taking command of the Enterprise. We'd have Kirk, Spock, Scott, and Sulu from the original characters... plus Gary Mitchell.
If there was a third movie, we'd have the entire TOS "crew" present, serving on the TOS (ish) Enterprise, at some point between WNMHGB and the beginning of Season 1. (Chekov might be there, but not as a bridge crew member.)
