This comes from the Star Trek XI forum; it's my version of Trek XI, where it doesn't alter the timeline and create an alternate timeline (at least too much), rather it fits into our timeline. A few rough ideas, which I hope people can help me out with:
If I had my way about it:
Design-wise
-have the Enterprise look like Deg3D's or Vektor's Enterprises, seen in this forum's Trek Art section - highly detailed, but still similar enough to the original to satisfy the fans of the original series.
-the interior would be similar to the original series, but with traces of Phase II / TMP about it
-each ship has its own emblem, like in the original series
-update the interiors but with some touch, but mostly physical controls. Keep the bridge the same shape as the original series, but make the screens around the bridge actually functional and touch-sensitive. No need for all those point lights and lens-flares
-phasers same general style as TOS, just a bit more 'modern', and no flip-barrels
-tricorders a bit more advanced than in TOS, with a bigger screen, more controls, touch controls also
Character-Wise:
-show April, Pike, and Kirk
-Uhura is not in love with Spock
-Kirk's father served on the Enterprise under Captain April, who says 'it wouldn't be an Enterprise without a Kirk on board.'
-Chekov does not appear anywhere in the bridge, but in the background after Kirk gets command as a freshly minted ensign
Story-wise:
-no need for time-travelling Romulans. It added nothing to the story. get a different villain for Kirk's main mission.
-perhaps a time shard or something is propelling a villain from Captain April's time on the Enterprise forward in time to the point where he can kill April.
-follow Kirk and Spock getting to the Academy
-Kirk's Kobayashi Maru solution isn't so hokey, and a bit more believable that he could've done it.
-Spock isn't his superior officer at the academy
-Show Captain Robert April and the launch of the Enterprise, decked out similarly to how it was in The Cage
-USS Republic aids the USS Enteprise when Pike is fighting the Romulan, with an Ensign Kirk aiding the two ships to fight off the Romulan. This becomes the incident that results in Finney getting his demotion, when leaving the atomic matter piles open during the fight in engineering would've destroyed the ship.
-show April handing the ship over to Pike and Pike choosing Spock as his science officer, and keep Number One.
-show Kirk getting the Enterprise, and his friend Gary Mitchell being posted as his first officer. Kirk's father and mother see him get command of the ship
Rough story:
Some Romulan develops a chroniton-based weapon that misfires, throwing him out of time from the 2380s in his old-style bird of prey. Why an old BoP? It was his great grandfather's, who faced Kirk a century prior. Sentimental value. The weapon misfires, and they end up near the USS Kelvin, an irrelevant Federation ship, but still with Captain Rubeau. The BoP is more powerful than the ship, and fights it off, severely crippling it, but also damaging the chroniton weapon, shunting ahead from 2233 to 2245, where the Enterprise is being launched to great fanfare as the 2nd Constitution-class vessel under Captain Robert April. We see April's crew, and a young Vulcan, Spock, and his father and mother on hand for the launch ceremony. The BoP intercepts the Enterprise on its shakedown cruise, and fights it to a standstill before the Romulans realize they are in the past. The Romulan commander realizes he can face Kirk and kill him himself, altering time and making the Romulan Empire even stronger in this time period. He gets his crew to shunt forward a decade (it's not an exact device just yet), to see Pike and the Enterprise again. Pike evades and forces the ship off, Spock recalling the ship similar to one the Enterprise fought in his childhood, but he dismisses it; we also see Kirk defeat the Kobayashi Maru and get his commendation from a Pike exhausted from his Talos mission. The crew then head for Rigel VII for their mission there, while the Romulans shunt forward. Now we see Kirk take command of the Enterprise from Pike, with Gary Mitchell as the XO, and they face the Romulans, and defeat them, without ever having seen them. This Romulan didn't figure on Kirk being as good a tactician as he was, and having Spock there as well.
That's a rough outline, but doesn't alter our timeline too terribly to the point that Kirk is simply handed the Enterprise for saving Earth right after graduating from the Academy.
If I had my way about it:
Design-wise
-have the Enterprise look like Deg3D's or Vektor's Enterprises, seen in this forum's Trek Art section - highly detailed, but still similar enough to the original to satisfy the fans of the original series.
-the interior would be similar to the original series, but with traces of Phase II / TMP about it
-each ship has its own emblem, like in the original series
-update the interiors but with some touch, but mostly physical controls. Keep the bridge the same shape as the original series, but make the screens around the bridge actually functional and touch-sensitive. No need for all those point lights and lens-flares
-phasers same general style as TOS, just a bit more 'modern', and no flip-barrels
-tricorders a bit more advanced than in TOS, with a bigger screen, more controls, touch controls also
Character-Wise:
-show April, Pike, and Kirk
-Uhura is not in love with Spock
-Kirk's father served on the Enterprise under Captain April, who says 'it wouldn't be an Enterprise without a Kirk on board.'
-Chekov does not appear anywhere in the bridge, but in the background after Kirk gets command as a freshly minted ensign
Story-wise:
-no need for time-travelling Romulans. It added nothing to the story. get a different villain for Kirk's main mission.
-perhaps a time shard or something is propelling a villain from Captain April's time on the Enterprise forward in time to the point where he can kill April.
-follow Kirk and Spock getting to the Academy
-Kirk's Kobayashi Maru solution isn't so hokey, and a bit more believable that he could've done it.
-Spock isn't his superior officer at the academy
-Show Captain Robert April and the launch of the Enterprise, decked out similarly to how it was in The Cage
-USS Republic aids the USS Enteprise when Pike is fighting the Romulan, with an Ensign Kirk aiding the two ships to fight off the Romulan. This becomes the incident that results in Finney getting his demotion, when leaving the atomic matter piles open during the fight in engineering would've destroyed the ship.
-show April handing the ship over to Pike and Pike choosing Spock as his science officer, and keep Number One.
-show Kirk getting the Enterprise, and his friend Gary Mitchell being posted as his first officer. Kirk's father and mother see him get command of the ship
Rough story:
Some Romulan develops a chroniton-based weapon that misfires, throwing him out of time from the 2380s in his old-style bird of prey. Why an old BoP? It was his great grandfather's, who faced Kirk a century prior. Sentimental value. The weapon misfires, and they end up near the USS Kelvin, an irrelevant Federation ship, but still with Captain Rubeau. The BoP is more powerful than the ship, and fights it off, severely crippling it, but also damaging the chroniton weapon, shunting ahead from 2233 to 2245, where the Enterprise is being launched to great fanfare as the 2nd Constitution-class vessel under Captain Robert April. We see April's crew, and a young Vulcan, Spock, and his father and mother on hand for the launch ceremony. The BoP intercepts the Enterprise on its shakedown cruise, and fights it to a standstill before the Romulans realize they are in the past. The Romulan commander realizes he can face Kirk and kill him himself, altering time and making the Romulan Empire even stronger in this time period. He gets his crew to shunt forward a decade (it's not an exact device just yet), to see Pike and the Enterprise again. Pike evades and forces the ship off, Spock recalling the ship similar to one the Enterprise fought in his childhood, but he dismisses it; we also see Kirk defeat the Kobayashi Maru and get his commendation from a Pike exhausted from his Talos mission. The crew then head for Rigel VII for their mission there, while the Romulans shunt forward. Now we see Kirk take command of the Enterprise from Pike, with Gary Mitchell as the XO, and they face the Romulans, and defeat them, without ever having seen them. This Romulan didn't figure on Kirk being as good a tactician as he was, and having Spock there as well.
That's a rough outline, but doesn't alter our timeline too terribly to the point that Kirk is simply handed the Enterprise for saving Earth right after graduating from the Academy.
