I love this idea, which is why I'm writing an amalgam/alternate universe story uploaded onto Youtube (see my sig if interested - part 3 should be out by Xmas).
I stuck with the same set up as TMP and I'm following Christopher's lead from his novel 'Ex Machina' to utilise the stills from the Rec Deck scene to populate the supporting crew. Gimp is also useful for pasting other heads onto TMP bodies. I realise that the uniforms aren't as popular as TWoK but TMP is the only movie that had a large, diverse cast with which to work on the photos with minimal photoshopping.
I love the look of the refit Enterprise but I agree that each console needs its own mini-viewscreen or the facility to project a viewscreen. Helmsmen and tactical officers would not be using the main viewscreen to do their jobs because they would be relying on sensor data rather than a simple visual guide (plus the viewer often magnifies the view - it's useless from a tactical perspective). If I ever feel the need, I'd be inclined to paste on a visual projection at the console.
As far as crew goes, the Rec Deck scene gives you lots of characters to work with. Keeping Decker and Ilia is a good idea in my view (in my story they have been restored by V'ger and part of the plot will revolve around why that happened, whether they should be considered the 'real' Decker and Ilia, whether they can be trusted etc). We've all seen that the Picard/Riker dynamic can work but Kirk's desire to be even more of an action man than Picard could make things interesting too. I saw these issues as good ways to introduce some paranoia and conflict into the otherwise sterile atmosphere. Deltans are more interesting than betazoids (who are annoying one-trick ponies) with their nebulous empathy, pheromones, emotion control, mystique, and sexual deviancy (one assumes/hopes).
I'm making Sulu the Chief Operations Officer who occasionally sits at helm. He's too senior and too experienced to be kept at a minor post all the time. Chekov isn't going to be Security Chief because I think he's too young, too inexperienced (in security) and poorly qualified for that role. Instead I made him the assistant security chief and chief tactical officer on the bridge and I will introduce another character (a woman) as the actual security chief. I'm debating whether to use a cut-and-shut of Suzie Plakson to make it an andorian security chief but I might keep her as a subordinate.
I also wanted to make more use of the supporting characters. I love the Big 3 but the characters all have expertise in certain areas and I want to see a qualified geologist doing geology, not always a physicist and computer expert like Spock. I also wanted to give Janice Rand a fair crack of the whip. She was initially intended to be the female lead and in her major appearances she displayed enough personality, humour, and gumption to work with. In TMP she's assigned to engineering as a transporter technician CPO, which is a very experienced, senior non-comm. I also figured that anybody who can make hot coffee with a phaser must be an expert shot, so if Janice gets into a firefight you can bet she isn't going to be missing much.
Overall, I think the second 5-year mission and its wide array of characters has the most potential to tell TOS stories with very minor modifications. Of course my story is very niche (and very cheesy) because I've chosen to pilfer ideas from other franchises to create a more dangerous and diverse Trek universe.
