The One Thing You Could Change, TOS Edition...

[A beaker full of death]

This will be unpopular, and is probably not a proper answer to the question asked:
I would change the things the fandom obsesses over. Reconciling stardates (and translating them to actual years), mapping space sectors, figuring out the combination to Kirk's safe, pinning down all the things that were deliberately left vague so as to not distract from the storytelling, trying to hammer into one comprehensive framework every unimportant detail so as to establish a canon. I hate the idea of canon in this context. Tell a good story. That's all I need.
Star Trek offers so much, artistically. Why do people obsess over throwaway detail - to the exclusion of what actually mattered to the artists?

 

[Spock's Barber]

I would write a line, any line, in some episode where Bill Blackburn would actually say something!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I would write a line, any line, in some episode where Bill Blackburn would actually say something!

Didn't he claim to have voiced the large white rabbit, as well as performing it in the costume? And he arranged to borrow the costume via his professional ice skating connections? If I recall.

 

[Lord Garth]

This will be unpopular, and is probably not a proper answer to the question asked:
I would change the things the fandom obsesses over. Reconciling stardates (and translating them to actual years), mapping space sectors, figuring out the combination to Kirk's safe, pinning down all the things that were deliberately left vague so as to not distract from the storytelling, trying to hammer into one comprehensive framework every unimportant detail so as to establish a canon. I hate the idea of canon in this context. Tell a good story. That's all I need.
Star Trek offers so much, artistically. Why do people obsess over throwaway detail - to the exclusion of what actually mattered to the artists?

I've come around to this way of thinking over the years. Those types of details were always a game to me, a game in good fun, but over time it's slowly dawned on me that to some it's not a game. It's something they take more seriously than the actual stories and characters themselves.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Didn't he claim to have voiced the large white rabbit, as well as performing it in the costume? And he arranged to borrow the costume via his professional ice skating connections? If I recall.

Yes, he borrowed the rabbit costume from Ice Capades, which probably saved a few bucks for the production budget on Shore Leave.

 

[Paul755]

Find a way to get 2 more seasons. Let us see the full run of Kirks 5 year mission.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

This will be unpopular, and is probably not a proper answer to the question asked:
I would change the things the fandom obsesses over. Reconciling stardates (and translating them to actual years), mapping space sectors, figuring out the combination to Kirk's safe, pinning down all the things that were deliberately left vague so as to not distract from the storytelling, trying to hammer into one comprehensive framework every unimportant detail so as to establish a canon. I hate the idea of canon in this context. Tell a good story. That's all I need.
Star Trek offers so much, artistically. Why do people obsess over throwaway detail - to the exclusion of what actually mattered to the artists?

I like this answer. I like it a lot.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Get two more seasons to complete Captain Kirk’s five-year mission.

 

[1001001]

I would have kept Shouty Spock.

Just yelling everything, all the time.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I would have kept Shouty Spock.

Just yelling everything, all the time.

It's not true Star Trek unless Spock is also limping in every episode! How can they expect us to ever take this show seriously unless they stay consistent with this stuff?

Answering the question seriously, trying to think of the one change that would've done the most good for the show, the answer swiftly became clear to me: Have Gene Coon stay with the series beyond the second season. (If that wasn't possible, I'd also accept having Bob Justman take over as producer in the third year instead of Fred Freiberger.) Either one of those would've given us a greatly improved show than what we got in 1968-69, even if it was still cancelled at the end of the third year.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I would have kept Shouty Spock.

Just yelling everything, all the time.

Years “Check the cirCUIT!” and “Damage control report all stay-CHUNS!” would be amazing.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Keep Coon and Justman.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I would have kept Shouty Spock.

Just yelling everything, all the time.

Mr. Spock. Would you... please. Stop shouting.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I would have kept Shouty Spock.

Just yelling everything, all the time.

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[Qonundrum]

I'd have Spock more refined from the get-go. Or explain in-universe, at the time, why he went from being shouty and grinny to being the archetypal Vulcan. And then not flimflamedly change him every odd episode in season 3. "That Which Survives" is not an audience reaction test for Sheldon Cooper.

That, and the the obligatory shake-up by letting more than The Big Three(tm) a bit more often in the show.

 

[Mudd]

Recast it so women have more important roles in the show, and more women overall. At least one of the three main characters - Kirk, Spock or McCoy - should be a woman.

 

[BillJ]

Nothing. It is what it is, warts and all. It is a map marker in the evolution of society and entertainment.

 

[Orphalesion]

It's difficult because nearly all the things I don't like about TOS mostly stem from it being a 1960s series from the 1960s with their older way to do things and look at certain things.
And I guess "making it less like something form the 1960s" is not really possible.

So I ahree with Seveaux to include a central female character? The show could have been centered around a four temperament ensemble just as easily as around a trio. Maybe have Number 1 from the rejected pilot but played by a different actress?

Nothing. It is what it is, warts and all. It is a map marker in the evolution of society and entertainment.

I guess that's true. I sometimes think that I might overlook something in regards to TOS, since from my 21st century POV a lot of the elements just are cheesy and outdated and might not notice that in many things it was forward thinking for the time (like having Uhura in a relatively high ranking position, even if she didn't end up doing all that much, at least she wasn't in a servile role) because for me the elements that were "forward" back then (like having a minority actor in a non-stereotypical role) are either standard by now or have already become outdated, because of society marching on.

 

[Maurice]

Shouty Spock is doing what the OOD does: relays command loudly enough for everyone to hear the order.

EDITED to fix typo.

 

[Pauln6]

Rand wouldn't be chopped out of the series.

If I only get one thing then it would have to be this. Give her the chance to grow into the original concept of a confidante more like Beverley and Picard. Expand the yeoman role to include Kirk's personal pilot and personal security to give her something meatier to do when she is around.