1. The single most obvious thing: actions would have consequences outside of a single episode or arc. Quark would have to spend an episode or two in jail after any given “Quark does a crime” ep. Etc. (What if they ever acknowledged Kassidy’s connection to the Maquis after she was a convenient distraction for Michael Eddington?)

2. The most specific example of this: Julian Bashir. I really really really wanted the show to handle his stupid savior complex in light of the fact that he had a huge medical intervention that changed his life WITHOUT HIS CONSENT AND AGAINST HIS WISHES. Why is he constantly doing the same thing to other people. I don’t even need him to stop doing it to other ppl as long as the show could fucking acknowledge how fucked up it was.

3. Obviously I wish they had not killed Jadzia to punish Terry Farrell for asking to work part-time. But selfishly I also wish we could have gotten Ezri Tigan as a darling queer un-joined Trill? Also I loved a bunch of the stuff they did with Ezri re: the distinction between host and symbiont, and wish we’d gotten more of it with Jadzia.

4. Ok so EVERYTHING ABOUT THE FOUNDERS AND GENDER IDENTITY AMIRITE? Like it is fundamentally implausible that a hive mind of goo creatures have gender identity. The ONLY reason they pretend to is because of Odo. The ONLY reason their main avatar is “the female changeling” is because they witness that Odo got brainwashed with weird gender shit by the Bajorans right? Could they have made that canon without like slut-shaming Kira for Odo’s attraction to her in that process? Can they acknowledge that it was not KIRA who gave Odo a gender but Dr. Mora and Gul Dukat?

5. Ok so this is a very small thing but it weighs on me constantly. Could someone have told Michael Eddington how wrong he was about Les Mis? Like did Michael Eddington read a crappy abridged version of Les Mis that left out everything related to Marius and Enjolras, literally the part of Les Mis that was most relevant to his whole situation? Is that the version of Les Mis he emailed Sisko? I... I think about this a lot. [possibly relevant: DS9 was the reason Small Molly read Les Mis. Small Molly, in fact, read Les Mis before she heard any of the musical outside “Bring Him Home”]