Five reasons Roberto Orci shouldn’t direct Star Trek 3

With the announcement of writer Roberto Orci as Star Trek 3’s director, many Star Trek fans (or as I liked to be called “Trekkie”) are a bit disappointed in the selection. With JJ Abrams moving onto to Star Wars, we were lost without a director. There were many rumors of who the potential director would be, including Joe Cornish (Attack the Block, The Adventures of Tin Tin) and Rupert Wyatt (Rise of The Planet of the Apes), but eventually, it was given to Orci. Orci is known in Hollywood for his many blockbuster screenplays, but as a director – this will be his first.

Here are reasons why Trekkies are quite worried about Orci directing their beloved franchise.

1. This would be Orci’s first directorial debut. First time directing EVER. He has no directorial experience with commercials, music videos, television shows, indie films or even a short student film. Many first-time directors who are given a large budget has not proven to work well (I’m so sorry Wally Pfister for Transcendence). Orci is a gifted writer, but the director is in charge of creating that story on film, especially something as big as Star Trek.

2. Star Trek Into Darkness… although it did fairly well in the box office, it was voted among the Trekkies as last place among all the Star Trek movies. Orci and his writing partners Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindeloff wrote the screenplay – including bringing back Khan. Instead of bringing a new character or reinventing a lesser known character (like Gary Mitchell), it just became a remake of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. We know it was Lindeloff’s idea to bring back Khan, but it takes a team to bring it forward. No one knows what Orci has for Star Trek 3, but hopefully they won’t be doing a remake of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It’s been done. Move on.

3. Orci is not really favorable among the Star Trek fandom especially since he told many fans to “f*ck off” on TrekMovie.com’s article. He later apologized to his fans and deleted his Twitter, but fans remember. Oh, we remember.

4. His last few screens for major blockbusters have not gained a lot of fan love. Many fans were upset with his scripts for the previous Transformers films and the latest The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Within the new Star Trek series, the women were really not written all that well. In the first film, we see Uhura and her Orion roommate strip down to their undies. In the second movie, we see Dr. Carol Marcus strip down FOR NO REASON. We know, it’s not entirely on Orci (since he was in a team of writers), but we do know in his other film Transformers, the female characters were not really that strong either. How will the female characters in Star Trek 3 play out? With directorial power comes great responsibility… but if you’re the writer AND director for the film, you really have complete control of the franchise. Orci has defended all his writing and with no one to control him, he can put it out any way he wants it. No one should have that much power.

5. This is Star Trek. One of the biggest and most popular franchises in film history. Just letting you know that. It’s all going to lie on a first-time director.

Overall, who knows if Orci is going to do a good job or not. He may produce one of the best Star Trek films ever (nothing will beat Star Trek: First Contact in my book), but we don’t know. Paramount is willing to take this risk. The only comfort I will take from this is that Orci is a big Star Trek fan himself and as a fan, he knows he needs to give Star Trek 3 justice… and strong female characters. Please. I really hope he proves me wrong.