Roberto Orci Will Continue To Fuck Up STAR TREK From The Director's Chair

The first Star Trek reboot film is a tremendous piece of entertainment that works in spite of, not because of, its script.  But that shoot went down in the midst of the writer's strike, so I was willing to give J.J. Abrams and writers Robeto Orci and Alex Kurtzman the benefit of the doubt that their next outing would be significantly improved.  Then Star Trek Into Darkness happened.

When Abrams jumped shipped for Star Wars (a.k.a. the franchise he really wanted to direct in the first place) I had hopes that Orci and Kurtzman would move on as well.  Perhaps the infusion of fresh blood might shake things up enough to get things back on track for Star Trek 3, currently scheduled to be released in time for the franchise's 50th anniversary in 2016.

So much for that idea.

Orci and Kurtzman have since gone their separate ways as writers, leaving Orci free to take on directing duties despite having absolutely zero experience directing so much as a TV commercial, much less a major franchise film with a budget of over $100 million.  This is a massive disappointment on almost every level.  I expect the Abrams visual palate to persist going forward (lens flares for everyone!) since Orci will essentially be learning on the job.  I also expect an absurdly complicated and dramatically unsatisfying story that pays little to no respect to these legendary characters. (see: Khan)  After all, Orci is one of the masterminds behind Bay's Trasnformers as well as The Amazing Spider-Man films, none of which make any damn sense.

He's also a little nuts - Orci is an avowed 9/11 Truther and that mentality has absolutely no place in Gene Roddenbury's vision of optimism and hope.  Rumors persist that Orci essentially scared off every other (more qualified) director who was up for the job, including Attack The Block's Joe Cornish.  I will, quite frankly, never forgive him for depriving me of that version of Star Trek.

At this point, the best hope for Trekkies everywhere is that eventually Trek will burn out in theaters and make its way back to television.  Where it belongs.