Ask JKM a Question: Roberto Orci directing Star Trek III?

A reader, Jason, writes:

“I’m sure you’ve heard that Roberto Orci has been hired to direct Star Trek III (2016) for the 50^th anniversary of Star Trek. 

Thoughts? Comments? Expletives?”

Hi Jason, that’s a great question, and the matter is indeed one that I have been ruminating on.

First, I feel that I should point out some Star Trek history.

First-time directors have helmed franchise films at three different junctures in the past.

Leonard Nimoy directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), William Shatner directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), and Jonathan Frakes directed Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

In each case, a talent familiar with Star Trek -- but with no experience directing feature films -- called the shots. 

So, perhaps -- at least in a way -- the selection of Mr. Orci isn’t as “way out there” as some fans seem to be suggesting it is. 

For instance, I take Mr. Orci at his word that he knows Star Trek well, and loves the franchise with a passion.  

Passion is -- universally -- a necessary prerequisite for a director.

Also, Mr. Orci has been with the re-boot “saga” for over six years now, so I assume he is also “wired” into the cast and other filmmakers.

In other words, he’s not a newcomer to the filmmaking world that surrounds this iteration of Trek. We must assume that he will know where to go if he needs help, or if he has questions.  Accordingly, he ought to have some strong support.

I do worry some, however because when Nimoy, Shatner, and Frakes directed Star Trek movies, they were making films that cost about thirty million dollars.

First time director Mr. Orci will be given a budget probably over eight times that amount. 

That’s a lot for Paramount to have riding on a guy who has never sat in the center seat before. 

And if Orci is bad, he will essentially kill Star Trek as a successful movie franchise, and Paramount may decide it isn’t worth it to continue it.

Finally, though I have no first-hand knowledge of Mr. Orci as a human being, his notorious temper tantrum online regarding Star Trek fans doesn’t speak particularly well of his diplomacy, patience, or judgment.  

Those are all key qualities in a director, as I have learned from my own ultra-low budget experiences in that position! 

This is my description, actually, of directing:

You know exactly what you want to do, and you why you want to do it that way.

But on the way to doing it, you get mobbed by about a hundred people who question everything. Before you’re on the set, a hundred competing interests have put little “bugs” in your ear (an appropriate Star Trek reference…) and changed your focus, or raised new questions. 

And some of them don’t know how to ask a question objectively or courteously.  They shade it with bias, like “you need to do this” or “you had better remember to do that…”

If you take offense at that kind of thing, you’ll be walking around offended all the time.

So you had better be temperate in your responses, and flexible in your feedback, or you are very quickly going to alienate your team. 

And if you lose your team, you can’t create that vision you had in your head. 

But you also can’t sacrifice your vision because someone else has come up with an idea and you want to appease them.  Film is a collaborative art form, and a director must be a mediator and a leader.

So…if a bunch of loud-mouthed Trekkies on an Internet bulletin board can get you so mad that you lose your temper publicly…is it going to be hard to oversee a set diplomatically, or with the required patience?

Or maybe Mr. Orci was just having a bad day?

I think we should give him that.  I loved Star Trek: Into Darkness and felt that the negative response by some fans was way overblown.  There’s no way in the world that Into Darkness is “worse” in any sense of the word than Star Trek: Nemesis was.  It just isn’t. 

I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a review that hurts, so I guess you can say I sympathize with Mr. Orci.

Like Mr. Orci, I have also responded harshly to commenters or readers when the better answer would have been to listen -- really listen to the criticism – and let it sink in before knee-jerk-typing out a hurtful response.

So I’m sympathetic to Mr. Orci at the same that I feel his online response to fans doesn’t place him in a good stead, going forward.

Honestly, I would have felt far more comfortable if Paramount had announced that Gareth Edwards, or Joe Cornish was directing the new Star Trek film.  Though they are not necessarily “keyed” into Star Trek as it exists today, they are proven leaders.  Their films reflect their philosophies. 

We know that they can manage a set, and a series of challenges.

We don’t know that yet about Mr. Orci, and this isn’t just any Star Trek movie, this is the 50^th anniversary movie. I likely won’t be around for the franchise’s hundredth anniversary, so this is the only celebration like this that I get to see.

Translation: the movie better be damn good! It better be a distillation of everything that has made the franchise so special for half-a-century.

Again, Mr. Orci has apologized for his outburst and that is commendable and humble. But now he needs to demonstrate his good will towards Star Trek fans and toward the franchise itself.  He needs to transform those whom he has alienated into his strongest supporters.

I know exactly how can do it too.  He must create Star Trek: Days of Future Past.

By that, I mean he should find some meaningful roles in the film for William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (if he is well...), Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig.  Throw in Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew and Avery Brooks, if possible.

If he does so, Orci would immediately get the Trek-set behind him, and it will be rooting for his success.

That’s the PR challenge Mr. Orci needs to pass, first.  If he does that, and he has the cast and crew locked in from the previous films, he ought to do fine.

But he’s got to overcome the two negative perceptions I’ve noted.

One: that he is hostile to Star Trek, and two: that he is a neophyte who doesn’t know a rack focus from, well, lens flare.

I hope he makes a great Star Trek 50^th anniversary film.  He should consider perhaps, looking at how Steven Moffat -- a controversial creative figure in his own right -- managed to please a wide swath of Doctor Who fans for the 50^th anniversary of that franchise, and attempt to emulate that approach.

Hint: Tom Baker, and the restoration of a specific heretofore dead alien race.

Why not blend alternate universes with his Star Trek III, bring in William Shatner before it’s too late, and repair the damage Nero caused, thus restoring the Vulcan race to its former glory?