In a recent exclusive interview with Wizard Universe, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman chat about their favorite Trek episodes, why they chose Romulans for the new movie, and Star Trek XI's new character dynamic.

WIZARD: How long have you two been a writing duo?'

ROBERTO ORCI: 17 years.

When did you break in?

ORCI: We broke in... in 1996, right after college. We got our first job on a television show "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and then "Xena: Warrior Princess."

So you broke in at Sam Raimi's company?

ALEX KURTZMAN: Yeah, I worked at Renaissance as a producer's assistant. My job in that capacity put me in the writer's room everyday and I learned an enormous amount. One day they asked us if we were interested in writing...

ORCI: By then we had been writing together for five years.

KURTZMAN: Very badly, by the way.

What's your favorite "Star Trek" episode?

ORCI: I have two favorite episodes: "Yesterday's Enterprise," which is very relevant to this [movie]. And of course "Best of Both of Worlds."

KURTZMAN: "Balance of Terror" and "Reunification I & II" were really influential on this movie too.

Why did you choose to use the Romulans as the villains when they didn't work the last time out?

ORCI: [Laughs] When we came upon the idea of Leonard Nimoy, we wanted to pick up where he left off in "Star Trek," which was in the "Next Generation." In those stories, he was the ambassador to Romulus, so we wanted to keep continuity with what that was, that's why we brought them in.

KURTZMAN: And it's funny because some people have said, "Wow, you've broken continuity by having this encounter." That's not exactly true. Yes, we meet Romulans early, but we meet Romulans early because one of them comes back in time. It just changed everything right there.  (source Wizard Universe)

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