IIRC, Orions were supposed to be of at least 3 different subracial groups (green was one, silver was another and I can’t remember the third, red ?). There was a lot of info on that in the books going back to the ‘70s. My big problem with there being an Green Orion Slave girl in “Faux” Trek as a cadet is that Orions were not even members of the Federation (and indeed, Orions were hostile), and she simply shouldn’t have been there. It’d be like a North Korean attending West Point. Of course, that’s what you get when you allow a hardcore Star Wars fan to do a Trek film (and blowing up Vulcan like it was Alderaan).
Hmmm. I never thought about that but you're right, it doesn't make sense for an Orion to be enrolled in Starfleet academy. The biggest problems I had with the movie from a canon standpoint was they made Chekov a Weasley Crusher style 17 year old "boy genius", who was nothing like Koenig's Chekov (in TOS, it was clearly stated on screen that Chekov was 21, so since the movie was set 8 years before TOS, Chekov would be 13 at the most). As for the "Star Wars" influence, the scene with the phaser fight aboard the Romulan vessel was way off. Star Trek phasers operate completely differetly in established canon. It was like Kirk and Spock beamed onto the ship with some Star Wars ray guns. At least they didn't give them lightsabers.