The Red Federation ship in Into Darkness

I haven't seen ANY discussion on this, but after many years of seeing Starfleet using mostly grey/silver ships, Into Darkness brought us a black one (heck, they may have used black earlier in Trek that I am not remembering) and a red one?

In the scene where the shuttlecraft ferrying Kirk and Spock back to Enterprise, you can see a three nacelled red ship in the lower left part of the screen.

So, why is it red when all other ships have shared the same color scheme? Is it an older ship from a different civilization? A special ops ship? Maybe a ship that has been operating in an environment to alter its hull color?



[Great Big Image placed behind thumbnail to alleviate horizontal stretching of page. Click on thumbnail to view larger image. - M']

 

Looks like an effect of dim lighting. It's not actually red.

 

To me it's clearly red. I think it's probably a Starfleet built ship operated by the Vulcans.

 

The red ship was designed for ST'09 but left unused. Here is some concept art from Star Trek: The Art of the Film:

This chart appears in the ST'09 Bluray "Starships" feature, where the red ship has the alternate name and number, USS DEFIANT NCC-1764.

Like captainkirk, I think it's a Vulcan Starfleet ship (like the USS Intrepid in TOS was), because that's the same colour that Vulcan ships in Star Trek: Enterprise were, and there was a female Vulcan captain at the conference.

 

Here's something to blow your mind: During preproduction for TWOK, the producers decided that they wanted the Reliant painted yellow. That's right, yellow. IIRC, Joe Jennings basically said 'WTF?" to that, and rightly ignored it.

 

Yeah from what ive gathered its supposed to be a Starfleet ship that has been given to the Vulcans after the loss of Vulcan.

 

I think it must be a specially purposed Starfleet vessel. I don't favor the theory that it is a Vulcan-crewed vessel.

 

This Excelsior was supposed to be Sulu's command in TWOK before the scene got cut due to Shatner's shitty acting.

 

Me neither; a Vulcan crew would not particularly care what color the ship is. They would consider it a meaningless difference and illogical to dwell on.

And Vulcan is still a Federation member, after all. A Starfleet vessel crewed by Vulcans is still Starfleet. No reason to change its color.

 

I don't think the idea is that the ship is painted red, the ship was built on Vulcan and is coloured that way as a result of the Vulcan metals used in it's construction - just like all the buildings on the planet.

(posting this pic to show the colouration of Vulcan buildings and starships)

 

That's a myth.

I (and others) have seen that scene on the workprint of the movie and Shatner's acting is not the reason the scene was cut. His acting in the portions of that scene that were cut and the portions that remain are the same. Plus McCoy's added line (that was not in the script) was really nicely played and showed genuine happiness at Sulu's promotionon his part.

Hopefully someday they will include it in a deleted scenes section.

 

What scene was this? When the Enterprise is entering Spacedock? Can you (or anyone) post a link to the dialogue from a script?

 

Yes. It is when Kirk's shuttle arrives at Starbase 1 after his and Spock's meeting with Marcus. The red starship is visible just after the camera turns after Kirk's shuttle comes towards it.

 

This is how it is in the script:

KIRK
I cut your new orders personally. By
the end of the month, you'll have your
first command: USS EXCELSIOR.

SULU
Thank you, sir. I've looked
forward to this for a long time.

KIRK
You've earned it. But I'm still
grateful to have you at the helm
for three weeks. I don't believe
these kids can steer.

I've never watched the scene so I don't know how similar it is.

 

^Yep that's from the script.

The way is was actually shot was a little different

Sulu: I'm delighted, any chance to go aboard the Enterprise, HOWEVER BRIEFLY IS ALWAYS AN EXCUSE FOR NOSTALGIA.

Kirk: WITH SPOCK IN COMMAND YOU DON'T THINK I'LL TURN ANYTHING UP, DO YOU?

Then cut to stock exterior footage.
Then back to shuttle interior.

Kirk: BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOU'LL HAVE YOUR FIRST COMMAND, USS EXCELSIOR

McCoy: OH CONGRATULATIONS COMMANDER!

Sulu: THANK YOU SIR, I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT FOR A LONG TIME.

Kirk: Well I for one am glad to have you at the helm for three weeks--I don't think these kids can steer.

Deleted lines are in capitals.

Kirk's attitude in the entire scene is a little melancholy. He doesn't have his own ship--Spock has Enterprise--now Sulu has Excelsior and he's a little sad---a desk bound Admiral doing an inspection.

Takei thought that Shatner should have played it all excited for him. But that's not what Kirk is feeling at the moment in that portion of the movie.

That's why, I assume, they added the McCoy line where he (with no conflicting feelings about the subject of command) can happily congratulate Sulu.

Takei thought it was all about Shatner not wanting to play the scene 'happy' or 'enthusiastic' enough.

By the way, Sulu's line, "Thank you sir, I've been looking for that for a long time."-----is my ringtone from my wife's cell phone! LOL

That's the big cut scene--5 lines of dialogue comprising 15 seconds of screen time.

 

Double post.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I was going by what I've always heard about the scene, but the way you describe it makes more sense.

 

Sure, no problem.

If you're interested in other cut material, there's a thread in the original movies section about cut/alternate/deleted scenes with lots of photos and descriptions, that I bumped up because I was hoping to see if anybody had run across any new finds.

 

When I look at that I can't help thinking of how much larger the Mayflower looked right after Enterprise came out of warp.