Red Sea - A Star Trek Fan Film

The Hellas Class colony ship, USS Red Sea approaches a mysterious planet.
Set in the year 2223, I based the events of this short film on a line of dialogue from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, set in 2293:
Spock: "At the behest of the Vulcan ambassador, I opened a dialogue with Gorkon, Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. He proposes to commence negotiations at once."
Adm. Cartwright: "Negotiations for what?"
Spock: "The dismantling of our space stations and starbases along the neutral zone, an end to almost 70 years of unremitting hostility which the Klingons can no longer afford."
I worked with designer and subscriber Morgan Smiley on this video - the Starfleet ship Red Sea is based on his design which you can see more of here:
www.treknology...
All feedback welcome. See the design history here:

[@EvilJ069]

The klingons nuked Hadley's Hope from orbit, it was the only way to be sure

[@ZombieGrandpa]

Lol, well said.

[@MM22966]

You sure don't want an Andorian attached to your face.

[@benrussell-gough1201]

First time that I've seen a photon torpedo attack on a ground target represented correctly.

[@arthurchadwell9267]

They were getting short, man! Game over!

[@Allegheny500]

Cudo's to whoever designed the USS Red Sea, it looks awesome and just right for the time period. Deserves a resin model.

[@albudrow5436]

i agree, great looking design but the warp nacelles are too close if we stick to cannon

[@CASA-dy4vs]

@@albudrow5436radiation shielding:

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

This is AWESOME!!! As a model builder, I LIKE this ... 'ROBERTS-class' (colony-ship/security cutter) with the "pods" on its back!!! IF.... I was the Captain of RED SEA, I would have used an empty pod with explosives inside to "clutter the field" with debris as I tried to escape the attack. As far as the colonists, one of the things I would have....if " I " was StarFleet, is to have a shield.."....to deflect any bombardment." (Star Wars quote).

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks and good idea. I spoke to the creator of the ship, Morgan Smiley, who gave me a load of really useful background information

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

@@chrislea1000 I Must Also Say..... this 'short story' that You produce is TOP NOTCH Stuff!!! Good Show!! The work of close ups, lights, soundtrack ....... the Editing!!! Truly, Superior Work!!

[@windrunner6145]

Must say the Red Sea design is simply awesome

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks - based on a design by Morgan Smiley

[@williamfarlow2442]

Really nice ship designs. Love the Red Sea, it's great to see some of the more "workhorse" ships in Starfleet. Nice work on the alternate Bird Of Prey too!

[@temetka]

This was remarkably good. Model design seemed period correct. I really enjoyed the old school music as well. Nice job.

[@pastorjerrykliner3162]

Naming the shuttles after the characters in "Alien"??? LOVE IT!

[@KrawmKruach]

the mining base was named hadleys hope, the name of the colony in aliens.

[@hemaccabe4292]

Great film, keep creating!

[@alexxbaudwhyn7572]

Lifelong trekker since tas first run and tos syndication. Dead nuts pre Tos ship designs while applying artful tech updates. Nice job

[@glennlaroche1524]

You continually supply us with the greatest content on the internet.

[@richardvinsen2385]

The greatest content on the entire internet? That seems to be an overly generous compliment.

[@skichy4793]

That was a great bit of Trek content!!! The models look fantastic as well as the ship designs. Thank you for sharing. Bows

[@Toobeegort]

There is so much in this, like the nod to "Alien", the effects, the story progression, and still you left us with, what's going to happen next, well done.

[@IronWarhorsesFun]

a federation ship just pumping out magic carpet ride is awesome especially as it is not a star fleet ship and i would assume that discipline and rules would be a bit laxer.

[@pike100]

​@@IronWarhorsesFun The song wasn't actually coming from the starship. Rather, it was just part of the soundtrack of this short.

[@thomassalois3508]

Love the Klingon music when the bird of prey shows up😮

[@hemaccabe4292]

Amazing cinematography and sound design.

[@davidponseigo8811]

I really like these starships. Especially the Bird of Prey.

[@ditzyneko637]

Fantastic work! Also the Alien references, 10/10

[@johnnyrico6202]

Holy crap! Are those models? What a good little film. It looks like passion and talent intersected on the high ground. Thank you and more please.

[@kerravon4159]

Great job on the Fed colony ship, it looked really cool.

[@SuperDawgbreath]

Amazing Job!! I was so wrapped up I didn't even notice it was ending. Don't leave us hanging for long! 😀

[@crashoverride1000]

starting this film with a steppenwolf song was brilliant.

[@tdrewman]

I hear the song magic carpet ride and I see it in my head the night shift playing music to pass the time.

[@marcosargen3729]

Love the work! Great individualism by using the focusing effects. Makes the vessels seem far more real.

[@michaelaldredge-greenwell1692]

Fantastic, superb, stunning!! To all the cast & crew of this fantastic video, my greatest thanks for bringing us this wonderful film!! I can’t wait for the next episode in the series!! I want to know what happens next!!!

[@Adamstankevitch]

4:02 the clicking reminds me of a gas cooker

[@aurelius1964]

Brilliant as always :)

[@ah7910]

Imagine this had been the Discovery and Strange New Worlds aesthetic? (Sigh)

[@MM22966]

Love the model designs; all the little details must have been a pain to render, but the "messy" exteriors make them look more like working starships, especially for a colony mission.

[@chrislea1000]

Yeah, little extra details always make ships look more real

[@Nesseight]

Damn, that Klingon Star Destroyer was so ticked off by the Federations presence that it set out on a six month journey just to attack them. That reminds me of my WotLK days when I took my level 2 paladin to Northerend. The Lich King himself came flying off of the Frozen Throne just to gank me.

[@MelonRace]

It feels like it answers "What if Gerry Anderson directed Star Trek?" Incredible detail...just wow.

[@DouglasJohnson.]

Beautiful animation and wonderful design work!

[@Nohan1967]

Excellent work!

[@gerhuneng]

Best episode out of the series. Data lies, it's manipulated according to your agenda!

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks - and for watching

[@stevenewman1393]

🖖😎👍Very totally cool and very nicely greatly wonderfully spectaculary well done and executed in every detail way shape and format provided by you as always indeed Sir!👌.

[@chrislea1000]

Well thank you, more to come

[@LAWLESSKING]

WOW!!! Great work!!

[@Aurivoo]

Wow! A bit alike Gerry Anderson's thunderbirds esque style of animation. Certainly that's a terrific trek fan film.

[@startrekphase2DE]

Excellent special effects, yet this feels like an unfinished story. The Red Sea should have put the shields up as soon as the anomaly was detected. The one Bird of Prey faced little resistance from the Red Sea. No photon torpedoes on that ship? The shields seemed to offer little resistance. Is their going to be a sequel to this story?

[@morgan97475]

Absolutely stunning! Thanks for bringing this ship to life.👍 Also, I liked the nod to "Alien".

[@kale27]

I hear a little ST: Armada in there. Awesome!

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed

[@ZionSowles-kv7oz]

The random Klingon noises are killing me

[@Brian-pz3wh]

Really good job. Nice work. Even stayed true to Starfleets weak responses top attacks.

[@pamelag7553]

Did a great job on the ships, the colony and the graphics. I only wish there was more of it. Maybe next time.

[@AndrewSprague]

Loving the fact that the shuttles have names from the Alien movie.

[@jonathancoolidge4594]

The U.S.S. Red Sea is an awesome design! It really does a superb balance of both honoring TOS design language and early fan and tech manual designs while also fitting into more recent movies and shows, tying things together really well. I only wish we could have more of this story--what prompted the Klingons to show up and attack, and how the colony fared following the blasts... I really wish budget and legalities allowed for more, as I'd love to see characters, the bridge, colony sets, maybe Klingon bridge sets, etc. And, I know that can only happen in my head for now...

[@davidponseigo8811]

The more I see of these ships the more I like them. You are or have some really talented designers.

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks - it’s a one man show

[@sergioleone3583]

Wow!!! So much great stuff here. I especially liked the shuttles!

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed it - did take a while to create :)

[@wictimovgovonca320]

Love the shuttle launch

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@dmcdraws]

"Dallas to Lambert"... nice nod. :)

[@williamsquires3070]

I find it amusing that the song being played at the beginning was the same one Zefram Cochrane had playing on the Phoenix in Star Trek: First Contact, albeit at significantly higher volume levels than was safe for human hearing! 😅

[@paulgonzalez4224]

This was amazing very well done!!

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks for watching and commenting

[@JimmyJazzDystopian]

Looks great, i wish i had the talent to do something like this

[@descendinguniverse]

stunning animation!

[@KhemistryIBMOR]

Your animation is beautiful.

[@jamieleesphere1305]

This is so good I love it amazing work😊

[@blue18404]

Please do the Eugenic Wars...

[@sid2112]

Hey been looking forward to this!

[@LoganHunter82]

Star Trek combined with Star Wars... I like it

[@chrislea1000]

I’m glad

[@ToddHofer]

The best part of the whole short was the opening scene. Magic Carpet Ride! Hell yeah! Well played!

[@atlantianson515]

Well, that was disappointing to see the Red Sea barely get of a shot or two and the Klingons got the upper hand on that one. But, Nicely Done!

[@morlockmeat]

Beautifully done!

[@JimmyBlether]

Not gonna lie, I was expecting the colony to just vanish in an atomic fireball considering how strong photons are supposed to be as weapons. Unshielded it probably would have had no chance. I do appreciate aswell that you have got better at weapon impacts compared to some earlier videos where a large amount of shots would be fired at relatively short range and none would hit, so that's good. I do like starfleet ships which tow stuff, especially the Ptolemy class. The Red Sea itself is neat and I like that some cargo containers were missing after they had been deployed though the colony did seem rather large for what they could hold, unless I am getting a bad sense of scale. Hearing colonisation shuttle and the scale of the ship does automatically irk me unfortunately as I've conditioned myself to think much, much bigger than that in terms of the hardware to make a true "colony," perhaps also because of how much I am into real spaceflight. In terms of the shuttles, I think I see runabout influence on the nose which is rather cool. Love that magic carpet ride was used aswell, what else could have been honestly. Also, nobody calls a colony hadley's hope without expecting some horrible accident to happen in one way or another, but that's gotta be the joke.

[@HalNordmann]

The colony ship is a neat design indeed

[@Hazmatt4700]

Really slick work. The designs are quite pleasing.

[@KevinWebb]

Great ships. Solid BoP precursor.

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks, as intended

[@robotmonkeys]

This looks like physical models, especially when the shuttle lifts off

[@lordanubis9783]

Sorry, if I have to say this but.....MORE .... GIMME MORE!!!! So Awesome!!!

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks, plenty more on the channel!

[@deanlawson6880]

Nicely done! Thanks for this!!

[@CaptainJonathan]

Nicely designed ships.

[@plantlord3266]

very well done film-love to see follow up and get those klingon...

[@shauljonah6955]

Very good and I can tell the klingons are mad as heck want someone to go have a talk with them i have a few ideas.

[@acebrandon3522]

Mr. Lea, you are truly a master of the visual arts. The story and special effects are again TRULY EPIC. Well done and could you make this into a three- part story arc? On the early colonial history of the Federation on the border of Klingon Space? Thank-You.

[@sergioleone3583]

I would love to see that era shown through the eye of Mr. Lea in more depth!

[@acebrandon3522]

@@sergioleone3583 That would be so much fun. This is me just thinking about it. 🤗

[@manicpanda8741]

Was totally worth the wait. Really impressive

[@chriss2031]

That was quite a surprising discovery. I like it.

[@toddwatson7381]

Enjoyed the show!!! Well done. Thank you!!!!

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed it, more to come

[@TheWonderer7]

That was fantastic! The only critical thing i can add, if i may, is that the voices sound pretty bored for all the action of getting blasted out of space...

[@chrislea1000]

First experiment in AI voices, not that great. Thanks for watching

[@TheWonderer7]

@@chrislea1000 it's my pleasure. You do great work.

[@starbrand3726]

Wow! Everything looked great. I couldn't tell if these were models or CGI rendered ships (and that's actually a good thing.) I loved when the Klingons were flying at warp, that looked fantastic too. My only criticism or critique would have to be...in the beginning, where are the stars? There's no visible stars in the background for the first few minutes. Other than that, great job.

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks - may have the contrast too high or the environment texture too low. I'll turn the stars up in the next one :)

[@WilhelmImperatorRex]

This is not just an amzing animationn as always, it is a true work of art! Thank you! *Remember the Red Sea!*

[@MovieSpottingBerlin]

I like your movies so much!

[@95DarkFire]

I really like your ship models! They look like original Star Trek designs, but they have more details, like calssic Star Wars ships. This gives them a very "solid" feeling. It is basically an improved version of ST:Enterprise.

[@andytay5507]

Astounding!

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks for watching

[@loadtoad]

That was really good! I enjoyed it very much! RIBBIT!!!

[@ChristinaMoore79]

An incredible short film, but I wanna know more!

[@Akira-zt1ud]

Hadleys hope! (The aliens colony). Love the reference

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@chrislea1000]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@georgesulea]

Great models, and don't think I missed the "Alien" references :)

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks - more to come

[@Strykenine]

I love this ship design.

[@thelazy0ne]

This must have been during the time man figured it should send robots out to do the work. ☝️😌

[@cursecat111]

Cool. Hope you do a follow up Vid.We need a rescue Sir!!

[@szinyk]

Pretty cool! Nice design on the 2 ships. And fun references to Alien. Like someone else mentioned, the AI voices are sorta flat, but I guess you work with what you have. Fun overall tho.

[@chrislea1000]

Thanks, I have improved voice work in later videos so...I agree

[@Mrpurple75]

I approve, not that it matters but there you go

[@chrislea1000]

I’m glad that you do

[@marinbanicevic9457]

Interesting ship

[@marshallc3]

Good stuff.

[@dannyhicking]

Cool to watch

[@richardsilva-spokane3436]

Wonderful production! I always wonder why Shields aren’t automated. Almost every TS production has them being commanded verbally by the Bridge.

[@familyman3573]

Outpost Hadley's Hope, eh? Ripley would approve.

[@einyv]

Cool but you would think they would have some type of defenses knowing the Klingons would attack. No defense satellites at all.

[@LostInTheFarmersMarket]

Does anyone know what the klingons are saying?

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

Could have done it without the Apollo beeps. Yep the Captain was a idiot. Should have dumped the cargo pods. On a ship design note the Klingon design looks VERY good and believable ship of the Empire. The starfleet ship is also a very good design.

[@fhbaynes]

Totally epic

[@richardvinsen2385]

Why did it sound like the captain was giving his orders over the telephone? Was he too busy to come to the bridge?

[@twentysevenlitres]

Very well done. That Klingon Bird of Prey design is excellent. Your music mix was good too (bit of For 'All Mankind' with Magic Carpet Ride!) Ignoring the BS that is 'Discovery', I don't think the shuttle bay should have had a shield in that era.

[@bettyswunghole3310]

It's another good'un!👍

[@TravelingCitrianSnail]

This is just *wrong.* At ST-TOS, 02X15: "The Trouble with Tribbles", 00:46, Spock is saying that the battle was fought "23 SOLAR YEARS AGO" = either late 2244, or early 2245. That was the time of the first hostile clash between the Federation and the Klingons, *not* 2223 (and, by the way: *not* 2256, as _"disastrovery"_ had claimed, either... 🙂).