Re: stealing the Enterprise scene, Excelsior ready to pursue:

It doesn't make sense to have the entire crew of the Excelsior consuming 
resources just sitting there in spacedock, only to "break the enterprise's 
speed records tomorrow".  A crew is placed on board, and the ship is launched.
It doesn't make sense for it to sit there overnight, like a hotel, while they
all sleep.

And they certainly wouldn't be ready to launch with mere seconds' notice.

But then again we wouldn't have a chase scene, would we?

James B. Sikking as the Commander of the Excelsior was very cool. He's got
a good, stern, relaxed command energy to him.