diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/CovariateCounterWalker.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/CovariateCounterWalker.java
index 4992e9d7a..2c86b835e 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/CovariateCounterWalker.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/CovariateCounterWalker.java
@@ -263,28 +263,32 @@ public class CovariateCounterWalker extends LocusWalker<Integer, PrintStream> {
                 offset = p.getOffset();
 
                 RecalDataManager.parseSAMRecord( read, RAC );
-                RecalDataManager.parseColorSpace( read );
 
-                // Skip if base quality is zero
-                if( read.getBaseQualities()[offset] > 0 ) {
+                // Skip over reads with no calls in the color space if the user requested it
+                if( !RAC.IGNORE_NOCALL_COLORSPACE || !RecalDataManager.checkNoCallColorSpace( read ) ) {
+                    RecalDataManager.parseColorSpace( read );
 
-                    bases = read.getReadBases();
-                    refBase = (byte)ref.getBase();
+                    // Skip if base quality is zero
+                    if( read.getBaseQualities()[offset] > 0 ) {
 
-                    // Skip if this base is an 'N' or etc.
-                    if( BaseUtils.isRegularBase( (char)(bases[offset]) ) ) {
+                        bases = read.getReadBases();
+                        refBase = (byte)ref.getBase();
 
-                        // SOLID bams have inserted the reference base into the read if the color space in inconsistent with the read base so skip it
-                        if( !read.getReadGroup().getPlatform().toUpperCase().contains("SOLID") || RAC.SOLID_RECAL_MODE.equalsIgnoreCase("DO_NOTHING") || !RecalDataManager.isInconsistentColorSpace( read, offset ) ) {
+                        // Skip if this base is an 'N' or etc.
+                        if( BaseUtils.isRegularBase( (char)(bases[offset]) ) ) {
 
-                            // This base finally passed all the checks for a good base, so add it to the big data hashmap
-                            updateDataFromRead( read, offset, refBase );
+                            // SOLID bams have inserted the reference base into the read if the color space in inconsistent with the read base so skip it
+                            if( !read.getReadGroup().getPlatform().toUpperCase().contains("SOLID") || RAC.SOLID_RECAL_MODE.equalsIgnoreCase("DO_NOTHING") || !RecalDataManager.isInconsistentColorSpace( read, offset ) ) {
 
-                        } else { // calculate SOLID reference insertion rate
-                            if( ref.getBase() == (char)bases[offset] ) {
-                                solidInsertedReferenceBases++;
-                            } else {
-                                otherColorSpaceInconsistency++;
+                                // This base finally passed all the checks for a good base, so add it to the big data hashmap
+                                updateDataFromRead( read, offset, refBase );
+
+                            } else { // calculate SOLID reference insertion rate
+                                if( ref.getBase() == (char)bases[offset] ) {
+                                    solidInsertedReferenceBases++;
+                                } else {
+                                    otherColorSpaceInconsistency++;
+                                }
                             }
                         }
                     }
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
index 519115a73..23e200ed2 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalDataManager.java
@@ -170,7 +170,8 @@ public class RecalDataManager {
             final Object val = data.get(comp);
             if( val instanceof RecalDatum ) { // We are at the end of the nested hash maps
                 if( data.keySet().size() == 1) {
-                    data.clear(); // don't TableRecalibrate a non-required covariate if it only has one element because that correction has already been done in a previous sequential step
+                    data.clear(); // don't TableRecalibrate a non-required covariate if it only has one element because that correction has already been done ...
+                                                                                                    // in a previous step of the sequential calculation model
                 }
             } else { // Another layer in the nested hash map
                 checkForSingletons( (Map) val );
@@ -358,6 +359,32 @@ public class RecalDataManager {
         return originalQualScores;
     }
 
+    public static boolean checkNoCallColorSpace( final SAMRecord read ) {
+        if( read.getReadGroup().getPlatform().toUpperCase().contains("SOLID") ) {
+            final Object attr = read.getAttribute(RecalDataManager.COLOR_SPACE_ATTRIBUTE_TAG);
+            if( attr != null ) {
+                char[] colorSpace;
+                if( attr instanceof String ) {
+                    colorSpace = ((String)attr).substring(1).toCharArray(); // trim off the Sentinel
+                } else {
+                    throw new StingException(String.format("Value encoded by %s in %s isn't a string!", RecalDataManager.COLOR_SPACE_ATTRIBUTE_TAG, read.getReadName()));
+                }
+
+                for( char color : colorSpace ) {
+                    if( color != '0' && color != '1' && color != '2' && color != '3' ) {
+                        return true; // There is a bad color in this SOLiD read and the user wants to skip over it
+                    }
+                }
+
+            } else {
+                throw new StingException("Unable to find color space information in SOLiD read. First observed at read with name = " + read.getReadName() +
+                                        " Unfortunately this .bam file can not be recalibrated without color space information because of potential reference bias.");
+            }
+        }
+
+        return false; // There aren't any color no calls in this SOLiD read
+    }
+
     /**
      * Perform the SET_Q_ZERO solid recalibration. Inconsistent color space bases and their previous base are set to quality zero
      * @param read The SAMRecord to recalibrate
@@ -516,7 +543,7 @@ public class RecalDataManager {
             //    }
             //}
             
-        } else {
+        } else { // No inconsistency array, so nothing is inconsistent
             return false;
         }
     }
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
index 2a18c559b..198fb7ed0 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationArgumentCollection.java
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ public class RecalibrationArgumentCollection {
     public int HOMOPOLYMER_NBACK = 7;
     @Argument(fullName = "exception_if_no_tile", shortName="throwTileException", doc="If provided, TileCovariate will throw an exception when no tile can be found. The default behavior is to use tile = -1", required=false)
     public boolean EXCEPTION_IF_NO_TILE = false;
+    @Argument(fullName = "ignore_nocall_colorspace", shortName="ignore_nocall_colorspace", doc="If provided, the recalibrator will skip over reads with no calls in the color space instead of halting with an exception", required=false)
+    public boolean IGNORE_NOCALL_COLORSPACE = false;
+
     
     public final boolean checkSolidRecalMode() {
         return ( SOLID_RECAL_MODE.equalsIgnoreCase("DO_NOTHING") || SOLID_RECAL_MODE.equalsIgnoreCase("SET_Q_ZERO") ||
diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/TableRecalibrationWalker.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/TableRecalibrationWalker.java
index ebd454581..6e4788037 100644
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/TableRecalibrationWalker.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/TableRecalibrationWalker.java
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ public class TableRecalibrationWalker extends ReadWalker<SAMRecord, SAMFileWrite
     private static final Pattern COVARIATE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("^ReadGroup,QualityScore,.*");
     private static final long RANDOM_SEED = 1032861495;
     private final Random coinFlip = new Random( RANDOM_SEED ); // Random number generator is used to remove reference bias in solid bams
+    private long numReadsWithMalformedColorSpace = 0;
 
     //---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     //
@@ -300,6 +301,13 @@ public class TableRecalibrationWalker extends ReadWalker<SAMRecord, SAMFileWrite
 
         final String platform = read.getReadGroup().getPlatform();
         if( platform.toUpperCase().contains("SOLID") && !RAC.SOLID_RECAL_MODE.equalsIgnoreCase("DO_NOTHING") ) {
+            if( RAC.IGNORE_NOCALL_COLORSPACE ) {
+                final boolean badColor = RecalDataManager.checkNoCallColorSpace( read );
+                if( badColor ) {
+                    numReadsWithMalformedColorSpace++;
+                    return read; // can't recalibrate a SOLiD read with no calls in the color space, and the user wants to skip over them
+                }
+            }
             originalQuals = RecalDataManager.calcColorSpace( read, originalQuals, RAC.SOLID_RECAL_MODE, coinFlip, refBases );
         }
 
@@ -452,5 +460,11 @@ public class TableRecalibrationWalker extends ReadWalker<SAMRecord, SAMFileWrite
      * @param output The SAMFileWriter that outputs the bam file
      */
     public void onTraversalDone(SAMFileWriter output) {
+        if( numReadsWithMalformedColorSpace != 0 ) {
+            Utils.warnUser("Discovered " + numReadsWithMalformedColorSpace + " SOLiD reads with no calls in the color space. Unfortunately these reads cannot be recalibrated with this recalibration algorithm " +
+                    "because we use reference mismatch rate as the only indication of a base's true quality. These reads have had reference bases inserted as a way of correcting " +
+                    "for color space misalignments and there is now no way of knowing how often it mismatches the reference and therefore no way to recalibrate the quality score. " +
+                    "These reads remain in the output bam file but haven't been corrected for reference bias. Use at your own risk.");
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationWalkersIntegrationTest.java b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationWalkersIntegrationTest.java
index ee73a87c8..8bafd1f64 100755
--- a/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationWalkersIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/recalibration/RecalibrationWalkersIntegrationTest.java
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ public class RecalibrationWalkersIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
                             " -I " + bam +
                             " -L 1:10,000,000-10,200,000" +
                             " -standard" +
+                            " --ignore_nocall_colorspace" +
                             " --solid_recal_mode SET_Q_ZERO" +
                             " -recalFile %s",
                     1, // just one output file