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Ever wondered where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn? It's a real place called Vasquez Rocks, and it has a rich history in Hollywood, appearing in countless films and TV shows. This video delves into its use in Star Trek, highlighting ten specific instances.
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00:00You know, whether it was Bob Justman's huge cyclorama stage drop of shifting planet sky
00:06colors in the 1960s, or the modern Toronto Trek's AR wall in the 2020s, the physical
00:13and filmable off-ship Strange New Worlds of Star Trek over the decades has tended to be
00:19ingenious uses of design sets, which is why Star Trek taking cast and crew to shoot on
00:26location has tended to be so memorable.
00:28You know, for all the years I've led Star Trek fan tourists around greater LA to Trek film
00:33sites, whether it was the multi-day Geek Nation tours edition, or my own Trekland Trek's day
00:39tours, the most requested location site is, of course, the iconic Vasquez Rocks, a natural
00:47formation and a county park in Los Angeles County.
00:51Why?
00:52Go and fight!
00:54Hmm.
00:56What are the Vasquez Rocks, anyway?
00:59Geologists would tell you that they are the result of sedimentary layering exposed by
01:05later seismic uplift and erosion, thanks to offshoots of the San Andreas Fault 25 million
01:11years ago, during the Oligocene epoch, and again, even more so during the lower Miocene
01:18epoch up to 20 million years later.
01:22Historians would tell you that they're named for the 19th century bandido, Tibercio Vasquez,
01:28who used the giant rocks northeast of LA as a stash and a hideout.
01:33Forty years into California's era as a fully American state, the invention of the automobile
01:38a generation later would end their reclusiveness, while the invention of the movie camera made them
01:44a scene-stealing star.
01:46Best of all, though, for the studio bean counters, they presented a bleak and wild landscape only
01:5325 miles from downtown LA.
01:55Who knows how many silent movies were filmed out there?
01:58But since the film office records began in 1928, over 200 films and TV episodes have used the
02:06Vasquez Rocks as real-life backdrops, and just like so many of the original series' human stars,
02:13they also appeared in Bonanza, in Gunsmoke, Maverick, the Wild Wild West, and later, even Kung Fu.
02:22Now occupying close to 932 acres, Vasquez Rocks has been a Los Angeles County park
02:29ever since the original 40 acres was donated in 1971, meaning that all those original series'
02:37shoots occurred when it was in private hands.
02:40But did you know the initial location used in Arena that we see, the Cestus III base under attack,
02:48was also filmed at Vasquez.
02:50The camera turned 180 degrees around in the opposite direction and used an abandoned fortress set
02:58from a one-season wonder, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers, to Star Trek's tightly-budgeted lucky game.
03:06When, it's Dr. Trek, Larry Nemechek, and yes, I am on Trek Culture, and I am so glad to be
03:14beaming here in with you now for a visit every so often.
03:18But wait, I promised you 10 other times Star Trek used Vasquez Rocks.
03:24Number 10.
03:26Shoreleave.
03:26Star Trek, the original series, Season 1, Episode 17.
03:31Yes, you Trekademics, you know.
03:33The scenes where Kirk fights with Finnegan, Reminiscence with Ruth, plus the samurai, the
03:39tiger, Don Juan, and that strafing fighter plane, they were all shot, not at Africa USA alongside
03:45the Glade Meadow scenes with the Black Knight, but over most of two days at Vasquez Rocks,
03:51about three miles to the north, on the backside of the famous Gordon Battle Rocks, so they don't
03:56steal the show.
03:57Or actually, who didn't steal from whom?
04:00It was actually the Metrons who must have wanted fresh looks, as Arena was filmed two
04:06weeks after Shoreleave, which makes the Finnegan fracas Star Trek's first visit to the classic
04:13landscape. It would not be the last. Not just because the variety of landform looks available
04:19in one area, but even more so, the rocks are within Hollywood's so-called 30-mile zone radius.
04:27That's your TMZ.
04:29That was negotiated so as to allow cheaper location shooting costs without the studio
04:34having to pay out meals and transport for the cast and crews, or even mandated overnight travel
04:40stays. After two days of filming those scenes there, first-run U.S. audiences originally
04:46saw the Vasquez site on Star Trek on December 29, 1966.
04:52Number 9. The Alternative Factor. Star Trek The Original Series, Season 1, Episode 20.
05:00Yes, the episode with so many questions. And would John Barrymore have been a better choice
05:07than Robert Brown? And how does a native from an Anti-Matter Universe walk around on a Matter
05:14Universe starship without causing a little cataclysmic reaction problem?
05:18Look, the Alternative Factor is dogged with so many problems. But that is indeed Vasquez
05:25rocks on display when the landing party scrambles around Lazarus' little mini-ship.
05:31Actually, it's the backside of the famous angle of the rocks that we see. Or at least,
05:36most of the time. You know, the middle of the three planned shoot days on location was lost
05:41due to bad weather. And the makeup shoot? Well, let's just say this alien planet's sun sure
05:47cycles in and out a flat-seeming daylight at times, flat as a Fresnel lamp lens on Desilu Stage 10.
05:55Number 8. Friday's Child. Star Trek The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 3.
06:02So, after a threefer in Season 1, and a round of budget cuts for Season 2, the Original Series would
06:10make one more visit out to Vasquez rocks and stage it all from a totally different angle.
06:16Friday's Child remains my favorite undervalued and overlooked Original Series episode for so many
06:22reasons. So much McCoy. McCoy fully taking his place structurally in the Trek Trinity. McCoy
06:29actually giving the landing party briefing. We actually seen a landing party briefing.
06:34Scotty in command and to the rescue. A laughing Flintstones ha-ha ending for the ages.
06:40Leonard James Aka-ar? And two words. Julie freaking Newmar. Thank you, Dorothy D.C. Fontana.
06:50On the downs, though. Those tall walking tassel carpets as alien warriors look like they're
06:56burning up in that desert planet heat. But hey, you can't have everything. That's why,
07:02despite those tent camp scenes that were obviously filmed on a stage, shooting the Overland Pursuit
07:08and our hero's strategy banner over two long days at Vasquez Rocks adds so much scope to this one.
07:15Even a high-tech avalanche. You know those Capella 4 scenes are actually across the main park road
07:22and opposite the main rocks in their backside, which are all carefully kept out of frame here.
07:28Go to the site yourself with some guidance and you realize just how compact all that location shoot
07:34was accomplished. So much done with opposite angles and close-ups on a rock wall and a faux cave
07:41entrance that all look far bigger on screen. Hey, it's the magic of Hollywood. On a budget.
07:47But still, it's another case where you too can bring along your own flip-top communicator
07:53and imagine your hyper-frequency stopping some rebel alien pursuers right in their tracks.
08:01Number 7. Star Trek IV The Voyage Home
08:05No, really. You'll blink and miss it. Hey, in the years after the original series died and found
08:11resurrection through the rerun generation, fan-savvy had time to grow. And even in the pre-internet
08:17days, hungry Trek folks had more and more making-of books and magazines and articles that brought
08:24them the ins and outs of classic show details like the Vasquez rock shoots. Perhaps that's why
08:30Harv Bennett and Leonard Nimoy, producer and director on Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, who still had a
08:37little spare cash after two weeks on location in San Francisco, sent a small team out to Vasquez
08:43in April 1986. Their task was to film someone as Spock meditating atop the twin slant peaks from their
08:52obvious and iconic side as a very organic representation of Vulcan for the movie's pre-getaway
08:59opening scenes. Remember now? Future Star Trek creatives would. Stick a pen in that.
09:06Number 6. Who watches The Watchers? Star Trek The Next Generation Season 3 Episode 4. Oh, fast forward
09:16to the Next Generation era, and one ambitious script early in Season 3 was actually going to spend money
09:23for an early season location shoot and even build a small alien village. We're talking about this tale
09:30about incognito-federation anthropologists studying a humanoid proto-Vulcan society from a duck pine
09:37until they're exposed. It needed a lot of scope to tell it well. So, why not take Trek back to
09:44Vasquez
09:45Rocks for the first time on a series in over 20 years? Only this time, tilt the camera up and
09:53use the full
09:53height of that rocky peak for Mintaka 3. The Next Generation crew spent two days at this site in August
10:001989, midway through their eight-day shoot, and I'm guessing none of them realized at the time what a
10:07spiritual impact the final location scene of the script would bring. That heartfelt moment when the
10:14Mintakan leader Nouria gives Picard the tapestry scroll that we see draped over the back of his desk
10:21chair for the rest of his career. Well, it obviously resonated as a pivotal moment in his journey.
10:28And yes, we know exactly where Tapestry Rock is located.
10:40Hi, I'm Duncan Relic, No Relation, and I collect relics from before the moon. Thanks to a temporal wormhole,
10:49I now have an unlimited supply of Trek culture t-shirts, and I'm selling them to you.
10:57You could be wearing this stylish down and up t-shirt. Or, how about this fish watching design?
11:05Bright yellow on black. The colors I'd use in thumbnails, I tell you that for nothing.
11:09I plan to take these designs and transfer them via quantum duplication onto hats, mugs, and posters.
11:19So look out for those. Back!
11:24Treat this unlimited supply as a limited-time deal. Get your t-shirt quick!
11:30Who's your daddy?
11:42Number 5. Initiations. Star Trek Voyager Season 2, Episode 2.
11:49You know, Deep Space Nine went on many locations to film, from lush cool gardens to sweltering gravel quarries.
11:57But sadly, DS9 never made it to Vasquez Rocks.
12:01Voyager, though, did find its way back once. The Rock stood in for the site of the Kazon training moon,
12:08Terok. Terok with a Kazon A, not a Cardassian E. The Voyager film crew spent a day there in July
12:151995,
12:16with Chakotay and the Kazon Ogley youth car, aka Aaron Eisenberg's other character, for initiations.
12:26Most of their scenes were located atop a series of vertical, close, thin rock folds,
12:31literally just across the main park roll from the tilt rocks.
12:35But you'd never know it from the episode, which was intentional.
12:39But it would be the last time that Star Trek, like Spock with his ears, would hide those two famous
12:45points.
12:46Number 4. Maps and Legends and The End is the Beginning.
12:52Star Trek Picard Season 1, Episodes 2 and 3.
12:57I don't know which seemed more unlikely at one point. That we'd ever revisit the later life adventures of Jean
13:04-Luc Picard.
13:05Or that Toronto-based Star Trek TV would ever find a way to once again shoot scenes at its most
13:12famous location.
13:13Much less brazenly identify the whole thing as Vasquez Rocks.
13:18But that's exactly what we got, on screen, in text, with the L.A.-based Picard series and the introduction of
13:25troubled Starfleet retired commander Raffi Musiker.
13:28Amid her isolation from both Starfleet and her former mentor JP, who's been ghosting her for years.
13:36Film crews spent a number of days at the park in early May 2019, filming work that we would see
13:42in finished form nine months later, across both episodes.
13:46Now, the story of Raffi's drug addiction and her life in a trailer struck many fans as a sad turn
13:53for Starfleet, seemingly dumping on its veterans.
13:56And they echoed the character's bitterness at being shunned by her one-time senior from his historic posh and family
14:04wine estate.
14:05That always struck me as a short-sighted point, though, seeing as Raffi, apparently, had the best Wi-Fi on
14:11the planet.
14:12And how could Starfleet force veterans into therapy and treatment if they refused, if they didn't want to do it?
14:19How was she living in the Vasquez Rocks?
14:23I mean, on one level, it was a cute wink, sure.
14:25But for me, it opened up a whole can of worms more troubling than Raffi's status.
14:30The question of whether, in our utopian 24th-century Earth, Vasquez Rocks was no longer a public park, no matter
14:39who owned and operated it?
14:40I mean, if not, then did Starfleet randomly make it a practice and had the access to place its troubled
14:47veterans and small housing units in park lines?
14:50Is that part of the park off-limits to regular citizen use?
14:55Does it defeat the goal of sharing an amazing natural landmark with the public if its most famous attraction is
15:01occupied by private housing, troubled veteran or otherwise?
15:05And if it's no longer a park, then why?
15:08And who does own it?
15:11If land ownership in 300 years has any semblance to our grubby little system today?
15:18Of course, many fans saw that scene and that text graphic and just smiled and said,
15:23Cool!
15:25Now, I promised you 10 other times Star Trek used Vasquez Rocks.
15:30The truth is, only 7 of those other visits were in the flesh, so to speak.
15:35You may think you saw those famous tilted ledges on screen thrice more.
15:41And you did.
15:42But not as a result of live on-screen shooting.
15:46Here, hold on, hold on.
15:48Number 3.
15:49Other uses.
15:50The rocks are depicted in a Zerillian holosim of their homeworld in Unexpected for Enterprise,
15:58a.k.a. the pregnant trip one, then on the big screen as Vulcan itself in Star Trek 2009,
16:05blended into CGI landscapes, and as Vulcan again, or more precisely Navarre,
16:11in the 32nd century of All is Possible, on Discovery,
16:17showcasing the still bumpy burn-era unification at last of Vulcans and Romulans.
16:23Again, these were not live shoots, but all either stills or video,
16:28and then heavily manipulated with CGI and inserted as background.
16:33Number 2.
16:34Outside of Star Trek.
16:36But forget CGI.
16:37Vasquez Rock's Natural Area County Park is very real.
16:42And it's easy to locate and visit.
16:44If you find yourself in Greater Los Angeles,
16:47it's an easy 45 minutes, outside a rush hour,
16:51out northeast from Hollywood, up the 14th freeway via the 5,
16:55in Agua Dulce,
16:57and sporting a very spiffy Visitor's Nature Center.
17:00They're waiting for you,
17:02including some Trekkie items in their little gift shop.
17:05They also do mention the geology of the place,
17:08as well as the original indigenous native dwellers.
17:11Note that the center, and the whole park, though, are closed on Mondays.
17:15But even then, you can park along the roadway down from the gate,
17:19and walk in along the Pacific Crest Trail.
17:22And that Visitor's Center even gives a nod to The Rock's full IMDB resume.
17:26Everything from Roswell, 24, and CSI,
17:30to Alien Nation, Sliders, Buffy,
17:33and for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans, it's a bit confusing.
17:37Vasquez Rock's was used as a setting for the Rangers Command Center,
17:41even though the building itself that you see
17:44was actually on the other side of Los Angeles,
17:46just in Ventura County,
17:47the Brandeis Bardeen Institute's House of the Book.
17:51Or as we know it, Camp Kittimer!
17:54Unless, of course, Lorsborg are hiding around out there.
17:58Now, on the big screen,
17:59you've seen Vasquez Rock's everywhere,
18:02from the original Bela Lugosi 1931 Dracula,
18:06to Blazing Saddles, Army of Darkness,
18:09Austin Powers, and Planet of the Apes, for starters.
18:12Not to mention the spoofs of that famous Kurt Gorin face-off.
18:16Bill and Ted's Excellent Journey,
18:18Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,
18:21and, of course,
18:23The Big Bang Theory in Season 4.
18:25Although, those are studio fake rocks standing in for real ones.
18:29Because, once again,
18:30that's a studio backdrop and CGI
18:33behind our cosplaying quartet of actors.
18:36Not the actual location on site.
18:39In fact, this TBBT episode wants you to think
18:42that the boys with their stolen car and no phones
18:46are stuck miles from anywhere
18:48and have to hitchhike.
18:50But when you make your own away mission to Vasquez Rocks
18:54and look around,
18:55you wonder why our heroes didn't simply approach
18:58any of a half dozen alms within a half mile of the place.
19:03Ah, Hollywood magic.
19:06Number one,
19:07The Vasquez Rocks on Tour.
19:09All right, I'm fudging this one a little bit.
19:12But hey,
19:13if you enjoyed that list and details,
19:16welcome to Dr. Trek's World.
19:18Look, it's just a reminder that
19:20there's a lot of this information out there
19:22to visit Vasquez Rocks on your own.
19:24But if you want the comfort of a customized
19:27and concierge tour and takeaways with Dr. Trek,
19:30to Vasquez Rocks or over 50 other location Trek sites,
19:35large and small around L.A.,
19:36get in touch with me at treklandtreks.com.
19:40What's more,
19:412026 is not only the 60th anniversary of Star Trek,
19:45but also the return after 10 years
19:48of the big hashtag L.A. to Vegas
19:50Trek film site location five-day tour that I lead
19:54for Terrace Cassidy and his Geek Nation tours.
19:57The big tour also features on-site appearances
20:00by Armin Shimmerman,
20:02Tim Russ,
20:03Ciroc Lofton,
20:04Gorncaft and Bobby Clark,
20:05and more to be announced.
20:07The big tour in July and August is cozy.
20:10It needs 10 fans minimum,
20:12but cuts off at 20 maximum.
20:15It runs July 30th through August 3rd,
20:18and the bus visits Vasquez Rocks
20:20as well as many more locations
20:21until it winds up in Las Vegas
20:23the day before the big Trek to Vegas convention
20:26at the Rio Hotel.
20:27Though con admission is not required.
20:30There's also a one-day tour
20:32out to the Kirk death scenes of Generations,
20:35and more,
20:35in Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park, too,
20:39if you like.
20:40But whether you jump aboard
20:42the big Geek Nation tours L.A. to Vegas
20:44group next year for the 60th,
20:46or take a private day tour trek
20:49sometime with me next time in L.A.,
20:51or just set out to catch these sights yourself,
20:57there's nothing like standing in the places
20:59of iconic Star Trek moments
21:01like Vasquez Rocks,
21:03in uniform or out.
21:06And in a time when peeps want experiences,
21:09not souvenirs,
21:11Trek Tourism,
21:12can we call it that,
21:14has truly got to be
21:15the undiscovered country of fandom.
21:20Trek well, everybody.