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Vasquez Rocks in southern California
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a county park in Agua Dulce, California, roughly 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The area has been used in the filming of numerous Star Trek productions, including at least eight television episodes and two movies.
History
The familiar jagged rock face from "Arena", where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn
Vasquez rocks in "The Alternative Factor"
Filming "Who Watches The Watchers" at Vasquez rocks
Vasquez Rocks is named after notorious bandit Tiburcio Vásquez, who used the rocky region to elude capture from California law enforcement in 1873 and 1874. On the television series Stories of the Century, Vasquez was portrayed by Anthony Caruso. Since 1928, nearly two hundred other film and television productions have been shot at Vasquez Rocks, including many westerns. The park was acquired by Los Angeles County in 1970.
Classic television shows such as Gunsmoke, Maverick, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, and Kung Fu have all utilized Vasquez Rocks for filming, as have more contemporary hit shows like Airwolf, Alien Nation, Sliders, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, 24 and CSI.
Films that have been shot at the region include the 1931 classic Dracula, Mel Brooks' 1974 western comedy Blazing Saddles, the cult 1993 horror film Army of Darkness, the hit 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes, and Nick Cassavetes' 2006 drama Alpha Dog.
Star Trek
The first episode to be partially filmed at Vasquez was "Shore Leave" (in which it depicted the Shore Leave Planet along with Africa, USA), spending two and half days on location, on Monday 24 October 1966, Tuesday 25 October 1966 and Wednesday 26 October 1966. In the next month, another two Star Trek episodes were shot there, "Arena", spending two days at Vasquez, on Wednesday 9 November 1966 and Thursday 10 November 1966, and "The Alternative Factor". The latter also spent two days filming on location, on Tuesday 22 November 1966 and Wednesday 23 November 1966. Star Trek returned to Vasquez for the second season, to film "Friday's Child" in late-May 1967.
Vasquez was seen again almost twenty years later in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when some of the Vulcan scenes were filmed there. Three years later, in August 1989, the Next Generation episode "Who Watches The Watchers" was also located at Vasquez.
Director J.J. Abrams shot the Vulcan scenes of 2009's Star Trek at Vasquez Rocks as an homage to its use in previous Trek productions.[1]
Appearances in Star Trek
- TOS:
- TNG:
- VOY:
- "Initiations"
- "Gravity"
- ENT:
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
- Star Trek
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Spoofs
- Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
- Free Enterprise
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
- Paul
- Brandeis-Bardin institute's House of the Book, digitally edited atop, to create the command center/Power Chamber for the first 5 seasons of The "Power Rangers"
- The Big Bang Theory, Episode 6x13: "The Bakersfield Epidition".
- Monk, Episode 8x3: "Mr. Monk and the UFO".
- Franchise Documentaries
- Fan Films
External links
- Official site
- Vasquez Rocks at Wikipedia
- Re-Uses of the Vasquez Rocks Location at Ex Astris Scientia
- Template:IMDb-link