The Vasquez Rocks Pure Space Park is situated within the northern a part of Los Angeles County, a few 45-minute drive from Hollywood correct (relying on site visitors). They’re a well-liked vacationer vacation spot as a result of the layered rock formations jut out of the bottom at unusual, wild angles, giving them an alien look. They have been named after Tiburcio Vásquez, a notoriously intelligent Mexican bandit who hid out among the many rocks whereas eluding the cops again within the 1870s. Hikers have been hiding out among the many rocks ever since, admiring their otherworldly magnificence.
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Vasquez Rocks has been a well-liked taking pictures vacation spot for dozens of main movies and TV reveals, largely as a result of they’re such a brief drive from all of the manufacturing places of work in Los Angeles. It is simple to bundle the forged of “Star Trek” right into a van, costume three stuntman as a Gorn character (particularly Bobby Clark, Gary Combs, and Invoice Blackburn), and go to the Rocks to movie actors pretend-fight one another. Certainly, Vasquez Rocks performed the position of the Metron planet in the “Star Trek” episode “Area” (January 19, 1967). One of many rocks on the park has been nicknamed “Kirk’s Rock” by Trekkies, as Kirk (William Shatner) ran as much as it within the episode.
And that wasn’t even the primary time that an episode of “Star Trek” was filmed there. It had beforehand been seen within the episode “Shore Go away” (December 29, 1966), the place it was additionally the location of a Shatner combat, however with an imaginary model of an old-fashioned chum named Finnegan (Bruce Mars). The Park was additionally seen in “The Various Issue,” serving because the planet the place Lazarus (Robert Brown) acquired to combat his evil doppelgänger, and it performed the planet Capella IV within the episode “Friday’s Youngster” (December 1, 1967), the episode whereby Bones (DeForest Kelley) punched a pregnant girl.
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The various occasions Star Trek filmed at Vasquez Rocks
The examples above are simply the occasions that the unique “Star Trek” sequence filmed at Vasquez Rocks. It served because the planet Vulcan in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Residence,” and turned up within the “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” episode “Who Watched the Watchers?” (October 16, 1989). The Park was the taking pictures location for 2 episodes of “Star Trek: Voyager” (particularly “Initiations” and “Gravity”), and was the Xyrillian homeworld on the “Star Trek: Enterprise” episode “Sudden” (October 17, 2001). It was Vulcan once more within the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot movie, and its sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness.” Lastly, the character of Raffi (Michelle Hurd) was seen residing in a trailer at Vasquez Rocks in two episodes of “Star Trek: Picard.” That final occasion is the one time in “Star Trek” historical past that Vasquez Rocks performed itself.
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In fact, the affiliation with “Star Trek” has led to different movies and TV reveals to movie at Vasquez Rocks as a intelligent reference to the present. The Park was utilized in Peter Hewitt’s 1991 movie “Invoice & Ted’s Bogus Journey” after the movie particularly confirmed footage of the “Area” episode. Invoice (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have been thrown to their deaths (by evil robotic clones) off of a tall rock on the park. In Robert Meyer Burnett’s 1999 movie “Free Enterprise,” a movie about grownup Trekkies, the characters went to Vasquez Rocks to stage their very own mini sci-fi film.
In Kevin Smith’s 2001 movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Again,” the characters eat at a diner at Vasquez Rocks amusingly named the Area Diner. It was additionally utilized in episodes of “The Large Bang Principle” and “Monk” as a sci-fi adjoining location. By the Nineteen Nineties, everybody was conscious of Vasquez’s relationship to sci-fi.
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And naturally, the Rocks have been an alien homeworld within the “Star Trek” neighbor “Galaxy Quest.”
The proud Hollywood custom of simply filming out within the desert
In fact, Vasquez Rocks has served as a handy filming location for a century, including prompt manufacturing worth to any low-cost film or main studio venture. Tod Browning filmed a number of stagecoach scenes from his 1931 traditional “Dracula” at Vasquez Rocks, overlaying the sky with a formidable matte portray. The Tibetan mountains of “Werewolf of London” (1934) have been additionally performed by Vasquez Rocks. Heck, they have been even utilized in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 mega-production “The Ten Commandments.”
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The Rocks’ cinematic soul, nonetheless, rests with science fiction, each giant and small. Vasquez Rocks was featured within the Disney bomb “John Carter,” but additionally cheapo thrillers like “Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn,” “Parasite” (the one with Demi Moore), and 1982’s “Forbidden World.” It was a wasteland in “Hell Involves Frogtown” (the awesomely bizarre intercourse/frog movie with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper), and an alien contact level in “My Stepmother is an Alien.” The checklist goes on. The Rocks have been seen in obscurities like 1986’s “Wavelength” (which you have not seen), 1958’s “Missile to the Moon,” and, naturally, “Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers: The Film.”
And that is not even counting the handfuls and dozens of hit primetime sci-fi TV reveals that filmed there. Every part from “Alien Nation” and “Buck Rogers” to “Voyagers!” and “Westworld” additionally shot there. It was seen in episodes of each “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits.” Likelihood is, should you’ve seen an eerie alien rock outcropping, you’ve got seen the northern a part of L.A. County. Buffy, Lassie, the Hulk, Zorro, Shazam!, the A-Group, and Hunter all visited.
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Most not too long ago, the Rocks have been seen within the 2024 movie “Borderlands,” introduced with out irony. The bizarre rock outcroppings are nonetheless, to this present day, a handy-dandy alien world set.