Vasquez Rocks
Vasquez Rocks was a location on the planet Earth.

In 2399, Raffaela Musiker was living there when Jean-Luc Picard came to pay her a visit. ()

Appendices

Background information 
 
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a county park in Agua Dulce, California, roughly thirty miles north of Los Angeles. The area has been used in the filming of numerous Star Trek productions, including at least ten television episodes and two movies.

History 
 

Vasquez Rocks is named after notorious bandit , 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, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (the rocks were used for the location of the Power Rangers' Command Center, which was in fact the House of the Book at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute used for Camp Khitomer in ), 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 1991 science fiction comedy film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, 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  (in which it depicted the Shore Leave Planet along with ), spending two and half days on location, on Monday , Tuesday  and Wednesday . In the next month, another two Star Trek episodes were shot there, , spending two days at Vasquez, on Wednesday  and Thursday , and . The latter also spent two days filming on location, on Tuesday  and Wednesday . Star Trek returned to Vasquez for the second season, to film , which also spent two days on location, on Wednesday  and Thursday .

For , the destroyed colony at Cestus III was also filmed near Vasquez, at an outdoor fortress set, originally built by Screen Gems for the series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. Filming there took place on Friday .

Vasquez was seen again almost twenty years later in , when some of the  scenes were filmed there. Three years later, in , the  third season episode  was also located at Vasquez.  also filmed scenes at Vasquez, including the barren moon surface for  in  and the desert for  in . In late-, Vasquez portrayed the Xyrillian homeworld in the  first season episode .

In late-, director J.J. Abrams shot the  scenes of 's  at Vasquez Rocks as an homage to its use in previous Trek productions. 

In , Abrams filmed some scenes at Vasquez for . 

 also used Vasquez as a location, filming the exteriors of Raffi Musiker's home there for  and  in early-.  For the first time, the Vasquez Rocks were portrayed as themselves instead of as a stand-in for a different location.

Appearances in Star Trek
 (as the Shore Leave Planet)
 as (as the Metron planet)
 (as Lazarus' planet)
 (as Capella IV)

 (as Mintaka III)

 (as Tarok)
 (as Subspace sinkhole planet)

 (as Xyrillian homeworld)

 (as Vulcan)
 (as Vulcan)

 (as Vasquez Rocks, Earth)
 (as Vasquez Rocks, Earth)

Other related appearances
Spoofs

Free Enterprise
  (A diner in a scene filmed at the location was named "The Arena Diner", as an homage to the episode "Arena").

Brandeis-Bardin Institute's House of the Book, digitally edited atop, to create the Command Center/Power Chamber for the first five seasons of 
The Big Bang Theory, Episode "The Bakersfield Expedition".
, Episode "Mr. Monk and the UFO".
Franchise documentaries
Bring Back... Star Trek
How William Shatner Changed the World
Fan films
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men

External links

de:Vasquez Rocks
Earth geography