Vulcan ( planet ) Vulcan was an inhabited M - class planet in the Vulcan system , in the Alpha Quadrant . It had no moon s , but appeared to have close planetary companions . It was the homeworld of the Vulcan s , a warp - capable humanoid species . ( ; ; ; ; ; ) Vulcan was a founding member of both the Coalition of Planets in 2155 and the United Federation of Planets in 2161 . ( ) During the Dominion War of the late 24th century , Vulcan ' s strategic importance was on par with worlds like Andor , Berengaria VII , and Earth . ( ) Location . Vulcan was located " a little over " sixteen light year s from Earth , and was located near Andoria . ( ) In the 2270s , a heavy cruiser traveling at warp speed from Earth could reach Vulcan in four days . ( ) Planetary features . Vulcan had a considerably higher gravity , thinner atmosphere , and higher temperatures than Earth . Its climate was generally harsh , with most of the surface consisting of large desert s or mountain ranges , along with scattered small seas . Desert areas were prone to large amounts of heat , light , and electrical sandfire storm s . By the mid - 23rd century , the phrase " hot as Vulcan " had become part of the vernacular . When Doctor Leonard McCoy visited the planet in 2267 , he came to understand what the phrase meant . ( ; ) Vulcan was divided into provinces and districts . There were several tourist attractions on Vulcan , including active volcano es , ancient ruins , and lava field s . When Charles Tucker visited the planet in 2154 , he didn ' t know which site he would look at first . ( ; , " remastered " ) Other points of interest include religious sites such as the Temple of Amonak , the Temple of T ' Panit , and the T ' Karath Sanctuary . ( ; ; ) Vulcan had several wilderness preserve s . ( ) History . Vulcan ' s earliest contacts with alien beings did not become legends , like in Earth ' s history . They were known events , and according to Spock , the aliens left Vulcan much wiser . ( ) As early as the mid - 20th century , the planet Vulcan had contact with the Tellarite s and , covertly , with Human s . By the late 21st or early 22nd century , Vulcans had established contact with the Humans , Cardassian s , Klingon s , Tholian s , and Trill , among others . ( ; ) In 2152 , there were over a million physicians on Vulcan . ( ) During the 22nd century , the death penalty was still common practice in Vulcan courts for a small number of offenses , including treason . ( ) By the mid - 22nd century , Vulcan had a history of conflict with Andoria , controlled the Coridan government , and had exchanged ambassadors with Earth and Qo ' noS , among others . After the Babel Crisis , Vulcan became a founding member of the Coalition of Planets before co - founding the Federation in 2161 . ( ) In the mid - 2280s , this planet sent cargo containers to Regula . ( ) Tobin Dax met Iloja of Prim during the Cardassian ' s exile on Vulcan . ( ) In 2328 , Charles Brettner traveled to Vulcan from the Zed Lapis Sector Spaceport on the commercial transport . ( , " okudagram " ) As of late 2373 , on the eve of the Dominion War , Vulcan ' s strategic importance for the Federation was on par with worlds like Andor , Berengaria , and Earth . When Kai Winn rhetorically asked Captain Sisko whether he would promise to sacrifice those strategic planets in order to protect Bajor from the Jem ' Hadar , he denied this notion . ( ) During the early month s of the Dominion War , the Fifth Fleet was fighting the Dominion near Vulcan . ( ) In 2374 , Ishka was given special dispensation by Grand Nagus Zek to leave Ferenginar for Vulcan to have her ears raised . On her way back , she was captured by the Dominion . ( ) Later that same year , Betazed fell to the Dominion , and Major Kira noted that they were now in a position to threaten Vulcan . Shortly thereafter , Kira confirmed that the Dominion had been building up their forces on Betazed and that they would be able to launch an attack on Vulcan . ( ) In 2375 , Julian Bashir complained to Miles O ' Brien about his efforts to infiltrate Section 31 , comparing them to " " chasing phantoms from here ( Deep Space 9 ) to Vulcan . " " ( ) Mirror universe . In the mirror universe , Vulcan was a dominion of the Terran Empire by 2256 , when Terran emperor held the title Overlord of Vulcan . ( ) Alternate reality . In the alternate reality created by Nero ' s temporal incursion , the planet Vulcan was destroyed by the " Narada " in 2258 , rendering the Vulcan race an " endangered species . " ( ) Appendices . Background information . Establishing Vulcan . Spock ' s homeworld was originally to have been Mars . At a time when Vulcans were known as Vulcanians , their home planet was to have been named Vulcanis . ( ) This name was in fact used in an NBC promotional booklet announcing the first season of , the / season . The name was also used during early production of that first season but was changed to " Vulcan " soon thereafter . ( " Amok Time " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) The planet was referred to with that name in the final draft script of ( dated ) , in which Kirk admitted to having been on Vulcan ( though he didn ' t go into any further detail about the planet ) . In " Star Trek " fandom , intense curiosity about what Vulcan would be like developed during the first season of TOS . Rumors that the planet would feature in an episode of the series ' second season leaked to the fans while the first season ' s episodes were being rerun . That episode turned out to be . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 3rd ed . , p . 74 ) The excitement to discover how Vulcan would look enveloped not only fandom but also actor Leonard Nimoy , who was consequently eager to begin work on the episode . " " He was really anxious to see what the writer , director and [ production designer ] Matt Jefferies had come up with in the way of a look for Spock ' s home planet , " " wrote William Shatner . ( " Star Trek Memories " , ed . , p . 133 ) During the writing of " Amok Time " , NBC executive Stan Robertson decided he wanted more of the planet Vulcan to be demonstrated than was depicted in the episode ' s original story outline . A memo he wrote about his reactions to that story treatment thus included the statement , " " The planet Vulcan [ . . . ] [ has ] been built as such a mystery throughout our series that unless we establish more of the planet than is outlined here [ . . . ] we will indeed be ' cheating ' our viewers . " " ( " " , ) Some fans expected " Amok Time " to begin on the planet . Some viewers wanted it to feature a Vulcan city portrayed with new sets and matte painting s . However , these expectations were mostly unrealized , one example being that the episode instead begins aboard the . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 3rd ed . , p . 74 ) Also , the prospect of constructing a high - tech , sprawling city was actually not financially viable for the series , simply being too costly to be practical . ( " Amok Time " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) D . C . Fontana , who contributed to the writing of " Amok Time " , remembered , " " We realized we couldn ' t show a lot of Vulcan ; one of the stipulations for the script was that it be in a relatively tight area , so that we just get a flavor , a feeling . " " ( ) Although the first appearance of Vulcan in " Amok Time " is a view of the planet as seen from orbit , the planet is excluded from the equivalent version of the scene in the episode ' s revised final draft script , which instead details two consecutive flybys of the " Enterprise " alone . The script continues with a turbolift scene in which scripted dialogue concerning the planet was ultimately eliminated from the episode , including Spock implying to Kirk that – due to his biology – he can instinctively sense when he is nearing Vulcan . In the first scripted description of an orbital view of the planet , Vulcan is characterized as " a ' hot ' planet . . . yellow , orange . . . no cool colors about it . " Depictions of Vulcan as seen from orbit in the original version of " Amok Time " featured a reuse of a globe that was often used to represent class M planets but was also frequently reused as various other planets – in which case , it was tinted in a variety of hues , either by an optical printer or by a color timer . The globe ' s reuses included Deneva in and Gamma Canaris N in . The remastered edition of " Amok Time " replaced this oft - reused globe with computer - generated shots of Vulcan . In both versions of " Amok Time " , the surface of Vulcan is introduced with a view of a desert area . The episode ' s script states , " " This area of Vulcan is a landscape of drifting sand stretching away to a distant saw - toothed line of mountains jutting up at the edge of the far horizon . " " Views of Vulcan ceremonial grounds in the original version of " Amok Time " took their cue from writer Theodore Sturgeon imagining Vulcan culture as highly advanced but with an evolved appreciation for craftsmanship as opposed to high technology . The Vulcan setting was therefore devised as a primitive - looking area resembling Stonehenge , with numerous handmade artifacts ( such as gongs , bells , and wind chimes ) . Sturgeon ' s method of realizing Vulcan was not only planned to be cost - effective but also emphasized the otherworldliness of the planet . ( " Amok Time " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) The script details the ceremonial site as , " " A fairly level arena area . Rocks around the edges give a half - natural , half - artifact aspect , as if the wind or rain had curved something like a Stonehenge , or reduced a Stonehenge to something like this . Within this rock area is a Vulcan - made ' open temple . ' In history , perhaps it was once a shrine . There are two high arches of stone , a level stone floor an open fire - pit toward the ' rear ' as we look at it . IMPORTANT : Several huge jade - like ' wind chimes ' hang in view . . . and as the hot breeze stirs the green , hanging rock together , we HEAR strange musical notes . " " In scripted dialogue that was not incorporated into either televised version of the episode , the arena is described by Spock as his family ' s " place for mating . " Theodore Sturgeon ' s approach to representing Vulcan inspired Matt Jefferies to contribute such embellishments as patches of glistening sand on the ground . Though the setting of the Vulcan temple was much cheaper to show on - screen than a city would have been , it was still considerably expensive , owing in no small part to the fact that most of the rocks and other structures of the " faux " landscape had to be fabricated from scratch ; few of them could be reused from other planet sets . All of the episode ' s Vulcan set was built on Paramount Stage 32 , which incorporated deep red stage lighting to emulate Vulcan ' s sky . ( " Amok Time " text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) Unfortunately , the extensive use of the set to depict Vulcan was extremely evident , even to the extent that overhead spotlights illuminating the area were accidentally shown . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 3rd ed . , p . 75 ) Despite the limitedness of how the episode portrayed the planet , Vulcan turned out to be a more peculiar place than most people had expected . ( ) The Vulcan surface was made to look more extensive in the remastered edition of " Amok Time " . Its depiction was inspired by TOS - R Visual Effects Producer Dave Rossi , who was working on the breakdown of " Amok Time " ' s visual effects shots while touting the remastered series at a " Star Trek " convention in Chicago . " " I soon realized that the number of times we see the red sky behind the actors was going to make it impossible to treat it in any way . I hated that thing . No background of Vulcan , no definition , just a red curtain , " " he remarked . " " As I was flying back to Los Angeles , it dawned on me that maybe the reason we only see red sky is because the ancient ceremonial grounds were high up in the sky , like on a mountain . I had a friend sketch the idea that this arena of rock had two natural stone bridges that connected it to mountain chains on each side . " " ( " " , issue 86 , p . 16 ) The new CGI shots of the planet also included a city shown from a distance . The background , encompassing the city , was a painting , whereas the foreground was done by Max Gabl as a three - dimensional render and painted over . ( To view a representation of how Max Gabl created this view of Vulcan , see this video . ) Coincidentally , at around the same time " Star Trek " was establishing Vulcan in late 1966 , the British series " Doctor Who " featured a story arc , entitled " The Power of the Daleks " , which featured a planet named as a setting . Vulcan ' s characteristics of a higher gravity but thinner atmosphere than Earth were inspired by the fact that Spock was already established as having both greater strength and keener hearing than a typical Human . ( " Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before " , p . 35 ) News that a second " Star Trek " episode would feature Vulcan was announced at a convention wherein " Amok Time " was first shown to fans . Most of the fans in attendance reckoned that the story would be set mostly at Spock ' s family abode on Vulcan . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 3rd ed . , p . 88 ) Indeed , the planet ' s surface was originally intended to make a reappearance in that second installment , D . C . Fontana ' s ; for the first time , a city on the planet was planned to be shown . The creation of a matte painting was considered to be prohibitively costly , however . ( " Babel " # 5 ; " Enterprise Incidents " , number 11 , p . 26 ) The planet ' s surface consequently appears in only one installment of TOS : " Amok Time " . In the filming script of " Journey to Babel " , Vulcan is described as a " hot yellow - orange planet " . However , in the episode ' s final version , the planet has a deep red tint . Initial reappearances . Vulcan was intended to serve as the primary location of an ultimately undeveloped " Star Trek " series that would have been centered around Spock and was , shortly after the cancellation of the original " Star Trek " series , proposed to Gene Roddenberry by Paramount . ( " " , p . 18 ) Having found the task of bringing the planet to the screen in TOS to have been fraught with difficulties , D . C . Fontana realized a promising means of showing more of the planet . " " Any story on Vulcan that came up on the original show faced two problems , " " she rationalized . " " First , all available outdoor location sites looked like Earth – Southern California , to be exact . Second , sets built on the stage suffered from the slightly artificial look all such sets suffer – and we could only afford one major set of this kind . Thus , scope was also limited . Animation , however , would allow us to show the planet Vulcan any way I saw fit . Although it had been established in ' Amok Time ' that most of the planet was desert , I wanted to depict other aspects of Vulcan . " " Thus , the episode , from , establishes such expansive sites as ShiKahr , which Fontana characterized as " the foremost city of Vulcan . " ( " Babel " # 5 ; " Enterprise Incidents " number 11 , p . 26 ) When Vulcan is first shown in " Yesteryear " , the script describes the planet as having a cloudless , " orangy red " sky , and implies that the lack of clouds is due to the thinness of Vulcan ' s atmosphere , though what is actually shown in the episode is more of a yellowish brown sky , with many clouds . The script also states that some flowers were imported to Vulcan from other planets , instructs that dust demon s were to have been shown , and comments , " " While Vulcan is an old planet , its thin atmosphere keeps erosion to a minimum . " " A reference to a " family shrine " in " Yesteryear " , regarding an area associated with Sarek and Spock ' s relatives , was meant as an allusion to the Vulcan ceremonial grounds shown in " Amok Time " , but this wasn ' t established on - screen . ( " Babel " # 5 ; " Enterprise Incidents " , number 11 , p . 27 ) In retrospect , D . C . Fontana speculated , " " Vulcan could probably have been visualized both with locations and on stages [ in ' Yesteryear ' ] . " " ( ) However , she ultimately found the use of animation to have been " the ideal way " to show such things as the planet . ( ) " Yesteryear " ' s rare views of Vulcan were also welcomed by the fans . ( ) In fact , the episode ' s depiction of Vulcan was of such a scale that later productions , even the and spin - off television series with their higher budgets , had difficulty measuring up to it , using location filming and matte paintings . ( " Yesteryear " text commentary ) First film portrayal . Writing the planet into the film . Vulcan was intended to be included in the first " Star Trek " film ( which eventually became ' s ) ever since Gene Roddenberry wrote a treatment entitled " The God Thing " and submitted it to Paramount in . In that story , Vulcan featured in a limited fashion , with the " Enterprise " simply taking Spock aboard from the planet . ( " Lost Voyages of Trek and The Next Generation " , p . 9 ) Vulcan played a much more central role in another treatment , written later that year by Jon Povill . This treatment involved an ancient psychic cloud – designed on Vulcan as a weapon to elicit discord amidst an opposing army and released from the planet during its final war , centuries ago – causing the Vulcans who now resided on their homeworld to revert to the aggressive moods and other negative emotions of their ancient ancestors , and the Vulcan population consequently choosing to break the planet away from the Federation . The " Enterprise " traveled back in time to Vulcan ' s violent past , obtained the psychic generator from a secret compound near the planet ' s southern pole and returned to Vulcan ' s present , moments before an all - out war was initiated between Starfleet and the Vulcans , in orbit of the planet . An emotionally positive - charged psychic cloud from the generator aboard the ship prevented the war and Kirk theorized the second cloud had been responsible for the historical change in temperament on Vulcan , though Spock explained that this was not the case . ( " Lost Voyages of Trek and The Next Generation " , pp . 11 - 14 ) Later drafts involved the planet Vulcan to a significantly lesser degree . A third treatment penned in 1975 , this time by Gene Roddenberry and Jon Povill , was set in an alternate timeline wherein not only did the " Enterprise " transfer Spock on board from the planet but also no contact between Vulcan and Earth had ever been made . ( " Lost Voyages of Trek and The Next Generation " , p . 15 ) One seemingly common factor within these early film scripts was that Vulcan was the place from where Spock was brought aboard the " Enterprise " ; another of the screenplays to feature the planet in this way was " " . ( " " , p . 32 ) Since the character of Spock had to be written out of " Star Trek " for " " ( due to Leonard Nimoy ' s unwillingness to participate in that ultimately abandoned series ) , the series ' " bible " – the writers / directors guide for " Phase II " – stated that Spock had returned to Vulcan , more - or - less permanently . ( " " , p . 84 ) The planet was absent from " In Thy Image " , the story that was intended to serve as " Phase II " s pilot episode but eventually developed into " The Motion Picture " . ( " " ) In a meeting that convinced Nimoy to participate in the movie , however , Gene Roddenberry informed him of having had the idea of depicting the Vulcan setting much as it is shown in the film , with Spock having returned there since the ending of the original series . ( " Star Trek Movie Memories " , p . 70 ) Nimoy , when later interviewed about why he had been the last of the regular cast to sign on to the film , jokingly blamed his late response on the slowness of " the mail service between Earth and Vulcan . " ( " I Am Spock " , hardback ed . , p . 166 ) Eventually , he also convinced " The Motion Picture " s screenplay writer , Harold Livingston , that incorporating the Vulcan setting into the film was a good idea . ( ) Physical appearance in first film . In the shooting script of " The Motion Picture " , the scenes on Vulcan are said to be set during daytime , yet the theatrical cut of the film consistently shows the planet with black , starry skies . As scripted , the planet was to have been introduced with the camera moving through thick , steamy clouds before the planet ' s surface would have been shown . The script details the mountainous Vulcan landscape as having " harsh , strange angular peaks and rock formations , " and the planet itself as being " barren " as well as " legendary " . Although the film itself shows Spock moving between two different areas , this does not happen in the shooting script , which instead describes only one location ; Spock was to have been located atop a stone platform or ledge amid ruins , " facing a semi - circle of three similar platforms " ( for the trio of Vulcan masters ) , with " gigantic ancient Vulcan statues and ruins " in the background . During the months of pre - production on " The Motion Picture " , director Robert Wise and production illustrator Maurice Zuberano – interested in finding a location to represent Vulcan – searched through numerous books depicting distant natural wonders and / or ruins , at sites such as Afghanistan , Tibet , and Turkey . Ancient temple ruins in a remote area of Turkey were at one time seriously considered for use as Vulcan . A venture to such exotic locales was considered to be too expensive , though , so this idea was scrapped . ( " " , p . 172 ) The presentation of Vulcan in the theatrical cut of " The Motion Picture " involved matte paintings done by Matthew Yuricich . " " He had almost no time to do them , so he was never quite happy with them , " " noted Robert Wise . ( audio commentary , " " ) The Vulcan settings were also included in storyboards and , prior to the planet ' s sky being depicted as black with stars , an early matte painting ( worked on by Yuricich ) showed the planet with its more typical golden sky , an illustration that was abandoned in 1979 . Producer David C . Fein later reasoned , " " As far as we can tell , they went for a darker environment because it helped to hide the fact that the Vulcan elders were actually speaking English and not Vulcan . " " ( , pp . 25 & 26 ) Visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman suspected that the replacement of the sky from orange to starry black implies that the film ' s original production staff must have had a problem with integrating the early matte painting with live action footage that was used to represent parts of the Vulcan landscape . ( ) Two matte paintings represent Vulcan in the theatrical cut . The first of these illustrations includes a tiny portion of footage of Spock , which was filmed in one of Yellowstone National Park ' s geyser fields . ( audio commentary , " " ) This was at Minerva Hot Springs in the northwest corner of Yellowstone , which had been chosen instead of a location further afield . ( " " , p . 172 ) The area was scouted by Maurice Zuberano and Photographic Effects Project Manager John James . They took photographs of Minerva Hot Springs from every possible angle and successfully negotiated for the Park Department ' s permission to shoot the Vulcan scenes there , even though it was at the height of the summer tourist season . To limit the danger of the production crew affecting the delicate geological formations in the area , crew setups were at first confined to the park ' s boardwalks , though the Park Department later constructed an additional platform to specifications from the film ' s art department . The photographs taken at the location had clearly shown that only one angle was suitable for the filming . Michael Minor also quickly journeyed to the area , after which he started design work on the Vulcan scenes , creating a large painting of how the planet might appear in the film . On , Minor returned to Yellowstone – intending to help capture the location footage – along with ten other individuals , including Leonard Nimoy , Matthew Yuricich , John James , second unit cameraman Jim Lyles , and location special effects coordinator Joe Viskocil . The location shoot lasted three days . ( " " , p . 173 ) Ultimately , Robert Wise was of the opinion that , in this first wide shot of the planet , Spock was hard to identify amid the vast Vulcan surroundings , and both Wise and Gene Roddenberry felt there wasn ' t a strong enough link between " V ' ger " , which appears in the shot immediately before the Vulcan scene , and Spock . ( audio commentary , " " ) The second matte painting includes a red statue that is shown from waist height and a full view of another statue that is shown from its right side . A flight of stairs in this shot was actually a small , three - piece model created by Mike Minor and production designer Harold Michelson . This miniature was two foot deep by six foot wide and consisted of two - by - two - foot modules bolted together . ( " " , p . 173 ) The second matte painting does not completely correlate with a live - action close - up shot that precedes it ; although the close - up shows Spock shielding his face from the sun with his left hand , there is no sun in the painting ( which , on the contrary , shows very little sky ) . The mismatch between these two shots meant that , for some viewers , determining what the wide view was meant to portray was somewhat problematic . ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) Daren Dochterman opined , " " It ' s really confusing as to what you ' re actually looking at . " " ( ) Doug Drexler concurred , " " I don ' t know about you , but when I saw that sequence in the film , I couldn ' t make head nor tail of what I was looking at . " " The close - ups in this Vulcan sequence were shot on the Paramount lot , in what is known as the " B Tank " . By the time the production crew filmed in this area , the location filming in Yellowstone had been completed ; the art department were initially faced with the task of somehow recreating that setting on the studio lot . A similar requirement , once the B Tank was selected as the filming site , was that the proper angle for constructing the set had to be decided , as the sun had been shining on Leonard Nimoy ' s face at the location . About a month prior to the start of construction in the B Tank , Mike Minor determined the final position for the set , extrapolating where the sun would be , using one of numerous quarter - inch mock - ups that the set designers had of the Vulcan scenery , a miniature that Minor took to the B Tank . Working from the set designer ' s plans , metal platforms and an upper plywood base were built , giving the general impression of the rocks . Chicken wire was added for support before the framework was blown over with a polyurethane foam coating , which was subsequently left to dry and then painted to match the Yellowstone version . ( " " , pp . 176 - 177 ) Special effects supervisor Alex Weldon was charged with devising a way to realistically recreate the look of pools of steaming milky water that had been at the location . He concocted similar liquid with evaporated milk and white poster paint , mixed with water and poured into the set ' s pools . Steam bubbling to the top was created with dry ice and steam machines , passed into the water via hidden tubing . ( " " , p . 165 ) Although the filmmakers had at their disposal a large backdrop that was painted like the sky , they decided not to use it for the Vulcan scene . They opted to position a giant red boot in the B Tank , however , which matched the red statue ' s full - size leg in the second matte painting . ( audio commentary , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " ) The boot was sixteen feet high and made from Fiberglas . ( " " , p . 177 ) The total cost of constructing this planet Vulcan set was US $ 42 , 000 . ( " " , p . 95 ) ( Additional images of the B Tank in its Vulcan configuration can be seen . ) Revision for " Director ' s Edition " . Foundation Imaging , under Robert Wise ' s supervision , revised the two matte paintings for DVD of " The Motion Picture " . Wise recalled , " " We started from scratch , took a look at what was already established about Vulcan from the original show . " " ( audio commentary , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " ) Continued Daren Dochterman , " " We went back and saw the original storyboards , and they seemed to work well with the footage that had already been shot . " " ( ) Both of the newly created matte shots were consequently based on the storyboards whose envisions of the Vulcan landscape had been discarded from the film ' s theatrical cut . ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ; ) Foundation also incorporated the live - action plate photography that had originally been filmed for " The Motion Picture " , combining it with their digital matte work , and colorized the Vulcan skies almost consistently orange . ( audio commentary , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " ) In this way , the revised matte paintings were designed to more closely resemble the planet ' s surface as depicted in . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) Sherry Hitch , from Foundation Imaging , commented , " " We blended a lot of elements , Dave [ Morton ] and I . He did . . . I ' d say , ninety percent of the work , though . " " The entirety of the Vulcan settings was created in three - dimensional digital imaging , which enabled Morton and Hitch to tweak the elements of the newly visualized scenery . ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) Adding a tilt from the Vulcan sky to Spock ' s position in the new version of the first matte painting made the character more noticeable and strengthened the sense of connection between him and " V ' ger " , visually shifting from the cloud ' s position to the Vulcan landscape where Spock was . ( audio commentary , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " ) The pan down from the sky also involved the sky ' s color brightening from the black of open space to the orange of the Vulcan sky as seen from the surface . For the second new matte shot , the restorers not only added the Vulcan sun but also chose to cluster the area with Vulcan artifacts , incorporating an ancient Vulcan temple into the shot and redoing the statues . All of these elements were planned for in the earlier storyboards used by the team . Even though a test version of the second digital matte painting included a pair of newly envisioned statues ( their quantity matching those in the theatrical cut ) , two more statues were added for the final shot , as was a Vulcan lirpa , held by one of the two preexisting statues . ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) For this sequence , a total of six statues were designed by Doug Drexler , who was thrilled that Daren Dochterman invited him to participate . The quantity of Drexler ' s statues matched the number of sides to stones on the Vulcan ground , which can be seen in the close - up shots . Drexler also incorporated the same six - sided shapes into the costumes on some of his statues . ( Concept sketches of the statues can be viewed . ) As Doug Drexler and Daren Dochterman were among those who had found it difficult to make out what the original second matte painting was meant to show , they were both satisfied with the revision . ( ; " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) Indeed , Dochterman was highly pleased with the modified view , calling the new orange sky " beautiful " and the new statues " gorgeous . " ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) He also termed the general landscape " really beautiful " and concluded , " " It turned out really nicely . " " ( ) Robert Wise enthused , " " We have a much more dramatic sense of the Vulcan landscape with these giant ancient statues all around . " " ( audio commentary , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " ) Regarding the Vulcan scenery as depicted in the pair of newly created shots , Sherry Hitch remarked , " " It ' s awesome . " " ( " Re - Directing The Future " , " Star Trek : The Motion Picture ( The Director ' s Edition ) " special features ) Appearances in later films . An initial story outline for " Star Trek III " featured the " Enterprise " paying an early visit to Vulcan , prior to heading to Earth . This trip to the planet , taken so that McCoy could have a restful leave of absence on Vulcan , was against orders , as many of the planet ' s citizens were dissatisfied with the Federation having such a powerful weapon as the Genesis Device . The scene and much of the related material , which were ultimately deemed unnecessary , were removed from the story by Harve Bennett , who had originally written the outline and went on to write the film ' s script . Although the planet appears in the film ' s conclusion , the outline did not feature Vulcan reappearing and instead ended in orbit of Earth . ( , pp . 29 - 30 & 31 ; " " , pp . 82 & 84 ) " Star Trek III " required not only Vulcan but also , in the words of Harve Bennett , " the size thereof . " ( audio commentary , DVD / ) Thus , the film ' s director of photography , Charles Correll , argued in favor of shooting the movie ' s Vulcan scenes in , wishing to avoid a " phony " look . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 17 , No . 3 / 4 , p . 84 ; " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 57 ) Believing that the events on Vulcan at the end of the film were very important , Leonard Nimoy – who not only played Spock in " Star Trek III " but also served as the movie ' s director – wanted the planet to be shown with big sets . Nimoy was pleased with the opportunity to depict the planet on such a grand scale . " " To the director , the delight of the visuals of the Vulcan scene , especially by a Vulcan director , " " Harve Bennett commented with a laugh , indirectly referring to Nimoy ' s double duty in the movie , " " to show his homeland and its culture in such rich detail , [ was ] marvelous . " " ( audio commentary , " " / " " DVD ) Concept paintings of Vulcan were created for the film by Industrial Light & Magic , some of which featured primarily blue versions of planetary scenes . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , pp . 224 & 225 ) Charles Correll aimed to colorize Vulcan with deep oranges , however . " " We wanted the planet to look like it was always sunrise , " " he stated . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 17 , No . 3 / 4 , p . 84 ; " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 57 ) Vulcan ' s appearance in " Star Trek III " incorporated several matte paintings provided by ILM . Both that effects house and the film ' s art department worked on the designs for Vulcan . ( , pp . 27 & 51 ) As such , Tom Lay – one of the production illustrators assigned the task of collaborating with ILM – worked closely with the group on the Vulcan sequence . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 53 ) A backing which Tom Lay created for " Star Trek III " and which showed Vulcan mountains as viewed from Mount Seleya ended up being used as the planet surface elsewhere in the film , apparently in an initial panning shot of Vulcan . " " They put some smoke and lighting and we got a mood piece out of it , " " said Lay . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 17 , No . 3 / 4 , p . 68 ) The same shot incorporated some other elements . ILM ' s Kenneth Ralston , the film ' s visual effects supervisor , explained , " " We have some foreground pieces that we shot separately , which pass in front of the camera to give just a slight multiplane effect and a little more depth . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 67 ) The collaboration between ILM and the art department at Paramount was not an easy one , with the responsibilities of each team occasionally being unclear , such as who should deal with depicting the Vulcan landing area for the film ' s Klingon Bird - of - Prey . ( , pp . 27 , 54 & 51 ) This landing site was ultimately filmed on location at Occidental College in Los Angeles , where a facade was erected on the steps of the school . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 17 , No . 3 / 4 , p . 84 ) Ken Ralston noted , " " It was simpler than trying to build something , especially with their tight budget . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 67 ) The location shoot was over a stretch of two days . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) However , the Vulcan scene had to be filmed at night , which meant that lighting the location was not simple . Charles Correll explained , " " In order to accommodate the ILM plates and opticals , it required a tremendous amount of exposure . So , we had to send away . There was one light that they were using in England at the time – a cinematographer by the name of David Watkin had built this huge light for night exteriors – and we actually had to emulate that and build our own . And it was this huge light . It was called the Wendy Light , and we had to put it up with a construction crane . " " ( audio commentary , " " / " " DVD ) Ralston said of the location footage , " " We shot it around two in the morning ; and being a latent image shot , everything had to be done in the camera , so we had to be very careful about what we were doing . It took forever to set it up . " " After the filming at Occidental College , smoke was super - imposed into the latent image shot . ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 67 ) Some of the film ' s scenes had to be trimmed or outright deleted , the majority of which took place on Vulcan . ( ) The sequences that involved the planet but were not used were mostly based around a Vulcan procession moving Spock ' s unconscious body from the landing area to the top of Mount Seleya , such as in a never - filmed barge scene for which ILM art director David Carson created a conceptual illustration . He remarked , " " We wrestled quite a bit with trying to come up with an impressive number of environments that you pass through that could be constructed for a reasonable budget , and ultimately we failed ! [ . . . ] I did this great drawing – it ' s a bunch of people on a submerged river , poling along on this barge . I knew as I was drawing it there was no chance . When Harve and Leonard [ Nimoy ] looked at it , they said , ' Yeah , that would really be great but there ' s no way . " " Another Vulcan setting that was designed for " Star Trek III " but never shown in the film was the Hall of Ancient Thought . ( ) Ultimately , Ken Ralston was highly pleased with " Star Trek III " s portrayal of Vulcan . " " It had an interesting look to it , " " he observed . " " It ' s not reality " per se " , because the situation is so fantastic , and the layout of the place is almost dreamlike . But the continuity of the sets and the effects and the color work very well together – it fools you into believing it ' s much more real than it would have been if they had shot it in the Mojave Desert and then we ' d have cut to a painting with a whole different set of values [ . . . ] The matte guys did some fabulous stuff here . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 67 ) Following a shot of Mount Seleya that was actually a reused matte painting from the previous film , " Star Trek IV " s depiction of Vulcan continues by incorporating some shots of and around the landed Bird - of - Prey , the . Live - action footage involving the base of the ship was filmed outside , in a Paramount parking lot . ( " Cinefex " , No . 29 , p . 6 ) Recalled Leonard Nimoy ( who returned as director for " Star Trek IV " ) , " " We searched high and low for a location for this sequence [ . . . ] We looked at various canyons , we looked at desert . And there were always problems . Either the look wasn ' t right , or it was too far out of town or whatever . And we ended up shooting it on the Paramount lot . And the set construction people and design people did a great job of camouflaging whatever we didn ' t want to see . They did it with smoke or a piece of a set , or a flat or some painted canvas or something to hide the background , to hide the buildings that [ were ] within thirty feet of us . " " ( audio commentary , " " / " " DVD ) To represent the surface of Vulcan , tons of reddish dirt and sand were brought in to this area of the lot . Writer Howard Weinstein , who was visiting the set when these live - action components were in place , later remembered , " " I half - kiddingly contemplated scooping up some red dirt and taking it home to package and sell at conventions as ' Real Vulcan Sand . " " ( ) As well as incorporating live - action plates , the footage of Vulcan showing the grounded Bird - of - Prey was largely a matte painting by Matte Artist Frank Ordaz . ( " Cinefex " , No . 29 , p . 9 ) A shot of Spock looking down towards camera from atop a rocky cliff was shot on location at Vasquez Rocks . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) As the director of as well as a co - writer of that film ' s story , William Shatner originally envisioned the setting of the movie ' s illusory cave sequence to be in a dark cave where the mysterious birth rites of Vulcans took place , concealed from the outside world . This cave was built as part of the set for the film ' s forward observation room . ( " " , pp . 159 & 157 ) Spin - off appearances . In common with , the episodes from that featured Vulcan mostly showed only views of the planet from orbit , excluding Vulcan ' s surface from reappearing . Two such shots of Vulcan are shown in , whose script described the planet as " red / brown . " However , the same teleplay gave no indication that the planet was to be seen in any more than one shot . The second of the three TNG installments that feature Vulcan , , was the first time a room on the planet was shown without the exterior of the planet ' s surface being depicted too . Due to the premise of , Vulcan couldn ' t periodically be shown as a setting in that series . ( " " , p . 164 ) For Vulcan ' s appearance in the " Voyager " episode , stock footage from was used . ( " " , p . 77 ) In an early version of DS9 Season 4 two - parter and , Vulcan seceded from the Federation , as the Vulcans objected to the Federation becoming increasingly security concerned about the danger of Founder infiltration . Also in the story , the Federation , due to the Vulcan breakaway , developed a suspicion ( ultimately proved wrong ) that there were Founders on Vulcan . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 112 ) At the start of , Rick Berman and Brannon Braga established that Vulcan had an antagonistic relationship with Earth . This idea extremely appealed to married writing couple Garfield and Judith Reeves - Stevens . ( " " , issue 55 , p . 15 ) The first draft script of established that the name " Vulcan " was a non - indigenous name for the planet , having been invented by Humans , and that the Vulcans called it something else , though precisely what wasn ' t revealed in the script . Vulcan was mentioned in the final draft script of but not in that episode ' s final edit . In the script , T ' Pol referred to herself as a citizen of the planet , as part of some ultimately omitted dialogue between herself and Colonel Grat . Vulcan was also mentioned in a deleted scene from ENT Season 3 offering , in which T ' Pol told Pri ' Nam D ' Jamat and two other Triannon s about the planet ' s violent past . ( ENT Season 3 DVD & Blu - ray special features ) Production illustrator John Eaves was generally impressed with how Vulcan was portrayed on " Star Trek : Enterprise " . " " The show did do a lot at defining Vulcan , " " he remarked , " " and it was disturbingly shaky when the series started but was hitting some level and familiar ground by season 4 [ . . . ] I loved that the show spent so much time with defining Vulcan in so many ways . " " Accounting for the decision to show Vulcan in the fourth season of " Enterprise " , Executive Producer Manny Coto noted , " " If you really look at the " Star Trek " universe we ' ve spent very little time there . " " ( ) In the final draft script of , a city on the surface of Vulcan was described as " " our first - ever look at a Vulcan metropolis . Adobe - type dwellings line the outskirts of the city . . . taller , spire - like modern structures dominate the center . " " Much of the Vulcan vistas in " Enterprise " s fourth season were designed by John Eaves , who later reminisced , " " This was just about the end of designing new architecture for the hot planet , but it was quite a treat to get to dive into such an awesome world of drawings and concepts . " " For the episode " Home " , Eaves created at least three designs for the home of T ' Les . The designs for the area reflected the fact that the character was intended to be a high - ranking but somewhat rebellious woman . " " So her immaculate home is rural as opposed to in the high society of downtown amongst the powerful , " " remarked Eaves . He originally drew inspiration from the visual appearance of P ' Jem , as seen in the season 2 episode . However , alterations were made to the concept of T ' Les ' home as it developed through the approval process . An extended scene from " Home " ( included in the ENT Season 4 Blu - ray ) was set on Vulcan , in T ' Les ' residence . Whereas Vulcan had never before appeared in two or more consecutive episodes of any " Star Trek " TV series , the planet appeared extensively in a Vulcan trilogy during ENT Season 4 , which consisted of the episodes , , and . " " You were now spending more time on Vulcan , " " commented Mike Sussman . This was only possible due to the fourth season writing staff knowing , ahead of time , how they wanted to depict the planet . " " You could say , ' I ' m gonna build this gigantic Vulcan set . We can ' t afford it for " one " episode , but if you amortize it over three , we can afford it , " " explained Manny Coto . ( " Before Her Time : Decommissioning " Enterprise " , Part Two : Memorable Voyages " , ENT Season 4 Blu - ray special features ) When the story for " The Forge " was first thought up , Judith and Garfield Reeves - Stevens wrote the area of Vulcan where Archer and T ' Pol met Syrran as simply " somewhere off in the wild on Vulcan " ; it was only later that the specific areas of the planet which are used in the story were named . ( " " , issue 55 , p . 16 ) Although other parts of Vulcan were named , the first shot of the planet ' s surface in " The Forge " was scripted to show simply an unnamed " Vulcan desert " . Even then , the notion was still to feature the planet on a grand scale , with a scripted scene description of the vista instructing it was to consist of " " An epic expanse of red sand . . . ancient ruins of enormous statues . . . " " Later in the script , this area was differentiated from Gateway , and Vulcan was described as having a " blast - furnace desert heat " . Whereas an establishing orbital shot of Vulcan is shown at the start of the episode ' s third act , the script did not feature that shot . Making Vulcan an alien environment was important to the Reeves - Stevenses . " " We thought it has become a little too cosy . People had forgotten that Vulcan was an alien world , " " Garfield Reeves - Stevens explained . " " They didn ' t really know much about it so we were excited because we wanted to bring the feeling back that it wasn ' t something familiar . " " ( " " , issue 55 , p . 16 ) Added Judith Reeves - Stevens , " " We were so thrilled that it was ours that we were able to do it in because [ . . . ] now , we were able to show one of the worlds , and that world became a character , and we were about to become involved with Vulcan and to remind everybody again that it is an alien world . " " ( audio commentary , ENT Season 4 Blu - ray ) The episode " Home " and the Vulcan trilogy were the first live - action productions to show a city on Vulcan ( coming even before the digital view of a Vulcan city in the remastered " Amok Time " ) . Views of the city that appears in " The Forge " ( which was intended to be ShiKahr , the same city as had appeared in ) were designed by John Eaves and modeled in CGI by Eden FX . For " Enterprise " s Vulcan trilogy , some location footage was used , filmed in Simi Valley . ( text commentary , ENT Season 4 DVD and Blu - ray ) However , the blue skies of Earth had to be digitally color - corrected to become pale pinkish hues so as to represent the skies of Vulcan . Stated Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Curry , " " Because [ the actors ] were against a very bald sky when we shot on location it made it a little easier to do sky replacement . Sometimes that was done in the edit bay and we had done a sample of sky gradient keeping the color scheme in homage to the Vulcan scenes in the original series motion pictures , and we tried to be true to that . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 37 , No . 2 , pp . 36 & 37 ) Statues that appear on Vulcan in the first shot from the teaser of " The Forge " were based on computer - generated views of Vulcan in the director ' s edition of " Star Trek : The Motion Picture " and the episode " Home " . ( " The Forge " text commentary , ENT Season 4 DVD & Blu - ray ) While writing " The Forge " , Judith and Garfield Reeves - Stevens imagined there had been a nuclear war on Vulcan about two thousand years beforehand . They intended for the surface of Vulcan to be shown as featuring fields of green glass , left over from nuclear explosions detonated during the war . ( " " , issue 55 , p . 15 ) However , this concept was disallowed , which disappointed Judith Reeves - Stevens . ( " The Forge " audio commentary , ENT Season 4 Blu - ray ) In the script of " Kir ' Shara " , the first view of Vulcan ' s surface in that episode was described thus ; " " A network of ravines and canyons stretches across the desert . . . it looks as if the planet ' s crust has shattered . " " Denise Okuda found orbital views of Vulcan in the trilogy were " so great " and " spectacular , " an opinion Judith Reeves - Stevens agreed with . Okuda noted , " " The visual effects team did just an amazing job here . " " ( " The Forge " audio commentary , ENT Season 4 Blu - ray ) Vulcan was also referenced once in a scene description from the final draft script of , remarking that no - one on the planet would believe that a particular moment involving a handshake between an Andorian and a Tellarite was even possible . Sister planet . Although Spock tells Uhura that " Vulcan has no moon " in – a phrase that is repeated exactly in the script of the episode – a moon - like body was portrayed in close orbit of Vulcan in " Yesteryear " . This was because it was typical for the artists of the animated series to never refer back to the script or descriptions , once past the storyboard process . Even though Gene Roddenberry and D . C . Fontana noted " NO MOON ! " on a preliminary sketch of the planet when the drawing was submitted to them for approval , this was also ignored . By , several people had inquired as to what the orb was intended to be and , in reply , Roddenberry and Fontana had had to refer to it as a sister planet . ( " Babel " # 5 ; " Enterprise Incidents " , number 11 , p . 27 ) Similarly , each of the two matte paintings in the theatrical edit of depicted two large orbs in the Vulcan sky . This was " corrected " in the director ' s edition DVD release of " The Motion Picture " , with the removal of these worlds . David Morton , Foundation Imaging ' s Vulcan landscaper , commented , " " Vulcan has no moon , and there were all these planets floating around it in the original release . These new Vulcan shots were done mainly to match better with the other films . " " ( ) Despite some fan speculation that the change to Vulcan ' s sky was made so that the film would fit the reference in " The Man Trap " , this was not the case , according to Michael Matessino ( who served as restoration supervisor for the director ' s cut ) . By way of explanation , he stated , " " We eliminated things that you might not associate with a far - off monastic temple . We did not take our directions from a simple line of dialog . Vulcan in and of itself should be interesting without cluttering the sky . Besides , it was obvious that the sun was out in that scene . The change keeps things in the spirit of where we are going . It ' s not about what ' s up in the sky , it ' s about what ' s happening with Spock . " " ( ) Two big bodies , in a view matching the orbs in the original cut of " The Motion Picture " , were also incorporated into a concept painting of Vulcan ' s Mount Seleya and a Klingon Bird - of - Prey , created for . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 225 ) In J . J . Abrams ' movie from , an icy planet called " " is located so close to the Vulcan of an alternate timeline that Spock was easily able to witness his home planet ' s destruction from its surface . Whether Delta Vega was intended to be a reference to any possible moon or sister planet of Vulcan has not been clarified . In , a large body with a smaller one in front again appears in Vulcan ' s sky , depicted in a shot of a Vulcan cityscape . Several sources – such as the officially - licensed reference works " The Worlds of the Federation " ( p . 18 ) and " " ( p . 58 ) – offer the explanation that the sister planet was named T ' Khut . This name was coined ( spelled " T ' Kuht " ) by fanzine writer and artist Gordon Carleton in 1975 ( upon which , he stated that T ' Kuht was " the Vulcan name " for the sister planet ) . Carleton was influenced by D . C . Fontana ' s earlier postulation that Vulcan was part of a twin system . Location . According to Gene Roddenberry , James Blish and multiple other background sources , the Vulcan system was the star 40 Eridani A . One official source that suggested this proposal was the reference work " Star Trek Maps " ( pp . 25 - 26 ) . An alternative possibility , included in the equally official " Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology " ( first published in 1979 ) , was that Vulcan ' s sun was Epsilon Eridani . Roddenberry favored 40 Eridani , due to the comparative ages of the two systems . In a letter printed in " Sky and Telescope " magazine in , Roddenberry wrote , " " Based on the history of life on Earth , life on any planet around Epsilon Eridani would not have had time to evolve beyond the level of bacteria . On the other hand , an intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani . So the latter is the more likely Vulcan sun . " " He also made the presumption that the planet orbits the primary star . This association was continued in the books " The Worlds of the Federation " ( p . 18 ) and " " ( p . 58 ) . Both sources cite Vulcan as the second planet in the system , which " Star Charts " ( pp . 19 & 45 ) places in Sector 005 in the Beta Quadrant . Vulcan , the primary of the Vulcan system , was located in the Alpha Quadrant on a star chart seen in the episode . Miscellaneous . In notes that costume designer Robert Fletcher wrote about the aliens in " Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , he proceeded from an hypothesis that Vulcan was " a ruby planet , " which he gave as evidence for the presence of " the red - booted giant figure " as well as ruby jewelry in the film ' s Vulcan scene . ( " " , p . 133 ) Fletcher based the Vulcan clothing in " Star Trek III " on a similar concept related to the planet . " " The concept I generated , " " he said , " " was that Vulcan is a planet of precious minerals . " " ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 51 ) According to Michael Okuda in the book " Ships of the Line " ( p . 22 ) , the planet was devastated during the Time of the Awakening . The ShirKahr highlands were once green with meadows and soaring coniferous trees . During the Time of the Awakening , the highlands were destroyed by nuclear warfare , and the meadows changed into deserts . This process of destruction was repeated all over the planet , resulting in global climate change . Okuda detailed similar accounts of nuclear devastation in the text commentary for ENT : " The Forge " and in the book " " ( p . 176 ) . " Star Trek : Star Charts " ( pp . 44 - 45 & 52 ) details more supposition about the planet , from a production staffer ( in that case , Geoffrey Mandel ) . The book states that , in 2378 , the planet was alternatively referred to as both Vulcanis and Vulcan . The book also posits that Vulcan had been ruled by the Confederacy of Surak since 370 AD , it had two capital cities – Vulcana Regar and ShirKahr – and there were 4 . 9 billion people living on the planet . Two thousand years before , in the 4th century , Vulcan was a destination on the Debrune trade routes . In the mid - 22nd century , Vulcan was the hub world on the Vulcan trading routes . It traded with Altair , Arcturus , Cor Caroli , , the Deneb system , Denobula Triaxa , Kaferia , Lorillia , P ' Jem , and Rigel . " The Worlds of the Federation " ( p . 18 ) gives T ' Khasi as Vulcan ' s indigenous name and states that Terran astronomers , taking inspiration from Terran mythology , provided the planet with its name of Vulcan , which the Vulcans gracefully accepted as the planet ' s official Federation designation . Both " The Worlds of the Federation " ( p . 18 ) and " Star Trek Maps " ( p . 26 ) characterize Vulcan as having " several large port cities , " with the former stating that eighty - six percent of the planet ' s surface is landmass . The latter source describes the planet as relatively large . The classified Vulcan as a Minshara - class planet . Imagining one particular part of Vulcan in his autobiographical book " I Am Spock " ( hardback ed . , pp . 244 & 245 ) , Leonard Nimoy ( writing from Spock ' s perspective ) reported , " " There lies on Vulcan a stretch of flat , barren desert known as the ' plain of thought , ' which has come to symbolize ultimate accomplishment . At one end of the plain stands a millennia - old fragment of wall . At the other end , approximately one of your Earth kilometers away , rests a tall , slender obelisk . " " Nimoy went on to envisage that successful completion of a Vulcan ceremonial test in this area – involving crossing between the wall and obelisk , then back again – results in the traveler being awarded " the right to wear the symbol of Kolinahr . " Apocrypha . In Gene Roddenberry ' s novelization of " " , he indicated that nine Vulcan seasons were equal to 2 . 8 Earth years . This would make Vulcan ' s year 456 ± 33 Earth days long . The same novelization also places the narrative ' s scenes of Vulcan as being in Gol . Despite specifying that Vulcan had multiple suns , the book makes no reference to any moons or additional planets in the Vulcan system . Neither does the novelization of " Yesteryear " ( which was first published in ) make any mention of other planets or planetoids in the Vulcan system ( stating merely that " Vulcan had no moon " ) , even though the first edition of the anthology in which it was originally published ( " Star Trek Log 1 " ) has a front cover featuring a shot of the large orb in Vulcan ' s sky from the aforementioned episode . It was in the fanzine " Warp Speed 8 " ( in the " Landing Party Six Writer ' s Guide " ) that Gordon Carleton first proposed the existence of Vulcan ' s sister planet . Later , officially - licensed " Star Trek " novels continued this trend , including the novel " The Vulcan Academy Murders " by Jean Lorrah , Diane Duane ' s novel " Spock ' s World " , A . C . Crispin ' s novel " Sarek " ( as " T ' Rukh " , with a comment that this was merely another of the planet ' s names ) , and Michael Jan Friedman ' s novel " New Worlds , New Civilizations " . The latter of these features another front cover on which the sister planet appears , as does " The Vulcan Academy Murders " . Prior to Gene Roddenberry ' s announcement that the planet Vulcan was in 40 Eridani , the suggestion was proposed in not only 1980 ' s " Star Trek Maps " but also in ' s " Star Trek 2 " , by James Blish .