Delta - Vega Station Delta - Vega Station was an unmanned lithium cracking station on the planet Delta Vega , operated by the Galactic Mining Company . The station was fully automated , with visits from ore ship s once every twenty years . It contained potentially explosive fuel bins , at least three fission chambers , a control room , and an area which could be used as a prison cell . In 2265 , when the was disabled after an encounter with the galactic barrier , Spock recommended that the " Enterprise " crew adapt some of the station ' s power pack s to regenerate the ship ' s engines . Captain James T . Kirk also decided to hold Gary Mitchell in the station ' s prison cell ; however , Mitchell was able to escape . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Depiction in script . In the script for " Where No Man Has Gone Before " , this facility is characterized as a " well - kept building " and is said to consist of " huge towers , vats , and coils , stretching out into the distance . " Also , although there are three establishing shots of the station ( in two different scenes of the episode , with the second shown soon after the first ) , neither the second nor third of those shots are scripted . The station ' s control room is described , in the script , as " " the nerve center of this huge lithium cracking plant . Although the contour and decor differs from our ship ' s bridge , the fact it uses the same type power and computers makes for items of similarity , particularly in the instrument panels . It has a main window which in a limited shot or two will overlook the distant stretch of planet Delta - Vega . " " The script commonly refers to the prison cell as a " maximum security area " and the scripted description of the location reads , " " It contains a single bed and some equipment such as seen at the " Enterprise " s sickbay . The main difference - - there is no doorway , rather a large open portal across the diameter of which plays lighting sources and some occasional force field effect , which give the impression of a force field across the portal , denying passage to or from the security room . " " Not only does the script describe the prison cell ' s force field at length ( continuing to occasionally do so ) but the teleplay also refers , in an ultimately - unused moment , to " an industrial station communicator " in the area immediately outside the cell . Visualization . Using an actual chemical facility was initially considered for the filming of the Delta - Vega Station . Director James Goldstone later explained , " " They were talking about shooting in a chemical factory downtown [ . . . ] All sorts of elaborate stuff , and we determined to do it all onstage . " " ( " The Star Trek Interview Book " , p . 107 ) As the script suggests , the single bed in the prison cell was reused from the " Enterprise " sickbay set . ( Text commentary for " Where No Man Has Gone Before " , TOS Season 1 DVD special features ) The matte painting used to establish the station ' s exterior was done in post - production . ( " The Star Trek Interview Book " , p . 107 ) It was originally illustrated by noted visual effects artist Albert Whitlock . ( " The Star Trek Interview Book " , p . 108 ; ) The same painting was later modified and reused as the surface portion of the Tantalus Penal Colony in the original version of . ( ) The matte painting was likewise tweaked for the enhanced version of its appearance as the Delta - Vega Station in the remastered " Where No Man Has Gone Before " . Explained VFX Line Producer Michael Okuda , " " [ It ] was reworked slightly by Max Gabl [ . . . ] What we wanted very much to do was to respect the original geometry of the shot , to respect the original design , the funky tank - farm architecture . What we had Max do was go in , clean up some of the matte lines , improve the textures of the rocks . But for the most part , we kept it pretty much like the original , because it was so iconic . " " ( " Starfleet Access " for " Where No Man Has Gone Before " , TOS Season 1 Blu - ray special features ) For the second scene in which the station ' s exterior is depicted , the creators of Remastered TOS endeavored to add some indication of time having passed since the first scene wherein the painting is shown ( based on Dr . Mark Piper saying , " " There was some morning light , " " in reference to a moment shortly after the second of the two scenes ) . Okuda offered , " " The first two versions of this matte painting were pretty much what they were in the original , but [ . . . ] [ the third ] version was actually a pre - dawn version , so you see little lights on the tank farm , we see the light in the sky , so this changed . Not a huge difference but just one of the things we could do to tie in the sense of time a little better . " " ( " Starfleet Access " for " Where No Man Has Gone Before " , TOS Season 1 Blu - ray special features ) Apocrypha . The alternate reality version of this lithium cracking station appears in " Where No Man Has Gone Before , Part 2 " , the second issue in IDW Publishing ' s " " series of comics . In that adapted version of events from " Where No Man Has Gone Before " , the station is named Mineral Processing Facility DSE - Grissom and refers to the cell in which Mitchell is imprisoned as " the station ' s crew quarters . "