By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Star Trek’s strength has never been its flashy special effects or hordes of alien aliens. No, the strength of this franchise has always been in its discussion. Many fans memorize lines like Kirk’s “danger is our business” and turn them into personal quotes, which is no surprise.
These passages provide such unique insights into the human condition that even a simple line can inspire you to change your life. In the first episode of Star Trek, however, the show’s most famous character had a line of dialogue that inspired nothing but conflicts among the followers.
In The Original Series In the first broadcast of the series “The Man Trap,” Spock makes a specific statement about his home planet: “Vulcan has no moon.” On paper, it’s a very simple statement because no one really expected a fictional planet to have the same characteristics as ours.
Unfortunately, as Star Trek: The Animated Seriesfranchise often portrays Spock’s home planet as big the most visible moon on this lower planet. Audiences have been trying to resolve this disagreement for more than half a century, and an episode of Strange New Worlds quietly made the most popular fan theory into canon.
When Pillow Talk Goes Wrong
When Spock talks about his home planet in “The Man Trap,” he effectively shuts down Uhura’s flirtation. You playfully tell him to “tell me what your planet Vulcan looks like on a lazy night when the moon is full.” Without missing a beat or taking the bait, Spock tells a fellow officer that “Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura.” There was no need to doubt his assertion until then Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “Yesterday.” In that episode, a large moon was clearly visible on the surface of the planet Vulcan in many shots.
After this, it became common for Star Trek movies and TV shows to show the moon and other celestial bodies near Vulcan. Theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picturefor example, it was originally represented by four large orbs in the sky of Vulcan. It wasn’t clear if these were meant to be moons or planets, but it ended up being something cheap. When the Director’s Cut of that film came out on DVD, those things had been removed, and the night sky (disturbing since this was a daytime scene) was replaced with orange.
I flew to the moon
The “does Vulcan have a moon?” the debate subsided until Star Trek: Discovery. The episodes “Bring It On,” “If Memory Serves,” and “Such Sweet Sorrow” featured celestial bodies visible on the surface of the planet Vulcan.
Once again, it wasn’t clear whether we were looking at moons, planets, or something else entirely. In addition, fans had to wonder again why Spock so confidently stated that Vulcan has no moon when so many cosmic objects are clearly visible on the surface of his planet.
However, veteran Star Trek writer DC Fontana offered a possible explanation for the mystery, published in a rare form back in 1975. He proposed that Vulcan has a sister planet, T’Khut, with which it has a cooperative relationship.
This statement by Spock that clearly explains that Vulcan does not have a moon by explaining that what we saw in the sky in “Year Yesterday” and later episodes was not a lunar body. Instead, it was T’Khut, who was moving around to be seen in the flesh. Although this remained a fan theory for over half a century, it was eventually made canon Strange New Worldswhich showed T’Khut circling the Vulcan on the computer console.
There you have it, Trekkers: a simple throwaway line from Spock in the first Star Trek episode that ever hit the airwaves. decades of fan debates. Everyone wanted to explain this seemingly contradictory conflict, but none could surpass what franchise writer DC Fontana offered. Paramount agreed, eventually turning his famous theory into an official catalog book. As a side effect of all of this, there is now one line of Star Trek dialogue that Star Wars fans can absolutely quote. different reasons: “That’s not the moon!”
