Mount Seleya in 2285
Mount Seleya was a sacred mountain located on the planet Vulcan, at the far end of Vulcan's Forge.
During the 3rd century, Surak discovered his philosophy of pure logic on Mount Seleya, which remained the site where rituals such as the kahs-wan and kolinahr took place.
Surak began the story of the IDIC or "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" on this mountain. Surak later died here from radiation poisoning, after the final battle between his followers and "those who marched beneath the raptor's wings." That enemy apparently left Vulcan and became the Romulans. (ENT: "The Forge", "Awakening", "Kir'Shara")
In 2285, venerable high priestess T'Lar supervised Spock's fal-tor-pan ceremony at an altar on Mount Seleya, part of a temple on the mountain that also incorporated the adjacent Hall of Ancient Thought. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
The T'Karath Sanctuary was located roughly thirty-seven kellicams south of Mount Seleya. (TNG: "Gambit, Part II")
The Vulcan ship Seleya was presumably named in honor of this mountain. (ENT: "Impulse")
Background information
An important aspect in the conception of Mount Seleya was that, for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy wanted its altar to be on a raised platform, so that Starfleet officers bringing Spock to the mountain had to first land their Bird-of-Prey in an area separate from the altar. This was for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that adding the ship to shots of the temple would have been expensive. Nimoy also conceived of the route to the high altar. "Leonard wanted a narrow passageway, a thoroughfare, for dramatic purposes," said Industrial Light & Magic art director Nilo Rodis. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 55)
The ILM art department produced many different conceptual illustrations for Mount Seleya's altar. For instance, fellow art director David Carson created sketches of the altar and drew a series of storyboards showing the Bird-of-Prey land near Mount Seleya. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 55) Another ILM employee, matte artist Chris Evans, painted the mountainous scene with craggy cliff tops. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 50) A separate view of the clifftop altar incorporated the concept of a large ceremonial fire, though this idea was evidently not used. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 70)
The initial view of Mount Seleya in Star Trek III had to establish the area's geography at a glance. "From my experience, you have tops maybe 15 seconds of that shot," Nilo Rodis explained. "The logistical and dramatic implications of those 15 seconds has got to be very clear and very simple. It cannot be cluttered otherwise it won't stick in your memory. To get to that one design, I'm embarrassed to say that I probably spent days, if not a week, trying to come up with a simple design so that it was memorable." The final design for the clifftop temple was also as minimal as possible, helping focus the film's emphasis on the events taking place on the mountain rather than on geographical detail. Rodis noted, "It had to be simple and uncluttered." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, pp. 55 & 61) The final version of the altar set was designed by art director John E. Chilberg II. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 70)
The unusual, large "V" symbol towering over the altar was designed as a stylized version of the Vulcan salute. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 74; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54) In a concept painting of the statue, the symbol was more clearly a representation of a hand making the salute. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 55) John Chilberg illustrated the original concept sketches of the symbol. "The edifice was designed to have a utilitarian sculptural effect," recalled set decorator Tom Pedigo. "It was intended to look as if it was sculpted out of stone." The statue, ultimately measuring twelve foot high, was actually built out of plaster and Styrofoam. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 74; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54) Not only did this colossal construction resemble a Vulcan salute, but so did a much smaller sculpture that was positioned at the center of the edifice. The altar also included a gong that was reminiscent of a gong seen in a ceremonial arena in TOS: "Amok Time" and the entryway of the altar partly consisted of a large fiberglass dome that was actually reused from the Genesis cave in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (text commentary, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Special Edition) DVD)
Choosing what to show in the background of the altar was problematic. From such an elevated vantage point and with other mountains only scattered in the foreground, the only thing that would realistically be visible in the background would be sky. Set designer Cameron Birnie remembered, "The argument we had was that if all you could see was sky, how'd you know you were high up?" (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 75; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54) Nilo Rodis noted, "You wanted to show that you were up in the sky, but in reality you were up in the mountains." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63) One solution was to try experimenting with the horizon line. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 75; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54)
Illustrator Tom Lay was assigned to work from ILM's concepts for the altar set and devise what would be in the background. He made concept paintings of the area, the first of which was a small illustration which demonstrated the scene at night. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 62) Lay outlined which segments of the painting would have to be converted to backdrops, and drew up the correct scale. He reminisced about the painting, "Everybody loved that [....] They said, 'Well, OK, except paint it for daytime and we'll light it for night.' So I did that, and there were a few other changes." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63) In fact, the backing evolved through four sketches and was blown up to a large scale. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 78) Lay concluded, "The changes were done accurately but, by the time they saw it in a finished size, they couldn't even recognize it!" (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63)
The set for the altar was constructed on the soundstages at Paramount Pictures. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 78) An extremely expensive backing, Tom Lay's eventual design, was painted on the stage, encompassing 250 degrees of the set. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 75; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54) However, the enormous backing had a clear horizon line dividing the sky and the surrounding mountains; essentially, the horizon line was too high, making the temple seem as if it were in a crater or a valley. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63; Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 75; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 54) Once Leonard Nimoy, agitated with the design of the backing, called Nilo Rodis down to Los Angeles, Rodis viewed the problem for himself. He fortunately managed to come up with a quick and easy solution. "I said, 'Just get rid of the backing, and have the director of photography light it as if it is sky.' And that's exactly what they did.'" A new, orange cyclorama backing was painted like the Vulcan sky by J.C. Backings. In an effort to give some life to the backdrop and make it seem as if it was glowing brighter than an ordinary painting, the revised backing was lit from both the front and the back. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63) Nimoy was still nervous about the backgrounds of the Mount Seleya set, though, owing to its minimalist nature. "I had a conversation with the photographer," related Nimoy, "and I said, 'Look, make it go out of focus,' because what it looked like was a painted piece of canvas back there. So, you cross your fingers and hope it works, you know?" (audio commentary, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Special Edition) DVD/Blu-ray) The unused, more detailed backdrop was incorporated elsewhere in the film's depiction of Vulcan. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 68)
Since altering the lighting on the large set between a night and dawn setting was potentially a major undertaking, all the night scenes were filmed together and the dawn scenes followed. This prevented the production crew wasting time and money on changing the lighting more often than was necessary. (text commentary, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Special Edition) DVD)
ILM Matte Artist Chris Evans working on a Mount Seleya matte painting
Ultimately, several matte paintings, provided by ILM, were used to depict Mount Seleya, as seen from a distance in the film. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 27) One such painting – a view of the mountain at dawn – is shown on screen for fourteen seconds, an unusually long duration for a static matte painting to remain on screen. (text commentary, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Special Edition) DVD) Kenneth Ralston, the film's visual effects supervisor, was wary of the shot almost serving as too much of a reminder to the audience that the view was an illusion. He commented, "I think they hold on [it] longer than any matte painting ever. It still holds up; but boy, I'm clawing at the arms of my seat saying, 'It's too long, too long!'" (Cinefex, No. 18, p. 52) Although it was also planned for an ILM matte painting to have extended the set for the temple, this was not ultimately the case and such a painting was never used. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 82) Neither was footage of a procession carrying Spock's body up the mountain, which included the interior of the clifftop Hall of Ancient Thought, which was ultimately left unnamed in the film. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 60)
One matte painting created for Star Trek III was reused for a shot of Mount Seleya in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. (text commentary, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Special Edition) DVD)
Mount Seleya was originally to have featured in Star Trek: Enterprise's Vulcan trilogy (comprised of the episodes "The Forge", "Awakening" and "Kir'Shara"). The conclusion of that arc would have featured the mountain as the site of a major battle between armies, although this idea was abandoned since it was considered to be prohibitively expensive. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 36-37) Mount Seleya was also rumored to appear in the episode "Kir'Shara", prior to that installment airing. [1]