Why Star Trek & Doctor Who Both Have Planets Called Vulcan

Both Star Trek and Doctor Who have planets called Vulcan, and there’s a surprising reason for the name’s popularity. There are amusing trends in science-fiction, and one of the most curious is the fact that many sci-fi film and TV writers choose to call alien planets “Vulcan.” Perhaps the most famous examples are in Star Trek and Doctor Who.

In Star Trek, the Vulcans were the first alien race to reveal themselves to humanity, a story that was told (via time travel) in Star Trek: First Contact. The Vulcans are committed to logic above all else, and their most famous representative is of course Spock, who served on the Enterprise and became one of the Federation’s foremost ambassadors. Meanwhile, in Doctor Who, Vulcan was a human colony established on an inhospitable world; colonists discovered a mysterious artifact, and the freshly-regenerated Second Doctor recognized it as Dalek in origin. But why do sci-fi franchises like using the name “Vulcan?”

The answer lies in the history of astronomy. In 1859, a French astronomer named Urbain Le Verrier correctly recognized that Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion could not explain the orbit of Mercury; in order to do so, he postulated the existence of another planet in the solar system, and he called the predicted planet Vulcan after the Roman god of fire. Astronomers believed this mysterious planet was concealed in the sun’s glare, and some astronomers even believed they’d caught a glimpse of it during solar eclipses. Then, in 1915, Albert Einstein proposed his theory of relativity – and his equations perfectly predicted Mercury’s orbit, without the need for another world’s gravity influencing it. The existence of the hypothetical planet Vulcan was therefore disproved.

Vulcan may not exist in the solar system, but the name had become associated with alien worlds – and inhospitable planets at that. Doctor Who honored the real-world origin of the planet Vulcan by giving its name to a hostile world with bubbling lakes of poisonous mercury; one tie-in comic actually suggested this colony was indeed situated on a planet in the solar system, but that’s been ignored by the wider canon. Meanwhile, in Star Trek Vulcan is an arid and warm world, appropriate for one named after a planet that was supposed to be near to the sun — and associated with Vulcan the Roman god of fire, of course.

Amusingly enough, in Star Trek Gene Roddenberry said Vulcan orbits the star 40 Eridani (also called HD 26965), and in 2018 scientists discovered a so-called “super-Earth” exoplanet that orbits exactly where Roddenberry claimed Vulcan should be. There’s no evidence it’s inhabited, though, so Spock’s race still only exist in Star Trek.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
(4936 Articles Published)

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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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