Rigel X

Rigel X

The frozen world Rigel X, was the tenth planet in the Rigel planetary system. The system, located within the Kandari sector, was in the Alpha Quadrant. The atmosphere was capable of supporting humanoid life-forms. The Rigel colony, a trade complex consisting of thirty-six levels and populated by numerous different species, was located on this planet. By 2267, Rigel X was a Federation planet.This was one of six inhabited planets in this system; the others were Rigel II, Rigel IV, Rigel V, Rigel VII, and Rigel XII. (TOS: "Mudd's Women", "The Menagerie, Part II", "Shore Leave", "The Doomsday Machine", "Wolf in the Fold", and more; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, production art; TNG: "Conspiracy" display graphic; ENT: "Broken Bow")

Rigel X was home to a species of large flies and a variety of colorful butterflies.

In 2151, the Klingon Klaang visited Rigel X to make contact with Suliban dissident Sarin. Rigel X was, soon thereafter, the first planet visited by Enterprise NX-01; the Earth starship Enterprise visited Rigel X in its search for Klaang, who had been kidnapped from the ship by the Suliban Cabal shortly before. (ENT: "Broken Bow")

While imprisoned at Tandaran Detention Complex 26, Captain Jonathan Archer was reminded of Enterprise's visit to Rigel X, upon being questioned by Tandaran colonel Grat. Grat also informed Archer that several Tandaran men had seen the captain at Rigel X. (ENT: "Detained")

In 2161, Enterprise returned to Rigel X to help Shran rescue his daughter, Talla. It was the last world Enterprise visited before being decommissioned, which Captain Archer considered to be "poetic justice." (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

In 2267, the Rigel colony was the next target of the planet killer, after it had disintegrated the planets in the nearby star systems L-370 and L-374. The combined efforts of the starships USS Constellation and USS Enterprise destroyed the extragalactic doomsday weapon before it reached the Rigel colony. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")

Rigel X inhabitants and visitors

see Rigel X inhabitants and Rigel X gangsters.

Rigel X insects, Broken Bow.jpg

Butterflies and a large fly from Rigel X

Star-chart alpha-beta quadrant.jpg

The location of Rigel in "The Explored Galaxy" wall chart

The Rigel system in relation to Pollux IV, Jouret IV, Vega, and Organia

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Background information

Rigel X was identified as the "Rigel colony" on a viewscreen in "These Are the Voyages...".

For "Broken Bow", some scenes at the trade post were filmed at the Redondo Power Plant and Hyperion Water Treatment Plant. ("These Are the Voyages..." text commentary, ENT Season 4 DVD) The exterior of the alien planet's outpost, including its landing platform, involved a real set. A CG model of the area, created by Eden FX, was also used. "That went through a couple of revisions as far as whether it was sitting on top of a mountain or built into the side," recalled Eden co-founder John Gross. "Also the things on the roof that [the characters] stood next to [...] were about six feet tall, and we built everything to scale, but when we looked at our shots, Peter Lauritson commented that [the CG version] didn't look big enough. And he was right; it looked like it was the size of the set and we wanted it to look massive, so we shrunk all those things down and it looked much better." The variety of elements that were integrated together to portray the surface of Rigel X in "Broken Bow" additionally included a CG snowstorm. Snow in wide shots of the planet's surface incorporated the digital snow effects, but Ronald B. Moore also had Eden provide him with some CG snow that he combined with the live-action footage in the compositing bay. This helped ensure that the snow in the various shots looked consistent. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 10, p. 29)

For "These Are the Voyages...", only a section of the trading complex was rebuilt, on Paramount Stage 9. ("These Are the Voyages..." text commentary, ENT Season 4 DVD)

Rigel X was the first and last planet visited by Enterprise, not only in the fictional sense but also on-screen. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "These Are the Voyages...")

The Explored Galaxy

"The Explored Galaxy" was a map of charted space in the Alpha Quadrant. Rigel was located between the Tholian Assembly and Romulus. Both locations were identified in DS9: "The Search, Part II", "Call to Arms" as being located in this quadrant. The chart, first seen chronologically in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, was also seen in several Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes set in the 24th century, from the year 2364 to 2370. These were TNG: "Conspiracy", "The Measure Of A Man", "The Emissary", "The Mind's Eye", "The Game", and DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets", "Cardassians".

Star Trek: Star Charts

According to Star Trek: Star Charts by author and illustrator Geoffrey Mandel, Rigel X was located in the "Beta Rigel system" between the Sol system and Qo'noS. Not around the real star Rigel, which was about 773 light years away from Earth. This would solve the problem with the episode ENT: "Two Days and Two Nights", where it was stated that 90 light years was the farthest away from Earth any Human had ever gone up to that point.

Rigel X (Beta Rigel X) was located in the Beta Quadrant. This was a P class planet. The planet was a member planet of both the United Rigel Colonies and the United Federation of Planets. Rigel X was admitted, along with the United Rigel Colonies, to the Federation in 2202. The capital was the Rigel Trade Complex. The dominant species were the humanoid Rigellians; however, there were many other species living on the planet. In 2378, there were 35.9 million people living on Rigel X. (pg. 52)

Rigel was apparently not a name invented by Humans, since Vulcans and Klingons used this name in their native languages. Also the planet's location was not known to Humans before it was learned from the Vulcan star charts in "Broken Bow". According to "The Die is Cast", Qo'noS was located in the Alpha Quadrant, which would suggest Rigel X was also located in the Alpha Quadrant, and not the Beta Quadrant as the Star Charts book states.

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