AT: "xx" Rigel X also known as The Rigel Colony, was the inhabited tenth planet in the Rigel system. The planet was home to a native species of large flies and a variety of colorful butterflies. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "These Are the Voyages...") The planet was affiliated with the United Federation of Planets. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
Location
The Rigel system was located less than 90 light years from the Sol system. This system was located in the Kandari sector, a region of space in the Milky Way Galaxy. (TNG: "Conspiracy" display graphic)
In 2293, the location of Rigel, the primary of the Rigel system, in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in a star chart that was in Captain James T. Kirk's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, production art')
In 2367, the location of Rigel was labeled on a tactical situation monitor in Captain Benjamin Maxwell's ready room on the USS Phoenix. (TNG: "The Wounded", display graphic)
In 2376, the location of Rigel was labeled on a star chart in astrometrics on USS Voyager in 2376. (VOY: "Child's Play")
In 2366, in an alternate timeline, during the Federation-Klingon War, the location of Rigel was labeled on a tactical situation monitor in the ready room aboard the USS Enterprise-D (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise", display graphic)
History
Some time before 2151, the Rigel Colony was established on Rigel X. The colony was a trade complex consisting of thirty-six levels and populated by numerous different species. (ENT: "Broken Bow")
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...")
Some time before 2267, Rigel X had become a Federation world. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
In 2267, Rigel X became 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 this planet. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
Rigel X inhabitants and visitors
- see Rigel X inhabitants and Rigel X gangsters.
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Background information
In "Two Days and Two Nights", the Enterprise, a NX-class starship, set a milestone in 2151 by becoming the first Starfleet ship to travel 90 light years from its homeworld. Rigel X was visited by the Enterprise prior to her historic feat.
Rigel X was identified as the "Rigel colony" on a viewscreen in "These Are the Voyages...". Rigel was apparently not a name invented by Humans, since Vulcans and Klingons used this name in their native languages and the planets location was not known to Humans before it was learned from the Vulcan star charts in "Broken Bow". Rigel X was the first and last planet visited by Enterprise, not only in the fictional sense but also on-screen from "Broken Bow" to "These Are the Voyages..."
According to Star Trek: Star Charts (pg. 52), Rigel X was located in the "Beta Rigel system" between the Sol system and Qo'noS. Not around the real star Rigel, which in the real world is located 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 classified as 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.
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)
External Links
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