Rigel X
Rigel X, also known as The Rigel Colony, was the inhabited tenth planet in the Rigel system of the Alpha Quadrant. The planet was home to a native species species of large flying insects and a variety of colorful butterflies. () The planet was affiliated with the . ()

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. ()

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 ; the Earth starship Enterprise visited Rigel X in its search for Klaang, who had been kidnapped from the ship by the  shortly before. ()

While imprisoned at Tandaran Detention Complex 26, Captain Jonathan Archer was reminded of Enterprises 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. ()

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." ()

In a commercial for Tribbles cereal, Rigel X was shown on a computer screen of a food synthesizer in the mess hall of the . It was listed along with other locations such as Earth, , Izar, Cestus, Tellar, Rigel VI, and Andoria. (, credit cookie)

Some time before 2267, Rigel X had become a Federation world. () 

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  and  destroyed the extragalactic doomsday weapon before it reached this planet. ()

Rigel X inhabitants and visitors

Appendices

Background information 
This planet's quadrant of origin is inferred based on the position of its star system as seen in the star chart appearing in .

Rigel X was identified as the "Rigel colony" on a viewscreen in . Previously, the "Rigel Colonies" had been referred to in the first draft script of "He Walked Among Us", an undeveloped installment of . Rigel was apparently not a name invented by Humans, since Vulcans and Klingons used this name in their native languages and the planet's location was not known to Humans before it was learned from the Vulcan star charts in . 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...".

For "Broken Bow", some scenes at the trade post were filmed at the Redondo Power Plant and Hyperion Water Treatment Plant. ( 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 which he combined with the live-action footage in the compositing bay. This helped ensure that the snow in the various shots looked consistent. () Eden's Fred Pincus was another visual effects artist who worked on representing the Rigel X complex in "Broken Bow", an assignment he particularly enjoyed doing. ()

In a scene that was scripted for the end of  (and included in the ENT Season 4 Blu-ray) but never filmed, Rigel X was briefly mentioned, as one of several small rocks which Archer left at his father's grave had been taken by the captain from Rigel X. In the same scene, Archer commented as if to his deceased father, "The entire planet's a frozen wasteland. You would've hated it."

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

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 52), Rigel X was located in the Beta Rigel system, between the Sol system and Qo'noS, not around the "true" star Rigel, which in the real world is located significantly further away from Earth. This would solve a problem in the episode , wherein it is 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  and the United Federation of Planets. Rigel X was admitted, along with the United Rigel Colonies, to the Federation in 2202. The capital city 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.

External link 
 

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Rigel 10
Colonies