Rigel in fiction

See also: Stars and planetary systems in fiction

An artist's computer generated image for a scale comparison

Rigel (Beta Orionis), the brightest star in the constellation Orion, is a well-known star in Earth's northern hemisphere night sky and hence a popular science fiction setting or feature.

Literature

• In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the main character, Santiago, notes seeing Rigel at sunset in September (off the coast of Cuba), which is impossible.
• In "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, Rigel IV is home to the Rigellians, one of the most important member races of Civilization.
• In Jack Vance's Demon Princes novels, Rigel is the parent star to a system of twenty-six habitable planets, the Rigel Concourse.
• Rigel is a planet with a robotic culture in Isaac Asimov's Empire series.
• Orion Beta (possibly Beta Orionis, i.e. Rigel) is a mining colony in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where miners play a telepathic drinking game that uses Ol' Janx Spirit, a main ingredient in the alcoholic drink known as a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
• The first book of Timothy Zahn's Quadrail series is entitled Night Train to Rigel.
• Rigellians appear in Eric Frank Russell's novel Next of Kin. They are described as humanoid, rubber-limbed, pop-eyed, and consistently friendly to the people of Earth.

Film and television

Rigel within the constellation Orion

• In the Star Trek Universe, Rigel is the name of at least twelve planets, many of which have been colonized by the Federation. Not all of these planets are in the Beta Orionis system, and the name "Rigel" is used to describe at least one other star by some aliens. It is also unclear which, if any, of these planets is home to the Rigellians, a reptilian race seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • Rigel II, mentioned by Dr. Leonard McCoy in the TOS episode "Shore Leave" as home to a cabaret where he met a couple of chorus girls.
  • Rigel III, mentioned in TNG episode "All Good Things...."
  • Rigel IV, mentioned in the TOS episode "Wolf in the Fold."
  • Rigel IV, mentioned in the DS9 episode "The Wire."
  • Rigel V, mentioned in TOS episode "Journey to Babel;" Dr. McCoy notes that the natives of Rigel V have a Vulcan-like physiology.
  • Rigel VII, mentioned in TOS episodes "The Cage" and "The Menagerie," as home to a race of humanoid barbarians who are not allied with the Federation, at least not as of the time of the episode.
  • Rigel VII, mentioned in DS9 episode, "The Passenger".
  • Rigel X, featured in Enterprise episodes "Broken Bow" and "These Are the Voyages...." The planet is relatively close to Earth.
  • "Rigel IX" Mentioned in "Drones" as site of infamous interplanetary war

• • Rigel XII, featured in the TOS episode "Mudd's Women."
• In The Simpsons universe, Rigel IV is the home of Kang and Kodos. By "an astonishing coincidence," the spoken Rigelian language is identical to English. It is also mentioned in the Simpsons episode "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky". In the Season 9 episode "Simpson Tide", a passing reference to Rigel VII is made, along with a parody of Star Trek: TOS helmsman Hikaru Sulu.
• In the cartoon series Bucky O'Hare, Rigel V is a planet inhabited by anthropomorphic koalas.
• Rigel IV referenced in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Plot to Kill a City.
• Rigel III is mentioned in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as one of the planets that had been destroyed by Galactus.
• Rigel IX was referenced as having some sort of uprising that required the attention of Green Lantern John Stewart in the Justice League animated series.
• In the TV animated space western BraveStarr, the hulking, 14-ton, green-skinned bartender and former space pirate Handlebar is a Rigelian.
• Rigel is the name of one of the 4 horses in Ben Hur (along with Antares, Aldebaran, and Altair, all named for their respective stars)
• The Farscape character Dominar Rygel XVI, however, has no apparent connection to the star, other than the homophony of their names.

Comics and anime

• In the universe of Marvel Comics, the Rigellians (short, large-headed humanoids) are rulers of the largest and most powerful interplanetary empire in the Milky Way galaxy, and possess vast mental powers. The thunder god Thor has frequently become involved in their activities, and gained a promise from them to not invade Earth if he defeated their greatest enemy, Ego the Living Planet.
• In the Transformers universe, Rigel is home to Rorza, the Rocket-Cycle Racer from Rigel III.
• In the edited FUNimation dub of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta mentions that the technique used to create an artificial moon was invented by Goku's father, Bardock while on Rigel VII, as Oozarus were needed to combat the "radical" weaponry.
• In the comic Monty (formerly known as Robotman), Monty's alien friend Dave-7, formerly known as Mr. Pi, is an alien from Rigel and serves as Monty’s straight man

Games

• Rescue at Rigel (1980), computer game. Takes place in the Rigel system.
• The 1987 text adventure Rigel's Revenge takes place amid a civil war on the fictional planet Rigel V.
• In Duke Nukem II, Earth is invaded by the Rigelatins.
• In Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, Beta Orionis is the homeworld of the joke obsessed, blob-like Umgah race. However, it is interesting to note that both "Beta Orionis" and "Rigel" are not one and the same in game: the star named Rigel is in fact quite a distance away from the Orionis star group, because, as the paper starmap that comes with the game explains, stars in HyperSpace have been given arbitrary designations, mostly based on existing names. Exploration of the in-game Rigel will result in an encounter with a Zoq-Fot-Pik scout ship.
• Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, computer game series. Rigel is a distant, uninhabited star system.
• In the original Escape Velocity, Rigel was a central hub for the Confederacy in the battle between the Rebellion and Confederacy. Rigel was located equidistant from Sirius on the EV Map. Sirius is located about 8 light years away, while Rigel is about 777 light years.
• In the MMORPG Pardus, Rigel is a Homeworld sector in the Empire Pardus Contingent.
• In the Ace combat X2 joint assualt The Rigel (The Player`s allied Squadron) helps the Player (Antares) then betray the Player.

For other fictional uses not directly connected with the star, see Rigel (disambiguation).