Rigel in fiction

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, ie Rigel) is a mining colony in Douglas Adams's "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", where miners play a telepathic drinking game.

Film and television

*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 "".
** "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 episode "All Good Things...".
** "Rigel IV", mentioned in the episode "Wolf in the Fold".
** "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 episode "The Cage" 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.
** "Riger VII", mentioned and later featured in TOS episode "The Menagerie".
** "Riger VII", mentioned in DS9 episode the passenger.
** "Rigel X", featured in episode "Broken Bow". This planet is relatively close to Earth.
** "Rigel XII", featured in the TOS episode "Mudd's Women".
* In the Simpsons universe, Rigel 7 is the home of Kang and Kodos. By "an astonishing coincidence", the spoken Rigelian language is identical to English.
* Rigel 7 is mentioned during the twenty-second episode of the third season of Friends.
* In the cartoon series Bucky O'Hare Rigel V is a planet inhabited by anthropomorphic koalas.
* Rigel 4 referenced in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Plot to Kill a City.
* Rigel 3 is mentioned in "" as one of the planets that had been destroyed.
* Rigel 9 was referenced as having some sort of uprising that required the attention of Green Lantern John Stewart in the Justice League animated series.

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. The thunder god Thor has frequently become involved in their activities.

*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, Burdock while on Rigel VII, as Oozarus were needed to combat the "radical" weaponry.

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 "", 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.
* ' and ', 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.

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