Andorian

Andorians are a fictional race of humanoid extraterrestrials in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They were created by writer D. C. Fontana. Within the Star Trek narrative, they are native to the blue icy Class M planet Andoria (also called Andor[1]). Distinctive traits of Andorians include their blue skin, a pair of cranial antennae, and white hair.[2]

Andorians
Star Trek race
Commander Shran and crew from the 2004 Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Proving Ground".
Also known asAenar (sub-species)
Information
Home worldAndoria
AffiliationUnited Federation of Planets, Andorian Empire

Andorians first appeared in the 1968 Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Journey to Babel", and have been seen or mentioned in episodes of subsequent series in the Star Trek franchise. They were indicated to be a vital, important member of the United Federation of Planets in the 1997 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "In the Cards", but did not gain considerable exposure until the 2001–2005 series Star Trek: Enterprise, on which they were used as recurring characters, most notably in the person of Thy'lek Shran, a starship commander who maintained a sometimes adversarial and begrudging friendship with Enterprise Captain Jonathan Archer. The series revealed more about Andorian ships, the home world Andoria, and the culture and history of Andorians and their subspecies, the Aenar. The 2004 episode "Zero Hour" established that Andorians were one of the four founding members of the United Federation of Planets.[3]

Storyline
Thelev, an Orion assassin disguised as an Andorian, from the 1967 original series episode "Journey to Babel".

Andorians appeared in four episodes of The Original Series, but there was very little back story on the Andorians until Enterprise.[4] Historically, the Andorians were rivals with the Vulcans. In the episode "The Andorian Incident", the Andorian Imperial Guard appeared on a Vulcan monastery world P'Jem to search for a spy station, destroying property in the process. Archer discovered the spy station and informed the Andorians, leading Shran (an Andorian) to become trusting of Archer. Also in this episode, Andorians begin to refer to humans using the pejorative "pink-skin."

The tensions between Andor and Vulcan were gradually resolved with human aid. Archer settles a conflict between the Vulcans and Andorians over the territory of a planet in the second season episode "Cease Fire".

In the third season of Enterprise, Shran offers Archer assistance in retrieving a prototype of the Xindi weapon, only to be betrayed by Shran when he takes the weapon. Archer believes Shran would use the weapon against the Vulcans, so he remotely set the detonation sequence to prevent them from using it. Shran released the weapon from his ship before it exploded. In the season 3 finale, Shran helped Archer fight the Xindi reptilians who were bringing the final weapon to Earth. Shran's involvement with the Xindi weapon leads to a brief armed conflict between Vulcans and Andorians in the fourth season episode "Kir'Shara". A Vulcan leader named V'Lass believes the Andorians are designing a new weapon from their scans of the Xindi weapon.

In the episode "United", an Andorian dies from a phaser wound, leading Shran to challenge a Tellarite to the Ushaan. In Andorian tradition, the Ushaan is a duel to the death, which is fought with hand-held ice-cutting blades called Ushaan-Tor, as mentioned in the second scene of Act 3. The Ushaan Right of Substitution allows combatants to choose another combatant to fight in their place. The Ushaan is settled when a combatant is rendered defenseless. Archer takes the Tellarite's place, and wins the duel when he cuts off Shran's antenna.[5]

Appearance

Andorians have blue blood, blue skin, white hair, and antennae on the crown of the skull. By the time of the 2001 – 2005 TV series Star Trek: Enterprise, the antennae were depicted as protruding from the forehead, and capable of movement, used for gesturing and balancing. If cut off, an antenna will grow back after nine months, though the time can be reduced by half with electrical stimulation and brisk cranial massage.[5]

The Aenar are a more reclusive, blue-white-skinned subspecies of Andorians. They were considered a myth until contact was remade in the episode "The Aenar", during the fourth season of Enterprise. The Aenar are blind, but exhibit telepathic and telemetric abilities. Aenar appear to use their antennae as telepathic receptors.[6]

Planet

Andoria is an icy moon orbiting a ringed gas giant. It has also been referred to as Andor.[1] In a DVD bonus feature for the 4th season of Enterprise, episode writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens stated that Andor was the gas giant, Andoria the moon, and that this was a conscious effort to address the discrepancy. Most of its cities are built underground to take advantage of geothermal warmth. Temperatures have been known to reach −28 °C in the summer. Andoria has at least one moon or neighboring planet. Andorians share their homeworld with an obscure telepathic subspecies, Aenar, which have either light blue or white skin.[6]

The non-canonical Star Trek Star Charts (2002) cites Andor as the seventh planet in orbit around the star Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) in the Beta quadrant,[7] but previous material has Andor as the eighth planet of the orange dwarf Epsilon Indi in the Alpha quadrant.[8][9] Andor is near Betazed, Earth, Tellar, and Vulcan.

Noncanonical information

A 1970s technical fiction book, The Starfleet Medical Reference Manual, held that Andorians were the only known semi-insectoid race in Federation territory, with a limited exoskeleton and antennae used for both quadriscopic vision reception and focused hearing.[10] These points were repeated in the 1980s book Worlds of the Federation.[9] Fully insectoid races depicted or referred to onscreen include the unseen Jarada in the Next Generation episode "The Big Goodbye", and the Xindi, which were introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise's third season.

In the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, four-person Andorian marriages were extrapolated into four sexes (thaan, chen, shen, and zhen).[11] A recurring plot point in the post-TV series novels is that the rarity of compatible Andorian foursomes produced extremely low reproduction rates which, in tandem with genetic weaknesses, led to the species' near extinction.

Similarly, the Marvel comic book Star Trek: Starfleet Academy refers to complex yet flexible marital structures, involving one or more fathers, and describes Andorians as passionate, with a violent history.[12]

In the Pocket Books continuity, specifically the 2010 novel, Star Trek: Typhon Pact – Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward, the Andorian Empire withdraws from the Federation in 2382.[13] However, the Andorian government still maintains diplomatic relations with the Federation, and Andorian officers are allowed to remain in Starfleet if they so choose. Despite Andor's withdrawal, a sizable percentage of the population – represented in the Andorian government by the "New Progressive Party", as opposed to the secessionist "Visionist Party" – favored continuing membership in the Federation, opening the possibility of a later reunification. In a subsequent novel, Dayton Ward's Star Trek: The Fall – Peaceable Kingdoms, Andor does rejoin the Federation.[14]

In the Free-to-play online role-playing game Star Trek Online, which takes place in 2409, the Andorians are still ordinary members of the Federation.

In the Fan film episodic series Starship Exeter, the communications officer on the bridge is an Andorian Lieutenant named B'fuselek. In this series it is explained that Andorians' antennae give the Andorians the ability to detect nearby fluctuations in gravity, and know their position in relation to these gravity differences. Andorians and Vulcans also have a history of feuding over many things.

Appearances
Star Trek: The Original Series
#EpisodeAppearance
210"Journey to Babel"Andorian Ambassador, plus an Orion spy, posing as the Ambassador's aide, who frames Sarek for murder
216"The Gamesters of Triskelion"One of the slaves of Triskelion
314"Whom Gods Destroy"One of the mental patients was Andorian
318"The Lights of Zetar"Two Andorian scholars were present at Memory Alpha at the time of its destruction
Star Trek: The Animated Series
#EpisodeAppearance
102"Yesteryear"Spock replaced by Andorian first officer, Thelin, in alternate timeline
112"The Time Trap"Andorian on the Elysian Council, plus a member of his old crew in background
Star Trek: Movies
EpisodeAppearance
Star Trek: The Motion PictureThree ambassadors in crowd at Starfleet Headquarters; two crew on Enterprise Rec Deck
Star Trek IV: The Voyage HomeTwo members of Starfleet on the Federation Council
Star Trek V: The Final FrontierScript suggests one "face of God" was Andorian; see bonus scenes of two-disk DVD
Star Trek: The Next Generation
#EpisodeAppearance
316"The Offspring"A young Andorian female is shown as one possible choice of appearance for Data's new child, Lal.
319"Captain's Holiday"Andorian tourist on Risa
508"Unification"An alien pianist plays "Andorian blues" for Riker
Star Trek: Enterprise
#EpisodeAppearance
107"The Andorian Incident"Thy'lek Shran and three more Andorian Imperial Guard commandos
115"Shadows of P'Jem"More Andorian Imperial Guard commandos
215"Cease Fire"Numerous Andorian Imperial Guard soldiers; first appearance of Andorian starships
313"Proving Ground"Andorian Imperial Guard starship and crew; Andorian general
324"Zero Hour"Commander Shran, Andorian Imperial Guard starship
409"Kir'Shara"Numerous Andorian Imperial Guard starships
412"Babel One"Survivors of the wreck of the Kumari
413"United"Survivors of the wreck of the Kumari
414"The Aenar"Commander Shran, several members of the Aenar subspecies
418"In a Mirror, Darkly"Crewman aboard the I.S.S. Enterprise
419"In a Mirror, Darkly (Part II)"Crewman aboard the I.S.S. Avenger
420"Demons"Andorian delegates at Coalition of Planets conference
421"Terra Prime"Andorian Ambassador, plus delegates at Coalition of Planets conference
422"These Are the Voyages..."Holographic representations of Shran and daughter circa 2161
Star Trek: Discovery
#EpisodeAppearance
11"The Wolf Inside"One of the leaders of the resistance coalition against Terran Empire in a mirror parallel universe
gollark: While simultaneously tweeting ABOUT it.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Squid actually merges the CC PRs.
gollark: Yes, and Dan's ignored them.
gollark: Dan's abandoned it. Use CC: Tweaked.

References
  1. The home planet was first referred to as "Andoria" in Act 1 of "Prophet Motive", and as "Andor" in Act 3 of "In the Cards".
  2. "Andoria". Star Trek Database. StarTrek.com. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  3. "Zero Hour". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 3. Episode 24. May 26, 2004. UPN.
  4. Fred Dekker, Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 37, p. 11
  5. "United". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 4. Episode 13. February 4, 2005. UPN.
  6. "The Aenar". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 4. Episode 14. February 11, 2005. UPN.
  7. Geoffrey Mandel, Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek (NY: Pocket Books, 2002), 52.
  8. Eileen Palestine, ed., Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (NY: Ballantine Books, 1977), 58.
  9. Shane Johnson, The Worlds of the Federation (NY: Pocket Books, 1989), 22.
  10. Eileen Palestine, ed., Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (NY: Ballantine Books, 1977).
  11. S. D. Perry, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Unity (NY: Pocket Books, 2003).
  12. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, issue #13, Parents' Day (Marvel/Paramount Comics, 1997).
  13. Dayton Ward, Star Trek: Typhon Pact – Paths of Disharmony (NY: Pocket Books, 2010).
  14. Dayton Ward, Star Trek: The Fall – Peaceable Kingdoms (NY: Pocket Books, 2013).
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