Andorian
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2013) |
| Andorians | |
|---|---|
| Star Trek race | |
 Commander Shran and crew from the 2004 Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Proving Ground". | |
| In-universe information | |
| Other name(s) | Aenar (sub-species) |
| Home world | Andoria |
| Affiliation | United Federation of Planets, Andorian Empire |
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 moon, Andoria (also called Andor[1]). Distinctive traits of Andorians include their blue skin, a pair of cranial antennae, and white hair.[2]
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
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 Enterprise 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 begin to trust Archer. Also in this episode, Andorians begin to refer to humans using the pejorative "pink-skin."
The tensions between Andor and Vulcan gradually resolved when Archer settled 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 to assist Archer in retrieving a prototype of the Xindi weapon, only to betray him by taking the weapon. Archer believes Shran will use the weapon against the Vulcans, so he remotely sets the detonation sequence to prevent this. Shran expels the weapon from his ship before detonation. In the season 3 finale, Shran helps 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
| This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2008) |
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
| # | Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| # | Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|
| Star Trek: The Motion Picture | Three ambassadors in crowd at Starfleet Headquarters; two crew on Enterprise Rec Deck |
| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Two members of Starfleet on the Federation Council |
| Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | Script suggests one "face of God" was Andorian; see bonus scenes of two-disk DVD |
| # | Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| # | Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| # | Episode | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | "The Wolf Inside" | One of the leaders of the resistance coalition against Terran Empire in a mirror parallel universe |
References
- ^ a b . The moon orbits a gas giant in the Andorian system. 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".
- ^ "Andoria". Star Trek Database. StarTrek.com. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
- ^ "Zero Hour". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 3. Episode 24. May 26, 2004. UPN.
- ^ Fred Dekker, Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 37, p. 11
- ^ a b "United". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 4. Episode 13. February 4, 2005. UPN.
- ^ a b "The Aenar". Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 4. Episode 14. February 11, 2005. UPN.
- ^ Geoffrey Mandel, Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek (NY: Pocket Books, 2002), 52.
- ^ Eileen Palestine, ed., Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (NY: Ballantine Books, 1977), 58.
- ^ a b Shane Johnson, The Worlds of the Federation (NY: Pocket Books, 1989), 22.
- ^ Eileen Palestine, ed., Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (NY: Ballantine Books, 1977).
- ^ S. D. Perry, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Unity (NY: Pocket Books, 2003).
- ^ Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, issue #13, Parents' Day (Marvel/Paramount Comics, 1997).
- ^ Dayton Ward, Star Trek: Typhon Pact – Paths of Disharmony (NY: Pocket Books, 2010).
- ^ Dayton Ward, Star Trek: The Fall – Peaceable Kingdoms (NY: Pocket Books, 2013).
External links
- Andorian at Memory Alpha
- Andor at Memory Alpha
- A Rogues' Gallery of Andorians – a series of blog postings listing the appearances of Andorian characters across all Star Trek media
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