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| Andorians | |
|---|---|
| Star Trek race | |
 Commander Shran and crew from the 2004Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Proving Ground". | |
| First appearance | |
| Created by | D.C. Fontana |
| In-universe information | |
| Quadrant | Beta, Alpha |
| Home world | Andoria |
| Sub-races | Aenar |
| Language | Andorian language |
| Affiliation | United Federation of Planets,Andorian Empire |
Andorians are a fictional race ofhumanoidextraterrestrials in the Americanscience fiction franchiseStar Trek. They were created by writerD. C. Fontana. Within theStar Trek narrative, they are native to the blue icy Class M moon, Andoria (sometimes referred to as Andor[1]). Distinctive traits of Andorians include their blue/green skin, a pair ofcranialantennae, and white hair.[2]
Andorians first appeared in the 1967Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Journey to Babel", and have been seen or mentioned in episodes of subsequent series in theStar Trek franchise. They were indicated to be a vital, important member of theUnited Federation of Planets in the 1997Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "In the Cards", but did not gain considerable exposure until the 2001–2005 seriesStar Trek: Enterprise, on which they were used as recurring characters, most notably in the person ofThy'lek Shran, a starship commander who maintained a sometimes adversarial and begrudging friendship withEnterprise CaptainJonathan Archer. The series revealed more about Andorian ships, the home world Andoria, and the culture and history of Andorians and their subspecies, theAenar. The 2004 episode "Zero Hour" established that Andorians were one of the four founding members of the United Federation of Planets.[3]
Andorians appeared in four episodes of The Original Series, and were background elements inStar Trek: The Motion Picture andStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but remained largely undeveloped untilEnterprise.[4] ShowrunnerBrannon Braga originally wanted to limit the number of original series elements onEnterprise, but came to see the challenge of "tak(ing) the goofiest aliens from The Original Series and make them a real culture that’s cool and believable."[5]
Andorians have blue blood, blue skin, white hair, and antennae on the crown of the skull. By the time of the 2001 – 2005 TV seriesStar Trek: Enterprise, the antennae were depicted as protruding from the forehead, and capable of movement, used forgesturing andbalancing. The design of Andorians has changed with every new production; including the placement of their antennae, additional makeup appliances, and the blue shade of their skin.[4]
Andoria (sometimes referred to as Andor),[1] is an icy moon orbiting a ringedgas giant. In a DVD bonus feature for the 4th season ofEnterprise, episode writersJudith andGarfield Reeves-Stevens stated that Andor was the gas giant, Andoria the moon, and that this was a conscious effort to address the discrepancy, but continued varying usage across canon, reference, and licensed sources have not fully resolved the discrepancy.
Most of Andoria's cities are built underground to take advantage ofgeothermal 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.[4]
The non-canonicalStar Trek Star Charts (2002) cites Andoria as the seventh planet in orbit around the starProcyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) in theBeta quadrant,[6] but previous material has Andoria as the eighth planet of the orange dwarfEpsilon Indi in theAlpha quadrant.[7][8] Andoria is nearBetazed,Earth,Tellar, andVulcan.
In 2017,Den of Geek ranked the Andorians the 9th best aliens of theStar Trek franchise.[9]
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