Andorian

Andorians are a fictional race of humanoid extraterrestrials in the Star Trek universe. They are native to the icy M-class moon Andoria (also called Andor ), which orbits a blue, ringed gas giant. Definitive traits include their blue skin, a pair of cranial antennae, and white hair. Andorians first appeared in the 1968 Star Trek: 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 utilized as recurring characters, most notably in the person of Shran, a starship commander who maintained a sometimes adversarial and begruding friendship with Enterprise Captain Jonathan Archer. On that series, viewers learned more about Andorian ships, the home planet Andoria, and the culture and history of Andorians and their subspecies, the Aenar, than had previously been established to date. The 2004 episode "Zero Hour" established that Andorians were one of the four founding members of the United Federation of Planets.

Biology
Andorians have blue blood, blue skin, white hair, and antennae on the crown of the skull. By the time of 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 several months.

There are at least two Andorian subspecies: those with blue skin, the majority of the population; and the more reclusive, blue-white-skinned Aenar, long considered a myth until contact was remade with blueskins circa 2154 in the episode "The Aenar". The Aenar are blind, but exhibit telepathic and telemetric abilities. Aenar appear to use their antennae as telepathic receptors.

Culture
Andorian ale is a blue alcoholic beverage, and Andorian blues is a genre of music.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Data's Day", Lt Cmdr Data says that "Andorian marriages require four people, unless...." It is unknown what Data intended to say, as he was interrupted before he could complete the statement.

History
The first seagoing ship to circumnavigate Andoria was the icecutter Kumari. Centuries later, its venerated name would grace a starship of the Andorian imperial guard.

Their first encounter with the Vulcans was promising, but relations soured in time. The threat of mutual annihilation existed as early as the 1950s. The two species held territorial negotiations for eight years in the 2060s.

About 2104, Andorians made contact with the Aenar, dispelling their mythological status.

Andorians terraformed the planet Weytahn, only to have it annexed by the Vulcans. In 2151, the Andorian Imperial Guard discovered a Vulcan spy station hidden on the monastery world P'Jem.

In 2153, the Guard sent a ship into the Delphic Expanse in vain, to capture a Xindi weapon to use against Vulcan. The next year, Andorian commander Shran helped counter the Xindi threat to Earth.

In 2161, Andorians -- along with humans, Tellarites, and Vulcans -- founded the United Federation of Planets.

At the 2260s conference at Babel which took up the admission of Coridan, the Andorians were represented, in part, by ambassador Shras.

In the 2270s, a number of Andorians served aboard the refitted starship Enterprise. In 2291, a painting of a notable Andorian graced the conference room of the Enterprise-A.

In 2371, the gerontological doctor Ghee P'Trell of Andor was nominated for the Carrington Award. (The script referred to the character as 'Chirurgeon', a title derived from Greek, meaning surgeon.)

Empire
Andor experienced conflict with the Vulcans. The Vulcans annex the Andorian planet Weytahn. By the 2100s, the two had entered a cold war of sorts.

In 2161, Andorians and Vulcans put their differences aside and formed the United Federation of Planets with Terrans and Tellarites.

Andoria is an icy moon orbiting a ringed gas giant. It has also been referred to as Andor. Most of its cities are built underground to take advantage of geothermal warmth. Temperatures have been known to reach 28 degrees below zero Celsius 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.

The non-canonical Star Trek: Star Charts cites Andor as the seventh planet in orbit about the star Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) in the Alpha quadrant. Andor is near Betazed, Earth, Tellar, and Vulcan.

Noncanonical information
A 1970s technical fiction book, The Starfleet Medical 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. These points were repeated in the 1980s book Worlds of the Federation. Fully-insectoid races seen 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--the two roughly male thaan and chan, and the two female-like shen and zhen. The novels imply that the rarity of compatible 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.