The blue-skinned Andorians are certainly one of the most distinctive species in the “Star Trek” universe. Though the look of the species has modified considerably from show to show, a number of traits have remained constant. Andorians have small brow ridges, a pair of antennae, white hair and brilliant blue pores and skin.

The Andorians had been first launched in the episode “Journey to Babel” from “Star Trek: The Original Series.” Veteran “Star Trek” author Dorothy Fontana created the species particularly for the episode.

Her authentic notes revealed little about the species, although they did reveal why they had been blue. However, her rationalization is very completely different than the motive that grew to become a part of the “Star Trek” canon.

The Behind the Scenes Reason

When “Star Trek” was model new in the Nineteen Sixties, the writers bought the alternative to create new species all the time. Each of the completely different species that followers are aware of right this moment was created from scratch by the writers. In reality, a lot of them had been created by Fontana herself.

Often, these new species had been born from an attention-grabbing idea or make-up concept. This was the case with the Andorians.

A make-up and costume memo Fontana wrote for “Journey to Babel” acknowledged, “Andorians are pale blue. Because.”

Fontana did not embrace rather more details about the Andorian physiology, apart from their antennae, or present an additional motive for his or her distinctive look. Few particulars had been included about their tradition both, with the exception of the incontrovertible fact that they had been fierce warriors.

The Canon Reason

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For many years, the Andorians had been hardly ever seen in “Star Trek” reveals. They made a few appearances in “Star Trek: The Animated Series” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” however had been utterly absent from each “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager.”One probably motive for the lack of Andorians was the complicated makeup, which was each expensive and time-consuming.

Because the Andorians appeared so hardly ever, there weren’t any alternatives to find out about their physiology or tradition till “Star Trek: Enterprise.” Showrunners Rick Berman and Brannon Braga determined that they wished to carry the Andorians again in the prequel show and make them a significant a part of the collection. They labored with the visible results division to utterly redesign the make-up and antennae. The outcome was a way more plausible and hanging species.

Bringing the Andorians again additionally meant increasing their backstory and making them a extra complicated species. According to “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years,” the “Enterprise” writing employees, with Fred Dekker taking the artistic lead, was tasked with creating all the particulars about the Andorians that had been overlooked of the earlier collection. They fleshed out the Andorian physiology, psychology, and tradition episode by episode.

In certainly one of the Andorian-centric episodes, “United,” the Andorian’s blue pores and skin was lastly given a canonical rationalization. During that episode, Lieutenant Talas was fatally wounded. The blood from her wounds was the similar shade of blue as her pores and skin. This means that the Andorians’ pores and skin is considerably translucent, permitting the pigment of the blood to show by means of.

This canonical rationalization does not match with the physiology of different alien species in the Trekverse. The Vulcans and Romulans have inexperienced blood, however their pores and skin does not mirror the coloration of their blood. Klingons normally have crimson blood, although in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” they inexplicably have pink blood. Klingon pores and skin coloration is nearly at all times brown, with the exception of the Albino in DS9 and the albinos in “Star Trek: Discovery.” So, their pores and skin does not mirror their blood coloration both.

In people, pores and skin coloration has nothing to do with the coloration of the blood. According to the Smithsonian, human pigmentation is the results of melanin. The extra melanin, the darker the pores and skin, the much less melanin the lighter the pores and skin. Since Vulcans, Romulans, and Klingons all have pores and skin colours that don’t have anything to do with the coloration of their blood, it follows that their pores and skin coloration is the results of an alien equal of melanin. If the Andorians actually do get the coloration of their pores and skin from their blood, it follows that their pores and skin does not have its personal pigmentation.

However, this rationalization does not even make sense inside the canon created by “Enterprise.” In the episode “The Aenar,” a subspecies of Andorians known as Aenar had been found by Shran and Archer. They had been thought-about a fable by most Andorians since they had been remoted to the harshest environments of the planet.

The Aenar have white pores and skin with only a trace of blue in it. They had been described as “albino Andorians,” which means that their pores and skin lacked pigmentation solely. Since the Aenar developed from the Andorians, this implies that the Andorians do, in reality, have pigmented pores and skin. So, the coloration of their blood should not influence the coloration of their pores and skin.

Whether it is smart or not, the established in world canon is that Andorians’ blue blood makes their pores and skin blue. Of course, the actual motive is that Fontana simply felt like making a blue alien.

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