Origin of Andorian Marriage Customs?

[Ragua]

After reading TGTMD, I was wondering where the idea of Andorians having four sexes, and thus needing four members for marriage, started. The first I ever read of this custom/biological scenario was in the DS9 Relaunch, but I was wondering if it had ever been mentioned in any of the series and/or any of the previous books.

Any and all background info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Turtletrekker]

^That Andorians marry in groups of four was established in TNG's "Data's Day". That this meant that four genders were involved is an invention of the writers and editors.

 

[Trek]

I believe this is baised on a line from the TNG Episode "Data's Day" where data mentions that Andorians marry in fours.

*EDIT* Damn beaten to it. *EDIT*

 

[nickyboy]

i think it was mentioned in TNG episode "data's day" where data is learning about marriage customs

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Ahhh...I love the sound of a good echo in the late afternoon.

 

[captcalhoun]

one of the RPG books suggests that the 4 people marriage is actually two couples (ie 2 males and 2 females) who raise their kids together in case a parent gets killed in an avalanche or somethin

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ragua said:
Any and all background info would be greatly appreciated!

A Rogues' Gallery of Andorians

 

[Ragua]

Damn, you guys are fast! I knew I'd come to the right place!

Q420 said:
^That Andorians marry in groups of four was established in TNG's "Data's Day". That this meant that four genders were involved is an invention of the writers and editors.

Could you please clarify? The writers and editors of that episode, or the writers and editors of the books?

Also, does anyone know if the original idea of a marriage consisting of four members was influenced or sparked by the custom of sedoretu on one of the world's of LeGuin's Hainish universe?

 

[KRAD]

Could you please clarify? The writers and editors of that episode, or the writers and editors of the books?

Books. All the episode said was that Andorians marry in groups of four. Sexes were not mentioned one way or the other.

Editor Marco Palmieri decided to take that a step further when he was developing the post-finale DS9 fiction in 2000 and decided to have an Andorian character (keep in mind that this was before Enterprise was even announced, and the party line at the time was that there weren't likely to be any Andorians onscreen anytime soon).

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I prefer the novels take on the subject over the RPG book's take. I think the idea of four genders is very fascinating and is one of my favorite aspects of the post-finale books of Deep Space Nine.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^Agreed. So many aliens in the Trek universe seem to be just like us, but the four genders thing is genuinely alien.

 

[foravalon]

The great thing about Enterprise though was that nothing was shown that inherently contradicted anything in the books. Even the casting choices seemed to fit nicely with the gender types explicated in the books.

 

[JD]

Emh said:
I prefer the novels take on the subject over the RPG book's take. I think the idea of four genders is very fascinating and is one of my favorite aspects of the post-finale books of Deep Space Nine.

Same here. I was disappointed when that thread was (apparently) tied up in Paradigm. I'm still hoping that Shar might come back to the station, so we can get more Andorian goodness, that and because his leaving brought an end to one of my favorite relationships in the series, his & Prynn's.

 

[captcalhoun]

my feelings on the ludicrousness of four-genders are well known, i'll leave it at that.

 

[Therin of Andor]

foravalon said:
The great thing about Enterprise though was that nothing was shown that inherently contradicted anything in the books. Even the casting choices seemed to fit nicely with the gender types explicated in the books.

Agreed.

Shran = thaan
Tholos = chan (Tholos seemed quite androgynous!)
Tarah = shen
Talas, Jhamel = zhen.

I loved how Data added an "... except -" to his description in "Data's Day", but got interrupted. While the DS9 novels extrapolated four genders from his statement - and underpopulation - there were earlier interpretations based on limited information from TOS and TAS.

ie. Way back in 1976, BNF ("big name fanwriter") Leslie Fish postulated three genders and, to explain Andorian feistiness, overpopulation. See:
A Summary of the Physiological Roots of Andorian Culture

Leslie Fish also wrote fanfic featuring Thelin (of "Yesteryear", TAS) and his "Aunt" Shras ("Journey to Babel")!

 

[Trek]

What about the Mirror Universe?

Spoiler: Glass Empires

Genral Shran acts very much like there are two sexes with Empress Sato.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Trek said:
What about the Mirror Universe?

Spoiler: Glass Empires

Genral Shran acts very much like there are two sexes with Empress Sato.

Spoiler: Glass Empires

Shran never discusses Andorian biology with anyone in the story, so there is no contradiction.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Well, in the "Dark Passions" MU, all Andorians were...




eradicated.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^Ouch!

 

[Trek]

^Good point.

Spoiler: Glass Empires

Did'nt stop him sleeping with her though - you'd have though it'd have come up