Andromeda: Cultures: Than-Thre-Kull
The Than are an insectoid race with different coloured skin depending on their designation in society. The green coloured ones are the engineers and scientists. Yellow or brownish coloured are the Than workers and the red ones are, of course the warriors.
They have a collective intelligence, a ‘hive mind’, there is some big brain running things somewhere, but each Than is individualistic and erm…. hermaphrodite.
They reproduce by getting together in groups (about a hundred or so). then they all dig a big pit and fill it with a sort of fungus (hey…. I’m interpreting all this from Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s speech at some Star Trek conference ok! just thought I’d mention that in case you thought I was going crazy or something). Then they all stand around the edge of the pit and erm.. sprinkle their erm.. genetic material into the fungus and I swear I’m not making this up… eventually lots of little babies come out and feed on the fungus (wow! it makes you kinda hungry doesn’t it). Oh yes, and there are about 10,000 of them.
After a few years, approximately one hundred of the healthier babies leave the pit and become valuable members of Than society (by then they have matured enough to have developed a skin colour).
Wolfe elaborated… “Then you have about 99 brothers and sisters and a hundred parents, so it’s a very tight knit society and Khan’s know everyone they’re related to.”
if you were to meet one in a pub you congratulate him/her/it on it’s survival past puberty.
The Than have a sense of humour (as seen briefly in the first episode) but they are not shy when it comes to battle. They are brave to the point of being fanatical and ALL castes will go to war should the need arise.
There are two more castes that should be mentioned. The leaders of the Than are the ones which are coloured a sort of sapphire colour. They are the intellectuals. one final Than caste that we don’t yet know about is the ‘Diamond than’. I have no idea what these are, but I guess we will eventually find out.
| Skin Colour | Position in Than Society |
| Yellow-brown, Amber | People that ‘Do‘. The workers and labourers. |
| Dark green, Emerald | People that ‘Do people in.’ Than-Thre-Kull Warriors |
| Bright red, Ruby | People that ‘Do things up.‘ The builders and developers. |
| Brilliant blue, Sapphire | People that tell people ‘what to Do.’ The scholars and scientists. |
| Shimmering Diamond | People that ‘Do what they like.‘ Venerable Royalty – leaders and priests. The top Shimmering Diamond is called the Overdiamond and is the ruler of all Than. |
The Than who played the pilot of the Andromeda in the first episode was called Refractions of Dawn. However, Than names are actually haiku’s, and though the crew called her Dawn her full name is something like ‘Crimson sparkling in first light, dewdrops ignited on grass blades, refractions of dawn.” Actually she was an it! Than are hermaphrodites.
Please note: This culture review was cobbled together with bits and pieces I found on the Net and from scraps of information from a speech by the venerable lead writer of Andromeda, Robert Hewitt Wolfe.
| Race Rating – Than-Thre-Kull | |||
| Personality | 1 (rancid butter) – | 5 (cool dude) | 4 |
| Attractiveness | 1 (requires paper bag) – | 5 (Drop-dead-gorgeous) |
1 |
| Humor | 1 (stomach-turning) – | 5 (sidesplitting) |
3 |
| Dress Sense | 1 (laughable) – | 5 (hip) |
3 |
| Aggression | 1 (big/little softy) – | 5 (hard as nails) |
3 |
| Social Standing | 1 (scumbag) – | 5 (god) |
3 |
|
Sad Geezer Race Rating (out of 30) 17 |
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The “Than” Culture Review is © 2000 Tony Fawl.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission
The names, characters and everything else associated with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda TV series are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.
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