In this exclusive Dispatch from Andromeda, Don Lipper speaks with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda co-executive producer and head writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe about the Vedrans, the all-important Founders of the Commonwealth.

They haven’t made an appearance yet for a very profound reason: the crew hasn’t figured how to make the costumes cheaply enough.

SPACE.com: Who is the most important alien race in the series?

Robert Hewitt Wolfe: It depends on what your definition of "important" is. In the greater scheme of the universe the most important race is the Vedrans. They founded the Commonwealth. In the importance of the series they’re not so important because we haven’t quite figured out how we’re going to pull them off yet and we don’t have a show featuring one yet. Overall we will see their alphabet all over the place. We will hear the word "Vedran" quite a bit. They’re very important but we won’t see much of them.

We will see several Than over the course of the early going of the series, a good number of Nightsiders and good number of Perseids. They’re an all important level of relative importance as the series unfolds. In order of prominence in the Commonwealth, it would be Vedran, Perseid, Than, Nightsider.

SC: Okay. And Vedrans?

RHW: Vedrans are very noble, very dedicated, they’re hard working people. They’re very patient, governing part of the same political organization for thousands of years. We haven’t really gone to great lengths to do their look yet, because we haven’t needed to.

SC: So, ideally they’re gonna look like centaurs?

RHW: Ideally.

SC: Are they the remote gods on Olympus who are heard and discussed about but rarely seen?

RHW: Well, no. The Vedrans don’t think of themselves as gods, and they don’t have any godlike power, that’s not really the case. They are a species whose best days are behind them, who have sort of done their thing, made their mark and are somewhat of a fading presence by the time our series starts. So they’re kinda’ like the Austro-Hungarians

SC: I was gonna go with Blanche DuBois. So it wouldn’t be fair to call them the Blanche DuBois of the---

RHW: That would not be fair. They’re tougher than Blanche. The Vedrans can still kick ass, there’s just not as many of them. I mean these people did conquer several galaxies. You don’t do it by being a fading rose. Or a rose of any kind.

SC: And are they sadder but wiser?

RHW: Yeah.

SC: If, and when they do show up, would they be sort of the Merlin type character, the advisor to the younger races?

RHW: Not really. They’re not that avuncular. They’re more like the proud and fading Hapsburgs. The Hapsburgs didn’t go out of their way to be advisors to anybody else, you know? That wasn’t really their style. And they’re still very much involved in the governing of the Commonwealth. The Empress, they still have an Empress, who is the figurehead in a nice Dutch or Swedish way over the Commonwealth. A nice non-interfering, non-scandalizing, non-divorcing and non-mistress-keeping way.

SC: Could you talk a little bit about the Vedran form of reproduction, as far as, not the physical anatomy of it, but how they compete for females?

RHW: There are a large number of Vedran males for a limited number of Vedran females. Females choose their mates from among those who prove themselves to be the most worthy, and then the rest of the males wait their turns and also serve as a sort of drone/foot soldier, for the species. Not in a mindless way, but just in a social way. In the same way that young lions or young horses tend to work together in a herd of horses or a pride of lions.

SC: How has this societal structure left its mark on the individuals?

RHW: They tend to respect achievement very much. They tend to be aggressive when they’re young and conservative when they’re old. They tend to take a lot of risks when they’re young and they tend to not take so many risks when they’re old. They tend to be fiercely loyal to and deferential to the females of the species. In a way it’s a meritocracy without the tests and the bureaucratic stratification of a meritocracy.

SC: It sounds almost as though they have the tournament type culture of the Knights of the Round Table?

RHW: I think that that’s a pretty good analogy for them in a lot of ways. Yeah.

SC: And they have that ... glory.

RHW: Yes, yes.

SC: So their manner would be that courtly?

RHW: Well...

SC: Chivalry?

RHW: Your Knights of the Round Table went from the front, you know, spanned from Gawain on one end to Lancelot, and then went all the way past him to Percival. So you’ve got a fairly large span, and I think you would definitely have some courtly guys, and you would definitely have some guys who made their living knocking people’s heads together and then occasionally put on nice clothing a be polite for a while.

SC: They sound cool. Let’s hope we see them. Didn’t they have centaurs in Hercules? Maybe Kevin Sorbo can get some of his old quadruped co-stars some extra work.