Cytherian
The Cytherians were an advanced species who lived near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. They were explorers and made contact with various other races. The manner in which they initiated first contact was atypical; they brought other races to them rather than traveling the galaxy in search of intelligent life.

In 2367, the  encountered an alien probe while attempting to repair the Argus Array. The probe interfaced with Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, and gave him the advanced knowledge needed to bring the Enterprise-D through a subspace distortion to the Cytherians, the presumed makers of the device. After the Enterprise-D had arrived at the Cytherians' homeworld, Barclay was returned to normal. ()

People 
 Unnamed Cytherians

Appendices

Background information 
The script notes for "The Nth Degree" described what appeared simply as "a holographic-type image of an alien being. It is an odd combination of intense curiosity, lightheartedness, quickness and benevolence."

According to an internal reference document, listing all the aliens seen in , which was circulated around the time of the production of TNG Season 5, the Cytherians were described as "elderly, bearded human-like men, with blue patch on forehead."

Apocrypha
The Cytherians return in the Pocket TNG novel Takedown, where a renegade Cytherian named Proctor augments eight 'diplomats' from various key powers in the Alpha Quadrant and 'programs' them to attack assorted long-range Federation communication outposts; the intention is that, while the attacks themselves are not intended to cause any actual loss of life, the resulting hostility will lead to the Cytherians being identified as the cause of the attacks and encourage them to remain in isolation. However, the truth is exposed when Admiral William T. Riker is able to complete his 'assignments' faster than anticipated by transferring from his flagship, the , to the faster USS Aventine, allowing him to delay his return to the Cytherian outpost and provide the  with the clues needed to work out what was going on. This results in Picard and Riker making contact with their original Cytherian contact Caster, exposing the deception, and helping the Cytherians establish clearer limits for their future interactions with the galaxy.

External link

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Species