Star Trek: 10 Characters That Faked Their Way Into Starfleet

By Jack Kiely / April 2, 2024

There's an Old-Earth aphorism that says, 'fake it until you make it'. The characters on this list might have taken that all too literally to heart. In fact, in this case, that little dictum would only get them halfway. To make it in Starfleet, they'd have to keep faking it, right up until the point they were found out.

Quite surprisingly, numerous individuals have wormed and falsified their way into the spacefaring institution over the years. Not everyone has done it for nefarious reasons, although a fair few have. Still keeping an eye on you, Grudge! Some have gotten away with the fraud and fakery for years, whilst others have been unmasked within a matter of hours or days.

Others still have brazenly and openly donned the uniform without permission, and there was nothing Starfleet could do about it. Then, there have been those who had to fake it, because Starfleet, in all its 'wisdom,' wouldn't let them make it in the first place. As for those Live Fast and Prosper phoneys, you won't find them here. They were out-and-out con artists, and so far removed from the real Starfleet that they'd need their own list.

With all the high tech detection available to Star Trek's future Starfleet, the con artist also has to keep up, but the basic premise of deception has always remained the same — tell a really good lie, which, as the Ferengi say (via Captain Janeway), is often "easier to believe than the truth".

10. Lone Satarran

Woah! Commander Riker sure does look different without the beard again! No, no, my mistake. That's Commander Kieran MacDuff! Now, where haven't we seen him before? This particular Satarran — a species whose true appearance will burn itself into your retinas — thoroughly frauded his way into the Star fleet without having to do any of the exams. Do not pass go; do head directly to Lysian Central Command.

That game of chess in Ten Forward was far more prescient than Data and Deanna Troi had imagined. Forget the Samarian sunsets, in their amnesiac state, they'd soon have to outwit the surreptitious Satarran (in less than seven moves). The whole headscratcher for the crew in Conundrum began when the Enterprise-D was scanned by an unknown vessel. Not only did that mess with memories (and positronic circuits), but a certain MacDuff just appeared on the bridge, in full Starfleet regalia, with the appropriate number of pips.

What the Satarrans lacked in weapons technology, they made up for in fancy-pants fakery: MacDuff came with his own fraudulent personnel file that included information on his date and place of birth, the names of his parents, his previous posting, and his years of entry and exit of the Academy. Still, MacDuff couldn't pull the wool gabardine — the actual material used to make the Next Gen uniforms from season three onwards — over the crew's eyes for long. Even with their memories and computer files altered and suppressed, they were all far too smart to go blowing up a comparatively defenceless space station. Instead, they turned their weapons on the impostor. Checkmate, MacDuff. Checkmate!