Star Trek: 10 Alien Species You’ve Probably Forgotten About

There is one purple-haired ensign (now lieutenant jg) who won't forget his first Vendorian. It had taken the form of a put-upon Andorian elder on Tulgana IV, and Boimler then, naturally, phasered the wrong blue guy, starting a bar brawl until Beckett 'Kirk hands' Mariner stepped in to offer drinks. The lesson? Always know your shapeshifters or you'll end up working on a research asteroid.

The Vendorians made their debut back in the 1970s in the OG Animated Series episode The Survivor. A truly alien alien species, the likes of which only animation could really achieve at the time, the Vendorians were octopus-like creatures capable of rearranging their own atoms to become anyone or anything (even engineering components) of relative size.

Imitation being the sincerest (and creepiest) form of flattery, if a Vendorian maintained the form of a person for long enough, it would begin to take on the memories, emotions, and attitudes of that person. This was the case for famous, and formerly lost explorer Carter Winston who crash landed on the Vendorian homeworld, living there for almost a year before his body "ceased to function". The masquerading Vendorian who had cared for Carter then weaselled his way aboard the Enterprise to commit all sorts of sabotage.