Star Trek: 10 Shapeshifting Aliens That We Know About

Science fiction has often been reproached, and not without reason, for skewing a view of the universe towards a humanoid — that's not to say human — form. Star Trek doubled down on not tripling the special effects budget when it introduced (in The Chase) its version of a great directed panspermia to explain any inter-species resemblances beyond the pointy ears and the odd antenna. If anthropomorphism predominates, then it's because it predates the anthropic by a few billion years, i.e., they don't look human — humans don't look human — they look like a Progenitor! 

However, in spite of the outward preponderance of bipedalism and variations on a familiar visage, Trek has tried, and succeeded, over the decades, with the means at its disposal, to diversify the range of extra-terrestrials on offer. One such effort at difference and differentiation was the inclusion of all manner of things shapeshifting, beginning, in theory, in the first ever episode of Star Trek to be broadcast — The Man Trap. A Salt Vampire might well be a shapeshifter on a technicality, but it's one you'd be wise not to argue whilst you're on the other end of those suckers.

Most recently, we got the news that one species of shapeshifter in particular would soon be making a return to the franchise after an absence of more than 30 years. We couldn't help but wonder, therefore, about all the other changers-of-form out there in galactic Trek history. This, you might say, is our bucket list.

Let's start with the most memorably morphogenic, shall we? It all began, for most of the alpha and beta quadrants anyway, with 'Unknown sample,' or more literally 'nothing,' in the Denorios Belt. 'Ital' was eventually dropped from the label, but Odo remained none the wiser for the longest time as to his origins. Eventually, of course, Odo found his people, but, echoing Sisko in Homefront, there were times he wished he never had.

As we all now know, aside from Odo and the other 99 (Luftballons, if they wanted), the Changelings — first referred to as such in Vortex — were also the Founders of the ruthless Dominion. With a name like that, they weren't going to be much else! These were "goo-people," in Captain Shaw's colourful phraseology. Not far off, in their natural state, the Changelings were basically some sort of shimmering gelatinous liquid. Though they could exist as discrete entities, they also formed a collective whole in the (in)famous 'Great Link' ("Drop becomes the ocean, the ocean becomes a drop" and all that).

As individuals, whether trying to rule the galaxy or just apply the rule of law, it was through the magic of the 'morphogenic enzymes' in their 'morphogenic matrix' that the Changelings could assume just about any form they wanted (or were practised enough at) — from rock to cloud to space whale as big as a runabout to the buddy you'd been playing darts with for the past several weeks. As a species, they didn't eat, sleep, excrete, or have sex unless they were trying out that curious thing the 'solids' do. All that, and they were probably immortal — or "timeless," if you prefer — too.