Star Trek: 10 Shapeshifting Aliens That We Know About

These Delta Quadrant curiosities could arguably be better described as shape-takers, not shape-shifters. In any case, duplicating a person so perfectly, down to individual memories of Indiana and onwards, such that even they forget they are a copy is more than good enough to count here.

'Deuterium, hydrogen sulphate, dichromates, and a dash of protein molecules' is not the unseasoned recipe for Neelix's soup, but the bio-chemical composition of the biomimetic lifeform encountered by Voyager, itself in dire need of deuterium for fuel. 'Biomimesis' might sound fun until you get it all up in your spacesuit or on your thumb, though the former, for Harry Kim, was surely preferable to peddling home in the mess hall.

Volunteering himself and "good buddy Tom" for a trip to the surface of the Class-Y, the ever-eager Ensign and Lieutenant Paris became the first to be reproduced by the rather poetically named 'silver blood,' and the first to give it the added salt of sentience. All that was then needed to duplicate the rest of the crew was samples of their DNA, at least partial evidence that humans (and every alien species present on Voyager) possessed a highly specific form of genetic memory. Another shapeshifter of sorts from the Alpha Quadrant had previously demonstrated this capacity in humans — the Lyssarian Desert Larvae and its mimetic simbiot. As for the silver blood copies from Voyager, they were destined not to be remembered at all.