Alpha Quadrant Shapeshifters

[Harry]

Okay, just for the sake of clarity, let's just see who can shapeshift in this little universe of ours. I won't count the various superpowered transcendental beings which usually don't seem to be interested in mortal politics.

Allasomorphs
From Daled IV. A troubled, not particularly signficant culture of unknown technology level (I think? Did they even have warp?), where the Federation helped to foster peace. Certainly a possibility that Starfleet might have recruited some allasomorphs.

Antosians
.. or whatever the guys from Antos IV are called. Kirk claims they are "famous for their benevolence and peaceful pursuits", and they cared for Garth of Izar. Probably a member or close ally of the Federation, but possibly devoted pacifists.

Founders
The ultimate shapeshifters, down the the molecular level. Maybe other shapeshifters are just not as good as the Founders?

Chameloids
"Mythical", but definitely very gifted. An origin on the far side of Klingon space makes perfect sense. Klingons probably don't like sneaky shapeshifting tactics (at least not publicly).

Vendorians
Their homeworld is off-limits and their 'use' is illegal, as defined in some treaty with the Romulans. Maybe they played a role as proxy in the Romulan War? Being greeted by a giant red squid on the viewscreen would certainly make for an entertaining wartime story by grandpa Stiles.

Related tricks:

Lyssarian mimetic larvae
ENT gave us "Sim", a clone made from some weird larvae injected with target DNA. Throw-away lookalike clones. But not shapeshifting. Also, actually illegal under Lysserian laws.

Halanan psychoprojection
Apparently, some telepaths can project convincing illusions. The difficulty would probably be that it's not trivial to simulate some existing person in full.

Holographics
There are no portable holo-emitters (at least in 'public knowledge' ), but if there were, you could create a holographic simulation of someone? Would probably be very easy to scan for.

 

[Nebusj]

Antosians
.. or whatever the guys from Antos IV are called. Kirk claims they are "famous for their benevolence and peaceful pursuits", and they cared for Garth of Izar. Probably a member or close ally of the Federation, but possibly devoted pacifists.

Actually, we don't quite know that the people of Antos are shapeshifters. We know they taught Garth ``the techniques of cellular metamorphosis'', which is certainly leading, but it was ``to restore the destroyed parts of his body''. Garth later, on his own, learned how to use this to shapeshift himself. It may or may not be something that Antosians at large can do; their powers may be limited to excellent recuperative powers, or for a few normal metamorphoses of life.

There are other remarkable matter-sculptors in the Trek universe, such as the Excalbians, although the help which they'd provide is very much up to the author of the episode.

 

[Timo]

Allasomorphs: A troubled, not particularly signficant culture of unknown technology level

From the episode, it seems their communications systems were more advanced or at least more powerful than those of Starfleet.

We should probably divide these mimics into those that actually change their physical form, and those that only make us think they do.

Founders and Chameloids have been shown to squeeze through tight spots - that's no psychic illusion. Garth sounds like he could shapeshift, but we don't know for sure. The allasomorphs in turn sound as if they were just psychic tricksters, but again we don't really know.

The Salt Vampire was obviously psychic, as it could project a customized image to every person in a room. The Vendorian could not have easily pulled off the trick of stopping Romulan disruptor blasts if it were merely psychic - or did it dupe the Romulans into thinking they had fired while in fact the guns remained silent? The trick of being furniture would also usually require either physical mimicry or very good psychic control...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jimmy_C]

Good list Harry. Don't forget those giant slug creatures from Ent's Rogue Planet episode. Oh, there's a list on Memory Alpha:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Shapeshifting_species

Cool. I guess you could also add the Q, Organians, or any higher life form, but that seems like cheating.