Star Trek: Picard: Every Character Who Infiltrated Starfleet, Ranked By Their Success
As much as Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future painted an idyllic utopia, there were insurgents devoted to dismantling it. Since Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), covert operatives have attempted to infiltrate Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, disrupting the balance of power of the peaceful organizations in the Alpha Quadrant.
From Klingons undergoing drastic surgical alterations to pose as humans in both TOS andStar Trek: Discovery, to Romulans attempting to hide in plain sight as Vulcan Ambassadors in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the enemies of the Federation have thought of elaborate ways to accomplish their goals of subterfuge. Some of them were discovered almost immediately while others, like Commodore Oh from Star Trek: Picard, were able to conceal themselves for decades without being suspected. Below you'll find a detailed list of every character who infiltrated Starfleet, ranked by their level of success.
10 J'DAN
A member of the Officer Exchange Program, exobiologist and Klingon J'Dan served aboard the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation.A lieutenant in the Klingon Defense Force, he felt that since the Federation Alliance, Klingons had become weak like "mewling babies." He saw the Romulans as stronger allies.
After he arrived on the Federation flagship, the warp core's dilithium articulation frame mysteriously exploded. It was discovered that J'Dan had been using a hyposyringe, which he pretended to use to treat his Ba'ltmasor Syndrome, as an optical chip read. He'd sent schematics of the ship's dilithium chamber to the Romulans. He was immediately sent to Qo'noS to stand trial for espionage.
9 ARNE DARVIN
Arne Darvin was a 23rd century Klingon intelligence officer who assumed the identity and form of a human through extensive surgical alterations. He posed as an assistant to Nilz Baris, the Federation Undersecretary for Agriculture. On Deep Space Station K-7, he attempted to poison a shipment of vital quadrotriticale grain headed for Sherman's Planet.
Captain James T. Kirk was able to expose Darvin for being a Klingon with the use of a tribble. After receiving a decommendation, he assumed the identity of Barry Waddle and wandered the cosmos. He attempted to use the Orb of Time in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to return to 2268 and take his revenge on Kirk by planting a tricobalt bomb in a tribble, but the crew of the USS Defiant stopped him just in time.
8 SELOK
Selok was a sub-commander in the Romulan Star Empire, but posed as honored Vulcan Ambassador T'Pel visiting the Enterprise-D in the 24th century. She was involved in a transporter accident and died while the ship was engaged in a rendezvous with the Romulan ship Devoras.
While the ambassador was being beamed over to the Romulan ship to engage in peaceful parley, genetic material that had been replicated was found on the transporter platform. Her true identity as Selok was exposed, but the Federation flagship was outnumbered, and recalled to Federation Space.
7 THE VENDORIAN
When trader Carter Winston crash-landed on Vendor inStar Trek: The Animated Series, he was tended to by a Vendorian who later assumed his identity after he died. As Carter Winston, the Vendorian began working with the Romulans, and developed a ruse to infiltrate Starfleet by setting his craft adrift in the Neutral Zone where the Enterprise would find it.
While Captain Kirk and Winston discussed the necessary repairs to his ship, the Vendorian rendered Kirk unconscious and assumed his form. He then had the Enterprise lay in a course for Rator III through the Neutral Zone. He would assume several other Starfleet officers' forms before his true identity was discovered.
6 VOQ
An albino Klingon, Voq was an outcast among his warrior race who followed the T'Kuvma movement, based on a belief that the Federation-Klingon Alliance threatened Klingon independence. He was granted the position of Torchbearer by T'Kuvma himself, who was later killed by Michael Burnham of the USS Discovery.
Desperate to get all the Great Houses to rally behind T'Kuvma's mission, Voq underwent an excruciating surgical alteration to take the form of human Starfleet officer Ash Tyler. Tyler was rescued from a Klingon ship by the Discovery, not knowing his true identity. The ruse worked for a time, until fellow Klingon L'Rell activated Voq, but with two sets of memories threatening to kill Tyler, Voq had to be ultimately removed.
5 CHANGELING BASHIR
Julian Bashir, a gifted physician aboard Deep Space Nine was taken captive by the Dominion on Meezan IV in the 24th century. After he was taken to Internment Camp 371, a Changeling took his place involved with a mission assisting Dominion forces traveling through Cardassian territory with intent to destabilize the Federation Alliances.
As a Changeling of the Founders, this Bashir was tasked with disrupting relations between the Klingons, Romulans, and other Federation organizations in the Alpha Quadrant, all the while maintaining appearances aboard the space station (including regular racquetball with Miles O'Brien). He successfully impersonated Bashir for roughly 4 weeks before he was found out.
4 CONTROL
Control was a threat assessment system developed by Section 31 after the breakout of the war between the Klingons and the Federation. Located at Section 31 HQ, it was able to make conflict predictions by Starfleet Admirals feeding data into its highly sophisticated artificial intelligence and then taking its recommendations.
Eventually, decision making was turned entirely over to Control after strange red signals began to appear in the 23rd century. It eventually took the form of Section 31 leader Leland, as well as a variety of other Starfleet personnel, in order to take over the entire Section 31 fleet. It was finally neutralized in 2257, and the USS Discovery went into the future by 930 years to prevent it from reappearing.
3 PARASITIC BEING
The parasitic beings were a dangerous non-human life form that managed to infiltrate Starfleet at the highest of levels of command in the 24th century. The Federation ultimately determined they originated in an unexplored area of the Milky Way Galaxy, and had the ability to control humans and Vulcans.
They first came to the attention of the Federation after they were discovered on a routine survey mission. No bigger than insects, they could infiltrate a host body and position a gill at the base of its neck from which to breathe. Over six months, they managed to take control over the brains of many influential Admirals, until the mother-parasite was destroyed by Captain Picard and Commander Will Riker.
2 NARISSA RIZZO
A colonel in the Romulan Tal Shiar, Narissa Rizzo posed as a lieutenant in Starfleet in the late 24th century under the purview of Commodore Oh, Head of Starfleet Security. Also a member of the secretive Zhat Vash, she was committed to preventing synthetic life from wiping out all organic life.
Rizzo sent operatives after Dahj Asha, a unique flesh and blood synthetic life-form created by Dr. Bruce Maddox and, when that mission failed, concentrated on her twin sister Soji. She was supposedly killed by Seven of Nine aboard the Artifact, an abandoned Borg Cube occupied by the Romulan Reclamation Project, but her body was never found.
1 COMMODORE OH
Head of Starfleet Security, Commodore Oh enjoyed a great deal of influence. A half-Romulan, half-Vulcan, Oh's true identity was General Nedar of the Romulan Star Empire, as well as a member of the Zhat Vash, dedicated to wiping out all synthetic life. She was the architect behind the synthetic revolt on Mars orchestrating the ban of all androids.
Oh infiltrated Starfleet when Dr. Noonian Soong began making androids capable of surpassing humans in the 24th century. She orchestrated every mission that agents Narissa and Narek went on to locate Dahj and Soji (two Soong androids) and find out where the android home-world Coppelius was. She was eventually stopped by Jean-Luc Picard and Starfleet.
Source: screenrant.com