History Main / TheyLookLikeUsNow

* Being DangerouslyGenreSavvy, the Evronians from ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' have [[VoluntaryShapeShifter shapeshifting]] {{Super Soldier}}s just for this ''before'' arriving on Earth. They're used only three times, but each time they're devastating:

** This trope is outright exploited by the Founders in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'': One reveals himself to [[TheCaptain Sisko]] to gleefuly reveal that there are only three Founder infiltrators on the ''entire'' planet Earth, center of TheFederation, and look what they've accomplished! [[spoiler: In fear of the possibility of Founder infiltrators amongst them, Earth declares martial law, and a series of events nearly leads to an outright military coup of the civilian government, and two Starfleet ships [[FriendOrFoe firing on each other]].]]

* ''{{V}}'' has reptilian aliens.

* ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' and its parent, ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' have the Zentraedi, a race of giants who later reveal they can "micronize" to become our size. They send a team of spies into the SDF-1, which backfires horribly for their PlanetOfHats culture.

** ''{{Transformers}}'' in general is clearly in the same spirit. While most Transformers disguise themselves as vehicles rather than people,, the principle is the same... Any car on the road or plane in the sky could be a robot in disguise. One of them could be in your driveway ''right now''. And that's just the rank and file; it's been shown that they've branched out and there are Transformers who are capable of becoming all sorts of things you might have ''insude'' the house as well, like a camera, a microscope, a wristwatch, or a computer not terribly different from the one you're looking at right now. That monitor you're staring into? It could be ''staring back''.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheThing The Thing 2002]]'' has this as a gameplay mechanic. By using a syringe and a chemical that reacts to blood by releasing heat, you can test your party members for infection. If the syringe changes from red to brown, they're A-O-K, but if the syringe breaks, fry him, he's an alien, and mutating into a beastie as we speak.

* This has always been the approach of the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Skrulls]], the antagonistic alien race found in MarvelComics, but most of all in the SecretInvasion CrisisCrossover.

** Also, the now-gone [[RomSpaceknight Dire Wraiths]].

* ''PartiallyClips'' parodied this [[http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1633 once]].

* The formless JAM in ''SentouYouseiYukikaze''. In the anime, they start by copying Earth's technology (namely weapons and aircraft) before later moving onto human beings themselves.

* Inverted in ''MartianSuccessorNadesico'', when the Jovians -- frequently referred to as "lizards" for much of the first half of the series and depicted as monstrous nonhumans in government propaganda -- turn out to actually be humans, forgotten colonists from Earth.

* Flavor text from TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil tells us that in the analysis of [[TheMenInBlack Task Force: Valkyrie]], werewolves and other shifters are a much greater national security threat than other supernatural creatures. Vampires have known limitations, and mages have difficulty using spells in public, but the Uratha look completely normal until they walk into a secure area and turn into eight-foot-tall killing machines.

* ''{{Robotech}}'' and its parent, ''{{Macross}}'' have the Zentraedi, a race of giants who later reveal they can "micronize" to become our size. They send a team of spies into the SDF-1, which backfires horribly for their PlanetOfHats culture.

* The TropeNamer is ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined''. The Cylons have evolved from "walking chrome toasters" into {{Artificial Human}}s. The opening and a few characters use the line, and it ''does'' cause a lot of mistrust among the human survivors.
** ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic Galactica 1980]]'' beats them by twenty-odd years by having human-form cylon robots in the episode "The Night The Cylons Landed". However, the ones on the reimagined series are completely human looking, down to having [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots a reproductive system.]]

* Parodied (with particular nods to ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'') in a sketch on ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook''. In the midst of a RobotWar, a rumour spreads that robots have infiltrated the space station, and are supposedly indistinguishable from humans. Cut to a particularly clunky TinCanRobot, talking to several other people (in textbook RoboSpeak) who seem to be under the impression he's human. Even when a slice of toast pops out of him.

* ''[[{{Goosebumps}} Calling All Creeps]]'' is pretty much based around this concept.

** ''GenesisClimberMospeada'', another series adapted into ''Robotech'', has the Inbit/Invid start recreating themselves in humanized forms, starting with one sent to spy on the protagonists.

* In ''CityOfVillains'' you can contact Kelly Uqua, who is working for [[MegaCorp Crey Industries]]. There's a nasty rumor floating around that the real Uqua is dead, and a Rikti alien can alter its form to match hers. Kelly wants you to enter one of Crey's warehouses and delete this report. Kelly also occasionally slips into the Rikti's VerbalTic while talking to you. A separate ''CityOfHeroes'' mission has you finding a Rikti who was posing as Kelly, whose [[GlamourFailure transformation machinery has broken down.]]

* PhilipKDick did several straight versions of the premise (''Screamers'', mentioned above, is based on one of his stories), as well as a parody: in "The War with the Fnools", the Fnools are capable of an almost-perfect human disguise, but are still pretty easy to spot, because (a) they usually travel about in groups, all wearing the same disguise, and (b) they're only two feet tall.

** [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic Galactica 1980]] beats them by twenty-odd years by having human-form cylon robots in the episode "The Night The Cylons Landed". However, the ones on the reimagined series are completely human looking, down to having [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots a reproductive system.]]

* Parodied (with particular nods to ''BattlestarGalactica'') in a sketch on ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook''. In the midst of a RobotWar, a rumour spreads that robots have infiltrated the space station, and are supposedly indistinguishable from humans. Cut to a particularly clunky TinCanRobot, talking to several other people (in textbook RoboSpeak) who seem to be under the impression he's human. Even when a slice of toast pops out of him.

* In {{Vathara}}'s ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2698347/1/Walk-Through-the-Valley Walk Through the Valley]]'' has a rare heroic version. Hiko's people, the Confederacy, are at war with TheFederation, which insists on tearing its women and children screaming from their homes, battering them and turning them over to the [[HumanSubSpecies merrows]] for a form of MindRape called conditioning, which [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul leaves you]] [[HappinessInSlavery happy to do and be whatever the Federation wants you to be]]. It's implied that it leaves you without compassion. The reason they take slaves is to restore the genetic diversity they lost when they became chronically inbred because they were such a small, isolated population. They tell themselves that these gene donors are willing. They also do it to Confederate soldiers, who are dropped back into the units they were pulled from to wreak havoc on their comrades. The only way to prevent yourself from becoming conditioned is to temporarily become a LittleBitBeastly with the help of LegoGenetics, which entails government-approved DNA sequences and extremely complicated life-support equipment that no one uses for anything else. Using claws, etc., means modifying the brain. Ensuring that alterants know when to use them means adding instincts from the species used as a source of DNA. This makes alterants easy to spot, no matter how well the alterations are hidden. They cannot make alterants in mind only; volunteers go mad in weeks. This is where the ookamimoya alterants come in. The ''ookamimoya'' are a species of [[{{EMP}} EM]]-sensitive, lupine predators that live very long lives, have few offspring, which they cherish, a pack with which they share a PsychicLink, extreme distrust of outsiders, incredibly durable bodies, InnateNightVision, AlienHair in the form of sensory tendrils with which they pick up emotions and which move on their own; pelt tendrils that don't; and hidden claws. Ookamimoya ''alterants'' will have sensory tendrils on the scalp the thickness of human hair, eyebrows and eyelashes with tendencies of both pelt and sensory tendrils, zero hair or not-hair elsewhere, KaleidoscopeEyes with exotic colors that shift to golden/amber at night/low light conditions, the ability to sense ''ki'', lack of aging, hidden claws and a strong killer instinct that drive them to kill the conditioned.

** the special "The End of the World" shows that one of them infiltrated the Xerbian government and was decisive in the vote that made the Xerbians [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill temporarily deactivate their orbital defences as a sign of peace (the Evronians invaded in that precise moment and overran the planet in a few scant days)]]. The same soldier continues infiltrating Xerbian pockets of resistance in the (failed) attempt to capture a member of the government, going as far as jumping on one of the three evacuation ships;
** late in the series, after Xadhoom (a Xerbian who wasn't on the planet for the invasion due an experiment that [[PhysicalGoddess gave her godlike powers]]) has reduced the Evronians to a few scattered remnants, another one infiltrates the US Army to prepare an invasion. He's arrested as a spy... But he's ''never'' outed as an Evronian. In fact his first appearance was in an episode ''set in the twenty-third century'', and he's only found out because Paperinik recognizes the signs of an Evronian weapon and ''he'' drops the disguise;

* The nine foot tall, eight hundred pound Reptilian monsters with whom Humanity fights a losing war in a couple of epsiodes of the revival of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' manages to pull this off by surgically-altering their (much smaller) females.
* The Skins on ''{{Roswell}}''.

* Being DangerouslyGenreSavvy, the Evronians from ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' have [[VoluntaryShapeShifter shapeshifting]] {{Super Soldier}}s just for this ''before'' arriving to Earth. They're used only three times, but each time they're devastating:
** the special "The End of the World" shows that one of them infiltrated the Xerbian government and was decisive in the vote that made the Xerbians [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill temporarily deactivate their orbital defences as a sign of peace (the Evronians invaded in that precise moment and overran the planet in a few scant days)]]. The same soldier continues infiltrating Xerbian pockets of resistance in the (failed) attempt to capture a member of the government, going as far as jumping on one of the three evaquation ships;

** in the reboot, a two-parter starts with a group of shape-shifting Evronians infiltrating a military base. Late in the two-parters the Evronians are invading Earth en-masse and we suddenly find out that ''every single military force on Earth has been incapacitated'', and thus Pk is the only resistance.

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm'' adds a (multiplayer-only) Zerg unit called the Changeling, which upon entering sight range of an enemy unit automatically changes its color and transforms into that enemy's tier 1 unit (Terran marine, Protoss zealot, or zergling). Since it can't attack and has no other abilities, this is only useful for scouting.
* A recurring theme in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration''. Even when not deliberately trying to disguise themselves, most of the alien monsters they fight seem to get [[BishonenLine progressively more humanoid]] [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil as the game goes on]]. Actually inverted with the two main alien factions, though, similar to the Nadesico example. One turned out to be human abductees brainwashed by an alien MasterComputer, the others (& by extension the creators of the aforementioned computer) were actually descendants of a lost starfaring civilization from Earth. Played straight by the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s known as the Einst, however, who can create copies of people they've encountered & whose supposed Ultimate Lifeform is an enhanced clone of one of the main characters.
* Midway through ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', the Pfhor begin fielding ActionBomb simulacra that blend in with the [[RedShirt Green Shirts]]... Except for their (mostly) [[CloudCuckooLander strange exclamations]] and AlienBlood.
* In ''CityOfVillains'' you can contact Kelly Uqua, who is working for [[MegaCorp Crey Industries]]. There's a nasty rumor floating around that the real Uqua is dead, and a Rikti alien can alter its form to match hers. Kelly wants you to enter one of Crey's warehouses and delete this report. Kelly also occasionally slips into the Rikti's VerbalTic while talking to you. A separate ''CityOfHeroes'' mission has you finding a Rikti who was posing as Kelly, whose [[GlamourFailure transformation machinery has broken down.]]
* In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' the Thin Man alien units would count as this. Their disguise is pulled off pretty good as well... thin men! Until they pull out their alien weaponry and start doing back-flips in business suits that is. Also their eyes if studied are reptilian in nature. Which would explain why they wear dark glasses. The bases of their necks are also scaled, implying that only the always visible parts are human in appearance, although this isn't stated ingame.
* ''[[VideoGame/TheThing The Thing 2002]]'' has this as a gameplay mechanic. By using a syringe and a chemical that reacts to blood by releasing heat, you can test your party members for infection. If the syringe changes from red to brown, they're A-O-K, but if the syringe breaks, fry him, he's an alien, and mutating into a beastie as we speak.

[[/folder]]

->'''Kyle Reese:''' [[FlawedPrototype The 600 series]] had rubber skin. [[PaperThinDisguise We spotted them easy]], but [[ReplacementMooks these are new.]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything.]] Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.
->'''Sarah Connor:''' Look... [[GenreSavvy I am not stupid, you know.]] They cannot make things like that yet.
->'''Kyle Reese:''' [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble Not yet. Not for about 40 years]].
-->--''Film/TheTerminator''

* In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' the Thin Man alien units would count as this. Their disguise is pulled off pretty good as well... thin men! Until they pull out their alien weaponry and start doing back-flips in business suits that is. Also their eyes if studied are reptilian in nature. Which would explain why they wear dark glasses.

->'''Kyle Reese:''' "[[FlawedPrototype The 600 series]] had rubber skin. [[PaperThinDisguise We spotted them easy]], but [[ReplacementMooks these are new.]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything.]] Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.