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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Shapeshifters </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 26 August 2024. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=shapeshifters'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=shapeshifters'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=shapeshifters'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div> <p>The ability to change shape is an ancient trope of <a href="/entry/fantasy">Fantasy</a>, extensively discussed in <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/encyclopedia_of_fantasy_the">Encyclopedia of Fantasy</a>. It is a traditional power of various <a href="/entry/supernatural_creatures">Supernatural Creatures</a> such as <a href="/entry/werewolves">Werewolves</a> (invariably) and traditional <a href="/entry/vampires">Vampires</a>; this entry focuses on sf rationalizations of the theme. A defining quality of shapeshifting is its reversibility: a one-way transformation like an insect's progress from larva to pupa to imago is more properly termed metamorphosis. The tragedy of Robert Louis <a href="/entry/stevenson_robert_louis">Stevenson</a>'s Dr Jekyll IN <i>Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i> (<b>1886</b>) is that his repeated shape- and <a href="/entry/identity">Identity</a>-shifting to the Mr Hyde body and persona – at first liberating and invigorating – leads steadily downhill towards the trap of irretrievable metamorphosis.</p> <p>Very commonly in sf – indeed to the point of <a href="/entry/cliches">Cliché</a> – hostile <a href="/entry/aliens">Aliens</a> possess the <a href="/entry/paranoia">Paranoia</a>-enhancing power to shape themselves into any form and pass as human, even as a specific individual. A classic example is the <a href="/entry/monsters">Monster</a> of John W <a href="/entry/campbell_john_w_jr">Campbell</a> Jr's "Who Goes There?" (August 1938 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>) as by Don A Stuart, whose shapeshifting power is omitted from the 1951 movie adaptation but reinstated in <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/thing_the">Thing</a> (<i>1982</i>). Though the <a href="/entry/red_dwarf">Red Dwarf</a> (<i>1988</i>-current) episode "Polymorph" (<i>1989</i>) of course plays the shapeshifting-monster scenario for laughs, its titular creature has one impressively nasty guise. A particular frisson attaches to the concept of an attractive woman able to shapeshift into something nightmarish and deadly, as in <a href="/entry/species">Species</a> (<i>1995</i>). Dangerous shapeshifters also appear in the films <a href="/entry/it_came_from_outer_space">It Came from Outer Space</a> (<i>1953</i>), <a href="/entry/i_married_a_monster_from_outer_space">I Married a Monster from Outer Space</a> (<i>1958</i>), <a href="/entry/track_of_the_moon_beast">Track of the Moon Beast</a> (<i>1976</i>) and <a href="/entry/lifeforce">Lifeforce</a> (<i>1985</i>).</p> <p>Further prose treatments include episodes of Ray <a href="/entry/bradbury_ray">Bradbury</a>'s <i>The Martian Chronicles</i> (coll of linked stories <b>1950</b>; rev vt <i>The Silver Locusts</i> <b>1951</b>), Brian <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>'s "Outside" (January 1955 <a href="/entry/new_worlds">New Worlds</a>), Leo P <a href="/entry/kelley_leo_p">Kelley</a>'s <i>The Counterfeits</i> (<b>1967</b>), Gregory <a href="/entry/benford_gregory">Benford</a>'s and Gordon <a href="/entry/eklund_gordon">Eklund</a>'s <i>Find the Changeling</i> (<b>1980</b>), James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a>'s "A Style in Treason" (May 1970 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>) – where the alien shapeshifter is known as a vombis – Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a>'s <i>Lord Valentine's Castle</i> (November 1979-February 1980 <a href="/entry/fsf">F&SF</a>; <b>1980</b>), introducing the <b>Majipoor</b> series' hostile alien "Metamorphs", and Richard <a href="/entry/delap_richard">Delap</a>'s and Walt <a href="/entry/lee_walt">Lee</a>'s <i>Shapes</i> (<b>1987</b>). In <i>Darker Than You Think</i> (December 1940 <a href="/entry/unknown">Unknown</a>; exp <b>1948</b>), Jack <a href="/entry/williamson_jack">Williamson</a> presents a <a href="/entry/pariah_elite">Pariah Elite</a> of shapeshifters who by a fluke of <a href="/entry/evolution">Evolution</a> have split off from and are fated to supplant the human race; the hero's horror at this prospect is muted by the discovery that he too is a member of what will be the winning side. Another evolution-based variant of the shapeshifter theme is the alien race which must regularly cycle through different forms to survive seasonal extremes and other planetary upheavals, like the natives of Ploor in E E <a href="/entry/smith_e_e">Smith</a>'s <i>Children of the Lens</i> (November 1947-February 1948 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1954</b>).</p> <p>Many variations on the shapeshifter theme have been devised. In Robert <a href="/entry/sheckley_robert">Sheckley</a>'s "Keep Your Shape" (November 1953 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>), Earth's huge variety of natural forms (both flora and fauna) proves irresistibly tempting to protean <a href="/entry/aliens">Aliens</a> whose military discipline allows only certain prescribed shapes. Characters absorbed by an alien blob in Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>'s "Four in One" (February 1953 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>) find they can modify its amoeba-like body and ultimately rebuild it in human form. The menacing-seeming shapeshifter in James <a href="/entry/white_james">White</a>'s <b>Sector General</b> story "Visitor at Large" (June 1959 <a href="/entry/new_worlds">New Worlds</a>) proves to be a frightened child; later episodes of this space-hospital saga feature a benign doctor of the same highly adaptable species. Philip K <a href="/entry/dick_philip_k">Dick</a>'s "Oh, to be a Blobel!" (February 1964 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>), set in the aftermath of the human-Blobel war, centres on the difficulties of agents from each side who have been modified to shapeshift into the other. In Clifford D <a href="/entry/simak_clifford_d">Simak</a>'s <i>The Werewolf Principle</i> (<b>1967</b>), a space explorer has undergone <a href="/entry/genetic_engineering">Genetic Engineering</a> enabling him to imprint upon and take the form of encountered <a href="/entry/aliens">Aliens</a>, the better to understand them.</p> <p>Further shapeshifting protagonists are found in Ron <a href="/entry/goulart_ron">Goulart</a>'s light-hearted <b>Chameleon Corps</b> series of special-agent stories opening with <i>The Sword Swallower</i> (<b>1968</b>); in the final section of Gene <a href="/entry/wolfe_gene">Wolfe</a>'s <i>The Fifth Head of Cerberus</i> (fixup <b>1972</b>), perhaps the subtlest of all sf shapeshifter narratives; in Alan G <a href="/entry/yates_alan_g">Yates</a>'s <i>Coriolanus, the Chariot!</i> (<b>1978</b>), where actors adopt the physiognomy and even the <a href="/entry/gender">Gender</a> of their roles through "ambiology"; in Octavia <a href="/entry/butler_octavia">Butler</a>'s <i>Wild Seed</i> (<b>1980</b>); in M A <a href="/entry/foster_m_a">Foster</a>'s <i>The Morphodite</i> (<b>1981</b>), whose title character's primary function is as an assassin whose getaway is facilitated by an automatic shift to a new human form of opposite sex after each kill; in Glen A <a href="/entry/larson_glen_a">Larson</a>'s <a href="/entry/television">Television</a> series <a href="/entry/manimal">Manimal</a> (<i>1983</i>), whose transforming protagonist fights crime in animal from; in K A <a href="/entry/applegate_k_a">Applegate</a>'s <b>Animorphs</b> sequence, beginning with <i>Animorphs: The Invasion</i> (<b>1996</b>); in Nalini <a href="/entry/singh_nalini">Singh</a>'s <b>Psy-Changeling</b> sequence beginning with <i>Slave to Sensation</i> (<b>2006</b>); and in Alma <a href="/entry/alexander_alma">Alexander</a>'s <b>Were Chronicles</b> beginning with <i>Random</i> (<b>2014</b>). Various <a href="/entry/comics">Comics</a> characters have such mutability as their <a href="/entry/superpowers">Superpower</a>: for example, Mystique in <a href="/entry/x-men">X-Men</a> and the <a href="/entry/x-men_films">X-Men Films</a>. Several shapeshifting species are encountered in the <a href="/entry/star_trek">Star Trek</a> universe, including the Changelings of <a href="/entry/star_trek_deep_space_nine">Star Trek: Deep Space Nine</a>, one of whom is the <a href="/entry/space_stations">Space Station</a>'s security chief.</p> <p><a href="/entry/terminator_2_judgment_day">Terminator 2: Judgment Day</a> (<i>1991</i>) famously deploys a shapeshifting killer <a href="/entry/robots">Robot</a>; a similarly fluid assassin based on <a href="/entry/nanotechnology">Nanotechnology</a> wreaks havoc on enemies of the <b>Culture</b> in Iain M <a href="/entry/banks_iain_m">Banks</a>'s <i>Look to Windward</i> (<b>2000</b>). Both may be considered sophisticated descendants of the anthology creature in A <a href="/entry/merritt_a">Merritt</a>'s <i>The Metal Monster</i> (7 August-25 September 1920 <a href="/entry/argosy_the">Argosy</a>; <b>1946</b>), which can rearrange its very many metal parts – rather like a Lego set – into variously functional forms.</p> <p>A restricted but still useful form of shapeshifting is the ability to disguise oneself by relatively minor willed rearrangement of facial features and musculature. A detective-fiction precursor whose power of willed disguise goes beyond mere grimaces to something supernormal is T W <a href="/entry/hanshew_t_w">Hanshew</a>'s <b>Hamilton Cleek</b>, whose exploits began in 1910 and were first collected as <i>The Man of the Forty Faces</i> (coll of linked stories <b>1910</b>); another is the title character of <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/avenger_the">Avenger</a> (1939-1942). Possessors of this talent in <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a> include the hero of Theodore <a href="/entry/sturgeon_theodore">Sturgeon</a>'s <i>The Dreaming Jewels</i> (February 1950 <a href="/entry/fantastic_adventures">Fantastic Adventures</a>; exp <b>1950</b>; vt <i>The Synthetic Man</i> <b>1957</b>), who at one point – though with some pain and difficulty – becomes outwardly a woman; the "Chameleon" <a href="/entry/mutants">Mutants</a> of Eric Frank <a href="/entry/russell_eric_frank">Russell</a>'s <i>Sentinels from Space</i> (November 1951 <a href="/entry/startling_stories">Startling</a> as "The Star Watchers"; exp <b>1953</b>; vt <i>Sentinels of Space</i> <b>1954</b> dos); the "Tleilaxu Face Dancers" of Frank <a href="/entry/herbert_frank">Herbert</a>'s <b>Dune</b> sequence, first introduced in <i>Dune Messiah</i> (July-November 1969 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>; <b>1969</b>); and the "Changer" protagonist of Iain M <a href="/entry/banks_iain_m">Banks</a>'s <i>Consider Phlebas</i> (<b>1987</b>).</p> <p>Even in the <a href="/entry/science_fantasy">Science Fantasy</a> context, shapeshifting has greater credibility when consistent with <a href="/entry/physics">Physics</a> – specifically, the law of conservation of mass. Thus in Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>'s <i>Operation Chaos</i> (stories 1956-1959 <a href="/entry/fsf">F&SF</a>; coll of linked stories <b>1971</b>) a were-tiger and a were-fennec (desert fox) are of necessity a grossly large man and a very small one; <a href="/entry/mutants">Mutant</a> shapeshifters in Sheri S <a href="/entry/tepper_sheri_s">Tepper</a>'s <b>True Game</b> series, beginning with <i>King's Blood Four</i> (<b>1983</b>), must laboriously ingest extra mass to assume larger-than-human shapes; Terry <a href="/entry/pratchett_terry">Pratchett</a>'s <b>Discworld</b> variation on the traditional <a href="/entry/vampires">Vampire</a>/bat transformation in <i>Thud!</i> (<b>2005</b>) sees a woman become an entire flock of bats having equivalent total mass. [DRL]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/leviathan">Leviathan</a>; Patricia A <a href="/entry/mckillip_patricia_a">McKillip</a>; <a href="/entry/meet_the_applegates">Meet the Applegates</a>; R M <a href="/entry/meluch_r_m">Meluch</a>; <a href="/entry/society">Society</a>; Élisabeth <a href="/entry/vonarburg_elisabeth">Vonarburg</a>.</p> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/"><em>The Encyclopedia of Fantasy</em></a>: <a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/shapeshifters_shapeshifting">Shapeshifters, Shapeshifting</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/shapeshifters' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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