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I thought in DS9 O'Brien had been replaced by a version of himself that was literally explosive which, I further thought, was the reason that they could not simply arrest him or take some other measure. But I do not believe the replicant in this episode is in fact explosive.

If he is not explosive but would like maybe assassinate someone via conventional means, is it possible there is another episode with maybe even a different character who has been replaced by an explosive version.

Or is there a completely different, non-Star Trek story with an explosive replicant?

NOTE: Bill Goldman who wrote most famously The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wrote IIRC a sequel to Marathon Man which was called Brothers -- the Brothers referred to ambiguously two replicant little kids, they acted completely like humans except... they were explosive.

So look, basically everyone is explosive -- but not O'Brien???

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    I assume you're referring to DS9: Whispers, where O'Brien is replaced with a replicant. Note that it's not explosive, just potentially violent.
    – Valorum
    Mar 26 at 21:49
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    There are instances where humans (and humanoids) have been given explosive implants), but I can't think of any instances where a crew member has been replaced with a replicant that's explosive.
    – Valorum
    Mar 26 at 21:53
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    The series finale episodes of the old TV show "Mork and Mindy" included a female humanoid robot who was also a bomb.
    – Stanley Webb
    Mar 26 at 23:09
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    @StanleyWebb the mention of the Mork and Mindy episode reminds me of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me the scene with Vanessa who turns out to be a Fembot with a self destruct
    – SpacePhoenix
    Mar 27 at 8:30
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    Are you looking for a specific episode, or an example?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Mar 27 at 14:16

8 Answers 8

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This doesn't ring any bells in relation to Star Trek. Perhaps you're thinking of the 2001 film, Impostor, which was based on the 1953 short story of the same name, by Philip K. Dick.

In the film...

... the main character, played by Gary Sinise, is forced to go on the run from the Earth Security Administration (ESA), who accuse him of being an alien imposter with a bomb in his chest. As far as he's aware for most of the film, this accusation is false, but in the end he learns that the ESA were right all along.

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  • I could be mixing up things. Happens to me all the time. I did think that the premise of Whispers was a race with extremely advanced technology for making replicants. Maybe someday, if they keep working on it, they can make an explosive replicant. Not to give anyone any ideas... It occurs to me that the terrible events in our world with shoe bombers etc. occurred since DS9 aired -- plenty of things to confuse me.
    – releseabe
    Mar 26 at 22:03
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Two episodes with exploding characters, in Stargate SG-1.

Season 1 episode 15 "Singularity":

SG-1 arrives on the planet Hanka and learns that everyone, natives and Stargate Command personnel alike, has died from a mysterious disease. They find Cassandra, the lone survivor, and take her back to Earth. They soon discover, though, that she has had a bomb planted inside of her, set to blow in a matter of hours, and removing it is impossible.

screenshot of Cassandra

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Singularity

Season 3 episode 14 "Foothold"

Stargate Command is under control by aliens originating from P3X-118. They use a frequency-based technology that allows them to mimic the appearance of other beings, i.e. humans. Carter must ask Colonel Maybourne to help her retake the base. Some of the impostors end up fleeing through the Stargate; a few others remain stuck in the base when Carter shuts down the gate. Those impostors self-destruct. Happily, Daniel is able to close the blast doors in time to avoid human casualties.

The embarkation room is a mess after the explosion.

https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Foothold

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  • Major digression but I think the advent in scifi where kids die or are at risk of dying is fairly recent. I recall watching the remake of The Blob and the monster did indeed kill a little kid -- it had a big impact because I expected somehow the kid would be all right as happened in literally every scifi movie I could recall; almost like it was part of the same code which limited use of 4-ltr words or nudity or made smoking something you had to put up a silly disclaimer for.
    – releseabe
    Mar 27 at 8:29
  • @releseabe Yes, if I recall correctly, this particular Stargate episode was very touching up to the point, midway through the episode, where Samantha Carter (one of the four main characters) said "I won't kill the kid alone. I'll stay with her to the end." Of course Samantha cannot die (she's one of the main characters) so this took all the tension away.
    – Stef
    Mar 27 at 8:44
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    @releseabe Relatedly, I once watched the theatre play "Julius Caesar" in London. One of the actors is a kid, a young aide-de-camp. At some point in the play, that kid is killed, by an adult stepping behind him and breaking his neck. The whole audience (maybe 600 people) had a loud gasp at once. There were many, many characters killed in the play, but the kid's death on stage was the only one to provoke such a strong reaction.
    – Stef
    Mar 27 at 8:47
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    The episode Foothold also has SGC personal replaced by imposters and at the end they self-destruct.
    – kicken
    Mar 27 at 13:51
  • @kicken Thanks. I don't remember this episode at all but I've edited.
    – Stef
    Mar 27 at 15:31
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In the first episode of the Tekwar miniseries there are life-like androids that can be made to look like anyone, and some are used by crime lords as kamikaze bombs. We see one used in the below video, and another is later disguised as the main character's son. Although this isn't Star Trek, the show stars and is also based on books written by William Shatner. The show premiered in 1994, which would have been the same time frame as Deep Space Nine.

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  • It could have been in Tek War (I think I read one of the books) on TV where a person sentenced to hibernation is released early and someone, a robot I think, jokes when asked why he was so released, "Good behavior." That's a damn funny science fiction joke.
    – releseabe
    Mar 27 at 20:48
  • @releseabe Yeah, all of that is in the first 10~15 minutes of the first episode.
    – Xantec
    Mar 28 at 4:48
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Captain Brown in the original version of Captain Scarlett was replaced with a Mysteron "clone" of him that was explosive. Don't know the episode name/number

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  • interesting but i never saw this show.
    – releseabe
    Mar 26 at 23:03
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You could be thinking of an episode of The Orville: Blood of Patriots (S2E10)

In this episode an old friend of a crew member is met, along with the old friend's daughter. It later transpires that ...

the girl is not actually his daughter, but instead is a member of the "Envall" species, whose blood is highly explosive when exposed to a Nitrogen-rich atmosphere (i.e. the sort of atmospheres that humans live in.). This explosive blood is then used as an attempted means to "assassinate" the diplomatic envoy ship which is present to open peace negotiations

  • Explosive Person: Check.
  • Person has been "replaced": Sort of.
  • Assassination attempt: Pretty much.
  • StarTrek-like: Check.
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In the Doctor Who episode Victory of the Daleks one of the scientists helping Churchill to utilise the new "Ironsides" (Daleks in khaki) is revealed to be actually a replicant created by the Daleks themselves, and has an explosive device embedded in his chest (his power source is a small wormhole that can be configured to either provide controlled power or destroy the Earth).

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Perhaps you are referring to the 1953 cartoon "The Missing Mouse" in which a white mouse drinks an experimental explosive and then escapes from the laboratory. Subsequently, Tom mistakes him for Jerry, who has recently been covered in white shoe polish. It's not Star Trek, but it does have an explosive clone character.

enter image description here enter image description here

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  • was the mouse a replicant?
    – releseabe
    Mar 27 at 1:07
  • @releseabe --- Well Tom thought it was Jerry, so it must have been a good likeness. Then again, Tom has been known to mistake an elephant for Jerry...
    – Ian Thompson
    Mar 27 at 1:28
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    Tom panicked when he saw the elephant. You should recall that he is after all a cat -- he's never been to school; he can't read; I am not sure his owner even explains stuff to him as I took time to do with my cats. So he's he going to know what an elephant is? You should not make fun of him.
    – releseabe
    Mar 27 at 1:44
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Surprised this isn't mentioned by others

in Basics - Part 1 from ST-Voyager. The Kazon, Teirna explodes when he injects himself with a covertly stored needle under his toenail.

He's not a replicant, but he's definitely 'planted' on Voyager for this purpose.

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  • I thought of this one, but by the time I chased the actual episode name down the question had collected a number of very loose answers and I figured it wasn't worth it.
    – DavidW
    Mar 27 at 14:04

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