'Strange New Worlds' latest lookalike episode is part of a long line of 'Star Trek' doppelganger stories

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD! ANYONE YET TO WATCH "A CASE OF CHIAROSCURO" SHOULD PROCEED WITH CAUTION TO AVOID VIOLATING TEMPORAL PRIME DIRECTIVES.

You're on a top-secret mission to recover a lost Federation probe from enemy territory.

A close encounter with a Klingon cruiser forces you into hiding on the surface of an alien world, which — thanks, in part, to the local star's radiation making everything appear stylishly monochrome — looks like it's been lifted from a classic 20th-century film noir.

You dress up as one of the locals on this occupied world, and quickly learn that you're the spitting image of the leader of the local resistance.

What are the chances? This being "Star Trek", the odds are nowhere near as long as they could — and maybe should — be.

In fact, the galaxy is so chock-full of doppelgangers, clones and lookalikes that it's a wonder Una "Number One" Chin-Riley hadn't encountered her double before the latest episode of "Strange New Worlds", "A Case of Chiaroscuro". (Image credit: Paramount) This may explain why Dr M'Benga doesn't think anything is particularly amiss.

"In a universe as vast as ours, the real mystery is that we don't stumble onto our doppelgangers more often," he claims.

"That we have found Una's is a momentary stroke of luck." That said, the origin stories of Trek's previous escapees from the planet Xerox are usually a little more complex — and outwardly sci-fi — than coincidence.

The matter transporters found on every Starfleet vessel, for example, have repeatedly given actors the chance to play two roles at once. (Image credit: Paramount) In theory, transporter tech breaks you down into your constituent atoms, beams those particles across space, and reassembles them in the right order at the other end.

But, in the event of a glitch, transporter rooms effectively become highly sophisticated 3D printers, creating duplicates indistinguishable from the original beamee.

In the "Original Series" episode "The Enemy Within", James T Kirk is split into two versions of himself, one good, the other evil.

In this metaphysical exploration of self, it turns out you can't have one half without the other, forcing Spock and co to reintegrate the two Kirks in order to save their captain.

Will Riker also experiences transporter-induced imposter syndrome in "The Next Generation" episode "Second Chances".

He learns that a beaming error on the USS Potemkin created an exact facsimile eight years earlier, and Riker 2.0 has been living alone on the remote Nervala IV ever since.