Written By: Nick Sagan
Directed By: David Livingston
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)
It begins with a bit of intrigue as Chakotay is down on what looks like Earth, we soon discover that it�s aliens posing as human and we later discover that it�s Species 8472. Now that 8472�s can look like humans that adds the possibility that we�ll see more of them, which is good!
Chakotay makes contact with a �female� there and they have a date where Chakotay tries to learn more about what there planning. Why �In the Flesh� fails is because the entire episode builds up as though there is going to be some kind of epic finale, but it frizzles.
I have no problem with a non-violent conclusion, but because of the way the episode builds up you feel as though there is no pay-off. It would be more satisfying if we knew that Species 8472 will return again, but as yet (I�m writing this nearly two years since the original Air Date) they haven�t returned.
�In the Flesh� doesn�t really know what it�s trying to do. Is it trying to draw a comparison between human fear and aliens fear? Is it giving Chakotay a Romance? Is it trying to bring Species 8472 into the light? Is it building up into some kind of epic episode? All of these are hinted at, but none of these are fully explored.
What�s here still isn�t too bad. It seems Species 8472 weren�t the ultimate evil after all but where only �trying to defend� themselves. The stories here correlate well with �Scorpion� and it�s good that the continuity isn�t stuffed up.
Although some plot nits do seep through. Why do they consider humans to be such a huge threat? They could simply destroy all humans being so powerful. Why are there so many training grounds for only infiltrating key areas of Earth?
And the biggest one . . . where�d they get their information? Janeway says it isn�t important, but it is. Anyway, why have the aliens got so much information about Starfleet, but not know about Voyager in the Delta Quadrant alone and not know about the new uniforms? That�s unless they got their information from Voyager, but then how�d they get so much information about San Francisco?
Anyway, the episode goes into comparisons between humans and Species 8472, and how alien and how frightened each of them are, it goes into Species 8472 society a little, and how they believe that the Federation don�t accept anyone who won�t join the Federation, talk about first impressions . . .
All in all we get an interesting perspective on Species 8472. It doesn�t quite spoil them, like the Borg has been spoiled a bit, but its starting to get that way. What we need is an episode where the 8472 higher ups decide to go ahead with the invasion and the other mutiny against them. Although we�ve recently had �Unimatrix One� doing a similar thing with the Borg, TPTB would get hounded doing that now.
�In the Flesh� isn�t a classic like it tries to be, but it features some great performances, especially from Ray Walston and the sexy Kate Vernon. It has some good dialogue, some funny in-jokes, and a good story, but it just doesn�t seem to have ended good enough.
I�ll consider changing the score for this if Species 8472 returns, but if it doesn�t I�m not really satisfied, we want the question raised here answered, and we want to see Kate Vernon again!!