TREKCORE > VOY > EPISODES > IN THE FLESH > Behind the Scenes

	Writer and story editor Nick Sagan commented that the original idea for this episode was much different from how the installment turned out. "It was an idea that they found a picture in some database of an 8472 in an ancient Earth culture, and it was that some of our legends of demons and devils were from 8472. That was sort of the initial way we got into it. It was kind of tricky, having Voyager on the opposite side of the galaxy from home. What are those guys doing with Earth? How does that fit together?"
	Developing the episode's narrative was challenging. Nick Sagan reflected, "We went at it hammer and tongs for a while and we couldn't find anything that we all liked, so I was able to try and reinvent it [....] I took the idea of paranoia, and that these things don't understand what it is to be Human."
	The writing of the scene involving Boothby, Valerie Archer and Admiral Bullock in Voyager's briefing room was particularly difficult. Brannon Braga, in fact, referred to the scene as "the hardest scene [of the episode] to write" and affirmed that it was "because there is not a single shot fired." He added, "You had to be satisfied that you had a climax, but it was a climax of diplomacy."
	Director David Livingston was pleased with the interiors of this episode. "I thought [production designer] Richard James did a wonderful job on designing the sets," Livingston remarked. "I thought the bar and the apartment were spectacular sets."
	The exteriors of Starfleet Headquarters were, as usual, filmed at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant. A nighttime shot of San Francisco – including the Golden Gate Bridge – was actually stock footage reused here, having previously appeared in both Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the second season Voyager installment "Non Sequitur".