In The Flesh: Giant Ferengi Invade Starfleet?

[Bacl]

Was it ever explained why in "In The Flesh" Starfleet had such a large number of Ferengi Starfleet officers? I also noticed upon rewatching the episode earlier today that the actors cast as these background Ferengi did not conform to the usual height restrictions: they were all rather tall! It was quite confusing and off-putting.

I know this was a recreation by Species 8472, and that this can likely be explained away by saying that they got some details wrong...except that they never mentioned any errors on Species 8472's part. In fact, when Tuvok runs off the list of species he mentions Ferengi and no one blinks. Odd that no one said, "Ferengi in Starfleet? Tons of them? How odd!"

Voyager wouldn't have known about Nog joining, and he was the first and only.

Was there any reason ever mentioned for this oddity? Intentional effect on the part of the writers? Cost saving measure on the part of the producers? A simple mess-up on Species 8472's part? I bit mess-up on the showrunners part?

 

[Admiral Shran]

I chalk it up to another example of the showrunners not paying close enough attention to the continuity.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I also noticed upon rewatching the episode earlier today that the actors cast as these background Ferengi did not conform to the usual height restrictions: they were all rather tall!

I hadn't actually noticed that they were too tall but, yes, we were supposed to be noticing that everything was seemingly correct but yet not quite right.

The ST series had a selection of regular extras who were often called upon to play Ferengi and, if the extras wearing Ferengi makeup in this episode were taller than usual, then yes, it was a creative choice.

 

[gianderosa1990]

I chalk it up to another example of the showrunners not paying close enough attention to the continuity.

Sounds about right!

 

[Udat]

I also noticed upon rewatching the episode earlier today that the actors cast as these background Ferengi did not conform to the usual height restrictions: they were all rather tall!

I hadn't actually noticed that they were too tall but, yes, we were supposed to be noticing that everything was seemingly correct but yet not quite right.

The ST series had a selection of regular extras who were often called upon to play Ferengi and, if the extras wearing Ferengi makeup in this episode were taller than usual, then yes, it was a creative choice.

Actually this sounds better.^

 

[Bacl]

The closest I can figure (and this is a hell of a stretch) is that Species 8472 got a hold of LIMITED data directly from Starfleet, and that one such piece of information was the racial diversity of literally one classroom being taught at the Academy.

So maybe all they had to go on as far as racial demographics was this sample from one class, and so they see that out of about 25 students 15 are human...alright so they make sure the majority of Starfleet officers are human, and 5 are vulcan...alright so they make sure about 20% of officers are Vulcan...couple Bolians in there...alright...and one Ferengi.

Yepo, maybe the intelligence they gathered was of a class Nog took while at the Academy. They had no way of knowing that he was the first and only Ferengi in Starfleet, they just figured a rough 4% of the Academy were Ferengi. Oops!

Sadly, that's a heck of a stretch, but it would have been a funny explanation if they'd actually said something about it in the episode. As it stands, I'm leaning towards "We had a TON of Ferengi heads lying around, and no one really cared."

 

[Kai Winn]

probably got the information from borg databases, i don't recall 8472 ever tapping into voyager's computer. since time travel and sending information back trough time was no problem for the borg, they might have blended past and future of the academy, including many tall ferengi.