and Enterprise is saved. The episode ends with Sato and Phlox releasing the slug on a new planet. Production Allan Kroeker served as director for the episode; he had previously directed "Endgame," the finale of Star Trek: Voyager, and also "What You Leave Behind" the finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and many other episodes. Guest star Jeff Rickets who played the Axanar captain returned in "The Andorian Incident" to play Keval, one of the Andorian Imperial Guards. The slug that appears in the episode is an Ariolimax, the large yellow slugs are found in Northern California and commonly referred to as "banana slugs". John Billingsley as Doctor Phlox had difficulty wearing the space suits, and while filming this episode pulled off his prosthetic ears when trying to remove the helmet. Reception Fight or Flight was first aired in the United States on UPN on October 3, 2001. According to Nielsen Media Research, it received a 5.7/9 rating share among adults. It had an average of 9.2 million viewers. Audience retention was comparatively higher than the second episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Writing for Knight Ridder, television critic Bobby Bryant named "Fight or Flight" among the four best episodes of the season. Bryant cited the Enterprise crew's response to the discovery of a slaughtered alien crew—initially fleeing—as "one of the most honest reactions in Star Trek history." TrekWeb mentioned this episode, as one of the better episodes, noting that it takes place in space, and "manage[s] to capture at least some of that thrill of exploration and bring a fresh sensibility to the usual Star Trek cliches." A 2005 review of season 1 from TrekWeb was more critical of "Fight or Flight", and categorized it among "stories that were bland and uninspired in its creation and execution, boringly going where everyone else had gone before." Writing for SyFy Portal, Michael Hinman was also critical of the episode, and commented, "'Broken Bow' hit the small screen of UPN with rave reviews, and impressive ratings. But things went downhill from there after a poor outing with blood-sucking aliens in 'Fight or Flight.'" Hinman observed that the episode was "seriously lacking" in amount of "tense moments"; he went on to note: "Another thing that was missing from 'Fight or Flight' ... was the sweeping camera angles that helped differentiate this new series from the static shots always found in Star Trek: Voyager