He is a member of the Denobulan race and was on earth as part of a exchange program when called to service on the Enterprise.
The doctor is portrayed as having an open mind to any other species and culture and is always curious about certain human habits. His sickbay contains an interplanetary zoo of animals, some of them as food for other animals which are used as source for medical drugs.
John Billingsley[?] plays the role of Phlox.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump