Apparently this was originally intended to be part of season 1 but then they aired only part of season 1 and left a few episodes for season 2 because of scheduling issues. So that is why season 1's finale and season 2's premiere aren't quite what you might expect from those kinds of episodes (i.e. no cliffhanger).
Overall this episode was quite confusing and clearly constrained by budget.
* The 37's are not actually the ancestors of the humans on the planet since they were never unfrozen.
* Why is the truck in space yet Earhart's plane is on the ground (and why is it rusting when there's no oxygen…? Oh and how could the car possibly still work after floating in space for hundreds of years?)
* Why were Starfleet officers held hostage by a 20th century weapon (which surely they should have checked for more thoroughly)
* Why didn't Voyager detect the hundreds of thousands of people living on the planet they were visiting?
* who set up the SOS beacon and why connect it to Earhart's ship? And why is Earhart's ship in quite good condition if it's been sitting for hundreds of years?
* who are the Briori and why isn't anyone on Voyager more interested in checking to see if they're still around given they clearly have technology that could help them (also why are they going to the trouble of going to Earth and presumably no other planets to secretly enslave random abductees and why are they so advanced but yet can't hold their own against a few hundred primitive slaves?)
* Why would you risk the entire ship and its crew without stopping to consider the risks vs benefits when landing on an unknown planet simply because there's a mysterious distress call? I know they wanted to show off that Voyager can land but landing something that big on unknown terrain when the ("galaxy's best") pilot has never done it before is no easy feat.
* The humans on the planet revere the "37's" but they straight up shot one of them. Surely they should be a bit more careful. Also they had plenty of time to observe Voyager's crew, they surely could tell these people were humans and not Briori
* Based on what we know of Earhart, it stands to reason that she would have asked to stay on Voyager rather than remain on the planet. Consider her adventurous spirit and passion for flight, which was clearly demonstrated in the episode. Voyager's also only a few months into their time in the DQ, they don't know whether they'll actually take 70 years to get to Earth anyway. Can you imagine how weird (but also hilarious) it would have been if she had become a recurring character on the show. The adventures of Ensign Amelia Earhart on the USS Voyager!
* You'd have to be pretty stupid to want to stay behind on this planet you know nothing about after only a few months of traveling through the DQ. Might have made more sense if this happened a few years in. Of course, no one opted to stay, but the episode wanted you to think some people would even though no rational person would seriously consider it.
[8.0/10] UPN, the network that aired Star Trek: Voyager chose to hold back four episodes intended to be part of the show’s first season. They wanted to get the jump on competing channels, and have new programming ready for the fall season before everyone else was up to speed. The move was a disappointment to the series’ producers, who were hoping to make “The 37s” the capstone to the show’s first year on the air.
And you can see why. It has all the elements a season finale ought to have: mystery, excitement, character, emotion, and...a bunch of weird stuff going on. The episode plies its audience with some classic Star Trek tropes, an unprecedented stop for the ship itself, a hostage situation and a firefight, a trademark moral dilemma, and most of all, a chance to take the “stranded far from home” premise seriously in a way the series has been shaky about to this point. If you wanted to sell fans on Voyager’s promise and potential after a rickety first season, “The 37s” would be the perfect tonic.
Not for nothing, that's partly because it feels like a throwback to some old school tropes for the franchise. Janeway and her crew run into a 1930s Ford truck floating through the Delta quadrant, on their way to meeting and unfreezing Amelia Earhart. The fun silliness of that is of a piece with Kirk’s Enterprise running into Abe Lincoln in space, and the whole concept has a bit of a TOS feel to it. That's a feature, not a bug, as a sign that Voyager is part of this proud tradition, and unafraid to delve into the loonier (or, more charitably, unrestrained) side of Star Trek.
There is, undoubtedly, some absurdity to the reveal that Earhart’s disappearance was the result of an alien abduction that left her in cryostasis halfway across the galaxy, along with a host of other individuals abducted from Earth in 1937. But the bonkers premise is worth it to see Janeway sit across from one of her inspirations. The script gilds the lily a bit, but seeing the franchise’s first female protagonist, captain of one of Starfleet’s premiere ships, opposite one of history’s most groundbreaking and renowned female pilots, is powerful. There’s an equal and opposite sense of awe in-universe when Earhart realizes what the future holds for women in air and space travel.
Much of “The 37s” acts as a vindication of Janeway, her approach and her very being, and nothing speaks to that more than the implicit vindication she receives from a real life pioneer in the process.
Of course, some of this is just good old fashioned fun. Seeing twenty-four century spacefarers puzzle over a 1930s automobile is a laugh. And this episode establishes Paris’ fascination with the twentieth century, particularly its vehicles, which will stay with the show for some time. But there’s also a cool factor when they find an automated A.M. radio S.O.S., and choose to land the ship to go uncover where it came from.
That's a big part of what makes this one work. Much of the ideas here are at least a little silly, but the characters take it seriously, which helps the audience do the same, and the new developments arrive at a good clip and with plenty of excitement to help ease things along. In the past, the only time Starfleet vessels entered the atmosphere was to crash (hello Star Trek: Generations fans!), so seeing the ship land on terra firma is a trip, to say the least.
So is unfreezing a bunch of folks from four centuries prior. In that, “The 37s” plays a bit like “The Neutral Zone”, Next Generation’s own first season finale, which featured Starfleet officers reviving other folks from the twentieth century who were cryogenically frozen. The difference is that here, Earhart’s navigator, Fred Noonan, gives the defrostees the upper hand. He has a gun in his pocket, and isn’t afraid to point it at Janeway when she gives him a story he finds hard to believe.
Strangely, it’s one of the things I appreciate about this episode. Characters make dramatic but justifiable decisions under difficult circumstances. Is it a little out there for Janeway to land the ship on a planet based on an S.O.S. received via a derelict rusted out truck? Of course. But her reasoning, that something which could transport human items all this way might be able to help get them home, is sound and justifies the risk.
Likewise, I love the fact that convincing a bunch of people who’ve been in cryostasis for centuries that you’re from their future and they’re on an alien rock thousands of lightyears away from home is a real challenge. The stand-off not only sets good character moments for the pugnacious Noonan and the more open and understanding Earhart. But it creates a genuine obstacle for Janeway and the away team, to help people in bewildering circumstances comprehend something jaw-dropping but true.
Of course, that's not the only twist “The 37’s” has in store. It turns out that the handful of people the Voyager crew unfroze aren’t the only humans on the planet. Instead, the original crop of humans who were abducted here as slaves rebelled against their alien monster, founded their own civilization, and have lived here in peace for fifteen generations hence. Improbably, so far from home, Janeway’s crew meets the progeny of other stranded humans who’ve made a home for themselves here, and are welcoming her people (and the defrostees) to join it.
The offer brings into focus one of the elements I’ve been missing in Voyager -- how you manage people, especially a blended crew, when you have to admit that you might not be getting home for a long time. I love Janeway going back and forth with Chakotay over whether this is her call to make, whether it would be chaos to put every major decision to a vote, whether they can even sustain the ship if too many crewmembers decide to stay here. The right process, the just approach in all of this, isn’t clear, which is the place where great Star Trek episodes live.
But so too is trusting your people to do what’s right. Janeway makes it an individual decision, where any member of the crew who wants to join this flourishing human colony can choose to do so. Turning such a big call into a personal choice, even knowing the challenges it might create, shows great grace on the captain’s part. Watching Earthart and company choose to stay, and the other members of the crew debate what to do, sells the weight of the decision.
So when Janeway heads to the cargo bay where any Voyager crewmember who wants to leave the ship is to report, it’s a taut moment. How many will want to go? If enough of them choose to, will it effectively be making that choice for everyone else? What if Chakotay wants to leave, something Janeway tries to ensure he has the freedom to do, only to receive an affectionate reassurance in return.
In the end though, no one shows. Everyone wants to stay. Janeway is suitably moved, with a great bit of acting from Kate Mulgrew, and the journey home continues.
If you wanted to, you could chalk that up to simple homesickness. Whatever the humans on this planet have achieved, however daunting the prospect of a seventy lightyear journey, this isn’t the Alpha Quadrant and their colony doesn’t come with the crew’s loved ones. Even with a sterling example of what settling down in the Delta Quadrant could look like, you can see folks choosing to strive to return to their home regardless.
But I’d like to think the fact that nobody chose to stay on the planet is a testament to Janeway. It’s because like Earhart did, they believe in her, they trust that what she’s done since they’ve been lost is right, that they think she has the ingenuity to get them home and the empathy to take care of them in the interim.
It’s a sort of faith the show hopes to engender in its audience as well. Voyager’s first crop of episodes left plenty to be desired. The potential of the premise went largely unrealized, and the adventures in between were a mixed bag at best. But with “The 37’s”, the series launches its second year on the air in style, with an vindication of the captain and an affirmation that, even if things aren’t perfect on Voyager, she and her crew are on the right path.
Season 2 starts with a promise that this show will get better. Starting with the mystery (and the comedic elements when inspecting the truck), the SOS via AM frequency, the aircraft and the landing maneuver it all started so well.
The story ain't totally bad but I wonder why we don't get to know anything about the human settlements on that planet. It is talked about, but they must have run out of budget to show those settlements to us.
The story is perhaps best when Janeway and Chakotay discuss the possibility of staying on "New Earth".
PS: this would have made a better season finale for season 1. It doesn't really feel like a season premiere.
This was a great episode. One area I’m not fully clear on though was the reasoning behind sustaining the SOS signal on the aircraft. Sure it’s what Earhart was doing just before the aliens captured them, but why was it maintained today?
It was nice to see Sgt. Tackleberry on a Federation Starship. Was half expecting him to say "you'll do it NOW Mister!" when he was pointing that gun
New Season, New Graphics budget to show Voyager landing? Nice!
How did I know it was A.Earhart even before the captain? I'm not familiar with her much.
Aaaand just like that we're already in season two.
Well, yes and no as this episode was produced in and for season one. It was supposed to be the season's finale and you feel it especially towards the end. But it is another good concept that falls short. The idea of picking up the alien obduction theories and actually turning them into truth has a nice touch. Althought that "white light" was a bit too cheesy. Adding Amelia Earhart was cool for someone like me with an interest in aviation. But everything feels so uninspired.
You learn next to nothing about said aliens. The part where they picked 300 people from earth for slaves sounds, well, hilarious. Why not 3000 or 30000 ? OK, 300 is probably not so suspicious but it would have been more plausible had there been other species. But then there could not have been the temptation of the human society luring the crew in to stay.
And why not show those cities? It's hard for the viewer grasping the temptation if you haven't seen it. And there is the final flaw for me. The fact that NO ONE stays behind makes it a bit dreamy. It's hard to believe that not even one stays behind, it's not realistic.
Of course we see the ship land which is a first and actually I remember this being the talk at the time amongst many fans. For the time it was a great effect.
Started great. But from the ‘Should I stay or should I go now’ part it became boring. Never knew Voyager was that small btw, and that it could land.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-10-05T09:31:49Z
Voyager can land! That's pretty cool, and something I only vaguely had in the back of my memory. I thought that the sequence was done pretty effectively here.
While this riffs on similar ideas done in the TNG episode 'The Neutral Zone', it makes it more about the Voyager's crew than the people they find, which was a good decision. It does feel like quite a big moment when Janeway and Chakotay walk into the cargo bay to see how many people want to leave. Honestly, I was a bit surprised that everyone wanted to stay because the show hasn't really managed to sell the idea that everyone there is working towards the same goal at all.
It's also nice for them to encounter something that isn't a spacial anomaly. I quite like that the people they find include Amelia Earhart (dodgy wig aside) and how Janeway bonds with her. The rest of the 37's are a bit flat, though - at least, the ones who are actually allowed to talk. It's particularly annoying the way Fred goes all-American and immediately becomes hostile. Nice to see Tackleberry from Police Academy, though!
Overall, this is a fun episode. A few things bugged me: finding the car floating in space and it works - wouldn't all liquids inside be extremely frozen? Also, having Paris be a geek for 1930s automobiles certainly detracts (again) from his bad boy image, but in this case it does serve the character better because he needs to move away from that. On the flip side, I thought that the way the rest of the crew talk about the car was quite realistic, and kind of charming. Once we meet the humans living on the planet, it feels like a massive cop out that we don't see these incredible cities they are talking about; yeah, I get that it would have been a huge and expensive undertaking to put them on screen, but the dialogue around them feels so awkward and could have been handled so much better: "I'd love to see your amazing cities!" "Oh wow, weren't those cities amazing!" just doesn't cut it.