


Written by Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga
Directed by James L. Conway
Nutshell: Not bad, but surprisingly pointless. This installment's theme comes about five months too late.
Cruising through the Delta Quadrant on the ongoing journey home, the crew comes across a 20th century Earth automobile floating in space--an object whose impossible location in very distant space leads to the discovery of missing 20th century humans who somehow ended up on a planet on the other side of the galaxy.
These humans were abducted by an alien race in the year 1937 and put into cryo-stasis for over 400 years. Among the displaced humans is Amelia Earhart, whose mysterious, historic 1937 disappearance is explained in science-fiction terms by scripters Taylor and Braga. This idea is a bit atypical of New Star Trek style, resembling something that would've more likely taken place on The Original Series.
Unfortunately, there's a major flaw in the use of Amelia Earhart. Her role in the episode proves to be depressingly underwhelming, partly because the opening credits saying "Sharon Lawrence as Amelia Earhart" ruins the surprise factor from square one, but mostly because the character/historical figure is put to very little productive use. What's the point of using Earhart? It has to do with Janeway's respect of a woman who pioneered air flight, but there just isn't much depth or effort put into the idea.
Fortunately, the finding of these humans leads to an understandable story that addresses the frustration in the crew's realization that they may never see Federation space again. Through a series of plot twists and phaser fights, the Voyager crew discovers an entire human civilization on this planet. As explained by John Evansville, one of the Delta Quadrant humans (played by John Rubinstein, whose overacting leaves much to be desired), this civilization began after the descendants of the abductees revolted and overthrew their captors--an alien race called the Briori.
With an entire human civilization and their beautiful new cities on this planet, it feels a lot like Earth. Knowing the possibility exists that they may never again see Earth, some of Voyager's crew members begin thinking about staying behind on this planet. Now Janeway must decide whether the Voyager should continue, or whether the crew should end their mission and rebuild their lives in the Delta Quadrant.
"The 37's" has a fairly relevant theme in the context of Voyager being far, far from home. But shouldn't this episode have come earlier in the series? Considering we are some 16 episodes into the series, it's not really timely to do an episode like this. This is a problem that undermines the show. It's hard to care about the story, because we know the outcome: The crew will press on, because they really want to see Earth again, and there's just no comparison between Earth and this new isolated civilization.
But what about those beautiful cities Evansville speaks of? We never get to see them. Instead we get a scene in the Voyager conference room, a cut, and then a Captain's Log saying "Those were beautiful cities..." A matte painting could've made all the dramatic difference here. Apparently it wasn't in the budget. Instead there's a nifty but pointless special effects sequence of the ship landing on the planet. Why? Because this week there's too much interference to use the transporters or something. Whatever. Landing the ship has zero relevance to the story, but what the hey?
"The 37's" is not a bad story, so much as an untimely one. The cast feels sincere and genuine throughout the show. Heading into the second season, however, Voyager needs to get over being homesick.
Previous episode: Learning Curve
Next episode: Initiations
My big big problem with the landed ship was that because the special effects team didn't get the feel of distance right, the Voyager looked way too small, bordering on the ridiculous.
As for landing the ship, well, it may not have been relevant to the main character story, but it's a great sequence to watch and I think it worked at least as well as it would have in any other episode.
The whole premise of the story hinges on the Voyager stopping because they see rusted iron in space. Is that really something they should stop for? Is that really something their sensors would be configured to detect? And it just "happens" to be human?
The whole plot setup is just gimmicky, regardless of the explanation that was presented afterward.
There are other problems with the show too. How did Janeway get her phaser back once it was taken away from her when they were fired upon?
But that's nothing. Here's the big whopper: Why weren't the human cities even detected when they landed or from orbit? Are you telling me that the ship's sensors are set to pick up random, rusted trucks in space, but were not configured to find 100,000+ humans and 3 major cities on the planet after several hours of arriving?
One of Voyager's big problems was the logic of the stories. There are just so many cases where the premise of the show lacks logic - the show has its characters making decisions that are out of character or just don't make any sense. It's as if it's all for the sake of telling some random story. That's pretty much Voyager in a nutshell.
This is a terrible episode.
@Ken I also completely agree with everything you said. This episode is totally ridiculous, on every level.
I'd also like to add to that list of problems with this episode, the glaringly obvious stupidity of landing voyager at all. If the atmosphere on this planet can tear a shuttle apart, why risk the same thing happening to Voyager? Is it worth possibly irreparably damaging the ship to satisfy some whimsical curiosity? I think not. Especially not when that ship is the only hope they have of getting home!
This episode gets one star from me.
I really liked the shots of Janeway in in the ready room with some lovely blue skies outside and sunshine beaming in where there's usually endless blackness with maybe a (usually sentient) nebula outside. I also liked that for once the planet's inhabitants had taken care of their own problems a long time ago.
Don't get me started on the plot though (WHY WAS THAT TRUCK OUT IN SPACEFWAAARGHWRLBL
The emotional pack that you speak of at the end in the cargo back is drastically diminished because we can't take the rational judgement of any of the characters on the show seriously. They are all incompetent - they all don't spot a civilization on the planet, yet they spotted some rusted iron from an earth vehicle in space.
Despite this total incompetence, we are expected that the crew can judge whether they should stay on Voyager or stay on the planet? Their rational faculties are compromised already - it doesn't matter what they chose any longer. The emotional impact is lost when the rational impact wasn't there to begin with. Premises come before emotions.
Second of all, all of the plot holes mentioned above are trifling compared to the idea of Voyager happening across these abducted humans given there are are approx. 1 trillion planets in the Milky Way galaxy. 400 years later? It wouldn't happen in a billion years.