Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 20: The 37's [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of the coolest Voyager episodes, where they find Amellia Airheart and many other people from 1937 that had been abducted from earth and never seen again. This is a must see for any Trekkie.

This is the single worst episode of "Voyager" -- what "Spock's Brain" is to the original "Star Trek". What a stupid idea -- aliens drag Amelia Earhart halfway across the galaxy for no apparent reason; the crew finds a 1937 truck floating in space(with it's AM radio still functioning after 400 years!); they get to a planet where Earhart is in suspended animation; wake her up; and then -- NOTHING HAPPENS! Nothing, except a dumb debate about whether they should stay or go. No action, tedious, pointless. Fortunately, "Voyager" reached it's bottom early, with this debut to its second season and got better from here. Don't waste money on this -- any other episode would be a better purchase.

So, there you are on the good ship "Voyager," stuck in the Delta Quadrant 70 light years from home and feeling pretty sorry for yourself. What could be worse? Well, an answer to that question is provided in the premier episode of the second season of "Star Trek: Voyager." Episode 20, "The 37's" (Written by Jeri Taylor & Brannon Braga, Aired: August 28, 1995) begins with the starship encountering a pickup truck from the Earth circa the 1930s. The trail leads to a planet where "Voyager" actually lands on the planet (remember when the ship was preserving energy because they are in the middle of no where?). There an Away Team discovers eight human beings in cryo-statis units. When they are revived the crew discovers these people were kidnapped by aliens in 1937 and that one of them is the famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence) and her co-pilot Fred Noonan (David Graf). Another mystery solved by the friendly people at Starfleet.

Of course the revived earthlings want to know where they are and what happened to them and being told that they were abducted by strange visitors from another planet 400 years earlier is met with disbelief. Apparently aliens in need of slave labor raided the earth and brought back hundreds of humans (this extremely wasteful use of energy for such limited returns makes landing "Voyager" on the surface of a planet seem like a stroke of genius in comparison). Ultimately it turns out that what "The 37's" is about is that, in the grand tradition of premier episodes of a show's second season, the "Voyager" crew gets to rededicate itself to the mission going home. All things considered, this is the long way around to make that particular point. Furthermore, the episode continues the tradition of less than stellar "Star Trek" stories from various series in which we find 20th century human beings alive and well in the Star Trek universe. The point of having Amelia Earhart be one of the humans is not really exploited to great effect and the entire affair ends up being something of a silly diversion from the task at hand.

ANOTHER EPISODE WHERE VOYAGER PROVES THAT IT IS A SHOW OF QUALITY. THOUGH THIS RARELY OCCURRED. AMELIA AIRHART SEEMS CLOSE TO JANEWAY AS TWO COMRADE EXPLORERS. WONDERFUL STORY.

Sensors detect a trail of rust and Voyager follows it to an old pickup floating in space. The truck is pulled into the cargo bay and Tom Paris discovers an SOS is being picked up by the radio. The crew tracks the SOS to an earth-like planet and Star Trek history is made when Voyager becomes the first starship to actually land on a planet. Captain Janeway, Ensign Kim and Lt. Tuvok find an old style airplane with an alien fusion-based transmitter onboard that is the source of the SOS. Meanwhile, Chakotay finds a cave which is the source of some power readings and upon investigation by Janeway, Chakotay and B'Elanna, 8 cryo-stasis chambers are discovered inside. Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence) and her navigator, Fred Noonan (David Graf) are among the 8 people in stasis. After being revived, the eight believe they have been kidnapped by Janeway and the others and Fred pulls a gun on them. Janeway persuades Earhart to accompany her to Voyager to prove that the 8 have been `asleep' for a few hundred years and the crew mean them no harm. When they leave the cave, they discover other humans on the planet who turn out to be descendants of 300 people who were brought there by aliens to be slaves. The human slaves revolted and drove the aliens off and are now free. The 300 were abducted from Earth in 1937 and the last 8 of these have been in stasis since that time. The planet's inhabitants explain that the 8 people are known as The 37's and that they are monuments to their ancestors. The humans invite Voyager's crew, as well as Earhart and the other 7 people, to stay on the planet with them. Janeway worries that too many of her crew will stay behind and that would effect Voyager ever getting home. The captain is disappointed when Earhart tells her that she and the others are staying behind. It's a tense moment for Captain Janeway as she and Chakotay walk toward the cargo bay to discover how many of the crew will be waiting there to transport to the surface and begin their new life.

This is a good episode with an interesting twist on the Earhart disappearance. The only thing that bothered me was that I don't think Amelia Earhart would really have decided to stay on the planet. Being an independent, adventurous person, I believe she would have left with Voyager. But, understandably, the writers had to write the story with her staying. Too bad - she would have made an interesting addition to the crew.

The Voyager second season opener is one of those episodes fans seemed to have a friendly debate over. After a first season filled mainly with the type of shows that define character roles and generally focusing on their differences, I think Voyager fans were looking to be treated to an action filled episode. `The 37s' wasn't what most of us had in mind but I wasn't at all disappointed with it. The story is derivative of the TNG episodes, `The Neutral Zone' and `Up The Long Ladder' - it's more like a melding of the two of them actually.

Harry reports that he has found traces of rust during a routine scan of the area of space Voyager is traveling. More than just a mere anomaly it is investigated by the bridge crew who then follow the trail to a 1936 Ford Truck floating in outer space. Bringing the truck aboard they discover it has an AM radio which they play with - and hear an old style SOS signal being broadcast. That signal is traced to a planet, which the crew travel to and are forced by atmospheric conditions to land the entire ship. They soon find the source of the signal, which is an early 20th century earth aircraft. Inside it they notice an alien device that powers the SOS signal. Further, they discover a cavern that houses several humans held in cryogenic suspension; upon investigation one of them turns out to be Amelia Earhart! Of course the crew releases them all from suspension and that begins the fascinating mystery.

Admittedly, some of the elements present in this story can be a bit tough to swallow for the Star Trek fan that insists on hard science fiction only. This episode reminded me of the pulp science fiction & fantasy short stories I read as a youth growing up in the sixties. Perhaps it is a bit slow, but what it lacks in action it makes up for in intrigue. During their investigation of the plane `someone' silently observes them. When they enter the cavern to explore it, that same `someone' observes them again. We wonder if they aren't falling into a well-plotted trap. The discovery that the present alien culture are descendants of a group of over 300 earthlings "shanghaied" to this planet by an alien race during the early 20th century also piques our interest.

The intro to the show is great as well - it's an excellent hook device. The crew's quizzical treatment of the truck; their reaction to it's backfiring; one of the earthlings demanding to speak to J. Edgar Hoover in Washington; and other such awkward moments adds humor in all the right places. Again, the Star Trek writers devised a clever way for the crew to interact with the past without having to time travel. (See also TNG's, "The Big Goodbye", "The Neutral Zone" and "Up The Long Ladder".) All in all I found this a very satisfying episode and one of the Voyager shows that I like to watch frequently.

One final note: The first use of surface landing by a Federation starship is seen here - "ST IV: The Voyage Home" featured a Klingon ship landing in San Francisco bay, for all you buffs.

I loved this episode and thought it was well written. I am a fan of Amelia Earhart, and if you are or aren't I THINK YOU WILL LOVE THIS! To those who hate it, well, that's your problem! Because this was awesome!!

What a wasted opportunity. First of all let me point out that that Earhart's appearance is just a throwaway gimick and doesn't have any real impact on the show. If the writers were trying to get some milage out of the notion that it would be cool to have the most famous female pilot paired with the most famous female captain of a tv show then it didn't work. But what really should have been interesting was the crew's decision to stay on this planet or stay on Voyager to continue their journey home. How interesting it would have been if some of the crew members had decided to stay on this world where they believed they had a better chance of a life than they would on a small ship that was a lifetime away from home. Instead EVERY last member decided to stay with the ship and worse of all we never got to see any of them struggle with the decision. All of the decisions were made off screen and so we never got a chance to see individuals agonoze over what path to take. And the great cities of this planet (the ones that looked similiar to cities on Earth) were never shown as well which lessened the impact of the show in my opinion. A truly forgettable episode.