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When a pickup truck from the
1930's inexplicably shows up in space, it's beamed aboard
Voyager for closer inspection. Even more peculiar, the truck's
radio is picking up an SOS distress call — but from where? Kim
traces the signal to a nearby star system and Janeway orders the
crew to lay in a course to the signaling planet. An unusual
amount of interference in the upper atmosphere prevents them
from beaming down, so Janeway tells Paris to land the ship on
the planet's surface.
The Away Team follows the SOS
to the cockpit of an airplane that was built during the same era
as the truck. Beyond the plane, the crew finds a chamber
containing eight humans in cryo-stasis units. All are dressed in
1930's attire, and one unit holds famed aviator Amelia Earhart,
who disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937.
The eight humans are revived from suspended animation.
Once awake, the humans demand to know where they are and how
they got there. After Janeway explains that they were probably
abducted by aliens 400 years earlier, a suspicious Noonan and
some of the others take the crew hostage. Hoping to convince
them of the truth, Janeway gets Earhart to venture outside the
chamber to see Voyager, but as soon as they do, they come under
fire by two snipers on a hill.
Janeway quells the attack and learns the snipers are two humans
who have mistaken the crew for the Briori: an alien race that
kidnapped more than 300 people from Earth in 1937 and brought
them to the planet as slaves. After a successful slave revolt
chased the Briori off, the humans created a colony. However,
they believed that the eight "37's" in Earhart's group were
dead, and they left them in their cryo-stasis units for
centuries.
The colonists offer the 37's and Voyager's crew the opportunity
to remain on the Earth-like planet, and Janeway allows each
member of her flock to choose for his or herself. Although
Neelix and Chakotay are sure they want to go with Janeway, she
can't be so sure about the other crewmembers, who debate the
merits of settling on the planet. Ultimately, Amelia Earhart and
the other 37's decide to stay with their "descendants," but to
Janeway's relief, the entire Voyager crew opts to leave with
her.
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