banding together as a crew, accepting their long journey home, and "whining less about home." The landing of Voyager was also intended to take advantage of the last episode of the season as an opportunity to really wow the audience. Braga wanted the episode to be broken into a two-part episode because of what he called "a wealth of material", what Kate Mulgrew would later describe as "every scene" containing a monologue. Nobody else on the staff wanted to end the first season on a cliffhanger, as the first half would have been. Braga therefore condensed it into one episode, and admitted to struggling with the story, pointing out dramatically different tones in the first three acts as compared to the final two. Ultimately, though, he was satisfied with the end result and how the story came back around to focus on the Voyager crew in the end. The colonists' cities, which are described in the episode as "[something] to be proud of", "amazing", and impressive, were never actually seen. Jeri Taylor explained that the last act of the episode was developed late, and between budgetary considerations and time constraints, it was impossible to realize them. Unlike co-writer Brannon Braga and series creator Michael Piller, who felt not seeing the cities was detrimental to the overall episode, Taylor did not think the compromise was "a big deal." Production The episode was produced by Brannon Braga, Merri Howard, and Peter Lauritson. Casting Casting for "The 37's" was done by Junie Lowry-Johnson, C.S.A., and Ron Surma. Guests cast for the episode were John Rubinstein as John Evansville, David Graf as Fred Noonan, Mel Winkler as Jack Hayes, James Saito as Nogami, and Sharon Lawrence as Amelia Earhart. Sharon Lawrence Lowry-Johnson was familiar with guest star Sharon Lawrence from their work together on NYPD Blue. Lawrence later expressed the belief that the qualities of her NYPD Blue character ("somebody who had … a professional strength about them") was what clinched her role as Amelia Earhart. The actress was excited to be portraying a version of Earhart, saying that she relished the professional relationships roles like these have—as opposed to ones featuring "domestic or familial relationship[s]." In "The 37's", Lawrence was drawn to the relationship Earhart has with Janeway: two women, two professional pilots who have risen to great heights in their chosen fields. Not only did the historical character appeal to her, Lawrence