TNG Rewatch: 4x13 "Devil's Due"

Another in the trope of TNG episodes that mash up with a courtroom drama.

The Enterprise finds itself at the planet Ventax II where mass riots and social chaos has begun, the native population of the planet, essentially, believing their Judgment Day has come. At first Picard is there to secure the safety, and freedom, of Federation prisoners who were researchers on an outpost there but as the situation escalates he begins fighting on the behalf of the people of the planet to secure their freedom and safety from their equivalent of The Devil.

A woman has come to the planet claiming to be "Ardra" (the planet's counterpart to The Devil and as events unfold she sees to claim to be a being who is every society's version of The Devil including the Klingon devil "Fek'lhr" and humanity's own Satan) and that a millennium ago the planet's inhabitants standing on the edge of societal and ecological ruin made a "deal with the devil" to bring them peace and prosperity in exchange for their souls in 1000 years and it seems the contract is up and Ardra has come to collect.

Picard isn't so quick to believe "Ardra's" claims as the planet's leader is and through Data finds something of a loophole in the planet's law allowing for an arbitration to settle the dispute which Ardra submits to so long as Picard offers himself as the prize should he lose the arbitration. Picard argues as the plaintiff, Ardra in her own defense and Data serves as the jurist.

Picard, at first, is unable to convince Data that Ardra's claims are invalid but his goading Ardra into using her "magic" more during the proceeding has allowed LaForge (also on the planet) time to locate the source of her power -a cloaked ship in orbit.

The Enterprise -currently hidden from Picard and Data- has captured the vessel, allowing for Picard to make use of Ardra's "magic" and then convince Data, and more over the planet's leader, the Ardra is nothing more than a con-artist exploiting the planet's theology for personal gain. She's been using her ship's technology to create the illusions she is their devil. She is apprehended by the planet's security force as Picard and company return to the ship.

In the bucket of episodes TNG did that also did the "courtroom drama" thing this episode is probably the weakest of that group. There's some fun moments but overall it's not too compelling of a case.

There are some oddities when it comes to how Ardra was performing her "magic" as it seems the episode wants to have things two ways. It wants Ardra to come off as a credible villain who potentially could be "the devil" (or at least a powerful Q-like being capable of posing as the devil) but in the end it wants to tell us that she was nothing more than a scam artist using a ship full of technology. The problem with this comes mostly in a couple scenes where she comes on board the Enterprise and performs some of her magic tricks.

She first appears on the ship sitting in Picard's chair on the bridge just as he and the others are leaving the Observation lounge. Either she *just* got there, timing her entrance perfectly, or she's been sitting there for a while with the bridge crew and everyone else not noticing or minding. She's also able to get onto the ship apparently without anyone noticing or setting off any alarms or anything.

Later she similarly appears in Picard's quarters at a time when the ship's shields are presumably up and she's also somehow able to disrupt the com and door systems in Picard's quarters.

And while it's understandable given how secular we know 24th century humans to be, Picard seems to easily and quickly assume Ardra is an ordinary person with ho "magic" whatsoever. This seems an odd position to take when he knows there do exist beings in the galaxy able to demonstrate such powers meaning that the contract may in fact be "real" or at the very least one of these beings is trying to exploit that contract. There could also be a question of whether or not his actions here, once he has the Federation hostages secured, are legal given The Prime Directive.

Overall this is an episode I can still enjoy on some level or another as it does have its cute moments and certainly isn't TNG at its worst but also certainly not TNG at its best.

The actress playing Ardra does do a good job in her role of playing a temptress trying to woo over the planet leader and Picard as well in her con to acquire the planet.

The Remastered version looks pretty good, in particular the matte painting of the planet with distant fires (going from black-smoke, raging fires eventually to white-smoke smoldering ones) and the shuttle's approach to the Enterprise's shuttlebay shortly before it disappears.

GOOD LINES:

"Captain... I have ruled." - Data, when Picard seems to dispute Data's overruling of his objection.

"Did you say uniform?" - Worf, after Picard calls to the ship to have Data to come get him (and to bring a uniform) after Ardra has transported him to the surface in his bed clothes.

ODDITIES/INTERESTING MOMENTS:

Picard has fallen asleep with a book in hands while in his bed, but apparently he reads in the dark since there's no reading light on over his bed.

Everytime there's a "tremor" being caused by "Ardra" (actually a low-powered tractor beam aimed at the planet's crust) the camera shakes around violently similar to how it does after a weapon impact on a ship, but everyone remains standing perfectly still in the room with no troubles at all.

"Ardra", after being called "The Devil" does seem to speak as if she's aware of how humanity no longer believes in such myths when she says, "Ah, there's one I haven't heard in a while." Sort of an interesting note on how, possibly, humanity's shirking of mythological creatures seems to be pretty well known. Ardra uses devil-icons to scare the planet's populace and to intimidate Worf but seems to know humans don't believe in such things anymore.

Commander William "That's Not The Captain's Place" Riker seems to have no objections to Picard's decision to join an Away Team to the planet's surface to recover the Federation hostages.

 

Well, it was originally a Star Trek: Phase II script in the days before TMP, so that might account for some of the lapses in logic. It went through several rewrites before filming.

 

Another oddity is that Ardra is able to take the place of a random yellowshirt at the Ops position. Where did that guy go during that time? And I assume when she made Picard disappear, she just put a cloaking device beam on him? And could you imagine the implications of using some tech to transform your appearance into whomever you wished in an instant? Forget creating people on the holodeck to fulfill your sick fantasies.

It's a fun episode, especially because it's a Phase II script. It has an old school feel to it, which never hurts. Looking at some of the other episode descriptions, I wouldn't have minded seeing another episode or two borrow from it. Surely couldn't be any worse than The Outrageous Okona. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek_phase_2

And I don't get why Ardra acts so cocky to Picard at the end. She's toast.

 

The way she acts at the end almost seems like a sting that she'd be a recurring villain (which I guess might be another leftover from the Phase 2 script, which I'd never heard this was one) which obviously never happened. Would have been interesting if it had. Though she certainly wouldn't have been one of the more formidable foes Picard and the Enterprise faced.

It's also odd that when Geordi tells Picard they found her ship with a cloaking device Picard offers, "She has a Romulan cloaking device?!" and Geordi's like. "More like a bad imitation of one." Rather than saying, "Er... Yes, sir. A Romulan cloaking device because Romulans are the only beings in the galaxy to develop cloaking technology."

 

Another sign that it wasn't meant to be a TNG script is that there isn't the expected scene of Troi telling Picard that Ardra is full of crap.

 

LOL.

Back in the day I dismissed this episode as pretty trashy, but watched it again not long ago and enjoyed it. Time has made me more lenient. The actress who plays Adra was considered for the Troi role, I seem to recall. I can see that. I like the scene when she appears to Picard in his quarters in various guises. It's interesting that when she asks him if he prefers a "professional woman" it's Troi she appears as, not Beverly. I think she's got his psyche dead right when she changes from the lingerie to the Victorican get up. I think that would be more to Picard's "tastes".

 

Yeah that was another odd thing where Troi, conveniently, can't get a "read" on Ardra.

 

Most of Ardra's magical appearances could be best explained by her not really appearing at all. She uses holographic tomfoolery extensively - so she could be a hologram whenever so conveniently, silently and unnoticeably appearing, too. Like Shinzon, she could have snuck holoemitters aboard Picard's ship at moments of low readiness, not only creating images of people, but also boxing people inside holographic illusions to keep them from realizing what is going on.

Holographic walls could also nicely mask real transporter activity. Plus, Deanna ought to be confused trying to read a hologram, then through a hologram, then a hologram again!

Which sort of makes one wonder why Ardra wasn't a hologram down on the planet, too, but could be deprived of her ship quite clandestinely, and then physically apprehended... Vanity, I guess.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Fun. Just don't think about it too hard.

 

Absolutely this!

I've always enjoyed this TNG entry quite a lot.

 

Marta Dubois, Yet another extraordinarily beautiful actress who they felt compelled to deface with a ridiculous forehead appliance. Madness!!

 

Actually....

 

Its moderately good as a Devil and Daniel and Webster retelling, BUT fantastic as a topical episode...showing a culture that single handidly brought itself out of self-destructive behavior..without superstition! Loved that. Worth watching.

 

But it was superstition that drove the change.

 

It would seem that it was the contract with Ardra that got the changes started, she began the process.

The contract may have been the driving force to keep the changes rolling, and later to prevent the society from returning to a industrial economy again.

 

Ummm..... It was sorta superstition that made them change their society and then it was superstition (granted, augmented by actual events) that nearly tore them apart.

 

Was there an Ardra originally? Or was that just fiction created by the leaders of the planet to guide the masses towards a better future? Or even fiction created long after the better future came to be, as a rationalization of what had happened? We aren't quite told, which is the fun part here. There are some old documents but no way to tell whether they describe a factual or a fictional history...

Something made the Ventaxians save their planet, and something made them start speaking of Ardra. The two things might be completely unrelated in the end.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I don't know about in the US, but in the UK there is a brand of hand dryer (that you find in public toliets/cloakrooms) called Vent Axia. Everytime I see one, I think of this episode! (There is also a brand of bird seed called Trill, but that's for another forum! )

 

Was there a Jesus originally? Doesn't matter if there was or wasn't since over a billion people on this planet believe there was and that one day he will return to save the True Believers before the end of the world.

In the Ventaxian mythology their distant ancestors, it would seem believed in "a devil" and sold their souls to her in order to turn their planet around. Now, we only have their leader to go by on this (and the Federation expert) who it would seem was something of a "theorcrat" but, regardless, it seems the population did believe in this devil and probably more so as the various prophecies seemed to come true.

Honestly, I'd rather believe that they could beam "Ardra" onto the ship without sensors or alarms going off rather than them being able to beam-on devices (holo-projectors) without alarms going off or anyone noticing. That'd certainly make it seem like the Enterprise is very, very, vulnerable to attack.

At "most" on the hologram angle I could see them maybe being able to "project" holograms over great distances without the need for holoprojectors in the target location. This would seem to be the case for times when Ardra (and later Picard) masked herself as various other devils. And possible for times when it seemed she was making people disappear.