Devil's Due...WTF???

[EnriqueH]

So here I am, smiling, fully engaged in my Season 4 viewing on the way to watch the entire franchise from start to finish.

I'm smiling because, holy shit, Season 4 is the best ever. Just wonderful writing. Some great episodes.

And then suddenly, I'm watching Devil's Due, and I'm wondering how this Season 2 episode found its way into Season 4???

This shit was AWFUL. I prefer Shades of Gray, that's how terrible this was.

Am I alone on this?

The episode has something to say, but the execution and the wooden acting by the Devil made this kind of an embarrassing episode.

 

[Ghrakh]

Eh, I quite enjoyed it myself. I wouldn't have described the "Devil" as wooden acting, on the contrary it was scenery chewing.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

So here I am, smiling, fully engaged in my Season 4 viewing on the way to watch the entire franchise from start to finish.

I'm smiling because, holy shit, Season 4 is the best ever. Just wonderful writing. Some great episodes.

And then suddenly, I'm watching Devil's Due, and I'm wondering how this Season 2 episode found its way into Season 4???

This shit was AWFUL. I prefer Shades of Gray, that's how terrible this was.

Am I alone on this?

The episode has something to say, but the execution and the wooden acting by the Devil made this kind of an embarrassing episode.

I felt the same way. This looks like a bad third season episode of TOS. Picard's part in fact, looked like it was tailor made for Kirk. Maybe someone found that script in Shatner's trashcan...

 

[Amaris]

I like "Devil's Due". It's canned ham, and nothing really beyond more than just a bit of silliness. It does have a strong message of "don't believe everything you see," but that's buried beneath the copious amounts of delicious cheese.

 

[InklingStar]

So here I am, smiling, fully engaged in my Season 4 viewing on the way to watch the entire franchise from start to finish.

I'm smiling because, holy shit, Season 4 is the best ever. Just wonderful writing. Some great episodes.

And then suddenly, I'm watching Devil's Due, and I'm wondering how this Season 2 episode found its way into Season 4???

This shit was AWFUL. I prefer Shades of Gray, that's how terrible this was.

Am I alone on this?

The episode has something to say, but the execution and the wooden acting by the Devil made this kind of an embarrassing episode.

I felt the same way. This looks like a bad third season episode of TOS. Picard's part in fact, looked like it was tailor made for Kirk. Maybe someone found that script in Shatner's trashcan...

"Devil's Due" was originally scripted for Star Trek: Phase II in the 70s, so it was indeed written for Kirk.

 

[Makarov]

I enjoyed this one actually, the whole court with Data as the judge was a fun idea. Predictable but cheesy enough to be more entertaining than some of the more boring episodes.

 

[MacLeod]

I enjoyed it as well, perhaps not the best S4 episodes, but better than most of the drivel of S1-2. And as someone else has already mentioned it was scripted for ST: Phase II.

 

[EnriqueH]

I wonder how the Phase II Team would've handled this show.

It might've been better (or worse), you never know. Look at The Naked Time vs. The Naked Now.

BTW, I thought Naked Now was a bit underrated.

I guess after all the verisimilitude of Best of Both Worlds, Family, and other great episodes, I wasn't prepared for a cheesy entry this season.

 

[BillJ]

I wonder how the Phase II Team would've handled this show.

The Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series book has the story outline for "Devil's Due" and "The Child". I actually like both episodes.

It might've been better (or worse), you never know. Look at The Naked Time vs. The Naked Now.

"The Naked Time" is one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek. But I find "The Naked Now" pretty entertaining.

 

[EnriqueH]

I might've enjoyed Devil's Due more if it had been in Season 2 or if it had followed "Clues", but it followed "The Wounded", which I rather enjoyed actually.

That lineup was kinda lilke following Wrath of Khan with The Final Frontier.

 

[Forbin]

The biggest crime of the episode was putting a stupid rubber forehead on the utterly gorgeous Marta DuBois.

 

[EnriqueH]

The biggest crime of the episode was putting a stupid rubber forehead on the utterly gorgeous Marta DuBois.

 

[JWPlatt]

I like the episode because of my fondness for Marta DuBois in her part as Michelle in Magnum, P.I.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

The biggest crime of the episode was putting a stupid rubber forehead on the utterly gorgeous Marta DuBois.

They had to, otherwise Patrick Stewart would have had to take three cold showers between takes. Especially when she's rubbing up against him or am I just imagining that part...

 

[Karzak]

Meh. Devil's Due might be kitschy, but it's very much (and I realize why) "old school" Star Trek, the same way "Fistful of Datas" was. I loved seeing Picard one-up Ardra at the end; she would have been a fun villain to bring back in the films if the producers ever wanted to drag someone back from Picard's/the crew's past out for revenge, Wrath of Khan style.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Meh. Devil's Due might be kitschy, but it's very much (and I realize why) "old school" Star Trek, the same way "Fistful of Datas" was. I loved seeing Picard one-up Ardra at the end; she would have been a fun villain to bring back in the films if the producers ever wanted to drag someone back from Picard's/the crew's past out for revenge, Wrath of Khan style.

Picard: ARDRA!!!!!!

 

[Karzak]

 

[Greg Cox]

Two words: Writer's strike.

Seriously, that's why they were rummaging through old Phase II scripts. Because a prolonged writer's strike was on the horizon.

 

[BillJ]

Two words: Writer's strike.

Seriously, that's why they were rummaging through old Phase II scripts. Because a prolonged writer's strike was on the horizon.

After only two years? They had just had a strike before the start of season two. I thought those contracts tended to be for a bit longer than a couple of years?

 

[Karzak]

Two words: Writer's strike.

Seriously, that's why they were rummaging through old Phase II scripts. Because a prolonged writer's strike was on the horizon.

After only two years? They had just had a strike before the start of season two. I thought those contracts tended to be for a bit longer than a couple of years?

Not exactly. "Devil's Due" was chosen as a possible script (along with "The Child") as a possibly produceable story for TNG during the 1988 Writer's Strike, but wasn't actually adapted/drafted/written/whatever at the time, but was apparently still viewed as a good chance to take by the writers in year four (after Hurley and Taylor left and Piller took over).

Per mention on Memory Alpha:

During the third season, Michael Piller commissioned Melinda Snodgrass to do a minimal rewrite of the script, replacing the characters with the Next Generation crew. This didn't work, so Piller gave it to Philip LaZebnik over the hiatus. Piller recalled, "He turned it inside out and made it a delightful show. It was too funny, though, and the people felt it was playing it all for laughs. I loved that draft of the script, but not everybody did. It was put into rewrite by approximately 15 people between Phil's script and the final draft, which I took, changing the male devil into a female devil for fun. put back as much of Phil's original script as I could, and the bottom line was I felt the script was very funny and satisfying. It was very off for our show, and I thought its origins showed, but ultimately it was a funny little show and a nice part of our mix."