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.
