Devil's Due...WTF???

[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.

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?

It wasn't about individual shows and contracts. The entire writer's union went on strike through out all of Hollywood, affecting every movie and TV show.

In other words, it wasn't the TNG writers going on strike against TNG after only two years. It was the entire Screen Writers Guild going on strike against all the major studios, including Paramount.

STAR TREK was just one of dozens of shows affected.

 

[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?

It wasn't about individual shows and contracts. The entire writer's union went on strike through out all of Hollywood, affecting every movie and TV show.

In other words, it wasn't the TNG writers going on strike against TNG after only two years. It was the entire Screen Writers Guild going on strike against all the major studios, including Paramount.

STAR TREK was just one of dozens of shows affected.

I understand that. Which is why I'm confused. The Screenwriters Guild went on strike prior to season two of TNG (which is why we got "The Child" to lead off the abbreviated season), "Devil's Due" is smack in the middle of season four.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, as Karzak clarified, the strike was the original impetus for digging the old script out of mothballs, but "Devil's Due" went through a lot of rewrites and didn't actually end up making it to the screen until later.

Sorry I misunderstood your original query.

 

[BillJ]

Well, as Karzak clarified, the strike was the original impetus for digging the old script out of mothballs, but "Devil's Due" went through a lot of rewrites and didn't actually end up making it to the screen until later.

Sorry I misunderstood your original query.

I think we were just looking at it from different angles.

 

[Mojochi]

Bah, it's not awful. Just out of place for the show & especially the season... Very silly

Not the 1st or last time they went that route

 

[BillJ]

Bah, it's not awful. Just out of place for the show & especially the season... Very silly

Not the 1st or last time they went that route

It's a shame that when one of these shows revisits a concept that harkens back to its roots, it's considered silly.

 

[EnriqueH]

Ardra for the films?

Yeah, maybe for Star Trek V...

In fact, when I first saw Ardra, I thought it might've been the same actress who did Caithlin Dar.

 

[Memory Alpha]

Well, I like the message of it very much, but come on, that Data could not immediately see through the very obvious chicanery kind of left me thinking that they could have thought some of this through a little better. This is an obvious TOS episode in principle. Still, it's fun, and Marta DuBois does a good job.

 

[Mojochi]

Bah, it's not awful. Just out of place for the show & especially the season... Very silly

Not the 1st or last time they went that route

It's a shame that when one of these shows revisits a concept that harkens back to its roots, it's considered silly.

Yeah, but it's context. What's right for TOS isn't going to always be right for TNG. I don't begrudge them the chance to try it, but yeah, it came off kind of silly, for them. I really don't think TOS could've floated an episode like The Wounded in their time either. 20 years is a lot of culture changing

I don't expect Daniel Craig to screw some tart named Pussy Galore in his next Bond flick either

 

[TV's Frank]

Season 4 is a strong enough season to handle at least one kind of corny episode and this is it. Unlike "Shades of Gray", "Devil's Due" is at least a full-on story and not a clip show. Plus, it features a great guest star who plays the role with relish and a sonorous score from Ron Jones, who would soon be wrapping up his tenure on TNG. It's an episode I enjoy watching in the same manner as "Captain's Holiday" from 3rd season, in that that it'ss fun and enjoys this fact, especially in watching Ardra try and seduce Picard.

 

[Karzak]

^^ what he said.

 

[BillJ]

Bah, it's not awful. Just out of place for the show & especially the season... Very silly

Not the 1st or last time they went that route

It's a shame that when one of these shows revisits a concept that harkens back to its roots, it's considered silly.

Yeah, but it's context. What's right for TOS isn't going to always be right for TNG. I don't begrudge them the chance to try it, but yeah, it came off kind of silly, for them. I really don't think TOS could've floated an episode like The Wounded in their time either. 20 years is a lot of culture changing

I do think TOS could've handled "The Wounded" (TOS may have done a better job IMO). Many of the people who worked on the show had actually fought in wars. Nor do I think "Devil's Due" was wrong or too silly for TNG. As we go through life, we run into all kinds of situations that run the gamut from serious to silly. Why would we expect day to day life in the 24th century to be any different?

 

[Mojochi]

I do think TOS could've handled "The Wounded" (TOS may have done a better job IMO). Many of the people who worked on the show had actually fought in wars. Nor do I think "Devil's Due" was wrong or too silly for TNG. As we go through life, we run into all kinds of situations that run the gamut from serious to silly. Why would we expect day to day life in the 24th century to be any different?

but what you're saying is that it is silly, but that there's nothing wrong with that. I don't disagree with that, but sometimes TNG was a little clumsy about it, and it made the episode kind of out of place. Not always, but occasionally, & imho this was one of those times

A Matter of Time is a rather silly episode, but it's delivered much better. As for The Wounded, I'm not saying the show couldn't manage it, but the style was less accommodating & the cultural climate was not right for it. The 60s & the 80s were very different times

 

[FormerLurker]

If TOS had done a version of 'The Wounded', perception of the Vietnam conflict would have been changed, at least for a segment of the population. We can only imagine the result if their new perspective had been shared with the rest of the country in the US.

 

[BillJ]

but what you're saying is that it is silly, but that there's nothing wrong with that. I don't disagree with that, but sometimes TNG was a little clumsy about it, and it made the episode kind of out of place. Not always, but occasionally, & imho this was one of those times

"Devil's Due" is an off the beaten path episode. I tend to like the episodes that challenge a shows status quo and I think the episode was a perfect change of pace for the heavier season four.

 

[T'Girl]

If TOS had done a version of 'The Wounded', perception of the Vietnam conflict would have been changed, at least for a segment of the population. We can only imagine the result if their new perspective had been shared with the rest of the country in the US.

Not to be obtuse, but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

 

[Orphalesion]

"Devil's Due" is an off the beaten path episode. I tend to like the episodes that challenge a shows status quo and I think the episode was a perfect change of pace for the heavier season four.

At the same time the "false god" (or in this case devil) who just turns out to be a sufficiently advanced alien was a rather cliche storyline for Trek already by that point.

Sure they did a little bit of twist on it with Ardra and she was played by a rather good actress, but the basic idea had been done already with Apollo, Q, that thing in ST V, the "god" from "The Apple" and even flipped around in "Who Watches the Watchers" and probably others I can't think of right now.

However I will say "Devils Due" was MUCH better than the other re-adapted "Phase II" script: "The Child" *shudder*

 

[BillJ]

"Devil's Due" is an off the beaten path episode. I tend to like the episodes that challenge a shows status quo and I think the episode was a perfect change of pace for the heavier season four.

At the same time the "false god" (or in this case devil) who just turns out to be a sufficiently advanced alien was a rather cliche storyline for Trek already by that point.

Actually, I see it as a fresh take on the false god story. She is simply a humanoid playing on fears of a society with technology and it's simply a scam for her. Plus, we hadn't had a female false god in Trek up to that point (that I can remember).

 

[FormerLurker]

If TOS had done a version of 'The Wounded', perception of the Vietnam conflict would have been changed, at least for a segment of the population. We can only imagine the result if their new perspective had been shared with the rest of the country in the US.

Not to be obtuse, but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Think of it this way; when TOS was on the air, the US was getting neck deep in Vietnam, and as the soldiers were mustering out and coming home, the reaction to them was very negative, mostly because the hippies and other groups didn't know what they had had to deal with in the field, and had no idea what it had done to them mentally or emotionally. TOS does a version of 'The Wounded', telling a passionate tale about how war and conflict has such a negative effect on the well being of the soldiers involved, which those same hippies watch because that's what they did.

Suddenly the conversation changes, from how bad the soldiers were behaving over there, to why their behavior was so bad to begin with. If this new conversation was able to reach a national level, it would have changed the conversation about the war itself, and what the US' place in it was supposed to be. It had the potential of changing history.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I think you're overestimating Trek's impact on society back in the day. I also don't think a story like that would have been offering a game-changing perspective on the war at the time...TV westerns of the period were routinely doing stories about veterans who were still holding grudges from, or otherwise affected by, the Civil War.