Star Trek: The Next Generation — 4x13 — Devil's Due

Aired 1991-02-04

SpaceOpera.com rating:6

Average reader rating:5.15

Synopsis

Picard fights a woman who claims to be the Devil.

Remarkable scenes

Data's acting in the beginning.
Picard's defiance that Ardra was really the devil.
I like the speculation that she might be a Q.
Ardra attempting to seduce Picard.
Picard: "Just have Mr. Data fetch me in a shuttle. And have him bring along a uniform." Worf: "Did you see uniform?" Picard: "Yes I did!"
Data finding a legal loophole in Ardra's claim to the Enterprise.
Ardra making the Enterprise disappear.
Data overruling Picard.
Data: "The advocate will refrain from making her opponent disappear."
Picard stealing Ardra's powers.

Review

The Ventaxians look exactly like humans... Anyway, I loved Ardra's character. They picked the a perfect actress for her. This is in every way a successful humor episode, and I enjoyed it. The best part of this episode is its replay value. Watch it a second time and try to guess how Ardra was using holography, forcefields, transporters, tractor beams, and cloaking devices to make all her tricks happen.

5 reader comments

During a meeting with the senior staff, Data claims that the people of Ventax II consider it bad luck to speak Ardra's name. However, the prime minister does it quite frequently.
When Ardra shows up on the bridge, Picard has her beamed back to the planet. Immediately afterward, he orders an ensign to put up shields until further notice. The ensign turns around, it is Ardra again. A few minutes later, she leaves on her own. Picard never repeats his orders, and everyone on the bridge must have forgot he said anything about putting up the shields. The end of the show makes clear that she is using standard transpoter technology. That means the crew never raised the shields, because if they did, Ardra could not have beamed into Picard's bedroom later in the show!
During the trial, Ardra demands that Picard explain her abilities. He claims he can't. Granted, he doesn't know exactly where her power source is during this scene. However, earlier in the episode, he gave a good guess about her methods during a discussion with his senior staff. Instead of repeating that explanation, Picard simply replies that he can't explain Ardra's abilities.
After Picard performs Ardra's tricks, he explains that a team from the Enterprise took control of Ardra's ship. Picard then touches his communicator and thanks Riker for his help. Picard explains that the team had monitored him on his communicator. In other words, the communicator was already on. Does that mean that Picard shut it off when he tapped it?
by DSOmo | 08/23/2007 at 8:41 am

A solid episode. I thought the underlying concept was clever.
This episode seems a little confused about how it is trying to portray Ardra. In general, it seems to be saying that she is just a magician using clever tricks (like when they comment on her "bad copy of a cloaking device"). But at other times it seems more like the message is that she is a hyper-advanced alien, but still a con artist. In particular, her ability to undetectably beam people on and off the Enterprise is beyond any capability we've seen from normal Federation opponents.
by Christopher Alexander | 04/23/2011 at 7:51 pm

Factoid: Patrick Stewart would win the 1992 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for his one-man adaption of "A Christmas Carol" on Broadway.
by John DC | 03/14/2012 at 12:56 am

Problem: Two parties cannot make a contract that binds or obligates a third (unrelated) party. I dont care how alien a world is, no one can make a contract that will give away the enterprise in 1000 years. That does not stand up to scrutiny.
by Rick | 03/07/2014 at 5:44 pm

Got a problem for you, the quote mentioned between Data and Picard when discussing the con game in regard to the P.T Barnum quote is incorrect, it was actually said by Barnum's competition Mr. George Hull, who said "There's a sucker born every minute." after Barnum tricked the press into believing and publishing that his stone giant was real and Mr Hulls a fake, both were fakes but Hull was the original creator of the scam
by Rob UK | 06/21/2014 at 2:42 pm