TNG - Devil's Due

[MerelyAFan]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t187.php

I have to admit I have a soft spot for Devil's Due. Oh its goofy alright, and its roots as a Kirk era script are blatantly obvious even with its rewrites, but unlike a lot of TNG's other attempts at a lighter stories, it never felt particularly obnoxious or stupid. Ardra is a relatively fun villain, and at the very least, she's not a strawman antagonist for the crew to speechify against.

[slochmoeller]

I think this was actually set for Phase II, being one of two story concepts recycled as TNG episodes from that scrapped series. The other of course being the child.

as for a Trek connection that calls forward, Picard has a line "We have to out-con the con artist." That is just, such a Janeway line that it makes my eyes roll everytime.

At the end of the episode, Ardra taunts Picard with "Until we meet again!" Suggesting they were considering doing more with her. Perhaps making her like a TNG Harry Mudd. But they didn't, I suspect largely because having been found out as a fraud there wasn't much left to do with her.

[Koshundheit]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t187.php

I have to admit I have a soft spot for Devil's Due. Oh its goofy alright, and its roots as a TOS script are blatantly obvious even with its rewrites, but unlike a lot of TNG's other attempts at a lighter stories, it never felt particularly obnoxious or stupid. Ardra is a relatively fun villain, and is at the very least, she's not a strawman antagonist for the crew to speechify against.

Same here. It's a fun episode for me. There's plenty of grouchy Picard, and Marta DuBois is a treat to watch having fun with the role of Ardra. I had figured Chuck would have a bit more to say about Picard/Stewart making a reference to method acting.

The Klingon hologram didn't seem bad to me. It seemed more that it is just standing in a plain room, out of place, combined with the bland brief way it is used robs it of any menace. The human devil hologram used during the arbitration was the one that always seemed ridiculous to me. It is more like a devil Halloween costume.

As happens more than I'd anticipated, when Chuck talks about how polarizing this episode is, I had no idea. Sometimes I find myself wanting for footnotes so I could go easily read some of the sources for what he's talking about. My search-fu is pretty good, but not everything is easy to search for. Not that I'm asking he do them. He's way too busy as it is.

[Sir Will]

I was surprised to learn how divisive it was some time ago. I remember this episode very fondly.

[Mabus]

It does feel very TOS, with Geordi coming across like Spock or Scotty.

[Orel]

That Mephisto joke at the beginning got me.

As for the Prime Directive, my understanding is that the locals had space travel and abandoned it, so they're just like the Baku--not really pre-warp.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

The Prime Directive also prevents meddling in any society's internal affairs. A civil war, for instance, is prohibitive grounds for intervention (unless as impartial arbitrator/trader), whether or not they are warp capable.

In this matter it is clear imo that, between the two parties, it's a case of exploitation and under presumably false pretenses. It's not much different from two different planets with one being a clear agressor.

[bluebydefault]

This episode is divisive? IDK it just seems like an okay episode. I like them exposing her as a con artist. Although when I first watched it I thought it might have been a reworked Q episode. She was really Q like with taunting Picard later.

After all you'd think she would want the federation out of there as soon as possible. They aren't just going to give you their flag ship. She may have won if she had told them to leave and pressured that weenie leader to tell them to leave they didn't want help.

[Jonathan101]

After all you'd think she would want the federation out of there as soon as possible. They aren't just going to give you their flag ship. She may have won if she had told them to leave and pressured that weenie leader to tell them to leave they didn't want help.

Well, in real life, con artists tend to be narcissistic and psychopathic. Ardra just got greedy. I like to imagine that behind-the-scenes she had a bunch of crewmates arguing about the chance to steal a Federation vessel vs it being risky and they should get them to leave, or even just call the whole thing off, but Ardra couldn't resist.

Would have been a lot more complicated if she was the real deal of course, or even just a powerful, immortal alien that didn't bother pretending to be Satan et al. I do think that the episode is stretches its' logic a little with her not just being a con artist, but a con artist who has technology more advanced than the Enterprise. It seems as though, even if she is just a regular mortal alien, she still has to come from a civilization more advanced than the Federation to pull off some of the crap that she did.

[CrypticMirror]

I join in the chorus of people saying they didn't realise it was divisive, I enjoyed it at the time and I enjoy it now. Chuck is right that it seems like a S1 or 2 episode rather than season four. If you'd asked me to say, I would have definitely edited out Riker's beard in memory.