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12:00 "According to the squirrels, you offered us a thousand years…" Picard: "I think I'm beginning to understand the problem. Your historians don't even have written language!"
I like this one a lot! One little detail i appreciate - when Picard mentions the devil, Ardra says "that's one i haven't heard in a long time." But it isn't until later, when they're in the courtroom, that she actually takes on the Devil appearance. So she had time to hear the name, pretend she recognized it, and then do the research and prepare her hologram for later. I really appreciate that little bit - she's a professional con artist who might not have the entire Galaxy of evil Lords memorized.
One that I find interesting is how snappy she was with Fek'lhr. What are the odds that a Klingon would be on this planet to challenge her with that one? Also, the Klingons have no literal equivalent to a "Devil": Fek'lhr is actually just the guardian of Gre'thor, the Klingon underworld for the dishonored, making him roughly equivalent to Charon from Earth mythology. But she was still ready in a blink for it, so that's impressively crazy-prepared.
Another detail is when Ardra told Picard she could be anyone he desires, she turned into Troi to try and tempt him. Of course if she was really the devil she would have known to turn into Beverly or Vash or Mrs. Manheim, but the only woman at that time Ardra had seen with Picard was Troi, so that is what she went with.
Weird to mention Fek'lar when Kang told Kirk in the Original Series episode "Day of the Dove" that Klingons had no Devil. Its also mentioned in Klingon legend that they slayed their gods long ago.
Actually that wasn't the Ghost of Christmas Past. It was the Ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business partner who had been dead for 7 years at the beginning of the story.
The one unrealistic thing of the episode: The way in which the population (represented by Jared) finally accept Picard's argument that they've been duped. In fact, it's nearly impossible to prove to people that they've been fooled by a con man. Their fear of embarrassment from admitting they've been fooled trumps their own self-interest in no longer being subject to a con man's ploys. In our world, a huge part of the population would double down and vote in Ardra for a second term rather than admit they'd been duped the first time around, no matter how many times you expose the man behind the curtain. "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." -Mark Twain
True, but the benefit of being “tricked” here is pretty damn incentivizing. They also don’t need to believe Ardra isn’t real, they could just believe this woman was not Ardra.
Also great how she hears about the Devil, but does not turn into an image of him until their next encounter. She had to go research what he looked like in related material in the meantime.
2:07 Hey, Josh and Alex, fun fact for you guys: This episode was one of 2 episodes of TNG that originally was intended to be an episode of "Star Trek:Phase II," The other episode of TNG originally written for "Phase II," was the season 2 premiere, "The Child"
Fun Fact: this was a unused script from Star Trek Phase 2 that was recycled for TNG. You can see the TOS-isms throughout this episode & can insert Kirk into quite a few of Picard's scenes
@@busimagen The idea in Phase 2 was that Kirk had "Matured" and was a more seasoned leader, but still Kirk. You can take almost any of these scripts, reused or new, and substitute the corresponding character and it would work. As a TOS fan, that was the thing that bothered me a bit about TNG. I know these characters and enjoy the stories, but shouldn’t it be Kirk, Decker, McCoy…
I think when Ardra makes Picard and the navigation ensign disappear, she just leaves them in the transporter pattern buffer. This would explain why the ensign just looks perplexed upon rematerializing in his seat - to him, _something_ happened, but he's not sure what.
@@fakecubed I would assume that if it wasn't a TV show confined to a specific run time they would have. It might be safe to say he wouldn't have been able to provide any useful insight if he was essentially not aware during that time.
@@thewinner7382 I mean I've watched the hell out of the series, which I own on DVD... it's more of an extrapolation than "just making up crap". What do _you_ think happened to the guy when he was gone for a few minutes? Tea and crumpets on the other ship?
When people "disappeared" or were "replaced" like that random ensign on the bridge they were only ever gone for short periods of time. They probably didn't go anywhere, as in they never rematerialized in another place. They were probably just sitting in the transporter buffer for the short time they were gone then rematerialized back where they started.
It was interesting that they chose to have Brent Spiner/Data doing that scene from "A Christmas Carol" as just a couple years earlier, Patrick Stewart was performing a one-man stage show of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol which he toured (I was fortunate enough to see his performance when he did it in Santa Barbara, CA -- Star Trek: TNG hadn't quite hit its full stride, but the hard core Trekkies that I had as best friends at the time were already gung ho to see him) The character of Ardra could've been a fun recurring (toothless) villain/foible for Picard and company (if they'd chosen to do more light-hearted silly episodes later). I don't think they ever gave her "real name" at any point in the episode
Speaking of Scrooge and A Christmas Carol, you guys should react to the TNT production of A Christmas Carol (1999) starring Patrick Stewart. Stewart really knocks it out of the park (with performances to match from the other actors), it's the best version of A Christmas Carol I've ever seen. (Also, in my head canon, it's still just Picard acting in the Holodeck.) It's available in its entirety here on youtube.
I saw Patrick do the show in person, at the Old Vic in London, 1993. Somehow I happened to book opening night, and the entire front row (apart from me) was full of people dressed up as Klingons and Vulcans and Starfleet personnel. Patrick marched on stage in a grey suit, glared along the row, then held up a huge book clearly marked 'A Christmas Carol'. I think everyone got the hint. Needless to say, he was brilliant. Can't believe that was over thirty years ago . . . 👴
@@thewinner7382 / I thought a lot of people did until this came up! Apparently I'm in very small minority! I think it's a train wreck. Most folks seem to think it's fun, inconsequential diversion. They're right about the inconsequential part.
Sorry to learn Marta DuBois is no longer with us Marta Estela DuBois (December 15, 1952 - May 8, 2018) was a Panamanian-American actress. DuBois had a steady career on episodes of numerous television series and films. She gained attention in a recurring role as wife of Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I., and may be best known as the female lead - homicide detective Roberta Hansen - in the McBride franchise of 10 television films. On May 8, 2018, DuBois died of a brain aneurysm in Los Angeles, California, at age 65.
I have this hypothisis that the scene in PIcards quarters took place on her ship in the holideck. It would make it much easier to control everything. You do not have to take control of the Enterprise. He could have been beamed while sleeping and that is why she beamed him to the planet. It would hide the fact that he was not on the Enterprise.
Yeah but the Federation is top notch and makes security of their ships and officers its highest priority, if Picard was beamed off, no doubt Mr. Worf would have been immediately notified and the Enterprise's highly trained Security officers would have immediately taken action and........uuummm Oh wait.
In a universe with the Q, "God", Lucifer, Apollo, an actual Aztek snake god, Dowds, Organians, Metrons, et al, Picard's certainty always struck me as odd. I can buy him having great instincts and correctly sussing out her con, but he really seems positive somehow.
Great comparison, for plot, feel, and guest actor. It could have been made a darker episode, but the contract/trial direction made it...not silly, but less of a horror thing.
I always loved this episode and thought it was underrated. For me, it's an A+. It's a simple standalone story, and I thought she was a great character. I genuinely wish they had brought her back more. She easily could have been a Harry Mudd type of foil.
40:10 During the first season or two of TNG, there was a TNG comic series published by DC comics. In one issue Picard and crew encounter an alien race that appears to be hunting something mysterious aboard the Enterprise. The aliens are lanky, furry green creatures with yellow eyes wearing red suits. Data eventually determines they are hunting a non-corporeal creature and LaForge is eventually able to see it with his visor. To Georgie the entity looks like a chubby old man with a beard wearing a fur-lined red suit that the crew discovers is the 'Spirit of Christmas.' The aliens were analogous to the Grinch trying to wipe out Christmas. It wasn't a very good comic issue.
The weird comment Picard makes about “centuries old technology” was actually super on the nose in the 70s/80s because the first fully computerized eye tracking was developed then and received a solid amount of press.
Marta Dubois was a regular on Stephen Collin's (Will Decker) one season series "Tales of the Gold Monkey". She was also featured on Magnum P.I. as his lost love. She was very busy on TV in the 80s.
Been years since I watched "Tales of the Gold Monkey", a show I really liked back in the day (it actually came to mind out of the blue yesterday), but I did not know the actor for Will Decker was the main guy.
In my younger days I used to think Ardra was played by the same woman as Princess Ardala from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The names were very similar too.
I've always found thig episode very entertaining, especially for a standalone. As likely as it was that Ardra was a con artist, you didn't know for sure because another powerful being could exist. You also get to see Picard get more and more frustrated as they aren't understand or get a step ahead of her abilities...for a while. It's vastly more memorable than many other episodes. I didn't feel like it was a very rehashed idea like Alex did but I understand how less appealing it can be with that kind of mindset. That's exactly why I don't care much for "A Matter of Perspective". It felt like there were many shows that did the this-witness-memory-is-different presentations.
S Tier might be a little generous, but I can't deny this episode is very a much guilty pleasure of mine! Marta DuBois does a fantastic job as Ardra! A villain that's not really a villian, more of a con artist, and she's very charasmatic with it! I'd give it a solid B or A- for sure!
So, two things that come to mind for this episode: one is that Picard is snapping his fingers for the special effects, much as Q snapped his finger whenever he did something. Second is that there's a meme of Picard flipping someone off that is actually a freeze frame of him angrily snapping his fingers.
A lot of us who were in IT during Y2K can tell lots of stories. It wasn't an issue for most because we spent a lot of time testing with changed system dates and fixing issues long before the actual event. I worked in IT for a major airline, and some of our key systems WOULD have failed without us taking precautions. And no, it wasn't just simple date display issues. lol We had a core date format translation table (UNIMATIC ACCMIN-to-Display) that depended on a table which stopped at 31 Dec 1999. Perhaps understandable given that the code for that routine was written in the mid 1960's.
Guys, pay particular attention to Worf’s uncomfortable reaction to Fek’lhr considering his discommendation. It’s something the casual observer might miss.
“A” tier for me. I really like this one. The way Ardra has fooled the society on this planet is how I think of the proverbial devil. Blaming the evils and problems of the world on a mythological figure, rather than the evils humans can do to each other.
I think Alex has something with the scene where Geordi comes in during the middle of the arbitration and kinda gives up the reveal. Like Alex suggested, if the scene was just Geordi walking in, asking for a recess to meet with Picard then it cuts off there, the reveal would have been more impactful, too.
"I have encountered many, who could be more credibly called the Devil, than you." Q: "Why are my ears burning?" She overplays her hand trying to lay claim to the Enterprise.
As someone who was manipulated by religion and then discovered the manipulation and left it, not without drama, this one hits extremely close to home and that makes it S+ for me. This episode helped me come to my senses. Sounds like Josh had a similar experience. It hits us differently
This one is really good because in general its just a lot of fun. Great villain, great character interaction, great effects, it just has everything. And that awesome shuttle view trying to land in the Enterprise.
Yeah…the tone of this episode makes more sense when you find out that the script was originally written for the original crew with Kirk the focus of the horny scam artist instead of Picard.
Picard probably handled her advances better, I still can't imagine Kirk reacting the same way. Kirk would have been close to Picard's age, had Phase II been made... Ditto for Spock saying "Ardra will refrain from hitting on the captain" or whatever 😂
Yup -- for the failed Phase II series that they were planning on doing in the late '70s before Star Wars proved such a big hit and Paramount decided to do a movie instead of a new series.
TOS "Day of the Dove" Kirk: "Go to the Devil" Kang: "Klingons Have No Devil.... ok we have this guy named Feklar, but he's totally different, I swear!"
"You fools forgot about orbital decay! The years have been getting shorter! I don't know what's been going on in these chamber rooms all week, but one town over Ardra has been in charge for months!"
As far as Alex theory about where the vanished people went, my theory is that they used the transporter to de-materialize the people and hold them in suspension until they brought them back. That way, they don't know what happened.
@@radwolf76 I think pattern buffers have been a thing since the earliest of Trek (for transporters to work), but I don't recall exactly when they were introduced. We just know they are... important. I don't know that it's dangerous to hold someone in a pattern buffer so long as the ship or transporter has power?
This past August at STLV which is the Star Trek Creation Convention in Las Vegas, Marina Sirtis & Michael Dorn, mentioned that this originally was supposed to be a TOS episode.
I think I agree more with Alex on this one. This definitely felt like a C to me when I watched it as a kid. Just run of the mill great standard Star Trek episode store. But one of the better ones for sure (so the C+ rating is appropriate). I also agree about the scene with Geordie showing they're hand too soon. But I do agree with Josh that It should have been that Geordie came in to talk to Picard, Picard calls for a recess, and then that's it. We don't hear or see what they talked about. They could have played it off a little subtler though by not drawing too much attention to it. Just a quick comment and Picard asking for a recess, he walks off to deal with what for all we know is just some planetary data or info on searching for the Enterprise. The camera just moves off to another short talking scene instead. No time added or taken away. Perhaps something between Ardra and Data or Jerrod. Perhaps something to raise the stakes a bit, like Ardra threatening something when her reign starts and the arbitration moves forward as she wants it to. Making everyone's heart sink for a moment. And then the court resumes and Picard shows his hand. I think that still would have been surprising enough, even if at that point when stuff was going on you still link it to Geordie's visit. It would still be exciting to learn the how and why. Then again, maybe the writers thought that "finding a cloaked ship" wouldn't really be that big of a payoff to justify the "big surprise twist" of Picard showing he has the power so they chose to just give it away early to prevent eyerolls. I don't know. As you guys said, there's not much that could have been done better. It was pretty good as is. Also, I never really thought about Ardra being a TNG female more competent Harry Mudd. That's a great comparison.
As I recall, this was timed to be effectively a Halloween episode, complete with monsters and devils. And then promptly debunked that sort of myth. In the vein of Catspaw. 😉😈👹
This episode in many ways was an adaptation of the popular folk-tale "The Devil and Daniel Webster" with Picard playing the part of the famous New Hampshire resident.
Appreciate your analysis, as always. I really liked this episode when it first aired. It was very timely. I've always viewed this one as one of those Star Trek episodes that's a thinly veiled story about our then-current culture on Earth. This was 1990. Y2K wasn't a thing yet, but there was a massive rise happening in millennialism around the approaching year 2000. Many religious leaders and even others began talking about the significance of 2000 and that it might be the end of us. I think, everything else aside, the message of this episode comes down to what Picard tells Jared at the end of the episode. Basically, there was nothing supernatural here. You changed your world, solved your problems and conflicts all by yourselves. I think this a message to the humans of 1990 (and 2024) that nothing supernatural is going to destroy us or save us. Only we can do it. I've watched the episode many times across the years and I think that message still resonates.
I think it makes sense that you keep the boards away while watching the episodes, to avoid any temptation to jump the gun and rate the show before it ends.
Remember, at the trial, some Enterprise crew members were listening to Picard, and executing the tricks on queue.Picard was probably thinking of Beverly, while being tempted (not in a bad way).
I think when Picard disappeared, he was probably in their version of a transporter buffer. So nothing seemed to exist to him. Or at least that would explain him not knowing at that time
Just so you guys will finally understand (especially Alex, it seems), O'Brien is the Transporter CHIEF!...that means he heads the transporter division on the starship Enterprise (which by itself is a division within Engineering, and thus its people wear the gold uniform, along with security/tactical, and operations), and commands all the transporter units personnel, and therefore NOT ALWAYS ON SHIFT!!!
Devil’s Due has an interesting history. It was one of the ideas which was going to be used in Season 4 of TOS, which didn’t happen. It was also considered as an option for The Motion Picture for a time and an episode of Phase II…
This episode is kind of the reverse of "The Survivors": Alien trying to hide his godlike powers vs. Alien pretending to be a god; Civilization being helped by supposed god vs civilization being wiped out by one.
I remember thinking this was a fun episode back in the 90's, but I rewatched recently and found it mildly cheesy and predicted you guys would give it a B. Just goes to show, ya never know! Target Audience keepin' it fresh and subverting our expectations. 👍
I heard that Roddenberry had this script dating back to the original Star Trek. I assume that this would have appeared in the 3rd season had Roddenberry not taken his ball and gone home. It definitely has a TOS feel to it.
This may very well have been an old TOS script, with Kirk as Picard, Spock as Data. I don't know if that's the case, but it wouldn't surprise me. Otherwise I have no explanation.
You'd think, that they would have put up the shields BEFORE interacting with Audra and then placing her under arrest, preventing her from beaming away or (then likely) using her tricks.
For me, this one is a fun romp -- not deep or profound, not a lot of lore, but just fun and enjoyable. I wish we'd seen more of her, but the creepy-stalker factor would have had to be dialed back a bit if she were a repeat character, I think. She was definitely a good potential Harry-Mudd type. I agree with you about how they could have had Geordi call Picard to one side, and then resume the arbitration ... but I think we would have had to conclude on the bridge TOS-style with Riker saying, "Sir, how did you do that?" and then Picard would have had to explain while everyone stood around and nodded, like Scotty explaining where he put the tribbles. This way, with us hearing Geordi's explanation as Picard heard it, we could at least roll credits on the courtroom.
With regard to the differences among science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural genres that Josh asks about starting at 9:30, Arthur C. Clarke, author of "2001: A Space Odyssey," famously wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This episode illustrated Clarke's statement. Revealing the underlying advanced technology that produced Ardra's magic-like effects in this episode is what makes her character definitely a science fiction character rather than a fantasy or a supernatural character. Unlike Ardra's case, however, the advanced technology behind Q's powers is never revealed nor explained other than to say that Q is a member of a group of godlike, near-omnipotent and immortal aliens called the Q. These non-corporeal entities resided in the limitless cosmic dimensions of the Q Continuum. This makes Q more of a fantasy or supernatural character than a science fiction character in my opinion. He seems to be modeled on the trickster gods of many mythologies. Unlike with Q, but like with Ardra, many of the godlike beings in TOS were at least connected with an advanced alien technology, advanced power source or natural phenomenon - examples are Gary Mitchell, Charlie Evans, Apollo, Trelane, and Sylvia. For others, like the Metrons and the Organians, nothing was explained other than they were super evolved races, which like Q, makes them more fantasy or supernatural characters than science fiction characters, in my opinion. One can argue that the technologies of the godlike Q, Metrons, Organians, Megans and Douwd are so advanced and integrated into them that it is not possible to provide an explanation that humans would understand, but that those advanced technologies do not violate and do operate in accordance with more advanced scientific principals and natural laws than humans can comprehend so that they are not actually supernatural nor magical, but only appear to be to humans. I think that this is precisely the situation Clarke is addressing in his statement. To me that means, that since such advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic for humans because that technology is beyond human comprehension, we may as well say that for humans it is magic or the supernatural. Others, might prefer to say that since there is some advanced technological or advanced physics explanation, however incomprehensible to humans, for their godlike powers, such beings are legitimately science fiction characters rather than supernatural or fantasy characters. Hence the endless controversy over whether or not such characters are legitimately science fiction characters rather than fantasy or supernatural characters.
I've always thought... that after Ardra's "Till me met again" line at the end, it would have been cool for her to just vanish into thin air. Then we would be left with open-ended questions: Did she have another ship? Was she the real Ardra after all?
As far as the TAS episode you are referencing "The Magics of Magus Tu", the Devil was actually revealed to be an innocent bystander who was on Kirk's side. It was his compatriots from that planet portrayed by Salem witch burners of the 1600s who gave him that label. That's also one of my favorite episodes of TAS I think because even though the "magic" is presented as supernatural, Spock actually gives a logical explanation for it with respect to how the dimension they were in does not correspond to the natural laws of physics. The reason the people could do "magic" there is because they're thoughts affected reality in the same way that the Traveler (and Wesley) are able to affect spacetime using the power of their thoughts, or how the Enterprise D crew was able to affect reality with their thoughts when the Traveler accidentally warped them to another universe. Yes "Lucien" (the Devil) was a real person, he really did live on Earth, and really was called the devil and associated with Earth religion, there was nothing necessarily supernatural or "evil" about him. It was all a millennia's old misunderstanding which got developed into religion.
This is actually one of my favorite episodes of TNG. It certainly promotes the ancient astronaut hypothesis which I believe is a possibility. I believe the ancient astronaut hypothesis is more likely than an all-powerful magical being that lives in the sky and just watches us fuck up all the time.
I think "old man in sky" hasn't been a thing since St. Augustine. (Yeah I know the Michelangelo painting, but that was an artistic representation not an official dogma of any Christian denomination.) Granted I'm Catholic but I don't know why "being outside of space-time", closer to what Christianity actually believes, is that outlandish seeing Trek itself has those.
Star Trek's version of Safron/Bridgette/Yolanda. I think she could have been this series' version of Harry Mudd. Marta Dubois was a regular guest star on 80s and 90s TV. But she was best known to me as a regular on the TV series Tales of the Gold Monkey, which starred Star Trek alumni Stephen Collins. She played a Dragon Lady type in the series, which tried to cash in on the popularity of Raiders of the Lost Ark and was reminiscent of the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, which coined the term "Dragon Lady".
Writers and producers started giving the cast more input on their characters and they said "uh my character loves acting!" How convenient lol 😂 What about you McFadden? "Yes the doctor loves putting on plays on Ten Foward!"
