Devil's Due
"In the matter of Enterprise-D versus Satan, the court finds in favour of silliness"
It’s a g-g-g-ghost! No wait, it’s just a holodeck program where Data is practicing his acting by performing A Christmas Carol to Captain Picard. That’s a reasonable use of the Captain’s time I'm sure. But of course, it doesn’t give us a crisis to set up the teaser, so there’s a transmission from Ventax II where the apocalypse has arrived early this year (doesn’t it always)! Ardra, who claims to be every culture’s devil, has returned to claim her rightful property, having made a deal with the Ventaxians to give them a thousand years of peace in return for the planet itself. She has especial fun with Worf, first taunting him as the Klingon demon Fek’lhr, and then playing keep-away with him on the bridge (Worf 7, Aliens 11). Is Adra really the devil...? I rather suspect there isn’t a single person who watched this show who didn’t guess that she wasn’t. Still, let’s have a contrived courtroom drama with Data as judge before winding up with the Scooby Doo ending - she would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling Starfleet officers!
Words
This story has the dubious honour of having the longest production history of any Star Trek episode ever. That’s because the original story idea was one of Gene Roddenberry’s draft proposals when he was pitching the classic TV series in the 1960s. It did not get developed into a screenplay until Star Trek: Phase II, the never-filmed follow on show. Like “The Child”, “Devil’s Due” was rescued from that failed production process and transformed into a TNG episode - but only at great psychological cost to the writing team.
In the third season, Michael Piller asked Melinda Snodgrass to try a light-touch rewrite of the Phase II screenplay, basically replacing Kirk, Spock, McCoy and pals with the crew of the Enterprise-D. This, Piller realised, simply didn’t work, so he handed it to Philip LaZebnik to work on during the season break. LaZebnik came up with a script that Piller loved, and that was almost entirely playing for laughs... but not everyone was as taken to this version. Reluctantly, Piller started assigning other writers to it - some fifteen in all! - each of which failed to get the screenplay accepted. I get the impression this was a poison chalice, and that writer’s hearts sank when they were handed this script to rework. Many never worked on Trek again afterwards. In the end, it seems Piller stepped in and ended up restoring so much of LaZebnik's version that LaZebnik ended up with the screenplay credit.
I do rather enjoy this episode, I’ll admit, because it is so delightfully bonkers. As Jonathan Frakes remarked:
It was like an old Star Trek. It’s ironic that it was an old Star Trek story, because it’s really a Kirk story. It was so ‘60s.
Quite.
I do like that the screenplay draws attention to the parallels between Ardra and Q, as the bridge crew rule out Q as a candidate explanation, even though Ardra behaves in a very Q-esque fashion - I mean, she even sits in the Captain’s chair!
Even better is that Picard can’t resist clicking his fingers when he steals Ardra’s powers, a most Q-like gesture. Of course, classic Trek was rife with god-like entities, but this is (nearly) the last time TNG will go there without just bringing back John DeLancie, and that is certainly not a complaint.
Acting Roles
For all that they give Patrick Stewart’s Picard, Brent Spiner’s Data, LeVar Burton’s LaForge and even Marina Sirtis’ Troi things to do in this episode, there’s no doubt that the whole show utterly depends upon Marta Dubois as Ardra.
Performing since 1979, Dubois got a big break in 1982 when she was cast as recurring villain Princess Koji in Donald P. Bellisario Tales of the Gold Monkey, a show first pitched in 1979 but eventually bankrolled on the back of the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not long before Dubois’ memorable appearance in TNG, Bellisario got her back for his show Magnum, P.I. as the title character’s ex-wife, which later got her hired as the female lead in the John Larroquette TV movie series McBride. That more or less capped off her rather sterling career, although she never quite broke through into feature films.
She landed the Ardra gig after having auditioned for dozens of other roles on TNG unsuccessfully. But producer David Livingston recalls that she nailed it when trying out for Ardra:
She came in and just blew us all away. Like, how do you do better? Let’s just start shooting. Where’s her wardrobe? We want more of that. I’m always pushing for more humour on this show. I think we get a little too serious sometimes. It’s nice to be a little lighter.
Some necessary support is provided by Marcelo Tubert’s performance as Acost Jared, since Tubert has to sell us on the idea that this supernatural apocalypse might actually be happening, even though we the audience know its bunk from the first second Arda appears.
Tubert’s career is full of bit parts and even more full of voice work, which he has excelled at - I particularly enjoyed him as the car salesman in King of the Hill, although he has a few notable on-screen roles too, including playing the Palestinian prime minister in The West Wing.
Hat tip to Paul Lambert who plays Howard Clark, the Federation anthropologist who also bears Tubert’s burden of making the threat feel serious somehow.
We saw Lambert previously in “When the Bough Breaks” as a musician on the Pied Piper planet, but he didn’t warrant a mention then because there were so many child guest stars to get through.
And finally, a shout out to William Glover who plays the ghost of Jacob Marley uncredited.
An English ex-pat with a Shakespearean background, I have no idea how he was cast, but he has fun playing his spectral bit part.
Models, Make-up, and Mattes
There’s much to enjoy in the SFX this week, especially the make up! Check out Thad Lamey as ‘Devil Monster’!
And even better is Tom Magee as Fek’lhr (credited as ‘Klingon Monster’) - incredible prosthetics for just a few seconds of screen time!
Plus, let’s not ignore the wonderful array of outfits the wardrobe department provide for Dubois as Ardra - she’s one of the most well-dressed villains anywhere in TNG!
But of course, no surprises as to what I’m going to single out as the SFX star of this episode, it’s that matte painting of Ventax II by the legendary Syd Dutton (Dutton’s last one for this season, alas).
Watching the little people flee down the bridges really adds to the effect. Why are they are all running in that direction? Who knows! But it’s a charming matte painting used beautifully for a wonderfully silly episode.
Marta Dubois truly makes this episode as fun as it is - and the stellar make-up!