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Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 87: Devil's Due [VHS]

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The 87th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a blast! Ardra, also known on earth as "THE DEVIL" has made a signed deal with a foreign planet stating that the planet is allowed one millinium of peace for exchange for their slavery. Captain Picard and the rest of his Star Fleet crew must save this planet from destruction. This episode is not one to pass up. END

...almost. A thousand years earlier, leaders of Ventax II supposedly made a deal with the Devil... a.k.a. "Ardra." The deal: 1,000 years of peace and prosperity. The catch: after 1,000 years, the people become slaves of Ardra.

The Enterprise gets an emergency summons from a group of Federation anthropologists doing study on Ventax II. The public has gone crazy, looting, rioting and engaging in all sorts of mayhem, taking some of the scientists hostage.

Picard races to the planet and saves one scientist who tells them what is going on. The citizens are panicky because Ardra is due to return in just one day. As prophecy dictates, her coming was preceded by earthquakes and visions of her throughout the planet.

Picard does his best to not laugh out loud, when suddenly Ardra (Mara Dubois) appears before them. To prove she is who she claims to be, she causes the earth to shake at a blink of her eye. She changes herself into the Klingon version of the Devil to scare Worf and teleports people here and there just by glancing at them.

Picard is incensed. He knows there is technology, not mojo, behind Ardra's "magic." He sets Geordi LaForge on the task of finding out how Ardra is pulling off this hoax. Meanwhile, he has Data research Ventaxian law to see if there are any loopholes in the contract signed a millennia ago.

The Ventaxians are all but bending over backwards to accommodate Ardra - their limited technology makes them vulnerable to her wiles and makes them believe she is truly the Devil incarnate.

Ardra pushes Picard's buttons by showing up half-naked in his quarters and trying to seduce him. After being rebuffed, she beams him down to the planet's surface, wearing only his pijamas. There is quite a bit of humor in this episode. Picard refuses to allow the Ventaxians to fall prey to this space-faring snake-oil saleswoman and does his best to call her bluff. Entertaining to watch.