Ardra (Star Trek)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due", the people of Ventax II believed in a devil-woman named Ardra (played by Marta Dubois). A thousand years before the episode, Ardra promised to solve all the world's problems. In return, the planet would become hers in a thousand years.

A con woman learned of the legend of Ardra and studied it quite thoroughly. She then took her ship, which was cloaked using a copy of a Romulan cloaking device. She took the name Ardra, and set up her vessel to perform "magic effects" at her command, which included appearing to change her form through holographic projection, appearing and disappearing at will through transporter technology, and creating tremors through the projection of a low frequency tractor beam on the planet surface.

At the time specified in the contract the original Ardra made with the Ventaxian people, this version of Ardra appeared. Eventually, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew were able to discover this woman's deception. She told the Enterprise personnel when she first appeared that she had been known by many names. That part was true, she had at least 23 aliases. With the deception revealed, the contract was dissolved, and "Ardra" was placed under arrest. Her real name has not been revealed.

The Ventaxian people were named after the UK ventilation company Vent-Axia.