Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E13 "Devil's Due"

• How is the prospect of the Enterprise belonging to Ardra ever taken seriously? Obviously the Ventaxians from 1,000 years ago didn't have the authority to grant new ownership to a starship that doesn't belong to them, and even if they claimed that they did, the Federation would obviously not recognize that authority. A random planet can't suddenly state, "Sorry, your flagship belongs to us now. We just wrote it down in our laws."
  • Picard explicitly stated that he considered her claim on his ship to be an empty threat, then later stated “I do not recognise your claim on the Enterprise”. So the answer to how it was taken seriously is that it wasn’t. Picard didn’t stick around because he was worried the Enterprise couldn’t leave. He did so because he had to prove that Ardra was a fraud.
• Why would Ardra assume that Data, as an android, would be an impartial judge? Data is one of two androids in the universe, so she would have nothing to base that assumption on. The other one, Lore, certainly wouldn't be an impartial judge.
  • Data wasn’t one of only two Androids in the universe. He was one of only two Soong type Androids in the universe. The concept of Androids was well known in the 24th century (indeed, we knew of it in the 20th century when the episode was made). Ardra would only need a basic familiarity with what an Android was, being a machine much a like a computer with hands and legs, which operated without emotions and was therefore capable of decision making without bias, to recognise that he’d make impartial decisions.
• Why is Data an impartial judge during the trial? Surely Picard could state that the trial is just a pretense in their "con" or that it has no authority recognized by the Federation and therefore Data must abide by his orders during the sham.
  • First, Data is an extremely ethical being and is likely to object ethically to acting an impartial manner. The Trial itself does have authority recognised by the Federation, since Starfleet officers are expected to respect the laws of other cultures they encounter, one would think especially so if acting as a judge within the legal system of one of those other cultures. It's by no means guaranteed that Picard could convince Data to simply disregard those rules and, even if he could, Picard probably wouldn't want to put his friend in that position (for that matter, it would probably go against Picard's own ethics to ignore the rules of another society's legal system). Second, it's unlikely they'd gain much. If Ardra sensed Data was acting in an biased way against her, she'd probably have refused to cooperate with the trial and they'd have gained nothing. If the tried "winning" the trial by ruling in their own favour, without convincing the Ventaxians, then they'd still be terrified of Ardra and Ardra wouldn't leave which would mean they'd gain nothing. Picard needed to convince the Ventaxians, not simply win the trial. Having Data act as an impartial judge, one whom no one could doubt, served that job best.