We Need to Talk About 'Shades of Gray'

I think it has the level of hate it has now, because its a clip show in the middle of a beloved show that we can easily watch over and over for the last 30+ years. It really adds nothing, even mediocrity. Its not a laugh for absurdity (Spock's Brain), its not people trying to transpose racism on it because they happened to make a somewhat tribal alien species all black (Code of Honor), etc.

The episode where they needed to de-age Pulaski they mentioned how she had never gone through their transporter yet, so they needed to find a hair sample to revert her to her normal DNA .

Spoiler : If you haven't seen it, the comment during the live stream about historical documents is a reference to the movie Galaxy Quest.

HOT TAKE: I would much prefer a "clip show" episode to a mediocre/badly written original episode any day of the week. I'm of that generation that remembers when both hour-long dramas and half hour comedy shows did this and had no problem with it at all. I enjoy the occasional trip down memory lane. I'm aware that most people hate this premise (which explains why no show has done this is over two decades) but the lameness and inherit cheesy factor wins me over

I like the closing song!!!

The Thing that sucks is Paramount was not obligated to produce X number of episodes to the affiliates. And since the financial deal with he affiliates was that they didn't pay Paramount anything for the series. The deal let Paramount directly sale nationwide ads for part of the ad time of the show (the affiliate got the local ad time). It was a gamble to convince affiliates to sign for a longer term, then what is normal for syndication. It worked great for both parties as the show was a hit from the get go, even at the lowest ratings point. So making another episode yet not fully funding it was Paramounts way of increasing its profit (and yes the show made profit every single year it aired). So tis was just fatting up their profit. And since this isn't network it's not in service of proping up the nights line up. I would have had far more respect if they just didn't produce it. Everyone was already very aware that the season would be shorter.

When I was a kid, I’d watch ST every day after school. Rerun after rerun after rerun. I had seen all of these episodes several times. I now have a near encyclopedic knowledge of TNG. So whenever this one came on, it kinda felt like “oh, guess there’s no ST today.” It was always such a huge disappointment.

It was really unfortunate that S2 ended with a re-cap reminding viewers of S1 and S2. This was like a sales pitch (to keep watching TNG into S3) that listed all the shortcomings of the product so far. I stopped watching regularly and only when I was at home anyway with nothing else to do. It took another season and a half for TNG to change my viewing pattern.

They didn’t do this clip show to save money. They did it because of the Writer’s strike.

Shades of Gray: One down, 49 to go. Not to sound like Troi, but for context (for younger viewers)… shows that didn’t do clip shows back in the day were a rarity. As frustrating as it might be for a viewer of the show, shows relied on them to stretch budgets and give new viewers a greatest hits to get the first time watchers interested. Think of it this way: if it was a regular episode, they’d be draining the money from something else. A great effects shot, guest star, set, or make-up job that resonated with us might not have been possible or been ruined without doing it. “We don’t really have the money for two Klingon episodes, so instead of Riker being on a Klingon ship, can we make it a bunch of folks with two sets of eyebrows instead?” Cost of business, just like bad bottle episodes.

Since most people hadn't seen the original pilot episode 'The Cage', 'The Menagerie' was at least a creative way to make two episodes for the price of one. 'Shades of Grey', unfortunately, did not have that advantage, and so it felt like a much cheaper effort. That didn't stop us from looking forward to better shows, and luckily, we got 'em. Buckle up, kids! It's about to get consistently better!

In context, its amazing people tuned in for season 3 at all. To end on such a low note! I think it really was the reality of TV shows have clip shows that got people to tune back in. You could never get away with this today.

I think this episode is good for showing us what it’s like when the budget runs out and show runners need to come up with one more episode. 😂

Watching this episode as a kid when it aired, it honestly hadn't occurred to me yet that an episode of a professionally produced television show could be done badly: no consideration of budget constraints, strikes, deadlines, etc... If a clip show aired, I just assumed that clip shows were just a thing that real television shows did.

Andddddd a special shout out to Miles O'Brian, we all love that guy!!!

Riker recaps... I've always had the motto, all trek is good trek and well this one is definitely on the very low end of the good. I'm just very happy you guys have made it to the end of s02 and now the fun can really begin 😏

I think I've found the episode when the trailer voice over guy gets replaced by one who doesn't over dramatise the "STARRRR" in Star Trek. It can't come soon enough.