Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Shades of Gray (1989) User Reviews

Definitely not one of their better efforts

[KLeoRI · 3/10 · 10 November 2007]

As a long-time fan of all the Star Trek series,I found this a disappointing episode, and I wonder if the liberal use of "flashbacks" featuring Will Riker's exploits, both positive (and largely romantic) and negative (lots of pain, and a crewmate's death)was a money-saving device, as were many of their "bottle shows" (episodes in which all scenes take place on the Enterprise). Diana Muldaur(who also appeared at least twice on the original series) deserved a better final appearance than this for her character, Dr. Kate Pulaski. Loyal viewers (in the Star Trek world, is there any other kind?) also were shortchanged. This was the last episode of second season; thus, the season ended "not with a bang" but with "a whimper."

It Could Be Worse, I Suppose

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 13 August 2014]

I'd forgotten about the writer's strike of 1988. After watching those season ending episodes of "The Outer Limits" which shamelessly includes random insertions from previous episodes, I thought other series were above that. I guess, at least for one episode, STNG needed to save a few buck and bank on an insipid plot. Riker picks up a kind of raging virus as he and Geordi explore a planet previously unexplored. It is beyond the expertise of Dr. Pulaski, who can't stop it. Scans reveal that it has attacked the nervous system and will eventually head for the brain and kill Riker. What Pulaski and Troi find is that the entity is reactive to human emotions. Troi is there to read Riker's thoughts as he dreams. She senses different kinds of dreams from adventure to erotic to pain to terror. All these are represented by short clips from the first two seasons. There is no order to them, but Pulaski is able to use drugs to enhance the experiences. Troi, whom we all know is in love with Will, coaches the doctor as they search. It was fun to guess what scenes might fit in, but it detracted from the actually presentation. It's sad sometimes to know that factors other than a lack of creativity force the hands to the producers of shows such as these. It's so piecemeal and the whole treatment is so hard to swallow that it's a bit of an embarrassment.

Like Riker --- I was asleep through most of this one.

[thevacinstaller · 3/10 · 12 March 2021]

I cannot in good conscious give this clip episode anything higher than a 3 out of 10. I did enjoy the brief Riker scene of being Mr. Starfleet and confronting death head on. Seemed to fit his character. It's nice that Troi was by his side.

I understand that there was a writers strike on ---- but ---- there's a vast sea of Trek Nerds out there who have surely passed along quality screenplays? Well, this deserves it's place with 'Code of Honor' and 'Alternative Factor' as the most joyless episodes to date.

2ND SEASON IN GENERAL:

I totaled my review for this season and the second season ended up getting a 7.04 out of 10. This is an increase from the 6.0 for the first season. The second season is the TNG crew finding it's legs and I noticed a substantial improvement in how the scenes are structured and even the camera work was greatly improved. The character performance improved as well --- With Worf/Riker being the standouts for me in getting a handle on who these characters are.

We also have to discuss Riker's beard. It has been said that beards are like a push up bra for men. This is definitely the case for Jonathan Frakes. In S1 I considered him a Kirk tribute band --- but in S2 he starts to come into his own as a commander and his big personality comes out thanks mostly to his beard exuding confidence and commanding respect and attention.

Worf had a great season ---- Plenty of backstory and character traits are established and harvested to often hilarious effect. I have under appreciated Dorn's acting chops. He's great.

Wesley Crusher was vastly improved (He's still hilarious in S1) by cutting back on his superpowers and turning him into human being. You would think those in charge of star trek would reflect upon this successful transformation and not make a superhero again.

Dr. Polaski was fine but it just didn't work out --- maybe due to the groundwork done with Beverly/Picard in S1? I am bit of a Beverly crusher fanboy personally. She looks like a glamour movie star from the 30's!

LaForge didn't get much love this season. A shame because he is one of the better actors. Data got plenty of love and he was great as always. Guinan is a joy of character and I am always happy to see her ---- after Riker's beard she was the most important addition to the show this season.

We got TNG's first 9/10 masterful episode in 'Measure of A Man' and plenty of 7's and 8's peppered throughout.

Season 2 is perfectly watchable ---- I was enjoying episodes on their own merit and not in a 'so bad it's good' season 1 manner.

Ad-hoc episode thrown together during the writer's strike

[neuromancerx · 1/10 · 28 April 2008]

Because of the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike they had to shoot this episode in 3 days. It's pretty much crap, consisting of repeat cut + pasted clips from Season 2 and was described by its writer, Maurice Hurley as "terrible, just terrible."

Why the producers couldn't just wait to shoot something decent who knows. I'm guessing because of the strike the production ran out of money and could only release a flashback episode or maybe Roddenberry was too sick at the time to be able to veto this half-assery. This episode also marks the final appearance of Diana Muldaur (Dr. Katherine Pulaski) on the series.

Understandably bad episode

[tavives · 1/10 · 16 September 2013]

While we all know now that the reason for "Shades of Grey" being a "clip episode" was due to the 1988 writers strike and the production running out of money at the end of the 2nd season, I still can't excuse it on that basis.

There should have been ways to tell this same story without delving into the scene vault every 2 minutes. The entire amount of time devoted to new scenes (largely, those with Diana Muldaur, Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes on the sickbay set) is about 15 minutes. The rest is all clips from previous episodes. Surely the director could have found a away to squeeze out of the budget a few extra "new scenes" that would have been "Riker specific" flashbacks. Perhaps they could have used alternate takes or different camera angles of those same previous scenes (I'm sure at least some existed), or possibly even re-filmed some of the same scenes with the actors.

Frankly, I just see this episode (when it was first broadcast and still today) as a complete mess, a real cop-out, and a very depressing way to have ended the 2nd season..

An insult to the audience and my vote for the worst "Star Trek" episode ever!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 15 November 2014]

"Shades of Gray" is a pathetic excuse for an episode for "Star Trek: The Next Generation"--one that insults the audience's intelligence and just looks like a lazy attempt to fill the time slot. It is so bad and so irrelevant that I recommend you skip it completely--you really don't need to bother with this one.

When the episode begins, Riker's leg is injured while on an away team mission. However, this is no mere scratch--the thing festers and cannot be eliminated using the transporter's bio-filters. Soon, Riker is dying and Dr. Pulaski is fighting to save his life.

This doesn't sound that bad, does it? Well, no...the concept isn't bad. However, this only takes up a tiny fraction of the show. Most of it consists of clips of Riker from other episodes--and they appear to be completely random in how they are used. Relevant or not--they are tossed into "Shades of Gray" and the sum effect is a show that obviously no one gave a crap about when they made it. A complete waste of time and the worst simply because there have been episodes with dumber premises (such as the baseball game episode from "Deep Space 9"), but at least they TRIED something different with these shows. Here, it's just an attempt to re-use old footage and otherwise take the week off from production! Awful.

UPDATE: By the way, it isn't just me who hated this episode. At the 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, this was voted as one of the 10 worst of all episodes from every Trek franchise! That is some ignoble designation!

Absolutely dreadful

[theoneandonlymarvellad · 1/10 · 7 October 2018]

I have just watched this for the first time and must say I am appalled. Story is basic and daft and Riker is reliving all his scenes in order to counteract an infection and prolong his life. Absolute garbage, I'll never get that 40 minutes back. Such a shame this was Dr Pulaski's last ep too, awful one to leave with.

Explanation for Clip Show

[ohroonoko · 1/10 · 29 October 2021]

From Wikipedia:

At the end of its second season, Star Trek: The Next Generation had one more episode to shoot. However, Paramount cut that show's budget to make up for an episode earlier in the season that had gone over budget-and, similarly, over schedule, leaving only three days for principal photography. Because the season had gotten off to a slow start due to a writers' strike, the producers had no scripts set aside for future use as they normally would have. The result was "Shades of Gray", in which the "clips" were the induced dreams of a comatose William T. Riker.

An unnecessary episode.

[russem31 · 16 April 2006]

ST:TNG:48 - "Shades Of Gray" (Stardate: 42976.1) - this is the 22nd and last episode of the 2nd season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It is also one of the worst if not the worst episode in the series. This turns out to be a "flashback episode" which is done to save money - this means that it takes clips from previous episodes and puts it into a new episode (including the pilot episode, the second season episode "The Dauphin" with Whoopi Goldberg, the Tasha Yar included episode "Justice", and the Dr. Beverly Crusher included episode "Skin of Evil"). What's surprising and perplexing is that this is only the second season so there's not much footage to take from yet, so why would they have this episode? Well, watch and surmise for yourself.

Trivia note: this is one of the few times Dr. Pulaski (in her last appearance on the show) uses the transporter (because of her disdain for them). This is the only time in the second season you see Gates McFadden as Dr. Crusher, though only in archive footage. And, Troi mentions "Imzadi" to Riker again.

Just Skip It

[anarchistica · 1/10 · 31 March 2020]

A main character who can't possibly die gets infected with something deadly. Can you guess what the outcome is? Yeah, just skip it and spare yourself the awful scenes of Troi standing next to Riker crying for the whole episode.

In Review

[iamirwar · 3/10 · 11 August 2022]

On revaluating this episode now in 2022, I don't think it's as bad as has previously been portrayed. Taking into account the various problems such as the writers strike that plagued the making of season two, and also limited budgeting etc, Shades of Gray was the result of stringing together a series of clips from previous TNG episodes. It did give us the opportunity to see one or two old faces again if nothing else. For that reason I would not put it to the bottom of the all-time worst TNG shows, or even the weakest storyline of Season Two. I believe there remain one or two other candidates for that honour. We can also speculate that Doctor Pulaski leaving the Enterprise in Season Three was because she decided to stay on Surata IV and continue her medical research into it's weird and dangerous plant-life. ENGAGE!

Enjoyable Star Trek and not as Bad "Critics" Say or Said.

[jseph1234-262-617488 · 8/10 · 18 July 2022]

I personally remember the writer's strike and watching this episode during its Original run and watching it now in 2022 and I enjoyed watching it because it presented some VERY GOOD moments from Season 1 and 2 with Commander Riker.

Don't believe the useless and worthless critics but watch it for yourself and you will find yourself enjoying it as I did in 2022.

Riker on the Edge of Death

[nicofreezer · 7/10 · 6 October 2021]

The first people who Saw that episode should have really believe it was William end in the show.

Why 3.3 /10 ? Guys are you crazy ? This is a décent épisode, the first 15 minutes are very good tv ! Then the last 30 minutes yes are clip from previous épisodes from Riker memory. But do you guys know every scene from every épisodes ? Maybe you have watch this show 10 Times , but for a first Time viewer like me, I was happy to see Riker first meeting with Data, without having to search for the right épisode, it was important to see Tasha death once more, to remember. You guys should keep in mind there was no Netflix at the time, this episode is July 1989 and the Pilot was in 1987 !! 2 years ! 95% of the people watching "Shades of gray" were happy to see these clip again or at least they did not remembered they.

So yeah its only a 7/10 because not a lot of work was necessary for this one, but still its decent enough and it only happen once, so no 3.3/10 is not fair at all.

Awful

[schlurch-572-935605 · 3/10 · 2 November 2009]

I grew up watching and loving TNG. I just recently finished watching the entire series ST Voyager on DVD, which may have heightened my sense of disgust with this episode, as the difference in style and approach between the two shows couldn't be more stark. The idea may have been good if used as an opportunity to further expand Riker's character, which is how it probably would have been treated on VOY. They could have featured memories that would be "new" to the audience, rather than simply regurgitating old show clips. The in and out transitions between the "memories" and the "present" in this episode start as cliché in the beginning, and very quickly become intolerable as the tired pattern wears on and on. Bar none- worst episode ever.

Memories of Riker

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 9 September 2019]

The second season of TNG ended with Jonathan Frakes picking up some kind of infectious disease which affects the mind. Dr. Pulaski puts him in a stasis coma and tries to figure out how to cure him.

Apparently one can by this century actually stimulate good and bad dreams so we are treated to a group of clips showing the experiences of Commander William Riker over the past two seasons.

When you come right down to it Pulaski has an easy time figuring out a cure. Those endorphins.

This was also the end of Diana Muldaur's stint on TNG. She said goodbye without a why or wherefore. Never a mention of her on this or Deep Space 9 or Voyager.

I think she deserved better than that.

A Star Trek Clip Show

[Samuel-Shovel · 2/10 · 28 August 2019]

In "Shades of Gray, while exploring a new planet, Riker gets a cut on his leg from an unidentified plant. It soon becomes evident to Pulaski that this is a big deal and if they can't find a cure Riker will surely die. They take him to sickbay where he lays there hallucinating old memories. The virus feeds on endorphins and happy memories, so Troi helps Riker remember the bad stuff to try to slow down the virus. The tactic works and Riker survives.

This episode is pretty universally hated and I can see why. All we get is a clip show of big Riker moments. Maybe people would be more okay with it if it weren't a season finale but it's a pretty awful way to finish off a season.

I won't give it a 1 because there is actually a bit of substance here. The flashbacks really don't start until about 20 minutes in. But then onward, it's dominated by his memories. Pretty terrible conclusion to an uneven season.

Every 80s series has flashback episodes

[lythis-love · 2/10 · 23 March 2020]

Watching this 30-40 years later - well bad idea probably. We're used to watch series in a binge sort of way or on demand. There was a time when there was only one episode per week and a season would take up to 24 weeks to be complete - sad if you'd missed an episode. I guess that's why someone thought flashback episodes was a good idea. But Rikas flashback was a pain to watch. The story around it was so poor and cringeworthy. Had to skip large amounts of clips in this episodes!

I can see why this has been called the worst episode

[wookietower · 1/10 · 28 April 2020]

I've been rewatching the series after not having seen this show in over 20 some years - and missing most of these episodes before. I can see now why this episode has been called the worst of the series. There's really no plot, the actors don't really seem to be into it and the clips serve no purpose.

Limited Flashbacks

[scalisti · 3/10 · 1 October 2018]

What I think made this episode bad was the fact that Riker's flashbacks were only limited to his last 2 years on the Enterprise. This was probably because the budget was very low at the time and so they can only recap earlier episodes. I think they should have hired younger actors to play a young version of Riker as a boy during his boyhood days in Alaska, and also a teen Riker entering the academy. That would have made some good flashbacks that would have helped develop a backstory of Riker but that never happened.

Very disappointing!

[davebonham · 1/10 · 17 February 2019]

This is the last episode of season 2. Do they finish strongly? Do they f##k! It's a clips episode, and a lousy one at that!! I understand that filler episodes are part and parcel of network tv, but to finish a season with such a weekly worked in highlights reel, puts a damper on an otherwise good season as a whole (it did have a few slightly dodgy filler episodes throughout, as one would expect for the late 80's, but nothing near as bad as this one). Terrible story (for what small part of it wasn't just clips from previous episodes). Should have just finished the season after the previous episode. Pointless. Skip it. You're welcome 😁

It's what it's, and it's not good, in fact, it's trash, avoid it if possible

[josethehedgehogv · 1/10 · 26 May 2021]

Such a good premise, in theory capable of showing us the background and history for commander William Riker, one of the most important member of the crew who just so happened to reveal more of it a couple of episodes before, but in practise did nothing more than just... Well, nothing

Long story short, Riker and Geordi get down on a planet, off screen something bites Riker and is now taking control of his body, Dr Pulaski seems baffled at first, but manages to find how to stop the virus from killing Riker's brain, it's the power of emotions (well, more like the chemical reactions of these emotions) and they go through as many types of emotions as possible in order to find out that sadness is the one capable of stopping the... Something from taking over Riker, and so they manage to save him, the day's saved and everyone can now go home and live happily ever after.

The episode is stardard length for a TNG episode, that means that they made us sit through about 40 minutes of absolutely nothing. In order to pan out the length they made both Riker and us go through ALL of his emotions, BUT apparently the temporary memory loss was too severe, so we only get to experience all the things he's been through after he joined the enterprise, we get nothing more than a collage of old episodes, with Dr Pulaski and counselor Troop in between so that we may not notice that this is indeed just a collage of old episodes that adds nothing to the series, the episode just starts and ends, nothing in between but 40 minutes of filler.

First Recap

[ShogaNinja · 8/10 · 6 October 2008]

I am watching the series back to back as fast as possible. I am attempting to watch all things Star Trek. This is month 3 and I am now on Season 3 of TNG and I have already gone thru DS9 in its entirety. Star Trek is the greatest television phenomenon ever achieved.

"Shades of Grey" is the first recap episode in the TNG series. Having just watched the shows, these clips were fresh in my mind, but I noticed how a couple of them were re-shot because the film looked better. Season 1 always seemed real dark and ugly to me - and the actors looked silly, like they didn't fit in their own skins.

The show is essentially just made of up a greatest hits of the happiest and saddest moments in Riker's life on the Enterprise up until this point. The Data and Riker scene in the holo-deck is a classic moment of new friendship. My other favorite is when the 2nd officer on the Klingon ship challenges Riker's authority as first officer and Riker beat the living CRAP out of that Klingon. Then the admiral kicks his a$$ but good. This entire episode is a heck of a reminder that a LOT of crazy, great things have happened already in a mere 2 seasons with 5 more to go and a handful of movies! At this point in the series they are really starting to develop the emotions that tie Riker to Deanna Troi as Imzadi. Up until this point they have mentioned the fact, but they have yet to exploit it. Let the record show that the ST Wiki - Memory Alpha claims that Imzadi means "first" and denotes that she has had intimate relations with Riker and also remains deeply close on an emotional one. This episode further proves there will be a tense romantic interest in each other for a long time to come.

Here is the article: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Imzadi By this point in the series, production value is up to speed and Star Trek TNG is settling into the sci-fi behemoth it was destined to become. Watching this again as an adult I see now what GREAT ACTORS the Star Trek Universe provides. They really need to make a new ST show set after all the current shows. A DS9 movie would have been nice too.

Under rated Episode

[ftcs-15648 · 7/10 · 25 July 2018]

Very under rated ep. still fun to watch even though its a clip show cleverly edited and much better than some other better rated eps.

There is never an excuse for a clip show...

[olsonjoshuajohn · 1/10 · 18 June 2020]

They shouldn't be made or watched. Networks should be able to sue studios for breach of contract over clip shows.

Not just a bad episode of Star Trek, but a bad episode of television full stop!

[mjnel-93698 · 1/10 · 8 November 2021]

Sure, it's a lazy clip show, but it's worse than that. The writing is dreadful, the plot almost non-existent, and there is nothing of substance to be found throughout the entire thing. None of the actors bother to turn in a decent performance here, and I don't blame them. Hell, even Jonathan Frakes looks bored with whatever few original lines he has.

This episode came about during a writers strike, and it shows. Quite possibly the worst episode of a television show that has ever been made.