When the producers made Q Who (1989) earlier in the season, the episode went way over budget, and the money ran out at the end of the season. To cut costs, they had to do a clip show. As such, Shades of Gray is often considered the worst episode of TNG, and even the producers admitted they were embarrassed by it.
At the 50th anniversary "Star Trek" convention in Las Vegas in August 2016, fans voted this the fifth worst episode of the "Star Trek" franchise.
This is a "clip show" episode. This was necessitated by the writers' strike which shortened TNG's second season from 26 episodes to 22.
The last season finale of the series that does not feature a cliffhanger ending.