Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x22 "Shades of Gray" - Full Watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-06-12 18:00:07
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Follow along using your own copy of the episode!

Files

Star Trek: The Next Generation 2x22 "Shades of Gray" - Full Watch-along

Comments

Summer

Season three! We want season 3

Greg

I'm going to call it right now -- this is IMHO the WORST episode of the show. I don't understand WHAT they were smoking when they gave the episode the green light. Now, I don't hate the basic premise of the episode -- a senior officer is on the brink of death and flashes back to important things that happened to them, and an innovative solution is found in order to save them. That's cool, been done before, I'd be on board for that. However, I feel that premise should be the B side of an episode. If they are going to INSIST on making it the primary focus (the A side), then at LEAST wait until the show is further along so you have more then two seasons to flashback on! This really would have worked well in Season 6 or 7. I get that the Writers Strike really affected this season, and that they were trying to do anything they could to get episodes out the door. This never should have seen the light of day though. The season is already four episodes shorter (I think?) from the strike. Just make it five and NEVER produce this one. I'm sorry if I'm sounding a bit too harsh, as I don't HATE the episode, but it's just slow paced, boring, not fulfilling at all, and has the good idea mentioned above suffering greatly due how it was used. I've only seen this episode twice -- once when it first aired, and once again now to react alongside with Bunny, and I'll be happy to never see it again for the rest of my life. Bring on Season 3!

Trish

A number of shows used to do this as a recap

Jim Jones

Oh jeez. I've got some fun facts about this episode that shall not be named..... 1. Head writer Maurice Hurley later called the episode a "piece of shit" and "terrible." It's rare for a Trek producer to be that blunt about their own work. 2. The production staff disliked it so much that when Paramount later suggested another clip show in Season 4 to save money, Rick Berman and Michael Piller fought against the idea because they never wanted a repeat of "Shades of Gray." 3. The episode was filmed in only three days, compared with the normal seven-day shooting schedule. 4. This episode was the result of a budget decision, and had almost nothing to do with the writers strike. By the end of Season 2, TNG had overspent its budget on several expensive episodes, especially "Q Who" and "Elementary, Dear Data." Paramount insisted the season stay within its overall budget, so the production team needed one very inexpensive episode to balance the books. The solution was this clip show. It serves as a stark contrast as we enter the Golden Age in season 3!!!

Jack

Oh yay, a "clip show" -- when a production has blown more money in a season than they budgeted for, they will often resort to the tried-and-true "clip show" to fulfill their obligation to the network for episode count. In rare cases, this is done very cleverly and to a specific purpose, like TOS creating "The Menagerie" two-part wraparound story for clips from "The Cage" to resolve Captain Pike's character arc. But in most cases it's... this. Pointless filler. Oh well, I'm excited for season 3. It's a banger!

Bret Kay

I really enjoy this episode. I remember seeing it as a kid when it first aired and all the emotional beats from the past episodes hit. In 1988 we couldn't watch an episode again unless we're recorded it or there was a rerun, so it was a treat to see these moments again. Seeing Dr. Crusher and Tasha again was awesome too. They did a great job of picking some of the most memorable and impactful moments. Like you, I thought this might be a walk through of Riker's best moments as a send off the first time I saw it. I still enjoy it on re-watches as the frame story is a decent premise and I enjoy the episodes they pull footage from. I recognize it's not like other episodes due to the writers strike. It's mostly Dr. Pulaksi and Deanna in sickbay, with Picard, Data, Geordi, and O'Brien basically playing bit-parts. It still works for me though. I enjoy seeing these characters and their interactions, and in a way this is a "Greatest Hits" of Season 1 & 2.

Muggy

Clip shows always suck.

Bruce Bromley

When you're all out of money and one more episode to do. Bring on the clips.

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

"Can't he wear some kind of leg armor?" No, see, the highly advanced technology of hip-waders was forever lost in the Eugenics Wars of the late 20th century. Oops, and here you were just reminding us not to do spoilers! ;) So, this is one of the most derided episodes of Trek in the fandom. You kind of have to know the historical context and reputation of the dreaded "clip-show" to understand why. Clip shows were very common in earlier TV, especially in 80s sitcoms. They were popular as a way to save money in the production budget. Generally they had a mostly deserved reputation for being cheaply thrown together and of poor quality. I'd say that, as far as clip shows go, this is actually about as good as one could expect. The first half of the episode has potential ase setup to a pretty good episode before the clips start. As a framing device, it's fine, even good I'd say. The problem is, I think, for those of who watched it at the time, the "artifice" of the clip-show format is too glaring to ignore. There was definitely an immediate "Oh no, a clip show" feeling for anyone who saw it as it aired. For this reason, and the fact that, as you guessed Bunny, it's rewatch value is pretty low, it's not a fondly remembered episode. There are also a few minor problems outside of that aspect. There's a heavy reliance on medical technobabble and too many overly long, static shots where we are just looking ad Rikers unmoving face or a computer screen with indecipherable medical charts. All that said, it's perfectly valid that you were emotionally "bought-in" to the episode Bunny. One of the things I love about your reactions is that you always are open to buying into a premise and "feeling the feels" of a story regardless of technicalities. And the clips they chose to show certainly were emotionally impactful ones. And as I said, credit where credit is due, if they were gonna do a clip show, this is far from the worst it could have been. For me, personally, I'm not left with an "ugh that was terrible" response, such as many have expressed over the years. It's more just an "oh yeah, the clip show. That happened"

bunnytails

Fun the first time through, but once is probably enough.

bunnytails

Thanks for the entertaining share! Hehe

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

How bad am I gonna get piled on if I play the contrarian a little bit here, as I often tend to do? Lol Ok here goes: I'm not saying I like this one. It is the absolute, stone cold, bottom of the barrel, no question. But at the same time (*very quickly and quietly*) *cough* the fanbase needs to get over it *cough*. It's not good, I get it. But at the same time why are we (the fanbase, not you B) still talking about it? Almost every series at the time got at least one of these, if not several. We got one. We know why they clip episodes were a thing, budgetary reasons. Watch it when we rewatch or don't. But we need to stop with the over-the-top complaining about it like it's the worst thing in the universe. It's not. *climbs down off my soapbox* Ok, I feel better now 😆 S3, let's freakin' go!

Desmond

Not gonna lie, I was hoping you'd do two episodes this week, Bunny lol.

William Terry

I'm glad bunny likes Dr Pulaski! That exchange with O'Brien, with that voice! ST TOS went into what makes good personnel on a starship and my take was Vulcans, while smarter than humans, if they analyzed an order and found logical defects they would simply do something else. I remember numerous times that Spock either mutinyed or came close. There's also the Vulcan crewed vessel that got eaten by the giant amoeba, because it was illogical and they couldn't deal with it. TNG has the other potential problem, giving a computer command duties, when Kirk was able to talk it down repeatedly and so the computer would shut off. Pulaski assumed when she met Data that there might be a Nomad, Landru, M5 type problem, although they had her give the Dr McCoy reason that Data was too darn logical and unemotional. The great thing about TNG is how they depict her changing her mind throughout their interactions. It would have been better to have an episode where Data does a Corby from What Are Little Girls Made Of, or a Rayna from Requiem for Methuselah, and conks out 😳 The reason, IMHO, that they spent most episodes on the Enterprise is expense, so even the away team is on a set, not location. TOS would just use the 1920s Chicago set or the Depression New York set but TNG wisely avoided that in the first two seasons, relying on the holodeck when needed for historical storylines.

George Taylor

Bunny, when I first watched TNG years ago, it took me a little while to adjust to the Pulaski character. Eventually I did, and I grew to appreciate her. I’ve always liked Diana Muldaur — she’s a strong actor, and stepping into an established show is never easy. I think she handled it well and really held her own. It’s always a pleasure listening to your reactions.

Desmond

I'm sorry about the spoiler...you're right, what the vast majority of us want is for you to have a fresh, spoil-free experience. And a lot of us do try to police the comment section as well as we can, whenever someone has said a bit too much. But it's very hard to avoid entirely with a show like this. I daresay I might even have been guilty of saying a bit too much, once or twice, but hopefully deleted it before you read it.

Mark Gosine

Yes, I agree. The worst TNG episode. I really debated weather to watch along. This is the only episode I skip on rewatch. As great as Stargate SG1 was, they also had the budget clip episodes. I have to hand it to the writers. They have to be pretty creative to weave a story line around stock footage. No matter how good the writing, it's hobbled from the get-go. It's funny. The flash back scene of Troy and the alien child, "You must save him." Made me laugh. All I heard was Galaxy Quest's Mathesar, "Youuuu muuust savehim!"

Ron

Because of the circumstances around the making of this episode, I've become more nuanced in how I evaluate what is a bad episode. I thought it was due to the Writer's Strike (which is a great excuse), but, if it's actually due to budget mismanagement, well that's bad too. Regardless, they didn't have a full team and a full production timeline to produce the episode. Because of that, I'm less harsh on this episode that I would otherwise be. But, for episodes where there is a normal budget and full staff (production, writers, actors, etc.), there is no excuse. Those are the episodes that are, in my opinion, genuinely bad.

TJ

As clip shows go, this was okay (probably done b/c they were over budget on the season). But I don't think it was a good choice as a season finale. Peak Performance would have been a far better choice... Okay, onward and upward to Season 3!!! :)

Muggy

I was glad when I watched and found out you enjoyed it This is a pet peeve of mine from the nineties. Clip shows were a common way for a company to get an extra episode for cheap back then, it was especially annoying if it was in the first or second season.

Stainless Steel Cat

How dedicated am I to Bunny's Trek watching? I will even watch along with the awful clip-show episode.

Mark

Congrats getting out of the pajama seasons, now it gets good

reply

Life flashing before your eyes is never a good thing... But Riker's grandpappy vs a snake is never good for the snake!

PJ B

Nothing says "we ran out of budget" like a clip show. It's a sad way to end a season too, at least sneak it a little earlier to have something better for a decent finale but when it comes to older episodic shows like TNG that's not how production worked. Some seasons just ended on very ordinary episodes, and it really doesn't get more ordinary than Shades of Gray.