Is "Shades of Gray" really an episode?

[snuffles]

It seems like in all discussions on the "worst" TNG episode, "Shades of Gray" always comes up, but since it's just a bunch of old clips, is there a way to demote it from "episode" to just a consequence of the 1988 writers' strike?

It's hard to measure the quality of this episode, since most of the material is not original.

Therefore, do we really have to call this an "episode"? Can't we just strike it from our collective memory?

 

[Snaploud]

The addition of not-previously-seen material makes it an episode (unfortunately).

 

[Maurice]

I always felt they missed an oppurtunity to make it a clip show with a difference, by shooting just a couple of newly minted flashback scenes to things we hadn't seen before. Frakes could've shaved his beard off to sell it. At the time it first aired (and the only time I saw it), I had a few clear ideas of what this material could;ve been to illuminate Riker and Troi, but I've forgotten it in the intervening 19 years!

 

[AdmiralGarak]

A clip show isn't automatically a grave sin. Stargate has done a number of really clever ones, for example.

 

[Timo]

...Although the first one, at the end of the first season, was as criminally painful as they get.

I'd say a clip show is always a mortal sin if the clips

a) contribute more than 50% of running length and/or
b) aren't selected and trimmed for framing story relevancy

which basically damns some 99% of all clip shows ever aired. McGyver did so many of those, though, that I vaguely remember that one or two of them actually managed to meet the above criteria.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[erastus25]

I think there are a lot of episodes that are worse than Shades of Gray, so I say it counts.

 

[cultcross]

...Although the first one, at the end of the first season, was as criminally painful as they get.

Politics? I liked that one
Though granted, entirely because of Kinsey/O'Neill sniping. And the fact that Kinsey was the real world politician with his head in the clouds and unable to come out with anything but rhetoric.

which basically damns some 99% of all clip shows ever aired. McGyver did so many of those, though, that I vaguely remember that one or two of them actually managed to meet the above criteria.

Timo Saloniemi

I think Stargate deserves a clip show award myself - I think it is the only show I remember to have used a clip from a clip show in a subsequent clip show. The instance doesn't come to mind now, annoyingly, but I'm sure I remember giggling at it when I first saw it.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I always felt they missed an oppurtunity to make it a clip show with a difference, by shooting just a couple of newly minted flashback scenes to things we hadn't seen before.

One of the previous episodes had to lose a very funny scene - it was scripted, filmed, but cut for time - and this would have been a great example of "new" footage they could have used: Wesley's birthday party!

At one point, Beverly is explaining the importance of birthdays to humans and he ends up asking Beverly how old she is. She shoves a plate at him and says, tersely, "Have some cake, Worf!"

In the episode, Pulaski was making Riker remember happy and then devastating occasions. I'm sure the birthday party scene, and other clipped moments, would have worked very well; there may have been other events worth using. As it was, we saw Riker reliving details of what happened above ground - after he was dragged into the black slick by Armus!

 

[Mr. Fergy]

I'm afraid "Shades of Grey" is an episode demoting it from "Episode" status would be kinda like demoting th planet Pluto from "Full Planet" status.... Oh wait!

 

[WillsBabe]

I like Shades of Grey. I think it has a great atmosphere and I really appreciate the Riker/Troi moments. Please let's not strike it from our collective memory. I don't want to forget it.

 

[Holdfast]

I liked the new portions of Shades of Grey, esp. Riker's facing up to death. That stuff was pretty good. The clip show bits.... well, less so.

 

[Kegek]

It's an episode. It aired as a full-lenght episodic installment of TNG's second season. Even if it was just an hour of static and the TNG credits, it'd be a TNG episode. (If it was just static maybe it would have achieved the notoriety of four minutes and thirty three seconds. We'll never know, now will we?)

 

[Gepard]

I'm afraid "Shades of Grey" is an episode demoting it from "Episode" status would be kinda like demoting the planet Pluto from "Full Planet" status.... Oh wait!

Only of "Shades of Grey" clears away all the cluttered crap in its local orbit. Unfortunately, since it's nothing but cluttered crap...

 

[Mordock]

It's an episode. It aired as a full-length episodic installment of TNG's second season. Even if it was just an hour of static and the TNG credits, it'd be a TNG episode.

That flags up many interesting questions: If the credits do qualify it as an episode of TNG, does it not follow that it is canonical? Would contextual attempts at explanation be justified (e.g. it was a representation of a Borg dream)? Would an hour of static have been preferable to the episode as realized?

(If it was just static maybe it would have achieved the notoriety of four minutes and thirty three seconds. We'll never know, now will we?)

And while I'm at it, would the fact of having the TNG credits at all make it less formally plastic than 4'33, and therefore more conventional? Would it qualify as Pop Art (and if so, would it be so to a greater or lesser degree than the series as a whole, seeing as it isolates and recontextualizes elements of the original series)?

 

[Kegek]

It's an episode. It aired as a full-length episodic installment of TNG's second season. Even if it was just an hour of static and the TNG credits, it'd be a TNG episode.

That flags up many interesting questions: If the credits do qualify it as an episode of TNG, does it not follow that it is canonical?

Certainly. All episodes of TNG are part of the Star Trek canon.

Would contextual attempts at explanation be justified (e.g. it was a representation of a Borg dream)? Would an hour of static have been preferable to the episode as realized?

Yes on both counts.

And while I'm at it, would the fact of having the TNG credits at all make it less formally plastic than 4'33, and therefore more conventional? Would it qualify as Pop Art (and if so, would it be so to a greater or lesser degree than the series as a whole, seeing as it isolates and recontextualizes elements of the original series)?

I suppose one could argue the credits for the series are the equivalent to, in 4'33, the pianist sitting at the piano; the use of form which categorises it as what it is. And I'd bet a case for Pop Art could be argued...

 

[jbake]

I like Shades of Grey. I think it has a great atmosphere and I really appreciate the Riker/Troi moments. Please let's not strike it from our collective memory. I don't want to forget it.

Youre not alone, I too liked Shades of Grey. Watched again in a TNG marathon in summer07.
I thought it was pretty well done. I especially loved the "getting Will to remember ugly events, to save him" at the end.

That was a very clever use of clips

 

[greenmystik]

Simple answer: Yes

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Yes, unfortunately, it is an episode. At least TPTB learned their lesson and when the next time they were in a budget crunch, they were a bit more creative and we got "The Drumhead."

 

[Mr. Fergy]

I'm afraid "Shades of Grey" is an episode demoting it from "Episode" status would be kinda like demoting the planet Pluto from "Full Planet" status.... Oh wait!

Only of "Shades of Grey" clears away all the cluttered crap in its local orbit. Unfortunately, since it's nothing but cluttered crap...

Agreed!

 

[RAMA]

Unfortunately yes. Every show counts clip shows as part of its series number. There is a wrap around story too.

RAMA