In defence of Shades of Gray

[Maurice]

Had I been in the position to have to put together a "Shades of Grey" the first thing I'd have done was ask if there were any deleted scenes from previous episodes from which to mine some heretofore unseen moments for Riker. Heck, I might've even made a story reason that causes the memories to get jumbled up so bits of different scenes get cut together to make a sort of narrative collage.

 

[maneth]

Generally I'm not a fan of clip shows, but I enjoy Shades of Gray because I like Riker.

 

[Tiberius]

It's a 1-dimensional clip episode that gives the impression that Riker's life didn't begin until "Encounter at Farpoint."

Oddly enough, I just watched an episode of Stargate SG-1 that had some parallels to this TNG episode. Teal'c was on the brink of death and was having flashbacks while hanging onto life by a thread, except that 90% of the "flashbacks" were about his life prior to joining SG-1, and how he became the Jaffa he was. Not recycled footage. It was really interesting and gave more depth to his overall storyline.

Riker, on the other hand, just has earlier TNG episodes put into a blender and replayed in a pretty pointless way that feels all the sillier with it being only the 2nd season of the show. It felt lazy that they couldn't come up with a single thing prior to "Encounter at Farpoint," although I'm not sure how heavily this episode was affected by the writers' strike that happened around that time. That could earn the episode a little more sympathy, but it couldn't be called a good episode by any stretch of the imagination.

Yeah, if they had shown Riker as a kid dealing with his mother's death, the estrangement between him and his dad, the conflict with DeSoto when he wouldn't let him beam down to that planet, meeting Deanna, it would have been great.

 

[TommyR01D]

I suppose SFDebris will have to update his review now - someone has defended Shades of Gray!

 

[Orphalesion]

I agree with the OP. "Shades of Gray" was, given the available budgetary and time parameters, about as good an effort as it could have been. And there are a fair number of TNG episodes that it infinitely outclasses, "Code of Honor", "Birthright part II", "Half a Life", "Sub Rosa", and "New Ground" to name five.

Would your opinion be the same if Pulaski wasn't in it?

 

[Christopher]

"Shades of Gray" was, given the available budgetary and time parameters, about as good an effort as it could have been.

That's where I have to disagree, because the whole problem is that it wasn't anything more than a run-of-the-mill '80s clip show. We've discussed examples of later clip shows on other series that were far more creative and interesting, proving that it can be done. Someone here already proposed a way "Shades" could've been better by focusing on Wesley instead of Riker.

The problem wasn't the budget and time -- the problem was the writing, the lack of any effort to find a creative, fresh solution to the budget and time limitations. The next time they were strapped for time and money, they did "The Drumhead," which was superlative. So they absolutely could have done far, far better. The whole reason we hate "Shades of Gray" is that they didn't even try. In a show that was usually smarter, classier, and better-made than the norm, they settled for something that was mediocre and schlocky even by the standards of ordinary TV.

 

[Trek Survivor]

I have maintained this for years - in the context of being a clip show, SoG is pretty good - clip shows seem to have been an accepted part of US TV (The A-Team, Friends, Simpsons, Due South, many more), so I am always confused why people act like it's such a shocking thing to do.

SoG avoids the typical route for many of these clips shows - a plot no more than "character X might leave, and everyone remembers all the goods times they had". I quite like the idea of different types of memories stimulating growth, and the alien aspect to what caused the clips.

It's not going to be on anyone's top 10 episodes list, and I don't think the producers had any aspirations of such - but for what it is, it is fine.

 

[Christopher]

I have maintained this for years - in the context of being a clip show, SoG is pretty good - clip shows seem to have been an accepted part of US TV (The A-Team, Friends, Simpsons, Due South, many more), so I am always confused why people act like it's such a shocking thing to do.

We've already answered that. It was a routine thing, but TNG was not a routine show. It was better than the average show of its day, more prestigious and respected. So getting a run-of-the-mill clip show in a classier-than-average series was like going to a fancy restaurant and getting served a warmed-over fast-food burger on a plastic tray.

And even in average TV shows, clip episodes were the dullest, least worthwhile and memorable installments, a bit of necessary drudgery to get through from time to time. Even in an ordinary show, realizing you were watching a clip episode brought groans of "Oh no, it's one of those." "As good as a normal clip show" is not a compliment, because normal clip shows were the least worthwhile episodes of any series.

SoG avoids the typical route for many of these clips shows - a plot no more than "character X might leave, and everyone remembers all the goods times they had". I quite like the idea of different types of memories stimulating growth, and the alien aspect to what caused the clips.

But Riker lying unconscious in a bed while Pulaski throws technobabble at him isn't much better. There could've been a much more dramatic frame for a clip episode. Imagine if they'd done "The Drumhead" as a clip show -- an admiral challenges Picard's command decisions and they review the visual logs. Something with an actual conflict of characters and values would've been more interesting than just "He's dying and we need to cure him."

 

[flandry84]

There was a great Babylon5 episode which is essentially a two-handler between Sheridan and an interrogator.
Dunno how that would play in Trek but imagine Riker or Picard being quizzed about the recent Remmick incident by (I know they didn’t exist then) Section 31.

 

[Orphalesion]

But Riker lying unconscious in a bed while Pulaski throws technobabble at him isn't much better.

Now let's be fair, Troi was also there, simpering and crying over her "imzadi" (If they had been creative with that, they could also have revived her mental bond with Riker for that, and have her be his "guide"...and suddenly the episode could have been an exploration of Will's and Deanna's relationship)
But yeah really, I don't even get why Pulaski fans like this episode or consider it a "good send-off" for the character.
I re-watched Shades of Grey yesterday and her techno-babble dialogue and delivery are so generic you could easily slot Dr. Crusher or Dr. Selar into her place and nothing would be changed.
As much as II don't like Pulaski, it was a terrible final episode for her.

 

[Christopher]

There was a great Babylon5 episode which is essentially a two-handler between Sheridan and an interrogator.

"Intersections in Real Time." I actually found it underwhelming, because it was just doing the same thing TNG: "Chain of Command" had done between Picard and Gul Madred, and didn't do it quite as well. If you saw it without having seen "Chain of Command," it would probably have been pretty impressive, but since it came after that superlative episode, it just felt like a paler echo.

 

[Oddish]

Would your opinion be the same if Pulaski wasn't in it?

That's a good question, actually. I might not like it quite as much as I do (it might drop from a 5/10 to 4.5 or 4, depending on how Gates McFadden handled the medical part). But it would still be far better than the five episodes I named.

 

[DonIago]

"Intersections in Real Time." I actually found it underwhelming, because it was just doing the same thing TNG: "Chain of Command" had done between Picard and Gul Madred, and didn't do it quite as well. If you saw it without having seen "Chain of Command," it would probably have been pretty impressive, but since it came after that superlative episode, it just felt like a paler echo.

One thing that doesn't really occur to me during (well-executed) torture episodes but tends to become difficult to ignore after the fact is that real torture is so much worse than what's (usually) going to be shown on TV. "Intersections" gets somewhat of a pass because we're only seeing a soft-serve entry-level torture (it's also somewhat obviously an excuse for JMS to try something he hasn't really done before, perhaps putting theater over realism), and the next time we see Sheridan they're treating him more harshly. "Chain of Command" does go a bit farther with things. In some ways I feel it was LOST (of the series I've watched) that did the best job of showing what a committed interrogator would do, especially one who might have limited resources to work with.

I don't remember whether "The Americans" had any actual torture sequences, but it certainly had some sequences that made me queasy with their level of realism.

 

[Mojochi]

The Menagerie (parts 1 and 2) are arguably clip shows. Well, sort of I guess.

Only functionally, in that it was made with unaired content, which certainly softens the blow, & makes it more interesting to the viewer. I wasn't there, but I imagine that when it aired, people had no idea it even was a clip show. So, while it certainly fits the definition, all of the negative effects & impressions on the viewers, of seeing an episode comprised in part & shaped around old footage, aren't there.

On top of that, The Menagerie is unquestionably an immeasurably better effort. They forged it into a 2-parter, with more interesting stakes & consequences in play than just X got sick & might die. There's real tension between characters, with Spock torn between 2 captains, writing Pike as infirmed, having it devolve to near court-martial... There's tangible history, & the drama is just palpably better imho. TOS crafted the heck out of that clip show.

Which for me was another reason to dislike Shades of Gray. We'd all known by the time it aired that TOS had made The Menagerie as a clip show from the original pilot footage, (a pilot which had only 1st aired on tv, in a special hosted by Patrick Stewart, just 9 months earlier) & I've always liked The Menagerie despite knowing that. At the time, we all were rightfully considering TNG to be an upgrade from TOS, in production standards.

So not only was TNG doing a clip show a production disappointment, that it was a much worse effort than the one TOS had done was an even bigger slap in the face, especially since the TOS one wasn't even as cheap as to just be a run-of the-mill clip show like Shades of Gray was. It felt like a major step backward.

 

[Christopher]

Only functionally, in that it was made with unaired content, which certainly softens the blow, & makes it more interesting to the viewer. I wasn't there, but I imagine that when it aired, people had no idea it even was a clip show. So, while it certainly fits the definition, all of the negative effects & impressions on the viewers, of seeing an episode comprised in part & shaped around old footage, aren't there.

That's certainly the best scenario for producers who have to build an episode around stock footage -- to have the opportunity to show the audience something they haven't seen before. In addition to "The Menagerie" and the Gilligan Christmas episode, there was the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "Lifeblood," which took a rejected pilot episode for a series called Amazon High about a present-day teen (Selma Blair) flung back in time to the days of the Xena Amazons and framed it as a flashback to the ancient origins of the Amazon people. (I often felt Agents of SHIELD should've done that with the rejected Marvel's Most Wanted spinoff pilot.)

There was also an interesting case with The Man from UNCLE. The hourlong pilot episode was expanded into a movie for overseas release by shooting a whole new subplot in which Napoleon Solo investigated a side story connected to an Agent Lancer who was murdered in the pilot. Later, they wrote an episode ("The Four-Steps Affair") around that movie footage, redubbing "Lancer" as "Dancer" and tying it to new material about a different agent being killed under similar circumstances. So it was reusing footage seen in Europe, but new to American audiences.

 

[Ragitsu]

"Sub Rosa"

Uh...no; flashback episodes (i.e. "clip shows") go straight to the bottom of any episode list. The only exception to the aforementioned rule is if an episode features entirely new flashbacks.

 

[Maurice]

"The Menagerie" isn't really a clip show in the conventional sense, because the "clips" make up a complete story unto itself, which isn't what clips shows do. The framing device is, as they called it on staff, an "envelope".

 

[Christopher]

Uh...no; flashback episodes (i.e. "clip shows") go straight to the bottom of any episode list. The only exception to the aforementioned rule is if an episode features entirely new flashbacks.

As I said, there have been some clip shows in more recent decades that have been very worthwhile. I consider "Who Is Superboy?" to be one of the best episodes of the Superboy series. Andromeda's "The Unconquerable Man" is one of the best episodes of its third season, though a lot of that season is utterly dreadful.

After all, a clip show isn't just clips. What differentiates a good one from a bad one is what the new material (the envelope, thanks for the name, Maurice) is like. Is it just an excuse to set up the reminiscences, or does it tell a meaningful story of its own that has actual relevance to the series's plot and character development? The clip shows that rise above the pack are the ones that manage to do the latter, like the ones I mentioned or Stargate episodes like "Disclosure."

Hercules and Xena had fun with their clip shows, making the envelopes really crazy and bizarre a lot of the time. The archetypal one is "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hercules," in which the cast members and recurring guests of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys played the producers and writers of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as grotesque caricatures of themselves (e.g. Bruce Campbell played Rob Tapert and Ted Raimi played Alex Kurtzman) -- with the conceit being that Kevin Sorbo was actually the real Hercules pretending to be an actor named Kevin Sorbo playing Hercules on TV. (Okay, that part has aged very poorly.) A lot of their clip show envelopes were set in the present day (presumably to save money), often involving lookalike reincarnations or clones of the series leads.

One clever twist was in Xena's first clip show, "Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards." They used clips to represent the stories told by the various bards, but while Gabrielle's stories were clips from Xena/Hercules episodes, the other storytellers' clips were taken from Steve Reeves Hercules movies and even Kubrick's Spartacus (even though that should've happened quite a few centuries after Xena, but these shows always played incredibly fast and loose with chronology, with everyone from Helen of Troy to Julius Caesar to Dracula being contemporaries of each other). So they were basically having fun with the formula of a clip show, confounding our expectations of what the clips would be.

 

[Qonundrum]

This is the sort of gin-based topic I would love to discuss and probably wouldn't have put it past myself to discuss before. But... controversial thought: Shades of Gray isn't that bad.

The non-clipshow parts are largely atmospheric and tense, with a genuinely disconcerting and alien aura of the planet being explored that's long overdue...

Now, clip shows are reviled. So in terms of Trek's history it won't be remembered.

But in the context of a CLIP SHOW, I think it's rather decent. (I'm just watching Golden Girls who have hit clip show territory, which has sent me down this thought path...)

Aren't tangents awesome?

Golden Girls' number of clip shows made sense, what with the costume budget being triple sky-high and all... Trek was clobbered by industrial action, and doubly unfortunate since season 2 shows it got its act together very nicely. Save for a couple episodes...

Many shows have done them. But most of them feel contrived. To me Shades of Gray at least tried to make sense in terms of a story.

If they had a better selection of clips, perhaps it'd be better - but the strike necessitated something to be hurried. The idea of emotions affecting one's recovery is somewhat novel for television (?), in a season that was already far more imaginative than season one...

I remember even back in the day I really liked the themes they pulled together for the clips. Here's the love, here's the anger etc. And for me for a really young show and quite frankly a really dodgy couple of years it showed great range. It said wow yes TNG can play to different strengths.

Season one did so even more, when you put "When the Bough Breaks" (the most kid-friendly episode of the season) right next to "Justice" (aka "sex world", what with massage oil and everything else thanks to a horrid script rewrite... never mind the same scene where they talk about bringing down families to relax is the same exact scene where they talk about the inhabitants going at it like a basket of deprived bunny rabbits at the drop of a hat... now that's range... )

And it gave flashbacks to the likes of Yar, and her death. At the time with no on demand etc. it was good to see her again and some of the other scenes. The flashbacks felt special. It almost by complete chance acted as a nice denouement to the patchy but formative two seasons before it really took off in season three.

Some, yeah, and the one with Armus terrorizing him is a perfect fit.

And finally as someone who likes Pulaski it was a good send off for her. It was a strong doctor's episode where she got to her doctoring.

I still wish she stayed, she was a stronger character than Crusher. But whenever TNG tried to add a new strong character, they never stayed long.

So I'm going to say I still have a soft spot for Shades of Gray.

(P.S. it's taken so much control not to say Grey)

So will I, especially for the alien planet stuff. They sell it incredibly well.

 

[BillJ]

But... controversial thought: Shades of Gray isn't that bad.

It definitely isn't anywhere near the worst Trek has to offer. Just really bland.