Tapestry is my favorite Trek episode ever.
Best and worst TNG seasons according to IMDB episode scores
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I've heard this before and it irritates me - of course "Shades of Gray" is a 'real' episode. The "flashback"/clip show seems a common enough fallback in American TV series - good grief, "The Simpsons" have had about eight! "Friends" had several, "Frasier" too, even "The A-Team" (the season 2 finale, coincidentally enough).
Now, you might not like "Shades of Gray" (given the requirement of a clip show, I thought the framing story was quite innovative; much better than a standard "Character X is thinking about leaving and the rest of the characters remember all the good times..." affair) - and you are entitled to dislike like it. But not count it as a "real" episode? It's a real episode; it's got a production number; it has a writer, and a cast, and a spot on the video/DVD sets and it runs for about 43 minutes.
It's a real episode.
I consider 'Shades Of Grey' a real episode. But that doesn't mean I waste my time watching it whenever I watch season two. It's straight from 'Peak Performance' onto season 3 for me. 
(Having said that, I do admit I think the linking plot for 'Shades Of Grey' is actually okay, and it's got some cute moments between Will and Deanna. But are they worth watching through a clip show? Nah.)
(Having said that, I do admit I think the linking plot for 'Shades Of Grey' is actually okay, and it's got some cute moments between Will and Deanna. But are they worth watching through a clip show? Nah.)
Shades of Grey is a real episode. A really, really horrible episode resulted from a writer's strike shortened season and the creative death of the original writing staff.
It's true clip shows are common in television but you generally expect Star Trek to be held to a higher creative standard than Full House.
And heck, Stargate's clip shows weren't great but at least they managed amusing and/or useful stories around them. Their first clip show was used as a plot connector between the first great episode of the show and the season finale and introduced Senator Kinsey, one of the show's best villains. Then that later one with the guy who could see through O'Neall's eyes was stupid, but at least a little funny.
And I'm not sure what's innovative about "COMMANDER RIKER IS SICK! When he has good memories he dies more and when he has bad memories he bounces back." They didn't even bother with technobabble there, it was just kind of "Wow magic".
It's true clip shows are common in television but you generally expect Star Trek to be held to a higher creative standard than Full House.
And heck, Stargate's clip shows weren't great but at least they managed amusing and/or useful stories around them. Their first clip show was used as a plot connector between the first great episode of the show and the season finale and introduced Senator Kinsey, one of the show's best villains. Then that later one with the guy who could see through O'Neall's eyes was stupid, but at least a little funny.
And I'm not sure what's innovative about "COMMANDER RIKER IS SICK! When he has good memories he dies more and when he has bad memories he bounces back." They didn't even bother with technobabble there, it was just kind of "Wow magic".
^ When it came to Voyager doing a few clip-shows, they were generally much cleverer in how they masked the fact. The episode 'The Voyager Conspiracy' for example was conceived as a clipshow of sorts, although the reused clips in question are all special effects shots used to illustrate Seven of Nine's points about inconsistencies in Voyager's journey so far.
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