"Dark Page"

[Ron M]

I think if you watch it while keeping in mind that such a thing was part of the vocabulary of television back then, then it's easier to watch. Its often interesting to me to learn why such episodes happened, not just in TNG. Sometimes it was a budget saver, some times it was cast, writers and crew putting an 'easy' episode on the slate to give themselves a break during a punishing schedule... It was just as you say, talking about old times all misty eyed, but it happened all over TV at the time.

I think the episode is kind of an artifact and actually rather charming when viewed that way.

Of course, another reason they could get away with "clip shows" back in the 1970's and 80's was that VCR's weren't common yet, so people didn't necessarily mind seeing clips from previous episodes--in fact, unless they caught a rerun, they probably had no way of watching earlier episodes at all. (Heck, "Trail of the Pink Panther" (1982) was a whole clip movie released in theaters to commemorate the death of Peter Sellers, before home video had really taken off.)

Admittedly, by 1989, enough people had VCR's--my family got our first one in 1984--that this reasoning wasn't as relevant, but I can still forgive TNG for doing a clip show. As you say, it's kind of an "artifact" of that time period in TV.

 

[Mojochi]

I think the main issue with Shades of Gray being a clip show & people hating that fact, is that in all of Star Trek, it is the ONLY clip show. One could make an argument that The Menagerie counts as well, but there are so fewer clips, and the premise is SO much better that it hardly even qualifies, especially considering that all the used footage came from the as of then unaired pilot

When Shades of Gray happened I think we all believed & probably still do, that Star Trek was a better show than that practice. It was a practice that even then was going out of style, & their effort was mediocre at best, for even that model of television.

If you want to see a show making all the best use of the clip show device, go watch M*A*S*H. They bled them to black & white, & dressed them like a reporter doing war correspondence. They're quite wonderful

TNG's really was thrown together from nothing, in no time, with nearly no warning... & IMHO it shows

 

[Oddish]

TNG's really was thrown together from nothing, in no time, with nearly no warning... & IMHO it shows

If they had had time, or budget, they would likely not have made a clip show. But it was a clip show or nothing.

 

[Orphalesion]

If they had had time, or budget, they would likely not have made a clip show. But it was a clip show or nothing.

But why not just do nothing then? Season 2 was already short 4 episodes, would a fifth one really have been that much of a loss?
I mean I guess there must have been some obligation or pressure to do one more show, as you said, otherwise they wouldn't have done a clip show, I just don't understand exactly what.

 

[Oddish]

Maybe they figured half a show was better than none.

 

[fireproof78]

But why not just do nothing then? Season 2 was already short 4 episodes, would a fifth one really have been that much of a loss?
I mean I guess there must have been some obligation or pressure to do one more show, as you said, otherwise they wouldn't have done a clip show, I just don't understand exactly what.

Others might no better but syndication required a certain number of episodes. I can't recall if that was in total or per season. But, I imagine that cutting it shorter would have impacted selling to the syndication market.

 

[Mojochi]

But why not just do nothing then? Season 2 was already short 4 episodes, would a fifth one really have been that much of a loss?
I mean I guess there must have been some obligation or pressure to do one more show, as you said, otherwise they wouldn't have done a clip show, I just don't understand exactly what.

As it happens, they owed one more show, but because they'd run over budget on Q-Who & Elementary, Dear Data, they were tasked with coming in under budget on one... on last minute notice. That very situation is almost exactly why the clip show device existed... as a way to pump out a show in 3-5 days production, without hardly spending anything to make it, so you can divert some funds to a passion project episode or 2. Ultimately they'd made the mistake of thinking they wouldn't be held so strictly to their budget, & it cost them in the end, having to piece something together on extremely short notice.

If they had had time, or budget, they would likely not have made a clip show. But it was a clip show or nothing.

True. The problem was they hadn't expected they'd be held to that outcome. Most shows would budget better, & knew where they'd be plopping in their clip show, far enough in advance to make a decent effort. I think TNG's case was even happening in some kind of writer's strike at the time too. The real tragedy for them was in being ill-prepared to pull it off. Maurice Hurley himself thought it was terrible

I tend to give them a fair amount of pass on the making of a clip show itself. There really wasn't any choice, by the time it all went down. How else are you going to shoot for half the time, & get a whole show, unless you pad it with existing footage? But that doesn't change the fact that it being the only one makes it really stick out badly in the Trek catalog, whatever the excuse.

As I posted above though, there were other scenarios they could've done that would've worked almost exactly the same, & maybe turned out way better. I just happen to think the choices they did make with it were especially bad ones too, & that didn't have to be the case. Just choosing 2 different regular characters to feature in the treatment would've yielded better results imho.

If you focus the recycled clips around Wes instead of Riker, because Wes was featured WAY more in the 1st two seasons, you get more to choose from. Then get Stewart in there to shoot the scripted stuff, because (no offense to Sirtis), he could make drama from a bubblegum wrapper. Just that could make it better. The episode falls flat the worst during the Troi/Pulaski stuff. They schlock it up pretty badly imho. When you're in a jam, you need to lean on your best talent (Stewart), & your biggest investments (Which for good or ill had been Wesley a LOT)