Of course it's possible. To use an extreme example, what about all those people who are of the opinion that one race, religion, nationality, gender, etc. is superior to another?
"Shades of Gray": As Bad as its Reputation?
- Thread starter CoveTom
- Start date
IMO the only thing worth watching it for is that funny final scene with Picard asking how Riker is feeling -- "Do you remember who you are?" "Of course I do! I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise!" 
The rest of the episode is utterly disposable. In my opinion.
The rest of the episode is utterly disposable. In my opinion.
^^
I dunno, I often use in my own life the line Riker used about "If you drop a hammer on your foot, it's hardly useful to blame the hammer".
And the joke he told about the snake. In general, seeing Riker's positive attitude as his body is failing him is pretty redeemable, as was mentioned earlier.
I dunno, I often use in my own life the line Riker used about "If you drop a hammer on your foot, it's hardly useful to blame the hammer".
And the joke he told about the snake. In general, seeing Riker's positive attitude as his body is failing him is pretty redeemable, as was mentioned earlier.
A lot of people don't like Clip Shows and you can count me among them. However, I happen to love SHADES of GREY. It features Riker ... so there's a strong foundation for an episode of this kind, if indeed, there must be this kind of episode, at all. The planet set, where Riker gets infected looks great! Very atmospheric ... I wish they could've shot a whole episode with it.
The image of Riker in Sick Bay, laying on a pad with that head thing poking rods into his skull is iconic! A very striking visual and I've seen that floating around alot, looking up TNG. The clips show everything from Babe of the Week, episodes featuring and revolving around Riker, various snippets of his various emotional states, showing Frake's range as an actor ... good stuff!
And Deanna was more than just helping Kate know what Riker was feeling. I would argue that Deanna's bonds - as Imzadi - were actually strengthened by the exercise of reaching into Riker's psyche and reliving past events with him. Layer upon layer in what was basically a cost $avings episode. Not too shabby, if you ask me ...
The image of Riker in Sick Bay, laying on a pad with that head thing poking rods into his skull is iconic! A very striking visual and I've seen that floating around alot, looking up TNG. The clips show everything from Babe of the Week, episodes featuring and revolving around Riker, various snippets of his various emotional states, showing Frake's range as an actor ... good stuff!
And Deanna was more than just helping Kate know what Riker was feeling. I would argue that Deanna's bonds - as Imzadi - were actually strengthened by the exercise of reaching into Riker's psyche and reliving past events with him. Layer upon layer in what was basically a cost $avings episode. Not too shabby, if you ask me ...
I've said this elsewhere, but when "Shades" first aired, I'd missed about half of Season 1 and a bit of Season 2, so I appreciated the clips.... 
In the spirit of the thread (being about a clip show), I have made my reply of clips that have gone before me...
(We should be thankful to Shades of Grey because without it we wouldn't have got these fantastic episodes)
Don't be asking for any royalties.
(We should be thankful to Shades of Grey because without it we wouldn't have got these fantastic episodes)
that funny final scene with Picard asking how Riker is feeling -- "Do you remember who you are?" "Of course I do! I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise!"
The script does have some pretty good dialogue.
Don't be asking for any royalties.
I quite liked Community's take on the clip show cliche: showing clips from completely non-existent episodes, so each clip in the study group's collective memory kept getting more and more bizarre. It was a clever idea, but a bit trickier to do in Trek since it's a completely different show that's played straight. (and pointless with Shades of Gray since the intent behind the episodes are completely different)
There's also the Menagerie, which played clips from the then-seldom seen TOS pilot. At the very least, framing the clips as part of a trial with heavy consequences is still a creative idea, rather than a group of friends just reminiscing for shits and giggles.
I think I enjoyed it. Just like everyone else has already said, there has been worse.
"Shades of Grey" wasn't great, but at least there weren't 50 of them...
Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sdVx5gQz6w[/yt]
Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sdVx5gQz6w[/yt]
Episodes worse than Shades of Gray (IMO):
Code of Honor
Angel One
The Outrageous Okona
Rascals
Aquiel
Sub Rosa
Homeward
Move Along Home
Let He Who Is Without Sin
Profit and Lace
Half of TOS, especially The Alternative Factor
Half of Voyager, especially Threshold
Half of Enterprise, especially A Night in Sickbay
Shades of Gray has the same reputation as Spock's Brain. It's the "safe" answer for worst episode ever, but there are far worse ones.
Code of Honor
Angel One
The Outrageous Okona
Rascals
Aquiel
Sub Rosa
Homeward
Move Along Home
Let He Who Is Without Sin
Profit and Lace
Half of TOS, especially The Alternative Factor
Half of Voyager, especially Threshold
Half of Enterprise, especially A Night in Sickbay
Shades of Gray has the same reputation as Spock's Brain. It's the "safe" answer for worst episode ever, but there are far worse ones.
SG-1 still managed to do some decent clip shows, but perhaps they worked slightly better because in some of them they advanced the overall mythos of the show.
Yep, thats what I said.
At least Shades of Grey offered up one of the series' most
iconic images ...
iconic images ...
You've mentioned twice that that image is "iconic." I really find that hard to believe. Nothing in that image yells Star Trek. For all anyone knows it's some random guy sleeping while getting acupuncture.
Doing an image search for terms such as "star trek tng," "star trek the next generation," "riker," "william riker" and "commander riker" didn't show that image at all in the top several hundred results. The one search I did find that had a similar image (a different, wider angle) was "star trek riker" and even that was after a hundred other images (including an image of KYLE Riker and Jean-Luc Riker from "Future Imperfect").
Doing an image search for terms such as "star trek tng," "star trek the next generation," "riker," "william riker" and "commander riker" didn't show that image at all in the top several hundred results. The one search I did find that had a similar image (a different, wider angle) was "star trek riker" and even that was after a hundred other images (including an image of KYLE Riker and Jean-Luc Riker from "Future Imperfect").
trekker670, any confirmation is really quite unnecessary. Everything I post in this forum is only true ... and very full of proof. So, going forward, just take my word on everything - I've already taken the liberty of checking my facts, in advance. You have my assurances.
SFDebris' review made it a point that just because you're doing a clip show, doesn't mean your hindered from at least telling a story. Some thoughts he offered.
- Mix it up. Have some of the previous events play out like they're occurring in the present, so that both the characters and the audience don't know whether what they're seeing is happening now or happened before.
- How about bringing back Lore? You won't have to hire a whole new actor for the part and he was arguably the best part of "Datalore". Have him plot his revenge on the Enterprise by sneaking onboard, kidnapping Riker and using some memory reading device to look for a weakness on the ship. Once he finds the self-destruct code from the events of "Where Silence has Lease", the suspense gets dialed up as Lore sabotages certain areas in order to reach Engineering to input the code. If you use Lore, you don't need to hire another actor, and if you're always on the ship, you don't need to make that swamp set.
- Mix it up. Have some of the previous events play out like they're occurring in the present, so that both the characters and the audience don't know whether what they're seeing is happening now or happened before.
- How about bringing back Lore? You won't have to hire a whole new actor for the part and he was arguably the best part of "Datalore". Have him plot his revenge on the Enterprise by sneaking onboard, kidnapping Riker and using some memory reading device to look for a weakness on the ship. Once he finds the self-destruct code from the events of "Where Silence has Lease", the suspense gets dialed up as Lore sabotages certain areas in order to reach Engineering to input the code. If you use Lore, you don't need to hire another actor, and if you're always on the ship, you don't need to make that swamp set.
