It was made as a clip show with minimal framing to save money. Can you think of a way they could have done that and made a better episode from it?
Shades of Gray - how would you fix the episode?
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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I for one have never seen a clip show that I liked, except the end of DS9's What you leave behind, because it was a small part of the show and it had a nostalgic touch to it.
That said, the plot in Shades Of Gray, as it were, was a shabby thing. One would think that when you have only five to ten minutes to express yourself, you'd make the effort to write something interesting.
That said, the plot in Shades Of Gray, as it were, was a shabby thing. One would think that when you have only five to ten minutes to express yourself, you'd make the effort to write something interesting.
The Drumhead is how you do it, if saving a shed load of money is the decree from up above. The Drumhead was supposed to be a clipshow but instead became one of the grandest episodes in TNG when they decided instead to apply a little bit of creativity.
Although, Shades of Gray is something of an anomaly because it was hobbled into being a clipshow by a writers strike at that time.
Although, Shades of Gray is something of an anomaly because it was hobbled into being a clipshow by a writers strike at that time.
That would defeat the purpose.
It won't kill the plot. It would be more entertaining to see memories of Riker's life we never saw onscreen or before TOS. OH! Next time they remaster the thing, have a shot of a young Riker joining Pressman when the crew turned against them. That would be a great bad memory.
I am not talking about the plot, I am talking about the purpose, the purpose of saving money. Your idea may be even more expensive than a regular episode.
yeah, bring the taken shots and put it in the garbage. The season has one episode less. This would be the perfect episode to not even broadcast it
There are better ways to cheap than clip shows. TNG has some of the best bottle episodes in the franchise.
If you absolutely must do a clip show, make it a little more relevant to the story. Stargate got it right with the episode Politics. The clips are the characters describing their experiences to a politician to justify the expenditure and the episode ends up setting up the first season finale. Coming Of Age is the sort of setup they could have made into a good clip show. Like Politics, it was embedded in an arc and had characters citing their past experiences to defend themselves.
There could be a setup where a Starfleet ship was led into an ambush because some information was leaked somebody who must be in the Enterprise's senior staff. They have some hostile inquisitor come trying to find the mole and nobody believes anyone could be a mole, then maybe they use subtle things placed in other episodes to figure out someone is mind controlled.
If you absolutely must do a clip show, make it a little more relevant to the story. Stargate got it right with the episode Politics. The clips are the characters describing their experiences to a politician to justify the expenditure and the episode ends up setting up the first season finale. Coming Of Age is the sort of setup they could have made into a good clip show. Like Politics, it was embedded in an arc and had characters citing their past experiences to defend themselves.
There could be a setup where a Starfleet ship was led into an ambush because some information was leaked somebody who must be in the Enterprise's senior staff. They have some hostile inquisitor come trying to find the mole and nobody believes anyone could be a mole, then maybe they use subtle things placed in other episodes to figure out someone is mind controlled.
"Shades of Grey" just needed more Riker and less Pulaski in it, that's all.
This was exactly my first thought. Clips representing relevant the episodes when Remmick is questioning them about the Edo etc.
I honestly don't remember this episode, probably because I haven't seen it since first run in 1989. But seriously, can it be that bad? Worse than any of the first season episodes?
I guess I'll have to watch it again to get some perspective.
I guess I'll have to watch it again to get some perspective.
I liked the episode (I know I'm in a minority), but I would have just not done it and ended season 2 with Peek Performance. In terms of fixing Shades of Grey, I'm not sure you can.
Given how the premise of the show somewhat changed from "alone in deep space" to "not really exploring all that far out there", this episode may have been an opportunity to examine that change from an in-universe perspective. For instance, threats like the Borg convincing Starfleet that this wasn't the time to be sending ships too far away.
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