By Chris Snellgrove | Published
These days, Star Trek: The Next Generation is considered the gold standard of the franchise. When fans complain about NuTrek shows like Adoption or Starfleet Academythey tend to believe that this new series is nothing like the adventures of Captain Picard and crew. However, what many modern fans don’t realize is that, in its early days, TNG he was one even worse is shown in all franchises. That’s mostly because Season 1 was a train wreck, full of strong characters and strong storylines that ranged from the mysterious to the inexplicably racist.
Season 2 was a general improvement, even if the show was still rough around the edges. Unfortunately, it ended with “Shades of Grey,” an ending so bad that many fans consider it the worst episode of the entire franchise. Fortunately, that episode saved Star Trek: The Next Generation, or by mistake. That’s because the episode was so bad that it made everyone involved say the same thing that Bruce Wayne said after watching his parents get shot: “Never again!”
You’ll Want To Burn Your Eyes After Watching
“Shades of Gray” is a true war crime of an episode, so I’ll save you the trouble of watching it with a quick summary. Basically, Paramount forced everyone to make a very low-budget bottle episode, so the writers built a skeleton plot about Riker getting a fast-acting virus that would shut down his brain in hours. Dr. Pulaski built a device to help refresh his mind with memories of his various events from the past two years. In fact, the memory-retrieval plot was the excuse to create the first and only episode of the Star Trek show, with Riker watching the worst set of ridiculous video clips this side of TikTok.
Almost everyone involved in “Shades of Gray” hated it. This included then-player Maurice Hurley, (as recorded in Captain’s Logs: The Complete Voyage of the Unauthorized Voyage) later called the episode “A piece of sh*t.” He lamented that “It should have been a bottle show. It’s bad, it’s just bad, and it’s a way to save money.” However, the program would no longer be Hurley’s problem because, as he bluntly stated, “I was on my way out the door.”
Two beams, one cup
In interview no The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine“Shades of Gray” director Rob Bowman actually denied his job. He said this was a “basic episode to save money. All we shot was three draft days, and they just stuck to the scripts. To hear Bowman tell it, this was an episode in name only, where Paramount just threw in different clips and called it a day. This is part of why the legendary TNG writer called it a “disgrace” in one of his famous AOL interviews, considering it (along with “Up the Long Ladder”) the worst episode of the series.
However, one man feels the same way Star Trek: The Next Generation owes a debt of gratitude to “Shades of Gray.” That man was veteran producer Peter Lauritson, who talked about the story on the special features DVD of TNG Season 2. “It was just… we learned from that. I think, maybe the worst thing we’ve ever done,” he said. It was like ‘I’ll never do it again.’ ‘Shadows’… I don’t even want to remember it.”
The Worst of Both Worlds
In retrospect, Lauritson was right, and so was everyone involved Star Trek: The Next Generation he never even made an episode probably as it is bad. Over on IMDB, it is the lowest rated episode of all time, but the overall quality of the episodes gradually improved after this. Granted, the credit for this mostly goes to Michael Piller, who revamped the entire writing team when he became a showrunner in Season 3. But some credit should go to “Shades of Gray,” an episode so bad and universally hated that it taught the writers and producers what it really is. not to do with this epic sci-fi sequel.
While Season 2 was generally better than Season 1, Star Trek: The Next Generation it was still an unusually heavy sci-fi spinoff. “Shades of Gray” taught the writers and producers a great lesson about the greatest teacher of all: failure. If this crappy clip show hadn’t been the worst episode of Trek ever made, TNG might not have become the foundation of the 20th century television genre. In this way, it is fair to say that the worst episode of the most popular Star Trek program helped save the most influential series in the history of sci-fi!
