Shades of Gray (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

It was the only clip show filmed during the series, and was created as such to meet a budget shortfall at season's end due to prior episodes that had cost overruns.

In this episode, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) undergoes medical treatment by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) for an alien infection and must relive numerous past events.

It was the final episode written by Maurice Hurley, who originated the idea and wrote the first draft of the script, with Hans Beimler and Richard Manning conducting re-writes.

"Shades of Gray" is widely regarded as the worst episode of the series, with critics calling it "god-awful" and a "travesty";[1] even Hurley referred to it negatively.

During a geological survey on Surata IV, Commander William Riker is struck by a thorn growing on a motile vine plant.

The away team immediately beams back to the Enterprise, where Dr. Katherine Pulaski finds out that the thorn has released a deadly virus into Riker's body.

To try to save Riker's life, Pulaski puts him into a machine that will artificially stimulate his brain neurons, keeping them active and resisting the virus.

He soon moves on to more passionate and even erotic dreams, such as meeting the cheerful young Edo women on Rubicon III, the matriarch Beata on Angel One, and the computer-generated holodeck woman Minuet (Carolyn McCormick from "11001001").

Thus Riker dreams of fighting the tar creature Armus, the alien-controlled Admiral Gregory Quinn, and the Klingon officer Klag on board the warship Pagh.

[3] The reason was that the show had overspent on the episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Q Who", and Paramount Pictures was holding the series to their overall season budget.

[2][4] He turned in the idea of a cheap clip show to save money and wrote the first draft of the script, with Richard Manning and Hans Beimler conducting re-writes.

[1] Michelle Erica Green in her review for TrekNation called the storyline "absurdly flimsy" and that the episode "just felt lazy on every level".

[9] It was also the original choice of worst episode by Empire magazine, but it was decided that it didn't count because it was a clip show – so "Masks" was chosen instead.

[13] Ars Technica and ABC News Australia noted that "Shades of Grey" had by far the lowest IMDb rating of any episode in the franchise.