Why Star Trek: The Next Generation's Worst-Rated Episode On IMDb Is So Hated

On July 15, 1989, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 2 came to a close with "Shades of Gray," which has since become the show's worst-rated episode on IMDb and certainly one of the "TNG" stories to skip.

"Shades of Gray" was infamously a clip show that filled out its run time with footage from previous "TNG" episodes. As a justification for that divisive format, First Officer William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) was forced to relive memories in order to save his life from an alien virus.

In a 2010 interview with Film Score Magazine, director Rob Bowman admitted that clip shows — like "Shades of Gray" — are typically made to save money. Nevertheless, he has fond memories of shooting the script.

"Jonathan [Frakes] and I had a great time in the sickbay ... [with] him going through different facial expressions, dealing with the different kinds of memory recall that he was going through," said Bowman. "And you just make it the best you can. You try to give [producers] some different angles so you stay as fresh as you can."

"Shades of Gray" lingers on old footage of scenes — including Riker giving Wesley Crusher advice and Riker meeting Data for the first time — that don't really shed any new light on Riker's character. Many of the clips feel like they could've been chosen at random.

Some of the reviews are downright merciless.

"It's pretty much crap, consisting of repeat cut [and] pasted clips from season 2," noted IMDb user planktonrules. "Why the producers couldn't just wait to shoot something decent? Who knows?"

"[Riker's] flashback was a pain to watch," wrote lythis-love. "The story around it was so poor and cringeworthy. Had to skip large amounts of clips in this episode!"

"[There] is nothing of substance to be found throughout the entire thing," added mjnel-93698. "None of the actors bother to turn in a decent performance here, and I don't blame them. Hell, even Jonathan Frakes looks bored with whatever few original lines he has. ... Quite possibly the worst episode of a television show that has ever been made."

Yikes.