Stardate: 42976.1
Original Air Date: July 17, 1989
Writers: Maurice Hurley (story & teleplay), Richard Manning, & Hans Beimler (teleplay)
Director: Rob Bowman
“If you drop a hammer on your foot, it’s hardly useful to get mad at the hammer.”
Commander Riker has been injured with a gash in his calf from while conducting a geological survey of a swampy marsh planet called Surata IV and unfortunately, he has been infected with an unidentified microbe that prevents him from beaming back aboard the Enterprise until Dr. Pulaski checks him out. When he is finally brought aboard the ship, his leg goes limp and the microbes start infecting his sciatic nerve, reproducing at a remarkable rate. Picard sends Data and Geordi down to the surface of Surata IV in order to retain a sample of this strange organism so that he may be treated. At first, down on the surface all they find are fossilized remnants of living creatures, until Data spots the vine of a rhizomatus, a plant which apparently seeks out warm-blooded creatures to attack their nervous systems.
When Riker’s nervous system starts to face attacks, she quickly puts him to sleep where he starts dreaming, reliving various memories. At this point, the episode rapidly deteriorates into a clumsy clip show of random scenes from the past two seasons. Some of which are of Riker’s friends on the Enterprise, others are erotic moments with various women, as well as tragic moments in Season 1, such as when Tasha Yar was killed (“Skin of Evil”) or the equally tragic moment in Season 2 with the alien child of Counselor Troi at the start of Season 2 (“The Child”). Other scenes from Seasons 1 and 2 follow.
Dr. Pulaski and Counselor Troi realize that the infection is starting to recede, so they generate more memories for Riker of strong negative emotions. They key is to harness his endorphins, and then suddenly the infection is eradicated in a very anticlimactic conclusion.
My Thoughts on “Shades of Gray”
Thanks to budgetary issues and the 1988 writer’s strike, the Season 2 finale of TNG “Shades of Gray” is a ridiculous clip-show bottle episode filled with many of the worst scenes from seasons 1 and 2 –easily among the worst episodes of TNG simply because it is an irrelevant waste of time. This thinly contrived script (largely because of CBS/Paramount demands) is pretty silly –why would Picard send Geordi down to Surata IV along with Data when Riker was just infected with a dangerous microbe? Why not just send Data alone? There are more than a few fishy things in this episode that really aren’t worth analyzing too closely.
In an attempt to find something positive thing to say about, I appreciated the exposure of an a-typical, non-humanoid alien species. I typically tend to like the slower episodes of Trek, and I even found the initial premise at least mildly compelling (even if no one actually fears Riker’s life is in danger). This might be a controversial “hot take,” but I think there are at least a handful of TNG episodes that are worse than “Shades of Gray.” At least you can fast forward through the terrible clips.
Star Trek Trivia:
- The hostile vine plant on Surata IV spotted by Data is called “rhizomatus.” It seeks out warm-blooded creatures to kill them.
- Riker tells an amusing story in which his grandfather once got bitten by a snake and after three days of suffering, the snake finally died.
- Counselor Troi mentions her “Imzadi” with Riker again in this episode.
- This episode is Dr. Katherine Pulaski’s final TNG episode. In it we are reminded of her contempt for the transporter.
- This is also the final episode to regularly feature the original “Type A” TNG Starfleet uniforms which were introduced in Season 1.
- Budgetary issues (the show overspent on earlier episodes “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Q Who”) and the 1988 writer’s strike led to this episode being given a mere three-day shoot timeline.
- Many members of the cast and crew have referred to this episode as one of the worst in the series, including writer Maurice Hurley. This was Maurice Hurley’s final episode he wrote for TNG (his final episode serving as head writer), he later called it “piece of shit” and “terrible, just terrible.”
- The only guest star in this episode was technically Colm Meaney in his recurring role as Transporter Chief Miles O’Brien.
- Composer Ron Jones created the music for this episode, including a three-note motif to represent the virus that infects Riker, but several other scenes retain the original pieces from their respective episodes (some composed by Dennis McCarthy and others re-composed by Ron Jones).
- There are 21 different clips included in this episode.
- The end of Season 2 brought more turnover among the TNG crew –writer David Gerrold left between the first and second seasons, as did producers Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin, associate producer DC Fontana, writer Tracey Tormé, along with other co-producers, story editors, and other staff members.