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According to Chris Snellgrove
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Star Trek: The Next Generation is generally remembered as the pinnacle of television among sci-fi fans, in large part because its third season completely changed the show for the better. Before that, the first two seasons were extremely rough, with Season 2 ending in a groan-worthy clip show. The episode was called “Shades of Grey,” but it almost had a much funnier title, as a Star Trek production assistant suggested it be called “Riker’s Brain” due to the extremely lazy storyline with Commander Riker.
Riker’s brain
“Shades of Grey” is the only Star Trek episode and the loose plot involves Riker being infected with a virus that soon destroys his brain. In an effort to save the commander’s noggin, Dr. Pulaski hooks up a machine that will stimulate his neurons, and as a result, Riker has constant memories of the events of the previous two seasons. The idea behind the entire clip show was to help the show save money after the second season went over budget, and production assistant Eric A. Stillwell thought “Riker’s Brain” would be the perfect title for the episode before coming up with its final title.
If you know a lot about how TV shows are made, you might be wondering why “Shades of Gray” was named Star Trek a production assistant rather than a writer or producer. The short answer is that Stillwell had the unenviable job of finding all the different clips that the producers could use. He said he spent a whopping 80 hours in one week researching all of these clips, so it only makes sense that he would have a special influence on the title of the final episode.
A fitting tribute
While the “Shades of Grey” production assistant didn’t elaborate, it’s possible that his suggestion for “Riker’s Brain” was meant to be an homage to the infamous episode Star Trek: The Original Series. “Spock’s Brain” was the premiere episode of the original show’s third season and involves a crazy (even by 1960s Trek standards) plot where Spock’s entire brain is removed. “Spock’s Brain” is considered possibly the worst The original series episode and considering “Shades of Grey” is one of the worst LPG episode, it would be appropriate for it to have such a similar title.
While producers didn’t go with Stillwell’s original idea, “Shades of Grey” still owes its final name to a Star Trek production assistant. The title often seemed nonsensical to fans, but Stillwell liked it “because I figured it was a really bizarre episode that wasn’t black or white; it was just shades of gray.” And for going above and beyond in researching clips and naming the episode, the production assistant earned a “Researcher” award for the episode.
It’s wild for fans to know that “Shades of Grey” has just about the funniest title possible, but the episode itself is still one of the worst Star Trek stories ever to air. It was written by notorious former showrunner Maurice Hurley, and even he later stated that it was simply “a piece of s***”. Fortunately for all of us, the franchise learned from this mistake and we never had to suffer through another full episode of the clip show again.
