Star Trek has aired 930 episodes of television since it debuted in 1966. That's an astonishing legacy, especially when you factor in that people continue to tune in to every series every day. There's not a day that goes by that at least one episode of Star Trek isn't watched, especially some of the favorites like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor" or Star Trek: Picard's "The Last Generation." Out of all the 930 episodes, surprisingly, there aren't that many complete duds.
Sure, there are some that we may fast forward through because they still have good parts. And there are some that we skip altogether because we don't want to watch about ghost sex, but according to the viewers from IMDB, there is one that is ranked so low, it would be a surprise if anyone is rewatching it.
It's "Shades of Gray" from Star Trek; the Next Generation which comes in at a 3.3 on IMDB's ranking. Viewers from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are united with the episode earning it the lowest score.
"Shades of Gray" was a clip show with Commander Riker [Jonathan Frakes] spending much of the episode unconscious while we're treated to a view of his memories via clips from various episodes. Being that this was only a season two episode, it felt like the show had run out of money for the end of the season so this what they had to work with. Still, does it deserve only a 3.3 ranking?
We all have our favorites and our most disliked episodes of each of the series, and while "Shades of Gray" didn't give us anything new, it did give us clips from episodes we did like. So that should have earned it some good will. While it's certainly not one of my favorite episodes, it's not my least favorite, and it's one that I can watch again...if I had to. So it's hard for me to fathom that 929 episodes of Star Trek television ranked higher than this one, especially the one about ghost sex.