Synopsis: Riker nearly dies, either from a malevolent vine or from being in a clip show.
Memory Alpha Summary: Bye Bye Pulaski
Review: I don’t hate this episode quite as much as most people, though it ‘s far from good. I’m not sure a clip show can ever be good (there are plenty of cheap ways to do bottle episodes), though this one does its best for the first half hour. There’s actually several funny exchanges between Riker and his crew mates. And transporter Chief O’Brien freaks out Pulaski by telling her he “hopes” he’s got the right coordinates. But the last half is nearly all clips, supposedly all Riker memories even though none of the clips are from his point of view and a few don’t even take place in the same room as he. Utterly embarrassing.
What hurts this episode even more is that it’s the final episode of season two. I know the writer’s strike messed up their original intentions (especially since season two was the only one that didn’t have 26 episodes), but Peak Performance would have been a much nicer send-off. Not simply because of quality, but because it actually has continuity with season three by discussing the Borg threat.
Death By Troggles 
There’s actually one good clip show I can think of: The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular. Most of the clips are unused material or stuff that goes way back to the Tracey Ullman show, so it works as a history of the show and doesn’t recycle much of anything, and Troy McClure (Phil Hartman) narrates some hilarious original material.
Otherwise, yeah, they suck. The Cosby Show’s finale was a clip show, if I recall correctly. That’s horrible.
I would think an animated show could more easily get away with it as the they can be more creative with the raison d’etre.
déjà vu all over again
Clip shows are almost always terrible, but it’s even worse that this came at the end of only the second season, so almost all the clips just serve to remind us of many of the stupidly bad episodes (Rhu_Ru asked before why Justice hasn’t shown up yet; my personal such question would be about Angel One) that occurred in those two seasons.
Another good point. The clips were of Riker’s adventures, and he did not have many good moments in the first two seasons.
You did bring up a good point that none of these “memories” were in the perspective of Riker — a real sore spot for me. Or, shows where recordings are reviewed, and they show from multiple perspectives where no recording device would have existed.
I recently played a computer game that was supposed to be Blair Witch like, with the mystery revealed in video recordings you find. But half the shots were obviously not coming from a camcorder.
Didn’t the first ST movie have a scene where everyone reviewed a recording of the destruction of the Klingon ships, and the recording’s perspective was totally unbelievable? (or was it the exact same perspective of the “live action” earlier in the film?) In any case, a pet peeve.
I must shamefully admit I have not seen the first ST movie
I hate when the director forgets perspective. That’s just 101 stuff.