Waking Moments

The Yoyager crew experiences a series of nightmares which all seem to have one thing in common: An unknown alien observer is present in any of those dreams. When some crew members don't wake up anymore, Chakotay enters a state of lucid dreaming to find out what's going on. After that experience the boundaries between dream and awake seem to vanish.

The concept of this episode is quite intriguing: An alien race that enters the dream worlds of other species and fights them there without ever setting foot on their vessels or being in danger. Similar to the movie Inception, neither the viewer nor the characters always know if they are still dreaming or if they are back in reality. Chakotay uses a special image to guide him through his dream world. Just like the spinning top in Inception, Chakotay's talisman is an image of the earth's moon. When you just thought, everyone is awake again, a moon appears as a reflection in a window or a computer screen and tells you, that it is still just a dream.

The only problem I have with this episode is the motivation of the aliens. Obviously they act on self defense after they had negative experiences with strangers before. Yet, Chakotay made clear that they will tolerate their wish to leave their territory and even was about to fly away. There was no reason for this dream attack.

.... and I wonder how the universal translators work in their dreams?!! ;)

I do enjoy when the writers come up with a unique concept. Dreams versus reality is a classic, so why not implement it on board Voyager? As it turns out, an alien culture lives its life in slumber and what we would call awakening is their other state. Soon nearly the entire crew drops into a dream state and slips in and out, confusing us a bit. Chakotay uses his Native American methods to find solutions but isn't all that sure himself. What's hard to follow is why the aliens are so afraid of the Voyager crew. They could have just let them head out. I suppose they felt that becoming known would lead to other insurgencies. Anyway, it was pretty entertaining. I particularly liked the opening nightmare sequence.

It's pretty much "Voyager" doing "Abres Los Ojos" (Open Your Eyes). Like in that film we see that the Voyager crew is having their perceptions of reality be put to the test.

This episode I'll just say is a real rug puller. Just like with the crew were kinda in the same boat as even our perceptions of what were seeing are being challenged, where sometimes we think that one or all have returned to reality but then suddenly we discover their still in the dream world.

I really like how throughout the episode there is just an unsettling feeling, where you know in the back of your mind something isn't right. From certain things happening fast you don't even see it coming or seem surreal, or even how in a scene or two you suspect things are going a little too easily. There were two scenes I'll admit took me by surprise from seeing Seven O Nine immediately make out with Kim, I remember thinking yes but then also nah it's too good to be true and unfortunately I'm right.

But there is a really creepy scene where we see Janeway go into the mess area and we see the lights are off in that area, and then suddenly they come on and we see the tables are filled with corpses, reminded me of the scene from the horror film "Deranged". At that moment you know everything on the bridge isn't Kosher.

Before you wake up, make sure your awake.

Rating: 3 stars

Voyager crew members encounter aliens who visit their dreams.

This a reasonably good episode with a decent concept regarding this particular race and the narrative unfolds in crafty way not unlike 'Nightmare on Elm Street' (minus the horror).

I like the humour, especially the scenes involving Tuvok and Harry's awkwardness around Seven following the events of his dream.

That being said I do not think the writers used the concept to its full potential. The aliens do not appear to be hugely threatening, Chakotay's native culture aspect feels a bit tiresome, and for me the ending is an anticlimax.

Most actors are on great form, with Robert Beltran and Tim Russ standing out for me.

It's a 6.5/10 for me but I round upwards.