"Waking Moments"
Air Date: January 14, 1998
Star Date: ??
1/19/98 Update
(Note on 1/20/98: Yesterday, I neglected to delete a bit of profanity from a nitpicker's comment. I do apologize for this and the problem has been corrected.)
1/26/98 Update
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done as much as we're going to do on it. You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
Unexpectedly, the crew begins experiencing nightmares featuring the same pointy-headed alien. It only seems odd at first but when holodoc is unable to wake Harry--along with other members of the crew--Chakotay suggests that he use "lucid dreaming" as a way to attempt to communicate with the pointy-headed alien and determine its intent. The intent turns out to be hostile. The pointy-headed race has a technology that allow them to have a collective consciousness but only when they are in a dream state. This is apparently the ultimate triump of the nerds since it lets these guys lie around, waste away and still beat up any bullies who come to their planet and try to kick sand in their faces. (No doubt, it also allows them to enjoy Wobegone dreams where the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children ae above average.)
Anyway . . . Chakotay have a romp through what is reality land until Chakotay has holodoc target a photon torpedo on the location of the pointy-headed aliens underground lair afterwhich the aliens let them go.
Brash Reflections
Didn't get to see this episode the first time around because of a basketball game. Most of the nits and comments are already taken but I had a few thoughts.
First, considering the overall idea of a collective unconscious, do you think there's any chance that this was a subtle dig at the television culture of America? (Something to think about.)
On a nitpicker note, when holodoc is giving Chakotay the readout on all the crewmembers that are having the same dream all the patterns are identical. Wouldn't this mean that everyone is having the same dream from exactly the same perspective. I can't figure out how Torres's brainwave patterns would be the same as Harry's if she's working on a power conduit and he's looking at Seven!
Also, on a nitpickier note, watch when holodoc is reading off the names on the brainwave patterns on the monitor. He's w-a-a-a-a-y behind!
By the way, the episode that this episode most reminded me of was "Frame of Mind."
Until next time!
Reflections from the Guild
(Note from Phil: I haven't verified these reflections but they sounded good to me!)
Matthew Patterson: Did the scene with Chuckles staring at the viewscreen feel just a little like Sulu's scene from "And the children Shall lead?" You know, the missiles heading for the ship?
[Concerning the preview for "Message in a Bottle,"] why does the new EMH (or LMH) look like Andy Dick? The real Dr. Zimmerman said that the old EMH program would still be in use for many years to come (Dr. Bashir, I presume), and it probably took a while to find a new candidate for the LMH program. These two episodes also take place relatively close together (in the StarDate system, at least), and it would probably take a while for the program to be worked out. And since the other ship is on the Fed frontier, it would be logical to assume that they wouldn't get the new revisions of system software that quickly.and siunce this is yet another holodoc show, GET THE GUY A NAME!
Nate Greene, Louisville Ohio: Great to be back from the holodays! Anyway In this episode, I saw one major nit, when Chakote walks into the mess hall and saw the moon, watch after he stolls by....It vanishes!
Kate Kosturski of Woodbridge, NJ: Finally!!! A new Voyager to nitpick! I was getting really bored with all the repeats over Christmas...I needed something new to sink my teeth into.
Good episode, not necessarily one of the better. So without further ado, here we go.
I thought the aliens that the crew kept seeing in their dreams looked strangely like the Caatati from "Day Of Honor." Did anyone else pick up on this?
The initial "dreams" from the crew were mediocre at best...the only one that had me laughing was Tuvok's appearance on the bridge, um, "out of uniform." He just handled it so casually, so Tuvok-like, I had to laugh.
Two big KMYF moments!! Well, the first between our favorite on again, off again couple, Paris and Torres. Least they kissed this time. The even more blatant one was between Janeway and Chakotay right before he enters his "controlled dream." You could read her feelings like an open book right there.
I think the best scenes in this episode were not concerning the aliens, particularly when the senior staff was discussing their nightmares, especially Torres describing her vision of a Tuvok nightmare: being "exiled to some planet...where the only form of communication...is laughter!!"
Best line by the Holodoc: "Sorry about the mess, but this is what happens when my requests for a larger sickbay fall on deaf ears."
Next week: Hmm, Torres finally lets 7 know what she thinks of her...do I see a fight coming??
Let's keep it up with the new episodes. We need something to get our brains going.
Brian O'Marra: Eureka! A new episode! A break from reruns! Interesting concept, but to me, not very new. It seems to repeat themes found in the TNG episode "Night Terrors." There a species uses REM frequency to comunicate telepathically. Troi has a recurring nightmare.
Also, since much of the episode is when the Voyager crew is dreaming, it's hard to determine what are nits. The dreamworld often doesn't make too much sense.
A couple of nits...One is where Chakotay has been asleep for 39 or so hours, and wakes up in sickbay cleanshaven. I guess the doctor must have moonlighted as a barber. Yet in "Year of Hell," he was doing his Commander Riker imitation for much of the show.
I also like how the crew parades around the mess hall in their nightgarb at the end of the episode. Granted Kim and Paris had on athletic attire, but Chakotay and Tuvok? Remember the TNG episode "All Good Things..." Picard gets out of bed in the future and wanders into Ten Foward still in his pajamas. The looks he got!!
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: This episode was Nightmare on Elm Street. Complete with Freddy Kreuger look alikes.
Now Torres wears a jacket over her uniform. What possible reason would she have to do this? In next week's episode it looks like the crew finally get the updated uniforms.
Johnson Lai: Well, I guess young Ensign Kim has outgrown wearing that mask of his to sleep (remember "The Cloud")?
Whoa! They actually think the warp core ejection system not working is an *anomaly*?
Shane Tourtellotte: Just why was Kim so frightened to see the alien in his first dream? Alien species are dropping in on Voyager unannounced all the time. You'd think they'd be used to them.
Is the pocket in Torres's uniform shirt a new addition? I seem to recall it in one other episode. If not, they could at least have tried to explain it away.
Oh, and the tools in her pocket do a fair job of averting the eye, but it's still obvious they're shooting Roxann Dawson so as to hide her pregnancy. Do I take it they aren't going to make it a part of the series?
The turbolift must be enjoying Tuvok's telling of his dream to Janeway. It sure takes a loooong time to go down five decks.
The Doctor's prescription of no sleep seems hasty, not to say dangerous. Isn't a lack of sleep, specifically REM sleep, *really* bad? (E.g., TNG's "Night Terrors")
I note that characters consistently refer to the dream-alien as 'he'. Do they really know its sex? Or are they using the generic masculine pronoun? They could still have it in the 24th century, but Trek's several incarnations usually manage to adhere to contemporary customs, and generic 'he' is going out of style fast these days.
In Chakotay's first dream, he subdues the alien in the mess hall, then after listening to its nefarious plans, lets it go. Lets a dangerous alien go. Well, it *is* a dream ...
When Chakotay wakes up the first time, he neglects to take his dream/quest doodad with him, leaving it by the bed. Of course, it *still* is a dream ... (And on that subject, why didn't Chakotay's taps work the first time?)
The Doctor tells Kim he has been asleep for 17 hours, supposedly after Voyager just got through with a trip to a planet that was supposed to take a day. Of course, it *is* a dream ... (Note a pattern?)
When aliens beam onto the Bridge en masse, what does Janeway do? Well, one thing she doesn't do is order the computer to flood the ship with Anesthezine gas. Of course, ...
The Doctor pulls an amazing switch in one scene, going from scientific genius to cabbagehead in no time flat. He is showing Chakotay brainwave patterns from sleeping crewmembers, all identical. He then declares he has no idea what this might mean, playing cabbagehead so Chakotay can be the one to declare dramatically that they're all in the same dream. Gee, I figured this out right away, and I'm not even a hologram! :-)
The crew is kept prisoner in 7o9's cargo bay, and nearly half a year after being severed from the collective, she still has *multiple* regeneration booths running. Of course -- all together now -- it *is* a dream ... though nobody else seems surprised ...
These aliens are sleepy in more ways than one. Twice, a measly little diversion lets multiple captives slip away. I'd say "Of course, it is a dream," but this is where the aliens are supposed to have the upper hand.
After the dream warp core breach, Torres comments that the explosion should have been much larger than that(which is the point, of course -- it *is* a dream.) One must wonder, though, why she put up a containment field if the explosion was supposed to be so massive(big enough to obliterate the ship, if other Trek episodes and movies are any indication). Of course, [insert excuse that keeps on giving here] ...
And why would Torres think it unusual that they couldn't eject the warp core? Doesn't she watch Star Trek? :-) Warp cores are famous for not ejecting when you need them to. That's why "Day of Honor" was such a shock. The core did what it was designed to do!
After the core breach, Janeway is somehow under the impression that that experience should have woken them up, or allowed them to do it themselves. Why? And exactly why is Janeway tapping her hand to try to wake up? That's Chakotay's trick, not hers. Of course (groan) ...
Okay, we get to see a cave filled with sleeping aliens. Ooh. Aah. Now someone explain how they get nourishment in this state. They seem to think Voyager's crew will waste away and die while asleep, so why wouldn't they? And if they are getting nourished, how do they -- er -- get rid of certain waste products? I didn't see Chakotay wrinkling his nose in that cavern. (Sorry.)
The Doctor tells Chakotay not to inject the alien with inimizine(sp?), because there isn't enough left to keep Chakotay awake afterward. I ask, why not? Why couldn't he give Chakotay a few spare ampules, for emergencies?
Does the Hippocratic Oath apply only to medical procedures? Chakotay seems to think The Doctor will fire a torpedo, killing thousands of aliens, on his command. Will The Doctor, who refused to sever Tuvix, mind you, commit this act? (I honestly don't know whether the Oath extends beyond specific medical expertise. It's possible it doesn't, but Doc seemed pretty firm on the subject once before.)
To refute Tom and Harry, specialists say heavy exercise will *not* help you fall asleep. Not necessarily a nit: people can get wrong ideas.
Finally, a rumination, possibly suitable for the column:
We get to see one of Tuvok's dreams in "Waking Moments", and it raises fascinating questions. Does a Vulcan's emotional control extend to dreams? Tuvok's seems to, but really, would this conscious suppression be so overpowering as to work into the unconscious? Could a Vulcan experience our range of emotions in a dream? And what psychological effect might this have? Humans think of sleep as blissful. Might Vulcans look upon it as a distasteful biological function, the way we regard bathroom activities?
What interests me specifically is Spock. Several times in Classic Trek, we hear how he can, or does, go without sleep for very extended periods. Is this common to all Vulcans, performing the minimum of this disturbing activity? Or could it be particular to Spock himself, who not only suppresses emotions, but denies he has any? Could he be deliberately avoiding even the most minuscule, private opportunity for his control to slip?
David D. Porter: Dream epsidoes are *so* tough to pick!
Hey, I like the tool pockets in B'Elanna's uniform. Have we seen them before (or am I just finally noticing them)?
When B'Elanna tells the computer to increase the height of the alien's ridges, why does his entire skull lengthen?
With the entire crew on stimulants to avoid sleep, there's going to be a monster crash when everyone finally comes off them.
H-doc and Chakotay really should have checked Chakotay's brain wave pattern (from when he was asleep) to see if it was identical to everyone else's--just for the sake of throughness. At least it should have been mentioned.
I don't see why the failure of the warp core ejection system should have triggered Cap'n J's suspicions--it's happened often enough in various episodes.
Chakotay, you don't even know if the stimulant will have *any* effect on the aliens. Worse, it might be a poison.
David T. Shaw, from Hamilton, Ontario: And I procrastinated too much in the last week. Just saw waking moments- it is difficult to nit since most of it is in dreams, but I'll give it a shot.
Did anyone else find it interesting that when everybody else was having nightmares, Harry managed to have erotic dreams? (Erotic until good ol' Seven turned into an ugly alien) And why have everyone experience nightmares anyway? Wouldn't pleasurable dreams be less likely to cause waking? (The entire "Let's dream of taking over the ship to distract them until they all die" just seemed strange- why not let them dream that they are continuing there mission until they do die? Or can't the aliens control the dreams?)
The Doctor was getting all panicky about Chakotay falling asleep on the planet- did I miss something? Why can't he just beam him back up? (I know- because he's a doctor- not a transporter chief 8-)
When Janeway and Tuvoc went to Harry's quarters, she pushed a bunch of keys and then used it as an intercom- gee, if I had been designing the ship I would have only one button for the intercom (especially since you only have to touch the communicator and it automatically knows who you want to talk to anyway.) Janeway couldn't have been doing an override (which is what I first suspected) because Tuvoc did one manually. So why all the keys? What is that stuff that B'Elanna is carrying on the top of her uniform- tools of some sort? I suppose it makes sense, but why haven't we seen this before?
When Chakotay dozed off on the bridge, why didn't he materialize back into the main dream like he did when he fell asleep on the planet? And did Janeway and the rest dream that they woke up, or were they just dream-characters like in the first dreams?
Not nits, just observations: Borg certainly seem to be impulsive- Seven comes up with a plan and carries it out before telling anybody what it is. Must be the reflexes from the old collective conscious- she just assumed that everyone would know what to do.
And since some like to point out what previous episodes the current one is a derivative of, I point to "Ship in a Bottle" from TNG, and the episode of Voyager was attacked by a telepath that granted every one their fondest fantasy.
1/19/98 Update
Matt Nelson : First of all, I'd just like to say that I thought this was a pretty
good episode! Coulda done without Chakotay's pseudo-mystical babble
when all he was trying to do was sleep (I just take a Tylenol PM),
but pretty good!
This episode was chock fulla great lines. Unfortunately, most of
them didn't really happen.
So, lemme get this straight. B'elanna goes to Tom's quarters for
brekky. Tom has just just woken up from nasty dream. B'elanna is
torqued, because she just got off work and wanted to see him. Fast
forward ten minutes. Crew is playing with morphing program.
B'elanna contributes and even talks about her dreams. So... sleeping
at our post, are we?!? No wonder everything goes wrong with this
ship!
Nice touch: Tom's eyes are moving back and forth rapidly when he is
in REM sleep.
Seven Saves The Day: Again, Seven is the only one to come up with an
idea to distract the guards in the dream state. She's starting to
make the whole CREW look like cabbage-heads. Got a problem? SSTD!
Speaking of Tom, (weren't we?) look as he steps into the mess hall
in his jammies. He looks (no offense intended) a little... paunchy.
Trying to be just like his hero Captain Kirk?
Kevin Rudolph, Medical Lake WA: What is that peeking out of
B'elanna's uniform top? Does she have a pocket there? Nobody else
gets the pockets.
Early on in the episode, watch the sleeping crewmembers on the beds
in Sickbay. One of them is blinking.
How did they all wake up in the first place? The only one I can see
who had external stimuli was Tom. (And what a stimulus it is! Wink
wink.)
Ross A. Fillmore, Columbus, OH: I liked this episode even though it screamed "Bobby Ewing." This was a combination of TNG: "Night Terrors" and "Frame of Mind." Been there, done
that, but interesting in it's own right.
I thought it was quite amusing that Tuvok was the one to have the "naked in
public" dream. What worse nightmare could there be for a Vulcan but
humiliation.
Granted, this took place in a dream (at the time the audience didn't know
this), but when the aliens took the ship and marched everyone down into a
central location, I found it odd that they allowed the senior staff to
congregate and make plans to the point of even creating a diversion.
Poor Harry. First he's accosted by Seven (the woman of his
dreams) then he's "manhandled" by her. Have you ever had a dream that was
so wonderful that you never wanted to wake up? Again I say, Poor Harry.
I often wonder where the Creators come up with their ideas for stories. I
am willing to bet that this episode was born out of the concept of
"collective unconsciousness." I'll bet that at some point the writers
where just hanging out shooting the breeze when the discussion turned to
the possibilities of a collective consciousness. Then someone suggested,
"What about the concept of collective unconsciousness," and everybody went,
"Oooooooooo!" The rest was a matter of coming up with a storyline.
Chakotay ordered the Doctor to incinerate a life form. I can see where the
Doctor would have a problem with this considering he has sworn to uphold
the sanctity of life.
So did Tom keep his date with B'Elanna? At the end he was playing games
with Harry on the holodeck. I was waiting for B'Elanna to come in with
another, "And where were you?"
Next week: B5 starts its new season with all new episodes... OPPOSITE
VOYAGER!!! I AM NOT AMUSED!!!
Linda Orcutt: First of all, let me say that I had a hard time keeping my own waking
moments during the first half of this episode! It was slow and the
dialog was stilted. Also, does it seem to you that there are more and
more commercials every week?!? There must only be about 30 minutes of
actual show. They even cut off the previews prematurely for a
commercial!
I thought that Chakotay looked remarkably clean-shaven for being asleep
for 39 hours.
I also think that the doctor could have given Chakotay more than one
dose of that "keep awake" drug when he went down to the planet.
And, as always, the doctor has the best lines.
Brian Alan Smith: I couldn't help but notice that Nate Greene began his review, "Great
to be back from the holodays!". Rather than slam him for his misspelling,
I would hereby like to nominate "Holodays" as a really, really clever
episode title, or nitpicker expression. :)
Jeffrey M. Hall: Switched over at 9, to see if my taping of Voyager worked at 7. Saw Chico
and Doc. Suppressed the urge the mouth had, to speak what the abundance
of my heart really was.
But I watched the last few scenes. Set the VCR to tape it Saturday. Saw
in the paper this morning, "9PM, Voyager" - but didn't act on it. Out of
the abundance of the heart the body acted.
Biggest nit, and they might have cleared this up. AND if I checked the
site first maybe I wouldn't be wasting your time with this nit, but . . .
1) When I saw Captain Kate discussing how this didn't look right -
2) When Chico said it was all a dream -
3) When Tuvok walked into the mess hall -
I wanted to yell Tuvok you're a VULCAN!! Start acting like it:
1) Realize this isn't logical.
2) Wake yourself up.
3) Put yourself to sleep.
4) (all of the above) Stop letting your emotions control you.
Continually in the back of my mind was "Spectre of the Gun" - the shootout
scene - this wasn't real either. At least, they did get shot by the
aliens - with the same results - after Captain Kate walked out of the warp
core breach. But that should have been Tuvok stopping both Kate and B'lana
from leaving engineering and saying this isn't real.
John Burke of Hyannis, MA: It wasn't just the Voyager crew dreaming in this episode; us nitpickers were having our worst nightmare, too: An episode that's mostly fantasy, and therefore can't be effectively nitpicked! Argh!
Here's the best I could come up with:
First of all, I may have missed a few words of dialogue, but did they ever explain how
these aliens managed to eat, drink, reproduce, etc. if they live their whole lives in a
dream state? It doesn't seem possible.
After realizing that they all dreampt of the same alien, the crew uses a computer program
with a 2D style portrait to recreate the alien's appearance (like a police artist does).
Wouldn't the hol
deck be more efficient for this? Then they could get a lifesize, 3D image of him.
Chakotay seems awfully willing to torpedo a cavern full of hundreds of aliens...Is
genocide against the prime directive?
Talking to Paris in the beginning, Neelix attempts to explain away the strange dreams by
saying, "Must be those three full moons we passed yesterday." Isn't associating
strangeness with full moon
a human superstition? (Granted, the Talaxians could have a similar belief...)
Janeway turns the tide by utilizing the old sitcom standby that if you know you're
dreaming, you can control the dream, and therefore the aliens can't hurt them. Except
that the aliens are dreaming also, and they must have far more experience at controlling dreams and such...couldn't they telepathically overpower the good crew?
Why does Tuvok have insomnia at the end? Feeling nervous about falling asleep because of
their experiences seems like an awfully emotional response.
This last took place during the dreams, so it may not be valid, but... Torres, Neelix, and
Kim take great delight in teasing Tuvok about what Vulcans would dream of. They engage in
open laughter at his expense. Isn't that a bit unenlightened for the 24th century? Wouldn't that be like
people today having a good laugh because (Insert minority group here)'s are no fun?
Joshua Truax: As I type this it's been almost 24 hours since I saw the new Voyager,
and I still can't decide whether I like it or not. On the one hand, it
offers a new twist on the premise of "Night Terrors" [TNG], this time
with the use of dreams as a weapon. On the other hand, it's yet another
bad-guys-take-over-the-ship episode, the likes of which we've seen ad
nauseam over the last season and a half. ("Basics", "Displaced", "Worst
Case Scenario", "Day of Honor" and the upcoming two-parter "The Killing
Game" come to mind.) All these ship-jacking storylines are really
getting tiresome...
Anyway, am I the only one who's noticed that this is Voyager's 80th
episode? Or am I just the only one who recognizes the significance of
that number? (Hint: There were a total of 79 episodes of the original
series...)
Since so much of this episode took place in dreamland, it's very hard to
nitpick. I do have a couple of items, though...
Even though last week's episode was a rerun, I made a point of watching
the preview for Wednesday's show. Based on what I'd read on another
Website earlier, I was half-expecting to witness an all-time classic
case of PAL (Previews Always Lie, for the uninitiated). As it turns
out, I did indeed witness a PAL -- but not the one I expected.
In December the "MajCullah" Voyager page (I can't remember the URL, but
it should be easy enough to find on any search engine) claimed that one
of the dream sequences in this episode originally included (brace for
impact!) a Janeway-Chakotay kiss, which, for whatever reason, ended up
on the cutting-room floor. If true, this revelation could be
interpreted in any number of ways -- but before I again start ranting
about what a lame idea their almost-but-not-quite-romance was, let me
get back to my point. I am aware that many fans disagree with me about
Janeway and Chakotay, so I figured that The Kiss, if it indeed existed
on film, would be a prime candidate for the preview -- all the better to
spark interest in the episode. (After all, it wouldn't have been the
first time the creators have stooped to using outtakes in a preview.)
Alas, it never materialized. In fact, I didn't see any sequences in the
episode itself where The Kiss would have fit in. (Which is probably why
it got cut in the first place!)
Still, the preview did manage to mislead viewers in a different way.
Most of it focused on the initial dreams of the crew (Tuvok naked, Seven
seducing Harry, etc.), which were all over and done with before the main
title sequence! Most of the episode actually dealt with the aliens,
whom I believe were never shown in the preview at all!
Just one new nit from the episode itself: I recall reading somewhere
that it typically takes one or two hours after a person falls asleep to
actually enter REM sleep, yet in this episode people seem to immediately
go from wakefulness to dreaming -- without even realizing they had
fallen asleep, let alone experiencing any "transitional" (i.e. non-REM)
sleep in between their waking and dreaming states. What gives? (Of
course, if they did experience transitional sleep, Chakotay would be
dead now, because Doc Hologram was supposed to torpedo the aliens' lair
in five minutes if he didn't hear from Chuckles at the end of the
show...)
Next week: "Message in a Bottle". No, not the Police song; the episode
that marks the next major event of the Voyager series. (I won't give it
away, but here's a hint: Supposedly, after this episode the Voyager crew
will finally get the "new" Starfleet duds we've seen in ST:FC and on DS9
for the past year or so...)
Brian Lombard: Since these aliens were never identified, I suggest we refer to
them as the "Kruegers". (Note from Phil: Pointy-Headed Kruegers!)
Why would helm-boy be dreaming about destroying another shuttle?
Guilt-trip perhaps?
Ed Watson of Downingtown, PA: Well, despite what the various web sites said about this being a "sleeper" episode (I don't know if they intended that pun) I liked it.
It did have some similarities to TNG's "Night Terrors", but that show
was so bad, it didn't take much to make this one better.
NANJAT - I don't ever recall anyone in ST ever "knocking" on a door. (Note from Phil: Actually, now that I think about it, didn't Crusher knock on Picard's door in "Night Terrors"?)
In the beginning of Chakotay's lucid dream, he was chasing a deer with a
spear. In one shot, he changed his hand position on the spear to hold
it in a throwing position over his shoulder, then the next shot showed
him holding the spear by his side again, then in a matter of a second,
it was back over his shoulder.
On the bridge during the attack, why did Chakotay announce that he had
lost power to the torpedo launchers? Doesn't Tuvok control the weapons?
As the warp core was about to explode, Torres was successful in raising
a containment field "around engineering". Then she and Tuvok exited the
doors to the room. If the containment field was around the whole room,
not just the core, how did they get out? By the way, the quick shot of
the two of them going out the door was the only time you could really
see that she was pregnant. The rest of the shots of her in the show
were pretty good at hiding it (like we all don't know she's pregnant).
Finally, in the last scene, why was Neelix in the mess hall with the
lights off? He said he was reorganizing something (I forget what). How
was he doing it in the dark?
Richie Vest of Fountain Valley, CA: The Latest Vovager was a good episode. Mr. Tuvok's nightmare was the best.
Zeb Highben: First of all, let me just say, Patrick Duffy shower scenes aside, this was a
fun episode. Now the nits. When HoloDoc shows Chakotay the med screen with
the brain wave comparisons, the names on the screen are not those of the
senior staff, whose brain waves he claims he is showing. (One name was
Wildman, I don't remember the others.)
Next. This could just be me, but why is Chakotay still asleep after the
first time he sees the moon and taps his hand? This was unclear... (Note from Phil: I believe that he was!)
Finally, not a nit, but an observation. Janeway never blows up the ship.
This is the second time (I think) that the Voyager has been taken over and
she hasn't activated the self-destruct mechanism, and she never seems to do
it any other time. I understand she doesn't want to ever completely give up,
since Voyager is their only ticket home, but self-destuct is never exactly a
first choice! She makes Picard, Kirk, et al. look positively hasty, not to
mention a trifle silly. :)
From Someone Identified Only As u1253217: Is it just me, or did Tuvok seem a bit emotional? He seemed too embarrased to discuss his nightmare about appearing on the bridge
without any clothing and seemed to be angry at Captain Janeway when she
tested out her theory by walking into the containment breach.
Mike Felmar of New York: You'd think an alien race that spends so much time asleep, yet manages to eat, clothe themselves, and build psychic transmitters, would have
spared a few moments to invent mattresses.
Once Janeway et al realize it's a dream, why do they continue to act as
though they're on the ship, rather than, say, mentally bend a bulkhead
around the nearest alien . . .
And Janeway stood in the middle of an antimatter explosion just to see
if she was dreaming or not. According to the logic of Spectre of the
Gun, her real body should have has a heart attack or something. In fact,
I seem to recall Spock saying that the slightest doubt will kill one.
That's why he does his Vulcan mind-meld on Kirk, Scotty and Bones.
Nice reference at the begining, when 7 asks Harry to join her in the
Jefffries Tube for, it turns out - that was the site
of Tom and Torres' infamous misbehaviour.
Rob Orton: Big nit that you have to really look for to see. When the Doctor is
showing Chakotay the identical brain/sleep waves there is some small
writing in the upper right corner of the computer screen. The nit goes
like this.
Doctor: ...And with Captain Janeway (Computer screen reads PATIENT:
BLAIN)...Tuvok(Computer screen reads PATIENT: WHOLBURG).
Thats all that I picked up, the doctor had said a few other names before
those two, I'll have to watch the encore. It is posssible that the
writing system in the 24th is more advanced that it is now.
Joe Buss: Waking moments is another case of "Wouldn't it be cool if.." without really
thinking through the logic of the scenario.
First, how do these aliens eat, excrete, reproduce (you know, the Bev
Crusher definintion of life), if they are asleep all the time?
Second, have we another race of aliens who attack Voyager for no good
reason.In wandering around in their dreams, the aliens should have figured out
"Hey, these guys are just trying to get home. They won't bother us." Instead,
they proceed on a course of action that antagonzes Voyager's crew.
On that note, Chakotay is willing to exteriminate an entire race to save
Voyager. (I think that photon torpedo would have broken up the slumber party
real quick.) Okay, maybe he was stressed due to sleep deprivation, but then
the Doctor is going to carry this order out. What happened to his Hippocratic
Oath?
And of course, we are expected to believe that one person can pilot the
Voyager. I guess Janeway was only kidding when she said the Voyager needed a
minimum crew of 100 extras.
Another missed oppurtunity! They could have used the oppurtunity to define
the characters a bit more through their dreams. Save for Janeway's "Cafeteria
of the Damned" nightmare, the dream sequences were pretty lame.
On the doctors' "Bigger sickbay" request. How about having a Sickbay program
for the Holodecks. Then the Doctor could be in several places at once.
Murray Leeder: Welcome to "A Nightmare on Voyager Street."
One two, the aliens are coming for you...
Actually, not so bad an episode as it first seemed. The "am I sleeping
or am I not" bits got exceptionally tiresome, and the payoff was
extremely weak. (I was waiting for Freddy's claw to rip through the mess
hall window...)
Okay, here are the nits.
Tuvok dreams about walking around the ship nude? Isn't it great how
alien races have exactly the same psychology as humans?
Torres tells the computer to increase the "texture" of the alien. That's fine, but how did it know to give him exactly the right texture?
If I were Captain "Nancy Thompson" Janeway I'd have not tried turning
on the warp core right away. What a way to betray what you're doing!
And how come the warp core breech seemed to attract no attention
whatsoever?
So why isn't Voyager in a fixed orbit over the sleeping cave?
Didn't seem like a very open comm line to me! Chakotay had to inform
the doctor that he tried phasering the transmitter.
Okay, okay, okay. The ending is very contrived. Chakotay decides to use
the hypo on one of the sleepers instead of on himself. The doctor is
outraged. Um, doc... why not just beam him down another hypo of the
stuff?
And furthermore, he says that if Chakotay goes out, no one could rescue
him. It's almost like for that moment they conveniently forgot that
there's a mobile emitter!
What are the odds that, of all those Rip Van Winkle aliens, Chakotay
would just happen to wake up one that was standing in the cargo bay?
Then Chakotay says that it'll be less than 3 minutes until destruction.
Did it really take him 2 minutes to waken and threaten the alien?
I'm surprised that at the end Chakotay just didn't turn his back on the
aliens and say "I'm taking away all of the energy I've given you"...
(sorry, sorry, sorry. Last Elm Street reference, I promise)
Lucid dreaming isn't as difficult as is indicated here. There are a
number of fairly simple ways which are said to assist lucid dreaming
without Chakotay's methods (I've never managed to use any of them
myself, mind you). You can, during the day, simply ask yourself once in
a while "Am I dreaming?" Eventually you'll begin to do that in your
sleep as well, and be able to take control of your dream. Another
involves scenting your pillow, as that's supposed to keep your mind
unusually active during sleep. I've read of some people who have enough
mental discipline to do complicated mathematics in their sleep.
In my experiences, ending a lucid dream is very easy. Just decide to
wake up, and you do! If I was Chakotay, I probably just would have
produced a large gun and shot the alien! (like I did recently when I
dreamt that I was in the movie "Alien"!)
Elio Arteaga of Hialeah, Florida: I liked "Waking Moments" for a change. I read some of the other
nitpickers' comments likening it to old TNG episodes, but I think it is
a refreshing change from some of the most recent bad Voyager episodes.
First of all, Harry has an erotic dream...and he acts timid!!??? WHIRL.
Lastly, if Chakotay was in so much danger of falling asleep while
beaming down to the planet, why didn't the Doctor just go? He wouldn't
have been able to do anything anyway since there was a force field
around the gadget. He could have woken up an alien and threatened him
into releasing Voyager I guess.
Why did the aliens trick Voyager into approaching their planet? Did the
episode say that they gained technology, or food, or profit, or anything
from passing interstellar voyag..., travellers?
John Latchem: Not much to say about this one. Pretty standard for Voyager. Here's the
WIVRON Tally for "Waking Moments."
"Nightmare on Elm Street." A creature that exists in dreams attacks those who
are asleep.
"Night Terrors." Crew has bad dreams, one crew member attempts to make
contact with the aliens causing them.
"Violations." Alien mental attacks cause crew members to stay asleep (or in
coma)
"Schisms." Crew gets together to describe their experience and figure out
what is going on. They ask the computer to keep making minor adjustments to
the image. The scene of the crew trying to identify an individual is similar
to a scene in "For Your Eyes Only."
I know there's more but I leave that to you.
As for a nit how about this. Chakotay tries to use a phaser on the mental
field enhancer. The phaser doesn't work. Chakotay doesn't know how to
deactivate it. How about picking up a large rock and BASHING it???
Tony H Forbes: This was a good episode. It was another "Which Way to Reality" theme
(acronym-WWR), but not the strongest of Trek's run.
That whole engineering scene is full of holes. In the episode earlier in the season
where they did successfully eject the core, the all had to scurry out of
engineering, which was good because to eject the core, you expose the
ship to the vaccum of space! In this episode, no one moves. Also, the
fury of the warp core breech takes a hit. You can contain it with a
wimpy containment field? Those things also don't have a good track
record. Also, B'lanna says she's putting a containment field "around
engeneering". Wouldn't this be something that they would have to cross
to get out of engineering? In the TNG episode "Timescape", Data put a
field around the warp core itself. Hmmm...
Steve Oostrom, Oshawa, Ontario: I just saw the Voyager episode "Waking Moments"; great episode, but only
one nit that I caught on the first viewing, or so it seems to me. After
the dreamy warp core breech that Janeway entered and survived, she
mentioned something about the core "not being rejected" instead of "not
being ejected."
Brian Webber: Nate Green's nit about the moon wasn't a nit. The moon was just
Chakotay's visual cue. Why shouldn't it disappear once he realized it
was a dream?
Great Lines: "I suggest you fight back."
Scott McClennet: The tv was a bit statically because of the weather on Wednesday so I didn't get all of the
dialouge during Waking Moments.Still enjoyed it.:) Tuvok's coming to the bridge in the buff
reminded me of the episode of Babylon 5 when Ivanova does the same when she enters C and C.
Everyone stares at her and she realizes that something is wrong and wakes up screaming. Also
the entire episode reminded me of the Star Trek comic annual #5(back when DC had the rights
to classic Trek).That story had the Enterprise crew having waking dreams that took them back
to the beginning of the Enterprise's five year mission.Ended up the dreams were a message
from Rand whl was being held by these aliens who needed dreams to keep them alive.
A couple of questions that you can answer after you've seen the episode: 1)If they were all alseep
how did Chuckles get woke up?And if Holodoc had to wake anyone up why wasn't it Janeway after all she is the Captain? (Note from Phil: Not sure exactly what portion of the episode we're talking about here but if it's where Chakotay was awake and no one else, he woke himself up.
2)Not sure about this because of the static but didn't 7 mention something about how the
Borg dream in the scene inthe cargo bay? (Note from Phil: Couldn't say for sure without rewatching the episode but I don't recall that.)
Scott Newton of New Brunswick, NJ: An unremarkable episode -- basically _Nightmare on Elm Street_ meets "Frame of Mind" meets "Night Terrors." These "it's only happening in
your mind" episodes are tough to nitpick, but I'll try.
Funny thing about the moon Chakotay sees. You can't see Tycho City
(sp?), New Berlin, or Lake Armstrong, as described by Riker in _First
Contact_.
Granted, it IS a dream, but since the image comes from Chakotay's mind,
shouldn't it be the image he's most familiar with? (If I imagine New
York City, for example, I imagine it as it appears now, not as it
appeared 100 years before I was born!)
SBT: Apparently, caffeine affects Talaxians the same way it affects
humans!
Stephen Mendenhall: This dream episode was all right, but we didn't really get a handle
on the aliens' motivations. It could have been a lot better.
Chakotay wonders how they evolved but the writers obviously have no
idea.
Tuvok was amusing. Too bad. We don't get a sense of a hundred other
people on the ship having bad dreams. Obviously they'd rather spend
money on special effects instead of extras.
They're looking for a star less
than a parsec away. The writers seem to think there will be lots and
lots of stars less than a parsec away! This would only be if they're
inside a globular cluster. But if they were, they would have remarked
on the intense radiation in there, and they wouldn't be inclined to
go in in the first place! In most of the galaxy, stars are at least
a parsec apart, so there would have been only *one* star that close!
This episode was better than "Phage", more interesting than "Nemesis".
Elie Greenwald: Do borg dream of assimilated sheep?
While this is a fun episode and I like it, there still are tons of nits. If
they do nothing BUT dream communally...how did they build the transmitter?
Unless they could dream it into existance, it seems unlikely they could
manufacture something such as that, if they do nothing but sleep and live in a
cave! Same question about WHY they were clothed. Um...WHY?
Is it just me, or does Torres carry a small 20th century wrench and what looks
like an erasable pen in her uniform pocket? (complete with the tiny eraser on
the metal thing?) Um..I just have a 14" TV and the RF switch for my nintendo
makes it semi-fuzzy (along with the VCR that's probably older than me), so I
can't totally tell.
I have to admit I
recalled the nit after someone (again, too lazy to recall the name) mentioned
the entire skull of the alien got larger when Torres told the computer to
enhance the spikes. She told the computer to make the eyes farter apart by 3
cm. 3cm is... well more or less about an inch (I'm bad with metric), and
easily discernable from the TV, if it shows on a tiny display. The computer
did the wierd beeping clicking noise, but the eyes didn't move! (did they
move for anyone else?) (Note from Phil: They moved for me!)
David T. Shaw, from Hamilton Ontario: B'Lanna gets off shift at 0700 hrs (the "night shift" as she put it). Tom reports to the bridge at 0800 hours (presumably for the day shift). What
happens in that hour when neither shift is working? Is the ship just
drifting in space for an hour when everyone has breakfast together? Or does
engineering have a different shift schedule than the bridge (not impossible,
but I don't remember any previous indications of this.)
That's it- I only watched the first five minutes unti that I decided
that the premise was too silly to watch a second time.
Harvey Kitzman: I liked the new phaser rifles. What Starbase did they get
them from?
George Padovan of Bridgewater, NJ: Gee, a repeat of the Voyager episode where an alien had all the crew in a telepathic transe state and only Kes and The Doc saved them. Despite
the similaries, "Waking Moments" was pretty catchy, especially when I
thought the time, the crew were awake fighting the aliens on Voyager,
was really all a dream! Touche!
As for nits, I found a few:
I understand I saw this nit in the dream state, but if Janeway was able
to wake herself by tapping her hand three times, The Doc wouldn't able
to wake Paris by tapping him on the shoulder three times. Paris himself
would awake on his own.
Also, I understand that Chakotay prepared his mind with a mental command
that when he taps his hand, he would awake. Janeway and the others
didn't prepared their minds, so there's no way for them to awake
themselves. That's why Janeway couldn't wake-up when she tapped her
hand. The tapping hand procedure could only worked for Chakotay, since
he prepared himself.
Matthew McLauchlin: When Seven of Nine is beating up on Kim in the cargo bay, he yells,
"What the hell are you doing?" She responds, "Creating a diversion."
Does it strike anyone else that you should not reveal your plans to the
aliens by saying them *in a normal tone of voice*?
Neelix says they passed 3 full moons in the last (something).
Unfortunately, full moons are relative and can only be seen from a
planet, because they are due to the angle between the moon, the planet
and the sun.
Also, I question whether people having the same dream, *but from
different points of view*, would have the exact same brainwave pattern.
After all, in Tuvok's dream he would control his own body but not
Janeway's, and vice versa.
The "let's just walk, it's only a life-threatening emergency" syndrome
strikes again. Janeway, Tuvok, and B'Elanna are screaming at each other.
Tuvok and B'Elanna finally run out, and Janeway *moseys* into Main
Engineering!
I couldn't really tell, but there appears to be an extra strip of cloth
hanging from B'Elanna's uniform as she runs out of Main Engineering.
All of the dreams seem very, very realistic, in terms of their setting
and other background details. I don't know about anyone else, but *my*
dreams are far more surreal than that. The only dream-sequences on Trek
that come even close to being like dreams in real life were the ones in
"Birthright I" (TNG) and "Phantasms" (TNG). Does that mean that in the
24th century, androids are the only ones who can really dream? Shades of
Isaac Asimov... I also note that they didn't use any of their standard
devices to depict dreaming, such as wide-angle shots or an increase in
brightness (a la "Mortal Coil").
The doctor says that Harry and the others are in a coma. He then goes
on to describe them as simply asleep. The terms are not synonymous.
Earth's Moon: The Moon (M is capitalized, because there are many moons,
but only one Moon) looks very fake. Also the arrangement of craters
looks wrong somehow, but I can't put my finger on it.
Non-nits, just interesting details:
The whole predicament of "real life" vs. "dreams" remind me of the
Chinese philosopher who pondered whether he was a man who had dreamt
that he was a butterfly, or was a butterfly dreaming that he was a man.
When Chakotay moves Tom off of the conn console, there is a close-up of
Tom's face. He snores slightly, and you can see his eyes moving in REM
under his eyelids. It's very well done.
When I watch this episode again, I'm going to do a chart of the
different levels of dreams in the episode and see if there are any
inconsistencies.
Kurt Harbaugh, IL: I suppose I need to make some comments on the episode... everyone else
is... It was a good episode, although it reminded me more of "Shades of Grey"
(TNG) than anything else. Fine, now on to the nits! First, concerning the
moon disappearing in Chakotay's first dream: I think it was supposed to do
that. When he sees it in the control panel later, it disappears in the next
shot. That leads me to believe that once Chakotay sees it and realizes he's
asleep, he just makes it disappear by himself. (I don't know why -- maybe so
he won't get distracted later?) Secondly, concerning how the aliens eat and
-- ahem -- you know: When Chakotay wakes one alien up and later falls asleep,
they both appear/disappear in a red flash. When the main alien attack force
first appeared on Voyager, they appeared in a red flash. I assume that they
were awake, then fell asleep and appeared. If this is the case, they could
have someplace they go to eat and... you know.
Vincent Morrone: "Waking Moments" you had a species
that was always asleep, right. If he had spend his life in bed, then how come he could stand .
Wouldn't his muscels not have been developed like someone who had been
in a coma. And how did they make little sleepers? Just asking.
1/26/98 Update (Note from Phil: A quick reminder. It is not my intention to upload every message that I receive on an episode. I will always upload comments--i.e. "I enjoyed the episode." "I felt like the episode lacked . . ."--but if a nit has already been picked, it's picked . . . unless I decide to list it twice because it's repicked in a funny way or I just wasn't certain it had already been picked and I was bombing through my mail and I let it pass just in case!)
Evan Lorentz of Littleton, CO: Chakotay must be something of a historian. Every time he envisions the moon in his dreams, it appears exactly as we see it today. Yet in First Contact,
Riker tells us that while there is a moon in the 24th century, it doesn't
look anything like that. You can see cities, even Lake Armstrong on a clear
night.
J. Annelin of Cold Lake AB: When Janeway begins to wonder why the warp core will not eject, Tuvok is pointing his phaser rifle at her with his finger on the trigger. Why would
he do that? Was he going to 'force' her to come with him? I'm sure they
taught phaser safety at the Academy or did logic dictate that he would have
no reason to pull the trigger?
Rene: Okay, I just thought of something that should make the crew of Voyager
very worried....but after this experience, how could the crew of Voyager
ever be really sure that they did actually wake up. Maybe the Aliens
were trying to have fun with the crew and Chakotay never actually woke
up and helped save the crew.
Maybe the rest of the life of Voyager will be spent in the dream
world...and then, in the last episode of Voyager , the crew find out
they've been asleep ever since this episosde. (Note from Phil: It's The Dallas Syndrome!)
Stephanie Lee of San Carlos, CA: When Janeway and Tuvok go to Kim's quarters to find out why
he wasn't responding to the comm, Janeway attempts to open the door and then
knocks. Can't she just ring the door chime?
After Chakotay woke up for the 2nd time (for real) in
sickbay, he starts looking around for the moon and taps his hand twice.
Shouldn't it be three times?
Murray Leeder: By the way, I thought it would have been WAY more effective if, instead
of Harry just seeing the alien standing there and screaming in the
teaser, he found that he was kissing not Seven but the alien! Now that'd
give him something to scream about!
Joe Griffin: [Concerning Chakotay being clean-shaven after 39 hours,] See my earlier nit from "Year of Hell" concerning the fact that Native
Americans don't grow facial hair.
Re: Holodoc and the Hippocratic Oath. Starfleet is still a military
organization, and I betcha he wouldn't be the first Fleet doctor, or
doctor in any military organization, to have to harm or kill in the line
of duty.
[Concerning Chakotay's methods and other ways to assist lucid dreaming,] Chakotay's trick ("something here doesn't belong") is one of the
more common devices some lucid dreamers use. For example, some folks
will try to read something, the idea being that they can only read while
awake. I've found that kind of limiting, however.
Towards the end of the episode, Chakotay has an "eternal waking" moment,
where he "wakes up" into another dream. Then he wakes up again, as
holodoc has given him a shot (or shook him or splashed cold water, I
don't recall). But they've just finished explaining that they're even
closer to the source of the alien's electronic NyQuil doodad, so the
snooze waves are stronger. If holodoc couldn't wake anyone up when they
were farther away, how is he able to wake up Chakotay?
Mark Bowman: If the aliens spend their whole life sleeping, how would they survive scince
they
can't eat or drink ,(perhaps they absorb whatever is on the cave floor)? Also,
how
would they be able to build or even design a "thought amplifier"?
Jim Cadwell of Minneapolis, MN: Did no one else wonder why the Aliens, if they are in a sleeping state
all the time, wear clothes? Someone already asked about nourishment and
waste-disposal, but why would they wear clothes? And if they do wake up
sometime ot make these clothes, why wouldn't they make beds and blankets
and pillows? They can show naked aliens on TV, provided they don't have
any naughty bits, or at least they don't look like human ones.
Chris George: Just was thinking about an early nit by Jeffrey M. Hall [concerning the need for Tuvok to react more logically,]: Assuming, of course, that dreams are dreams from species to species,
isn't letting your subconcious express itself the point of dreams? If
so, Tuvok would not be able to "realize this isn't logical". For
example, say you dream you suddenly grow wings and fly. Of course this
isn't possible, nor logical. But when you are dreaming, this will all
seem perfectly logical and possible, as your mind creates the scenario
and it will seem to your mind as logical as it wants it to be.
Brian also goes on to point out that in "Spectre of the Gun" Spock
defeats the enemy this way. That is because that wasn't exactly a
dream, but an environment that was derived from the concious thoughts
of the crew. When the subconcious takes over, anything goes.
Robin: I loved this episode, but I have one major nit. When Chakotay falls
asleep on the bridge and dreams that Janeway comes out of the dream to
help him (oooh -- plenty of psychological gold to mine on that one!),
the doctor seems to revive him by using the hypospray. But the doctor
said he tried everything to revive the crew and nothing worked. I
choose to believe that the hypospray worked because Chakotay *knew* he
was dreaming and was *trying* to awaken, but I still (unfortunately)
think this is a nit. :(
Shane Tourtellotte: I should have noted the 47 in this episode: The Doctor's log entry
stardated 51471.3.
Adam Farlinger: I guess Harry is always going to be the "screamer" of the show. When he
wakes from his nightmare, he yells, while Janeway, Paris, and Tuvok just
gasp.
Janeway and Tuvok leave the Bridge to wake up Harry in his quarters on
Deck 6. If the Bridge is on Deck 1, they only have to go down 5 decks. But
according to the lights inside the turbolift (the ones that move up and
down), they've travelled a bit more than 5 decks, and haven't moved any in
the horizontal plane. As well, don't you think it took them a little _too_
long to go down 5 decks? These are, after all, supposed to be _turbo_
elevators!
Well, Janeway's had the ship taken from her so often that she's devised
a "Procedure Omega" to prevent it from happening again. I wonder what it
is? (too bad it didn't work... she must hold the Starfleet record for
losing her ship and then re-taking it).
Great Lines - Janeway: "Either I've become impervious to antimatter
explosions, or we're still dreaming."
A nit about the above: When the warp core blew, there was a slight
explosion that rocked the whole ship. But it should have destroyed it, not
to mention have killed Janeway before she knew what had hit her! But then,
it was only a dream....
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done as much as we're going to do on it. You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "Waking Moments". Please include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide if you aren't one already!)
Copyright 1998 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.