"Perchance to Dream", Poll and discussion thread

A man (Richard Conte) with recurring nightmares is desperate to avoid going back to sleep.
Originally aired November 27, 1959.

Full video of the episode on CBS.com
TZ Cafe credits list
List of musical cues

This is the preferred thread for any and all of your "Perchance To Dream" posts--facts, opinions, questions, speculations, and whatever else you can think of.* You can also give your opinion of the episode on a 1 to 10 scale, in the poll shown above.

Let the discussion begin!

*More specific instructions and suggestions about posting questions/comments related to this episode are located here.

Of the episodes I've seen so far (I've finished the second DVD of Collection 2, and seen a few other episodes), this is probably my favorite, with "The After Hours" a close second. "Perchance To Dream" has a wonderful, spaced-out feeling that I really enjoy, and some fascinatingly bizarre dreams. A definite 10 in my book.

- David

A good episode, with a tense, creepy undercurrent. It keeps you watching.

The fun house is surreal.

I always thought it was interesting that Maya's dress was slit to the hips on both sides, yet it had long sleeves and a high neck. Think the censors might have had something to do with that?

I love the first season as I look over its eps. And I'm glad that this was my first introduction to TZ. I remember the ending being a real twist for me.

Suzanne Lloyd appeared on the second Rawhide ep as the bride of Troy Donahue. Beautiful gal.

Love it!

Leen

This was a cool episode, I like the lead's acting and dialogue. The sets were great, I love that car's steering wheel. And yes Maya is one hot cat ( pun intended). This seems pulp fictionesque to me.

10 zones

Oh and I gave it a "9."

Leen

Superb episode. Creepy and intense. Maya is so attractive and frightening at the same time, you can really sympathize with Hall. I give it a 9.

Spoiler: An interesting point to consider is the level of coincidence that Maya and Miss Thomas look exactly alike. Hall sees her face as he enters the doctor's office, although all we see is the back of her head. He also stares at her a little, meaning perhaps that he recognizes her but can't quite place her. On the other hand, maybe he's just reacting from lack of sleep. It might be that since most of his psychiatric session is a dream, this dream alters his recollection of his earlier dreams of Maya and turns her into Miss Thomas. There's also a chance that, just as Hall ackowledges that his only possible knowledge of Maya prior to her first appearance in his dreams is of someone he saw briefly in passing, this is indeed the case. Otherwise we're left with either a pure coincidence or a supernatural entry of Miss Thomas into Hall's subconscious.

Dan, interesting questions. Perhaps the lead showed affection for the secretary, yet she never reciprocated because he is a patient, thus this led him to resent her and have these twisted dreams of her. Just a weird theory. I am not sure about this.
The episode never really explains Maya's motives, if she really did have any, LOL. Was this a supernatural episode, or was it just Hall fulfilling his own predictions.

Great Zone, that makes you think.

Thanks for the compliment, Z. The problem with this theory is that this is apparently Hall's first (and last) visit to Dr. Rathmann. Hall is there because his regular doctor referred him to Rathmann, and Rathmann's line of questioning is that of an initial session. If we assume that Miss Thomas never worked for any other doctor who treated Hall, then his entrance into Rathmann's reception area is, barring the coincidental chance meeting, his first encounter with Miss Thomas and certainly her first realization that he's a patient.

This particular line of reasoning is why I ruled out, before even posting the first time, that Hall had subconsciously turned Miss Thomas into Maya through previous visits to Rathmann.

Maya should have shown some more skin to get a better rating from me on this one.

***SPOILER***

I favor the latter theory--more specifically, the idea that in this episode, certain forces draw the rather straitlaced-seeming Miss Thomas's dream self into the subconscious of a single draftsman with a heart condition, in order to persuade him to "do the things (he) can't do when (he's) awake." If you know what I mean.

'9'

I like this episode a lot. Anything involving dream sequences or nightmares, analysing the human psyche, makes for good entertainment. I thought it was strange that Hall did not show much of a reaction when he first enters the office and sees Miss Thomas. I noticed the pause and slight stare, but still no reaction quite like at the end in his nightmare. I can only assume his lack of sleep left him so detached mentally that it did not kick in until he went into the doc's room and he passed out, running the nightmare and then putting the two together to bring him to his ultimate demise. Definitely a great episode.

Thanks for the compliment, Z. The problem with this theory is that this is apparently Hall's first (and last) visit to Dr. Rathmann. Hall is there because his regular doctor referred him to Rathmann, and Rathmann's line of questioning is that of an initial session. If we assume that Miss Thomas never worked for any other doctor who treated Hall, then his entrance into Rathmann's reception area is, barring the coincidental chance meeting, his first encounter with Miss Thomas and certainly her first realization that he's a patient.

This particular line of reasoning is why I ruled out, before even posting the first time, that Hall had subconsciously turned Miss Thomas into Maya through previous visits to Rathmann.

Dan, perhaps he saw her working at a different doctor before( you are right we are not provided with this info ).
Or perhaps he saw her work at some other venue( i.e :a secretary in a different kind of office) before, with the same resulting effects as I mentioned happens.
Whenever we see Maya in his dream, she has Miss Thomas's face, one would think that he saw Ms. Thomas before and he is sub/unconsciously thinking of her for some reason, perhaps due to displeasure. Why is Ms. Thomas invading his dreams?

Yet, another theory is he mistakes Ms Thomas as Maya, due to lack of sleep. Or perhaps there is a supernatural reason all this is happening . Perhaps, Ms. Thomas cast a spell to enter his dreams, a stretch, this is TZ, though.
There are several theories.....

MrZ

Spoiler: TZer's custom title reminded me of something that I'm embarrassed to say I never noticed until quite recently. The line "We've been expecting you, Mr. Hall" is spoken twice in this episode: once by Miss Thomas (with the back of her head to the camera) as Edward enters Dr. Rathmann's office, and once by Maya in the fun house. It's a clever way of telling us that Miss Thomas and Maya will turn out to be the same woman, but no one who watches this episode for the first time could possibly be expected to pick up on this.

It could also be argued that Miss Thomas's line helps cause Edward's last dream to turn out as it does. Quite possibly the Maya about whom he had been dreaming before going to the psychiatrist looked very different, but Miss Thomas works her way through his subconscious into the couch dream that takes up most of the episode. This isn't a supernatural occurrence; it's the way people show up where they don't belong in dreams all of us have, because we've recently been thinking about them.

SPOILER

On first viewing, we are not meant to realize
the dream begins as soon as Edward lies upon the couch,
so it is possible that some of his account is inaccurate,
as it is also part of his last dream,
subject to his subconscious interpretation of recent events.

SPOILER

Actually when I was showing this to a buddy of mine, as soon as Maya said "we've been expecting you, Mr. Hall", he shouted out, "it's the secretary!" I have to admit, that was when I realized for the first time that the line was spoken twice.

Oooooooooooooo good one. Kinda like "Room for one more honey" only that was more obvious and used more!

Maybe he didn't realize about Miss Thomas and Maya because they were dressed and made up so differently. He was so beat when he entered the office, and just glanced at her for a few moments before going into the examination room. Maybe he didn't make the connection until he walked out and got a good look at her.

as many here know this is my fave ep ever, and yes the line is spoken twice in the ep, and notice how when Edward first walks in, he stares at the secretary, b4 he goes into the office. and when Maya says that line to him, he looks at her quite odd, so one could assume that some of the secretary that he just met, made his way into his dream. it's hard to know for sure which was real or not, meanining almost everything he said once he laid down could have been just a dream taht just happened, but may not have been exactly the reason he went to the doc in the first place.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/ame...oDreamblend.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/ame...ithRodpart2.jpg


ok this and the other one are 2 blends i made of this ep, i wanna try and do some for all the eps eventually, Perchance just rules.

Mr, TZer, cool blend. Those cat eyes penetrate.
More Blends, please, Mix Master.

Perchance is a like a fine woman, gets better with age.

i love that ep too, my top 1 always and forever, and it does get better with age. i remember when it became a fave, and that was in summer of 1994, when i first saw it uncut, it was just so much better that way, and it was my top ep since. anyways i'm gonna do a New Exhibit blend too, right now about to post the one i did for Escape Clause in that ep's thread, i made that one yesterday. glad u like.

Love the blend. Thanks

PTD is a great episode.

thanx, again, and did u see the Escape Clause one i did?

If Maya was in my dreams I don't think I'd ever wanna wake up, even at the cost of my own life, I'd die happy with my face buried in her cleavage.

Thanks for the visual TS

Leen

Sorry about that but it's true.

Sorry about that but it's true.

Hey, I liked it.

Maya is a honey but asa kid i always was scared by her, as Edward said "something about those dark cat's eyes", well those eyes creeped me out when i was a kid lol.

Sorry about that but it's true.

Hey, I liked it.

Figures.

Sorry, Bevis, you made it too easy for me there.

TZer is probably going to come after me but...

I thought "Perchance To Dream" was pretty ordinary. Even though Edward has to stay awake, I never really got the feeling that he was that exhausted. He didn't seem like someone that close to death. The urgency just didn't seem to be there.

Zicree's TZ Companion dedicates quite a bit of space to this episode and he appearently really likes it. "Perchance To Dream" is the next episode in broadcast order after "Time Enough At Last". Perhaps it just has the disadvantage of riding its coattails since "Time Enough At Last" is one of my favorite Season One episodes.

BTW, I like the dive Edward takes out the window and Maya does nuttin' for me.

coming after u now, Whits lol. well he was talking pretty fast so u could sense that he was exciteable and seemed desperate as well. and i agree about Maya, she creeped me out more than scared me, those eyes just always freaked me out. and then u have that eerie score by Van Cleeve that just adds to the atmosphere, of the whole dream world. what's real and what isn't. i love the ep myself, and i like it more than Time, yes i know, i'm so bad, Time is a great ep, and packs a hell of an ending, but its no Dream.

Yes, this Van Cleave score is definitely one of the best in the Zone. So creepy.

funny that i used to think the score from this and A World of Difference were the same, they do have quuite a lot of similiarities though. i only found out the difference when i bought the soundtrack.

I think his score to "Jess-Belle" is also kind of similar.

Cadwallader probably has the best chance of answering this, based on his examination of the episode scores:

What is the first instrument (the very low synthesized sound) that we hear when we see the faces in the funhouse (a cue that's appropriately reused when we see Wilfred's transformed face in "The Masks")? It seems to be the biggest reason for the similarity of scores for "Perchance to Dream," "A World of Difference," and "Jess-Belle" (which I've also noticed all along). The CD booklet says that Van Cleave used two electronic instruments called Novachord and Theremin, so I'm guessing it's one of these two. Whichever it is, the other might be responsible for the rising first music heard in "Perchance to Dream," leading into traditional brass.

In the score that I saw there is nothing indicated for either Novachord or Theremin. The Theremin part (the one with the high glissandos) is written for violin on the score. I don't know anything about the Novachord except what I know from the liner notes, but the part you're referring to is written for organ on the score. I'm assuming that that's the Novachord. By the way, the LP gives a little more information than the CD does - it says that the Novachord is "a keyboard instrument able to produce sounds like orchestral instruments; similar to a present day Moog synthesizer".

Here's a couple links I just found about the Novachord:
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/novachord/
http://www.museslave.com/novachord/main/

wow, u guys do know the music lol. i need to listen to themusic in Jess-Belle again though, and that music is not on teh soundtrack, other music thats not is the score from Young Man's Fancy, which i love. and the music in A Kind of Stopwatch, which is a nice happy little musical peice.