History AllJustADream / LiveActionTV

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]", an alien artifact which turns out to be a monument to a long-dead race gives Picard the experience of living the life of one of its makers in less than an hour. In an unusual twist, Picard leaves the dream with at least one skill he didn't have before entering it -- that of playing a recorder-like instrument his dream-self was fond of. Slightly different from most examples in that Picard starts off knowing that the experience isn't real, but it lasts so long for him that he forgets.
*** Unlike most of the examples on this page, this is usually considered one of the series' best episodes. This may be in part because it wasn't a TwistEnding but a framing device that was acknowledged periodically throughout the episode.

* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' infamously undid a season this way. Patrick Duffy left the show, and they had [[DroppedABridgeOnHim his character Bobby hit by a car and killed]]. After the ratings started to sink, and Duffy came back, the writers retconned the entire season as a dream by Pam, causing several {{continuity snarl}}s and messing up the SpinOff, ''Series/KnotsLanding'', where it referenced Bobby's death in the story line. There's even more to this: Producer Leonard Katzman was kicked off the show at the same time Patrick Duffy left, only to be brought back at the cast's demand. Katzman hated a lot of stuff that was done to the show in his absence (primarily making the women much stronger characters), and so thought of a way to ensure they never happened.

** Nearly half of an entire season was made "just a dream", though justified as a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot. The entire season had been built around Katey Sagal's pregnancy. She had a late and unexpected miscarriage and couldn't deal with having a newborn baby on the set.

** The series has the titular character dream a ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' parody episode.

** Flynn suspects his new neighbor is an alien and ends up abducted along with his best friend Henry Dillon, although this was a dream.
** After accidentally hitting her head and falling unconscious, Cece has a whole-episode dream where she and Flynn switched bodies and Rocky was crazily trying to kill Ty.

** A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' Digital Short parodied this. [[Creator/EllenPage A woman]] has a frightening dream about a zombie, and then wakes up and sees it, which then turns out to be All Just a Dream for the ZOMBIE. This then happens numerous times, ending with a woman waking up from a horrible dream sleeping next to Dracula.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* The entirety of the ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'' episode "Fog'd In" was revealed to be a story told by Jorge.

** In season 4 of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', early in one episode they hire a shaman to help unleash Angel's EnemyWithin, but at the last moment instead of casting the spell he betrays them and attacks. The events that follow during the episode actually solve all the problems of the season's arc, right down to a soapy heroic happy ending. The episode reveals to the viewers that it was all "just a dream" when [[DoubleEntendre it climaxes with Angel experiencing a moment of perfect happiness]], causing him to lose his soul, waking up as the evil Angelus still chained down to the table at the beginning of the episode. [[JustifiedTrope The dream was an illusion created by the shaman, to do exactly what they hired him for.]]

** In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' season 6 episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E17NormalAgain Normal Again]]", it is suggested that the entire series is a [[CuckooNest hallucination of the main character]], who is living in a mental institution and has power fantasies of saving the world with her imaginary friends. The episode's end leaves room for interpretation as to which existence (Buffy's life as a vampire slayer, or her life as a mental patient) is really All Just a Dream. [[WordOfGod Joss Whedon]] [[MindScrew has outright stated that either one is a definite possibility]].

* Season 9 of ''Series/WillAndGrace'' opens with this trope. The previous season had aired 11 years prior and involved a look into the future, meant to be a finale. Those events were written out of canon as a dream of the character Karen Walker.

* Season 9 of ''Series/Will&Grace'' opens with this trope. The previous season had aired 11 years prior and involved a look into the future, meant to be a finale. Those events were written out of canon as a dream of the character Karen Walker.

** The 30th anniversary special/''Series/EastEnders'' crossover [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30thASDimensionsInTime "Dimensions in Time"]] was revealed to be a nightmare of the Seventh Doctor in the expanded universe, although this was mostly done to explain the CanonDiscontinuity.
*** Similarly, "[[Recap/DoctorWho1985JFIGSAFixWithSontarans A Fix with Sontarans]]" is retconned as a nightmare the Doctor had — that [[HarsherInHindsight in retrospect]], Freud would have had a field day with.

* An episode of ''Series/{{ANT Farm}}'' features a past version of Zoltan Grundy traveling to the present day causing both the present Zoltan and the boarding school to fade out of existence. Chyna was forced to be the young Zoltan's prom date to save her friends from non-existence. Fortunately, it is revealed that the entire episode was Chyna's dream.

** The 30th anniversary special/Eastenders crossover "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30thASDimensionsInTime Dimensions in Time]]" was revealed to be a nightmare of the Seventh Doctor in the expanded universe, although this was mostly done to explain the {{Canon Discontinuity}}.

** The episode "Absolute Power" uses a dream that lasts most of the episode to show Daniel Jackson why getting access to the sum total of Goa'uld memory and technology would be a bad idea. In this case the viewers are given a fair chance to spot the point where events become a dream.

** There's also the episode "Forever in a Day", in which Amaunet (the Goa'uld controlling Daniel's wife, Sha're) attempts to kill Daniel with a Ribbon Device. But Sha're manages to send Daniel a message through it, resulting in him switching back-and-forth between realities; one in which Teal'c saved his life by killing her, the other where she's freed of Amaunet's control and living with Daniel on Earth, trying to convince him to return to Stargate Command (which he leaves in both message-realities). She tells him the importance of him finding the Harcesis (human child born of two Goa'uld-controlled human parents, containing the genetic memory of both) and where he can find him. The episode eventually ends with Teal'c saving Daniel's life by killing Sha're/Amaunet; the entire dream occurred in the space of time it took his sidearm to fall from his hands to the ground behind him.

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E19HardTime}} Hard Time]]", Chief O'Brien is arrested by aliens and serves out a 20-year prison sentence within a dream that lasts only hours. The rest of the episode shows him dealing with this experience and how it has changed him.
** "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars}} Far Beyond the Stars]]" and "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E02ShadowsAndSymbols}} Shadows and Symbols]]", where a science fiction writer in the 50's dreams about Deep Space Nine. It's also lampshaded in the dream when someone suggests making Benny's story turn out to be a dream to get around complaints about the hero being black. In fact, the producers toyed with the idea of making the entire series a figment of Benny Russell's imagination.
** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E18Inquisition}} Inquisition]]", the investigator creates an elaborate holo-simulation that tries to trick Bashir into believing that he was a spy for the Dominion. Most of the episode occurs in the simulation.

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight}} The Inner Light]]", an alien artifact which turns out to be a monument to a long-dead race gives Picard the experience of living the life of one of its makers in less than an hour. In an unusual twist, Picard leaves the dream with at least one skill he didn't have before entering it -- that of playing a recorder-like instrument his dream-self was fond of. Slightly different from most examples in that Picard starts off knowing that the experience isn't real, but it lasts so long for him that he forgets.

** A slight variation of this happens to Commander Riker in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E19FrameOfMind}} Frame of Mind]]". However, it's clear throughout the episode that he's hallucinating certain things, and when Riker finally comes to, he's on an operating table in an alien environment, which he escapes. He later learns he was captured and subjected to a brainwashing procedure; ''everything'' in that episode before that point was a hallucination.

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight}} The Inner Light]]", an alien artifact which turns out to be a monument to a long-dead race gives Picard the experience of living the life of one of its makers in less than an hour. In an unusual twist, Picard leaves the dream with at least one skill he didn't have before entering it -- that of [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments playing a recorder-like instrument]] his dream-self was fond of. Slightly different from most examples in that Picard starts off knowing that the experience isn't real, but it lasts so long for him that he forgets.

** Mrs. Kibbling also has a dream about the entire Ross family [[FreakyFridayFlip switching bodies]].

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight}} The Inner Light]]", an alien artifact which turns out to be a monument to a long-dead race gives Picard the experience of living the life of one of its makers in less than an hour. In an unusual twist, Picard leaves the dream with at least one skill he didn't have before entering it -- that of [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments playing a recorder-like instrument]] his dream-self was fond of. Slightly different from most examples in that Picard starts off knowing that the experience isn't real, but it lasts so long for him that he forgets.\\
\\
Unlike most of the examples on this page, this is usually considered one of the series' best episodes. Quite probably because we were shown Picard lying on the floor of the bridge dreaming from the start of the episode while the crew struggles to wake him up.

** Something very similar occurs in ''Series/AshesToAshes''.

* The last episode of ''Series/StElsewhere'' reveals that the entire series has taken place in the mind of an autistic child. If you accept that crossovers between shows imply that they occupy the same fictional universe, an argument can be made that no fewer than [[http://yujinishuge.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/crossoversscaled.jpg 282 shows]] were figments of Tommy Westphall's imagination, including both ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/DoctorWho'', along with their spin-offs. The aforementioned picture seems to have a very low threshold for calling a show a cross-over, however; it includes minor {{shout out}}s as linkage. [[http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlist.html Another crossover database site]] gives a more conservative estimate, which still results in nearly a hundred shows happening in young Tommy's mind.

** The series has the titular character dream a ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' parody episode.

** The 30th anniversary special/Eastenders crossover "Dimensions in Time" was revealed to be a nightmare of the Seventh Doctor in the expanded universe, although this was mostly done to explain the {{Canon Discontinuity}}.
*** Similarly, "A Fix with Sontarans" is retconned as a nightmare the Doctor had — that [[HarsherInHindsight in retrospect]], Freud would have had a field day with.

* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Back to Reality" had the whole show as a computer game played by the main characters. This turned out to be a group hallucination.

** In "Hard Time", Chief O'Brien is arrested by aliens and serves out a 20-year prison sentence within a dream that lasts only hours. The rest of the episode shows him dealing with this experience and how it has changed him.
** "Far Beyond the Stars" and "Shadows and Symbols", where a science fiction writer in the 50's dreams about Deep Space Nine. It's also lampshaded in the dream when someone suggests making Benny's story turn out to be a dream to get around complaints about the hero being black. In fact, the producers toyed with the idea of making the entire series a figment of Benny Russell's imagination.
** In "Inquisition", the investigator creates an elaborate holo-simulation that tries to trick Bashir into believing that he was a spy for the Dominion. Most of the episode occurs in the simulation.

** In the episode "The Inner Light", an alien artifact which turns out to be a monument to a long-dead race gives Picard the experience of living the life of one of its makers in less than an hour. In an unusual twist, Picard leaves the dream with at least one skill he didn't have before entering it -- that of [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments playing a recorder-like instrument]] his dream-self was fond of. Slightly different from most examples in that Picard starts off knowing that the experience isn't real, but it lasts so long for him that he forgets.\\

** A slight variation of this happens to Commander Riker in the episode "Frame of Mind". However, it's clear throughout the episode that he's hallucinating certain things, and when Riker finally comes to, he's on an operating table in an alien environment, which he escapes. He later learns he was captured and subjected to a brainwashing procedure; ''everything'' in that episode before that point was a hallucination.

** Played with this trope a lot in "Barge of the Dead". B'Elanna Torres survives a shuttle accident, only to find it's all a dream and that she's actually on a barge taking dishonored souls to the Klingon afterlife.

** In "Nemesis", Chakotay was being brainwashed to hate the Kadrin through a simulation that depicted them as monsters. Everything that happened from his viewpoint, until Tuvok found him, never did.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'':
** The episode "Vanishing Point" has Hoshi apparently fading out of existence due to a transporter malfunction before learning that the transporter has been hijacked by hostile aliens--and then she rematerializes on the ship. The whole thing was a hallucination caused by the actual (but non-fatal) transporter malfunction.