Line #72 Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E12WakingMoments


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/voy_wakingmoments5.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"Ha, is that what Vulcan penises actually look like?!"]]
3
4	''Voyager'' comes into contact with a species of aliens with technology that enables them to put others to sleep, locking them in a dreamlike state.
5	-----
6	!!This episode provides examples of:
7
8	* AbsoluteXenophobe: After centuries of being attacked while they were asleep and vulnerable, the aliens regard all 'waking species' as enemies.
9	* ARealManIsAKiller: {{Averted}}; Chakotay's dream involved him [[GoodOldWays hunting deer with his father]], which he tells Janeway [[FormerTeenRebel he always refused to do]].
10	* AsleepForDays: Everyone on ''Voyager'', sans Chakotay and the Doctor.
11	* AttackPatternAlpha: Janeway orders "Defence Procedure Omega", but the aliens [[StupidSurrender tell her not to bother as they've already taken the ship]].
12	* BadassBoast
13	-->'''Dream Alien:''' As long as you're asleep, you're no threat to us.\
14	'''Chakotay:''' I can wake myself anytime I want. And if I do, I'm going to start looking for you in the waking world. Find where you're sleeping. You wouldn't want that.
15	* BadassPacifist: Chakotay finds a cavern full of sleeping aliens, and the neurogenic field transmitter they're using to keep ''Voyager'''s crew asleep. Chakotay orders the Doctor to destroy the cavern with a photon torpedo [[IfIDoNotReturn if he doesn't call back in five minutes]]. He then tries to wake up an alien who can switch off the transmitter but passes out, waking up in the group dream on ''Voyager'', where he informs the head alien [[TakingYouWithMe what's going to happen if he doesn't wake up]].
16	* BookEnds: The episode starts and ends in the messhall.
17	* ButtMonkey: Harry Kim. In his dreams he's the subject of Seven's aggressive sexual desire, only to have her [[FanDisservice turn into an ugly alien]]. In real life she beats him up just to provide a distraction.
18	* CallBack: Fantasy!Seven cites [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E7ScientificMethod Tom and B'Elanna's example]] when choosing a [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces Jeffries tube]] to make out with Harry.
19	* CaptainCrash: Tom's dream involves a shuttle accident.
20	* CatapultNightmare: PlayedStraight with Tom, Tuvok, and Janeway, but not Harry.
21	* ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject: Janeway grills Tuvok on what the alien did in his dream.
22	-->'''Tuvok:''' He watched me.\
23	'''Janeway:''' Doing what?\
24	'''Tuvok:''' Getting dressed.\
25	'''Janeway:''' (''DoubleTake'') ''Getting'' dressed?\
26	'''Tuvok:''' Yes.\
27	'''Janeway:''' I don't suppose I should ask why you were ''un''dressed?\
28	'''Tuvok:''' I would prefer that you didn't.
29	-->''(Janeway smirks)''
30	** Harry also does this when the Doctor asks him about his dream while Seven is in Sickbay; he wriggles out of it by saying that [[INeedToGoIronMyDog he needs to get something to eat]]. And then again when B'Elanna asks him about his dream; he quickly shifts the topic of conversation to Tuvok's dream.
31	* CloseUpOnHead: Tuvok walking to the bridge, before the RevealShot that he's [[NotWearingPantsDream naked]].
32	* ContinuityNod: B'Elanna argues with Tom over their holodeck holiday; Tom wants to go skiing, B'Elanna wants to go to Tahiti. This fits with her hating the cold in "Displaced".
33	* CountingToThree: Chakotay tells an alien to shut off the neurogenic field transmitter or he'll shoot him. He starts to count down from five and [[FailedAttemptAtDrama falls asleep on two]].
34	* CurbStompBattle: The aliens easily take ''Voyager''. Justified as it's AllJustADream.
35	* CutTheJuice: The Doctor suggests Chakotay destroy the neurogenic field transmitter, but he says it's protected by SomeKindOfForcefield.
36	* DeathIsCheap: Janeway walks into a warp core explosion, then [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat walks out unharmed]]. She realizes from that incident that she's still in a dream.
37	* DidntThinkThisThrough:
38	** If the sleepy aliens really knew as much about ''Voyager'' as they seemed to, they should've realized that harassing the ship with the crazy [[MustHaveCaffeine caffeinated]] captain and her angry Maquis warrior XO was a ''really'' stupid idea.
39	** Also, since they literally can't kill the ''Voyager'' crew in their sleep, they had to rely on threats and fooling the crew into thinking they could. As they had likely been doing this sort of thing for some time, one would think it'd occur to them that if anyone they put to sleep finds this out, they'd have a stalemate at best.
40	* [[DieHardOnAnX "Die Hard" on Voyager]]: {{Subverted}}; it looks like the episode is heading this way, but the crew is dreaming everything. The attack by hostile aliens reflects the mental attack they're currently undergoing.
41	* DreamEmergencyExit: Chakotay can wake himself from a lucid dream by tapping the back of his hand three times.
42	* DreamEpisode: A race of sleeping aliens put the crew to sleep and lock them in the same dream.
43	* DreamIntro: Four at the same time, with more happening offscreen.
44	* DreamRealityCheck: Chakotay has a subconscious trigger for his lucid dream. When he sees the Moon, he knows he's dreaming and wakes himself up by tapping the back of his hand three times.
45	* DreamWithinADream: Chakotay wakes up from a lucid dream that he has, having established FirstContact with the aliens responsible for locking Ensign Harry Kim in a unwakeable sleeping state, then finds out that he's still in a dream when he sees the moon's reflection off a control panel. He wakes himself and finds the Doctor is the only one active, the rest of the crew having fallen asleep as well.
46	* DreamWeaver: Chakotay tries lucid dreaming to affect the dreams the aliens put them into, so he can communicate with them.
47	* EmergingFromTheShadows: In Janeway's nightmare, Neelix turns on the messhall lights to reveal her crew as corpses, covered in CobwebsOfDisuse.
48	* EroticDream: Harry Kim gets one when he dreams of being kissed by Seven of Nine, which then [[FanDisservice turns scary when Seven is then replaced with a mysterious alien]]. After waking up in Sickbay the Doctor asks him what his dream was, just as Seven enters and asks Harry's help repairing something in a Jeffries tube (as per the dream). [[INeedToGoIronMyDog Harry quickly excuses himself.]]
49	* EurekaMoment: Janeway realizes they're still dreaming when B'Elanna is unable to eject the warp core when it starts going critical. She opts to stay behind for the explosion to see if her hunch is right.
50	* GagPenis: Actor Tim Russ made one up for his NotWearingPantsDream scene, as a [[BlackIsBiggerInBed joke on his fellow actors]]. Their reaction became a ThrowItIn moment.[[invoked]]
51	* AGlitchInTheMatrix: Chakotay realizes that he's still in a dream when he sees the moon reflecting off computer panels.
52	* GoToSleepEnding: Inverted; at the end of the episode no-one can get to sleep.
53	* ImproperlyParanoid: Believing that all "waking species" are AlwaysChaoticEvil, the sleepy aliens decide to use their powers against ''Voyager'', despite our heroes not even knowing about their existence. Even after Chakotay promises that his crew will leave them alone, they continue their telepathic assault, prompting Chakotay and the Doctor to track them down to their homeworld and threaten to torpedo them into oblivion unless they stop their attack. They almost brought about their own extinction!
54	* InsomniaEpisode: What it turns into at the end of the episode.
55	* ItsTheOnlyWay: Janeway tests whether she's dreaming by walking into a warp core breach. [[WhatTheHellHero Tuvok reprimands her for this afterwards]] though RuleOfDrama applies as B'Elanna says the explosion should have destroyed the ship anyway.
56	* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Kim's EroticDream of Seven was going so well until that alien barged in!
57	* LopsidedDichotomy: In the dream world, Janeway fails to stop a warp core breach, but is somehow unharmed from the explosion.
58	-->'''Janeway:''' Either I've become impervious to antimatter explosions, or we're still dreaming.
59	* {{Lunacy}}: Neelix blames the nightmares on some moons they passed recently. Chakotay uses Earth's moon as an alert signal that he's dreaming.
60	* MagicalNativeAmerican: Why Chakotay is able to wake himself when nobody else can.
61	* MoodWhiplash: During the dream sequences in the teaser, the action shifts back and forth between Janeway's nightmare of her crew being dead because she didn't get them home in time, to Tuvok's of being laughed at by the bridge staff after reporting for duty naked.
62	* MustHaveCaffeine:
63	** Tom asks for coffee after his NightmareSequence. An equally tired Neelix pours him cooking oil.
64	** Ends up becoming an actual need for Chakotay, so that he doesn't fall asleep in what is essentially ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' [[RecycledInSpace In Space]].
65	* NeutralFemale: B'Elanna just stares as Chakotay struggles with the aliens who are trying to restrain him from tapping his wrist. This is a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot as Roxann Dawson was pregnant and thus not able to tussle with stuntmen as she had in previous episodes.
66	* NightmareSequence: During TheTeaser
67	* NoSell: A good way to view the Doctor's immunity to the telepathic assault; as he doesn't sleep in the first place, he's completely unaffected by it.
68	* NotWearingPantsDream: Lt. Tuvok in his dream is called to the bridge and realizes when he gets there that he forgot to put on his uniform, [[NakedPeopleAreFunny causing the bridge crew to giggle]].
69	* OfficeRomance: B'Elanna is working night shift while Tom is working day shift, making dates a problem.
70	* PhlebotinumProofRobot: The alien attack puts everyone on the ship to sleep, except for the Doctor and MagicalNativeAmerican Chakotay. The Doctor [[RunningGagStumbles does not get taken offline]] and is in fact vital to resolving the crisis.
71	* RecycledPremise: This episode shares many elements to TNG's fourth season episode "Night Terrors."
72	* ResistanceIsFutile: And if you're being snogged by the MsFanservice of the Delta Quadrant, why would you want to?
73	* SchrodingersButterfly: Chakotay is put to sleep in a lucid dream so as to make FirstContact with the aliens, who warn ''Voyager'' out of their space. Chakotay wakes up and informs Captain Janeway, who warps ''Voyager'' out of there. It turns out to be a trap and the ship is taken over by the aliens, but Chakotay sees the moon in a comm panel and realises this is also a dream. He wakes himself up and finds the crew asleep except for the Doctor. Janeway and the others realise from Chakotay's disappearance that they're sharing a group dream. At one point they team up with Chakotay, only for him to wake up when the Doctor jabs a hypospray of stimulant in his neck; he'd fallen asleep again and is still the only person awake on ''Voyager''.
74	* SeriesContinuityError: Chakotay visualizes the moon in its pre-colonized state. In the previously-released movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Commander Riker states that the moon appears quite different in the 24th century than in the 21st century.
75	* ShamelessFanserviceGuy: Tim Russ thought this would apply to Vulcans, so he played Tuvok's embarrassment in the NotWearingPantsDream as due to his breaching protocol by appearing naked on duty.
76	* SharedDream: Aliens trap the crew in a "collective unconscious" where they dream that their ship has been taken over.
77	* ShouldersUpNudity: The male Waist Up Nudity version is used during Tuvok's NotWearingPantsDream.
78	* SomeKindOfForceField: Said word-for-word by Chakotay after his phaser fails to knock out the aliens' transmitter.
79	* StewedAlive: Apparently LethalChef Neelix got some LaserGuidedKarma in his dream.
80	-->'''Neelix:''' ...and the next thing I knew I was being boiled alive in a pot of my own leola root stew.\
81	'''Torres:''' Talk about a nightmare!\
82	'''Neelix:''' [[ITasteDelicious It]] ''[[ITasteDelicious was]]'' [[ITasteDelicious perfectly seasoned]].
83	* SuperIdentikit: The crew reconstruct a picture of the alien from their dreams.
84	* TalkingInYourDreams: After the crew are taken prisoner, they realise they're sharing the same group dream.
85	* ThatsAnOrder: Chakotay snaps "I'm giving you an order!" when the Doctor balks at destroying his position.
86	* {{Tsundere}} - Type B: B'Elanna shows her ''deredere'' side when she calmly accepts Tom missing a breakfast date because he slept in, instead of getting angry.
87	* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: The scene where Janeway is pressing Tuvok for details on his dream takes place in the turbolift.
88	* {{Understatement}}: When Harry wakes up in Sickbay and asks what he's doing there, the Doctor tells him, "You were napping."
89	* VisionQuest: Chakotay's lucid dream uses the same technique.
90	* WeNeedADistraction: To cover the others breaking out of the cargo bay where the aliens have them imprisoned, [[DistractingFakeFight Seven starts a fight]] with Harry Kim ([[WithFriendsLikeThese without bothering to discuss it with Harry first]]).
91	* WhamShot: While the ''Voyager'' crew starts to fight back against the invading aliens, Chakotay starts to do something on a console -- and sees the Moon on a display screen.
92	-->'''Chakotay:''' I'm still dreaming.
93	* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: Implied in TheTeaser nightmares. Captain Janeway dreams of her crew dead because she didn't get them home. AcePilot Tom Paris dreams of a piloting accident, like the one that destroyed his career. TheStoic Tuvok dreams of public humiliation (considering Tuvok, the part he fears may be less of embarrassment and more of the potential reprimand for not following protocol). And Harry Kim [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality dreams of being ravished by Seven of Nine]]--which isn't actually too bad for him until the ugly alien appears. Although it was already established [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E5Revulsion in the infamous]] "DoYouWantToCopulate" episode that he is distressed by her coming on to him, so perhaps it isn't sexuality ''per se'' that upsets him but how aggressively direct Seven is about it.
94	* YourMindMakesItReal: Downplayed, there's no indication the aliens could actually harm the crew, but once they realize they're in a dream, we get stuff like Janeway [[NoSell no selling phaser fire and antimatter explosions]].

Context Recap / StarTrekVoyagerS4E12WakingMoments