TV.com

The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 9

Perchance to Dream

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 5

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

8.6

User Rating

189 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

Free Trial / Subscription

VUDU

Buy

AIRED: 11/27/59

A man is terrified of falling asleep for fear he might die.

FAN RECAP

Watch Full Episode

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

Edward Hall is a man with a bad heart who is afraid that if he goes to sleep he will die.

8.5

By tzfanatic93, Mar 23, 2010

I love episodes like Perchance to Dream where you are kind of left wondering what the story was really about. What did the nightmare mean? Why was the girl in the nightmare trying to kill him? And isn't strange how the receptionist looks exactly like the dream girl, Maya? And at the end it turns out that he died as soon as he fell asleep on the psychiatrists couch. But that is what is so great about the Twilight Zone it makes you wonder even after an episode has ended what was really going on, and what the whole story was really about.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Good idea, but poor execution.

6.0

By jamoon2006, Jul 31, 2008

There's a lot to like in "Perchance to Dream." Richard Conte gives a great performance as a man scared out of his mind and the cinematography is fantastic, evoking a spooky, almost European influence on the dream scenes. But, unfortunately, the episode as a whole falls flat.

Maybe it's because we're rushed into the premise - it's all explained in a first act packed with exposition. We hear about Conte's childhood discovery of his very over-active imagination, but it doesn't resonate. Good as he is, Conte is still filling in background, and it's not very exciting.

The framing device of the shrink's office is interesting too, but it leads to a very static episode. And lastly, the "twist" is neat, but could have packed a much bigger punch if the set-up had been better planned.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Scary and fun, with a trippy homage to the American carnival.

10

By Smitinski, Oct 17, 2007

Long before Freddy Krueger, The Twilight Zone brought us the beautiful, voluptuous, and deadly "Maya," a charactor in a man's dream determined to literally scare him to death. "Perchance to Dream" plays like a carnival dark ride, full of cheesey fun, nightmarish imagery, and low-rent thrills and chills. Richard Conte plays Edward Hall, a man terrified to fall asleep lest the exotically seductive Maya take him away in his dreams to a place that will cause his weak heart to fail. It's a story perfect for The Twilight Zone, helped by the series' low budget, black and white cinematography, and make-do special effects. It plays like German Expressionism done with a distinctly 1950's rural American vibe. Highly recommended!moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Dreamlike TV noir from the Zone..

10

By jamfellah, Aug 17, 2007

One of the Zone's best, a sterling example of what this series was all about. "Perchance to Dream" plays like a little noir fable for television, pushed just over the edge of dreaming into the realm of nightmare and the supernatural. The minimalist sets are wonderfully claustrophobic, and that cat-eyed stripper Maya is one sexy tour guide to hell, laughing like a demon as she urges you to JUMP! Probably this episode has a special resonance for me because I used to work in Studio City, and the tricky switchback drive back to L.A. over Laurel Canyon every night was just as hairy as Richard Conte's character describes.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
2 0

Flag
Share Hide
A man will not allow himself to sleep for fear of being killed in his dreams.

4.5

By Skeeter_700, Mar 18, 2006

One of the lesser episodes that played during The Twilight Zone's first season. Richard Conte plays a man who has not allowed himself to sleep because he fears his dreams will kill him. The show is utterly ridiculous. The idea of a reoccurring character appearing in a man's dreams with the intent of killing him does have potential. However, this episode does not make the potential killer believable. We need a plausible motive for the killer or at least a psychological issue that the victim might cause such a condition. Furthermore, the guy falls for his killers murderous tricks way to easily. Overall, this is an idea with great potential that was not realized. I voted 4.5.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 6

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Rod Serling	Narrator/Host
Richard Conte	Edward Hall

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

John Larch	Dr. Rathmann	Guest Star
Suzanne Lloyd	Maya/Miss Thomas	Guest Star
Eddie Marr	Girlie Barker	Guest Star

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (2)
ADD QUOTES
- (Closing Narration)
  Narrator: They say a dream takes only a second or so, and yet in that second a man can live a lifetime. He can suffer and die, and who's to say which is the greater reality: the one we know or the one in dreams, between heaven, the sky, the earth in the Twilight Zone.
  EDIT SHARE
- (Opening Narration)
  Narrator: Twelve o'clock noon. An ordinary scene, an ordinary city. Lunchtime for thousands of ordinary people. To most of them, this hour will be a rest, a pleasant break in the day's routine. To most, but not all. To Edward Hall, time is an enemy, and the hour to come is a matter of life and death.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (3)
ADD NOTES
- The first script of the series not written by Rod Serling.
  EDIT SHARE
- Included on volume 7 of Image-Entertainment's DVD collection.
  EDIT SHARE
- This episode is based on the short story "Perchance to Dream" by Charles Beaumont. The story was first published in Playboy (November, 1958).
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (1)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- The title is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is part of the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy wherein Hamlet ponders the nature of life, death and his very existence. The full line reads:
  "To die, - To sleep, -
  To sleep ! Perchance to dream: - ay, there's the rub;
  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
  When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
  Must give us pause: there's the respect
  That makes calamity of so long life;"
  EDIT SHARE