Perchance to Dream

[The Laughing Fish]

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest episodes in BTAS. It's among my top ten favourites. Reminds me of something from The Twilight Zone, which also had an episode called "Perchance to Dream". You'd be hard-pressed to say it's not paying homage.

The show was good at demonstrating the sympathetic and tragic side of both heroes and villains. You can feel for Bruce as he finds himself in a bizarre situation, where his whole world is turned upside down and is somewhat tempted to live in this paradise, with his parents still alive, he's engaged with Selina Kyle and Batman isn't his own creation and burden. It's a universal sentiment in wanting lost family members back into our lives and fulfill a void that would make everything better. In Bruce's case, he knows Batman exists because he can't let go of the tragedy that had impacted him, but he knows succumbing to the dream would mean giving up on reality.

No matter how pleasant and desirable the scenario is, Bruce couldn't give up his own sanity to live in a lie. It takes mental strength to stay in tune in your surroundings. Sadly, a lot of people in the real world are too desperate to escape from their harsh lives that they'll do anything to live in a dream world, without realising they're causing more harm to themselves in the process.

My favourite scene would have to be when Bruce picks up the newspaper and books, only to find the print is jumbled up into an incomprehensible mess. A crude wake-up call after he was starting to enjoy and believe in the fantasy life. It's one of the most gut wrenching moments for the character in animation, and ranks up there with the dreams he had of feeling guilt for not being able to help the poor in The Forgotten, the subconscious guilt he had for his parents while dreaming about Harvey in Two-Face Part II, and the doomed romance with Andrea Beaumont in MOTP.

In terms of comics, the episode seems to take some ideas from Detective Comics #633 - Identity Crisis (1991). Here below is a list of similarities and their differences:

• Bruce wakes up and asks a confused Alfred about what happened to him the night before. The difference is in the comic, Bruce wakes up floating in the Gotham River, and he catches a taxi to go home. Yeah, it's that simple. In the show, he instantly wakes up in bed at Wayne Manor, right after a mysterious device comes towards him as Batman moments earlier.
• Bruce tries to activate the trap door to the Batcave, but it doesn't exist. Both the comic and the episode have Bruce ask Alfred about the Batcave, who becomes increasingly worried for his master's mental health. But the comic has Alfred showing the location of where the Batcave is supposed to be, and instead it's only an empty basement. Another difference is Tim Drake is involved in the comic but the parents are still dead, whereas the episode brings the parents alive and has Bruce engaged to Selina.
• Bruce confronts Batman. Both the comic and the episode has Bruce using a rope and hook to get to a location and confront the Batman "impostor". The difference is the comic does this when Bruce sneaks his way into a crime scene that Batman stops. In the episode, Bruce escapes from the police who are requested by the Waynes to bring him back home safely, and he confronts Batman at the top of the cathedral.
• A villain is manipulating his mind. In the show, it's revealed the Mad Hatter was behind this because he wanted to stop Batman from interfering with his life, by giving him the temptation to live in whatever fantasy his heart desires. In the comic...eh, this is where it gets confusing: the story takes a twist and reveals Bruce Wayne was in fact a villain called
  the Synaptic Kid, a metahuman with mind-reading abilities who nearly exposed Batman's identity, but was left in a permanent vegetative state after the real Batman had mentally tricked him. Everything that "Bruce" had experienced in this nightmare was the Synaptic Kid trying to probe Batman's mind because he was convinced that he and Bruce Wayne were one and the same. It may sound like Batman has telepathic powers, but he found a way to trick and confuse Synaptic Kid into believing Bruce wasn't Batman after all, and the shock left him in a coma. Suffice to say, Perchance to Dream is a much better written and emotionally compelling story than this issue of Detective Comics.

[The Laughing Fish]

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest episodes in BTAS. It's among my top ten favourites. Reminds me of something from The Twilight Zone, which also had an episode called "Perchance to Dream". You'd be hard-pressed to say it's not paying homage.

I realise I'm showing my ignorance on Shakespeare here: I found out that "perchance to dream" is a nod to Hamlet.

"To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there's the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come..." (Hamlet)
This is said by Hamlet to himself when he thinks he is alone. He is asking himself if it is better to give up and die rather than facing his troubles but he is frightened that he will dream when he is dead and never get any peace from his earthly troubles. The speech starts with the even more famous "To be or not to be..." which is the 'should I live or die?' part.

https://www.oxfordcollege.ac/news/five-best-shakespeare-quotes-actually-mean/

The part in bold seems to reflect Bruce's crisis. Is it better to live in a fairytale land and escape from your troubled reality forever, or be constantly reminded the world that you're living in is fake?
Regardless of how painful it is to reject such a beautiful dream, Bruce knows he'd only let himself down, as well as Gotham City, if he gave into the Mad Hatter. Moral of the story, running away from reality and your own responsibilities is never acceptable.

[thecolorsblend]

I enjoy this episode. But I do have a gripe about it.

And actually, it's not even with the episode itself. A few months before the BTAS premiere, the crew did an interview with Comics Scene magazine. Remember Comics Scene? I do. Anyway, obviously they talked extensively about the show and somebody (Alan Burnett?) singled out Perchance To Dream, describing the basic premise and also promising that it wouldn't be a dream or amnesia or something.

Well, it was basically a dream.

Now, it's not the episode's fault that a producer misrepresented it to the fan press. But at the same time, ever since I was a little kid, it's been hard to watch Perchance To Dream without remembering that quote and how misleading it was. In retrospect, maybe the better move would've been to just say "Perchance To Dream is a Mad Hatter episode and it's got a lot of wacky stuff in it" or maybe just say nothing at all about it.

Pointless trivia: Iirc, that same issue of Comics Scene also has an interview with Michael Keaton where he talks about Batman Returns. This is a pretty hair-down interview where Keaton is probably a bit more open and honest than celebrities would be allowed these days. And of course, he was asked about a third movie. This isn't an exact quote but it's not far off. "I might come back for a third one but it would have to be Burton or somebody else with a really original take on the character". Prophetic words, those.

[The Laughing Fish]

I enjoy this episode. But I do have a gripe about it.

And actually, it's not even with the episode itself. A few months before the BTAS premiere, the crew did an interview with Comics Scene magazine. Remember Comics Scene? I do. Anyway, obviously they talked extensively about the show and somebody (Alan Burnett?) singled out Perchance To Dream, describing the basic premise and also promising that it wouldn't be a dream or amnesia or something.

Well, it was basically a dream.

Now, it's not the episode's fault that a producer misrepresented it to the fan press. But at the same time, ever since I was a little kid, it's been hard to watch Perchance To Dream without remembering that quote and how misleading it was. In retrospect, maybe the better move would've been to just say "Perchance To Dream is a Mad Hatter episode and it's got a lot of wacky stuff in it" or maybe just say nothing at all about it.

That's pretty strange how somebody from the crew would voluntarily lie about the premise of the episode. If they were asked on the spot, maybe they didn't want to give the Mad Hatter plot twist away and decided to mislead and avoid giving away the surprise. But from what you're saying, somebody on the show decided to use this episode and falsely advertise about it. How odd.

Putting that mystery aside, I found this article about a psychologist analysing the dream science in Perchance to Dream, and comparing it to real world science.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientific-reason-apos-t-read-195100733.html

Honestly, I never scrutinised Bruce's reasoning how he figured out he was dreaming, because like the article says, many people - myself included - aren't able to speak in our dreams. Let alone read anything. So I always assumed the difference between left and right brain hemispheres absorbing sensory information as explained by Bruce in that moment was nothing more than fiction made up for the show. Well, at least the show got the logic half-right, after all.

Still a great episode.

[The Laughing Fish]

From Kevin Conroy:

My favorite episode of Batman: The Animated Series would probably be 'Perchance to Dream.' I love many of the episodes, but that one... What's made the character fun for me to play is his complexity, his darkness. All of that is rooted in the loss of his parents when he was a child, and anything that deals with that psychology and that psychodrama that he lives in makes it fun for me as an actor.

Source: https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2460872/kevin-conroy-reveals-his-favorite-batman-the-animated-series-episode

Without a doubt, Conroy was at his peak during the BTAS era. Perchance to Dream was one out of many episodes where he was able to show his range as a voice actor; expressing many different emotions so convincingly. He brought a lot of soul into Batman. I wish he could still replicate that level of peak voice acting again, but I guess age does take a toll.

[The Dark Knight]

I enjoy this episode.

It's one of the better episodes. From the outset I like dream/virtual reality stories and character studies.

I like that Perchance to Dream comments on Batman's existence. Batman existing means his parents do not, which brings pain. But his parents existing means so much else doesn't.

At the core Batman is a realist who won't live a lie, no matter how good it feels.

Bruce probably would live a happy life if his parents didn't die - but the dreaming Batman KNOWS of the other timeline. As such the dreaming Batman feels like his life lacks meaning. The murder of Thomas and Martha made him a better person in terms of training and discipline, rather than possibly being a entitled rich brat viewing life from a completely different perspective.

I also like that Batman is presented as a seperate entity for the majority of the episode, ala Ego. The idea that Bruce is impotent and Batman apparition is all powerful. It's a fight with himself, and the entity cannot be escaped, but only finally embraced.

"The world only makes sense when you force it to."

[The Laughing Fish]

I was reading this list that ranked all the BTAS and TNBA episodes together, from worst to best. Perchance to Dream was ranked at number ten, but what really caught my eye was this description of the episode itself:

In "Perchance to Dream" we find two villains. First is the Mad Hatter, who builds this fictional world in which Bruce's parents are still alive and the second is this entity of Batman. For Bruce, Batman is truly the obstacle in the way of a happy life. Bruce battles Batman at the end as a way to solve this dream, but maybe as a hope that he can make this life real even if he knows he can't. Bruce can't stop himself. As Batman he's the villain of his own life, keeping himself prisoner.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inverse.com/entertainment/batman-the-animated-series-episodes-ranked-best-worst/amp

It's a nuanced take, I must admit. 

[thecolorsblend]

I was reading this list that ranked all the BTAS and TNBA episodes together, from worst to best. Perchance to Dream was ranked at number ten, but what really caught my eye was this description of the episode itself:

In "Perchance to Dream" we find two villains. First is the Mad Hatter, who builds this fictional world in which Bruce's parents are still alive and the second is this entity of Batman. For Bruce, Batman is truly the obstacle in the way of a happy life. Bruce battles Batman at the end as a way to solve this dream, but maybe as a hope that he can make this life real even if he knows he can't. Bruce can't stop himself. As Batman he's the villain of his own life, keeping himself prisoner.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inverse.com/entertainment/batman-the-animated-series-episodes-ranked-best-worst/amp

It's a nuanced take, I must admit.

I can buy it. I see Batman as sort of Bruce's curse. It won't last forever. Bruce won't always be Batman's prisoner. But it will last a long time and it adds up to me that some small part of Bruce is still rebelling against the idea of Batman.

It works for me.

[The Dark Knight]

If certain elements are introduced to reduce the compulsion for Bruce to pull on the cape and cowl, he ceases to be the character we all know and love. I don't think he should be allowed to evolve to the point Nolan depicted. I like the trend that Bruce can retire for lengthy periods, ala Beyond, TDK Returns and seemingly Keaton in The Flash. But it's not forever. He can't be rid of Batman because Batman is not a costume or a persona he can cast off, as Ego argues, because it's his very heart. As Elvis said, the truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away. Even if Bruce did wake up to the pain being Batman caused, by that time he's too old and any damage has been done.

[The Laughing Fish]

Here's a video of Kevin Conroy talking about the episode.

Conroy did not remember the plot very well. The stuff he spoke about Bruce going back to his childhood and revisiting his parents' murders never happened. I'm surprised at how much he got nearly everything wrong.

He is right about playing Thomas Wayne, but even then, he mistakenly calls him Bruce Wayne Sr. I don't know where he got the idea that he played a young Bruce from, but nevertheless, Conroy playing Thomas in Perchance to Dream was an interesting choice. Richard Moll, the voice of Two-Face, played the hallucinations of Thomas in the other episodes.