VOY: Waking Moments

         I was pretty skeptical when this episode started. Featuring characters not sure if they are awake or asleep is in the same category for me as holodeck episodes. Nothing essentially wrong with trying it, but you better do a good job. I really liked the conclusion with Chakotay using the Doctor to provide a failsafe that would either kill Chakotay but save the crew or just save the crew. The dreams they came up with for the characters seemed pretty cliched which was probably the lowest point. Sure it is kinda amusing that Tuvok would have a nightmare about being naked and laughed at, but something more creative would have been nice. 
         We open with the crew all having nightmares where an alien shows up just before they wake up. They all show up a bit late for work complaining about nightmares and then realize Kim isn't there. In fact he is in his quarters sleeping and they realize they all saw the same alien. Chakotay comes up with a plan to go to sleep but lucid dream with the moon as his cue he is sleeping and tapping his hand three times to wake up. It works and he confronts the alien who tells him they just have to fly out of the aliens space and everything will be cool. He wakes up and they head out of there but it is a trap and they are attacked. The aliens appear all over the ship and put everyone on a cargobay. Suddenly he realizes he is still asleep and taps his hand three times and wakes up in sickbay. Everyone on the ship but him and the Doctor are now asleep.
         In the dream Janeway saw Chakotay vanish and realizes they are still dreaming. This somehow lets her take control of the dream but they still can't really do anything. Chakotay though manages to find the aliens planet and takes the ship there while being pumped full of stimulants by the Doctor. He falls asleep a few times but the Doctor keeps him going. Eventually he finds the sleeping aliens and beams down but can't get their transmitter to shut down. He tells the Doctor to wait five minutes and if he doesn't call back to target his location with a photon torpedo. He wakes up one of the aliens with the stimulant and falls asleep. But once there he tells the leader about the torpedo and it seems they don't like the idea very much. Everyone awake again but now they all have insomnia and end up in the mess hall.

         Review: A fun episode even if it did fall into a few too many tropes. A clever ending keeps it slightly above average.

6 out of 10