Episode 30: Perchance To Dream
Story By: Laren Bright & Michael Reaves
Teleplay By: Joe R. Lansdale
Directed By: Boyd Kirkland
Original Air Date: 10/19/92

I always love it when dreams are used as the main plot for a story, because they have always been such a fascinating subject to me. Sure they can be used as an easy way out from telling a story that drastically changes the status quo so things can go back to normal, but they can also give us a chance to see characters in situations that we never thought were possible, which can then make for some fantastic story opportunities. For “Batman The Animated Series,” there is no greater example of this, than the classic episode “Perchance To Dream.” In this episode we get to see Bruce Wayne live the life that he has always wanted. A life where his Parents are still alive. The story for this episode is pretty similar to the classic Superman tale “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore, where in that story Superman is living his dream life, but doesn’t realize he’s actually under the control of an alien plant in the real world who is creating a fantasy life for him. But what makes “Perchance To Dream” different from that Superman story, is that right away Bruce suspects something is wrong, and spends most of the episode trying to figure out just which life of his is the real one. Where as in “For the Man Who Has Everything,” Superman had no idea that he was living in a dream world until the very end. I felt that having Bruce know that something was wrong with his life in the dream world from the very start helped serve the story in a better way, as we got to see the conflict and emotional struggle he was having with himself, knowing that he is living the life he has always wanted, but at the same time knowing that it’s all wrong.

The episode starts off with a car chase between Batman and some crooks that lead him to an abandon warehouse, where there’s a trap is waiting for him inside. As he enters the warehouse, he is suddenly blinded by a bright light, but soon sees a large apparatus falling onto his head, which knocks him out before he has a chance to dodge it. After the screen goes to black as Batman gets knocked out, the scene quickly switches to Bruce waking up in bed out of breath like he had just had a nightmare. Alfred is there to greet him as he wakes up, and right away Bruce starts asking him how he got away from that trap and got back home. Alfred though has no clue to what he his talking about, and both he and Bruce think they are playing jokes on each other. I did like the one bit of dialogue exchange they had with each other during this scene, when Bruce asked if Robin was the one who rescued him from the trap, and Alfred just thinks that Robin was a woman that Bruce was with that night, and quickly drops it by saying it’s none of his business. While it was funny to hear Robin be referred to as a young lady by Alfred, hearing him mentioned here made wish that we could have seen what Dick Grayson’s life would have been like in this dream world, as this scene was the only time that his name was mentioned.

A great moment happens in the next scene as Bruce makes his way to the clock in the Wayne Manor living room, which of course is the secret entrance to the Batcave, but is shocked to learn that the secret entrance is now gone. The way we got see Bruce panic here for a bit was great. Kevin Conroy did a great job of conveying Bruce’s panic and fear at this moment, which are emotions that you would expect for him to have when he finds out that an important part of his life is now gone. I also loved how when he asks Alfred about what happened to the cave, and Alfred has no idea what he’s talking about, Bruce just gives a sarcastic response to him describing the Batcave. Clearly showing his frustration about whats happening. But the surprise of the missing Batcave entrance is nothing compared to the shock Bruce is about to get next. Once he’s done venting his frustration to Alfred, he hears a voice call him son, and as he turns around to see who that voice is, Bruce is stunned to see both his mother and father standing in front of him. Unable to believe what he’s seeing, Bruce just runs out of the room saying “It’s impossible! It can’t be you!” I felt this was a great moment because we got a rare opportunity to see what Bruce’s reaction would be if he found out his parents were still alive. His reaction of shock was a fitting one for him to have, as Batman wouldn’t be the type of person to just accept something at face value and believe that his parents are now back and just be happy about it. No, rather you would expect him to doubt it, and his reaction of running out of the room in shock is something I’m sure anyone would do if the most important people in their life that they thought were gone, suddenly came back and are now part of their life again. But after Bruce runs off, his father goes in to check on his son, and now having calmed down a bit, Bruce tells his father that he’s okay and that he’s well enough to go into work, but is still not sure just what is going on. So before he leaves, Bruce asks Alfred to humor him and tell him about his life. Alfred of course thinks this is a strange request, but goes on to tell Bruce that he is the head of Wayne Enterprises now that his father has retired, and that he is also engaged to marry Selina Kyle. After hearing this, Bruce just says to himself that this is all wrong, and just heads off to work wondering why his life is upside down.

Now at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce looks bored out of his mind as we see him sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, just tapping a pen on his desk waiting for the day to end. But his day gets more exciting once his soon to be wife Selina Kyle comes into his office to see if he’s okay, and all of sudden she sees Batman swinging across from outside the window. This is another shocker for Bruce, so he immediately runs outside to see if he can catch up to Batman, but when he does, he sees that Batman is in the middle of stopping a jewelry robbery in impressive fashion. Whats really cool about this action sequence, is that Bruce gets to see from the outside just how impressive he actually is as Batman. I love it when after Batman apprehends all the crooks and Selina says to Bruce, “Isn’t he fantastic?” Bruce has a look of amazement on his face and just replies to her by saying, “Actually- Yeah!” Once Batman leaves the scene, Bruce tries to get some information about Selina by asking her if the name Catwoman rings a bell. Selina just tells Bruce that he’s starting to worry her, and asks him again if there’s anything wrong. Bruce out of frustration tells Selina that he’s losing his mind, and the two of them just walk away together.

Later that night, Bruce decides to seek some help from Leslie Thompkins, the only doctor he trusts. He tells her that he doesn’t know who he is anymore, and that he feels like he is living someone else’s life. Leslie goes on to tell Bruce that because everything in his life has been handed to him due to his wealthy family, that he doesn’t feel he has accomplished anything, and felt the need to create a delusional life in his mind that was satisfying to him, where he would live the life of someone who’s deeds had great value. Batman. Leslie convinces Bruce that everything he’s been through as Batman, all his training and his parents murder, have all been delusions in his mind. Relieved by hearing this, Bruce just says to himself, “Then the nightmare is over,” and makes his way home feeling like a new man and that everything in his life is now perfect. While no Batman fan want’s to see Bruce leave his life as Batman behind, it was nice to actually see Bruce being happy about his life in this moment. He greets his father with a big hug, which I’m sure is something he’s wanted to do for years, and even has some fun with Alfred by making a joke about him not finding the entrance to the Batcave. Bruce goes on to say that his life right now is a dream, but like most happy moments in Bruce’s life, this one only last for a very short amount of time.

Just as Bruce is starting to feel good about himself, he soon finds out that the life he’s living right now is actually nothing but a dream. As he begins to read a newspaper, he starts to notice that the words are all jumbled and make no sense. He then goes to his bookshelf to see if he could read anything from there, but it’s all the same. None of the words make any sense. He comes to the realization that he can’t read anything because he is in a dream, and knows that when you’re dreaming you can’t read anything, because dreams come from the left side of the brain, while reading comes from the right. While I’ve heard that there are some people who can read in their dreams, I’ve always thought this was a clever way for Bruce to find out that he was actually living in a dream. I remember being intrigued by this when I saw the episode for the first time as a kid and heard that explanation. It was a memorable scene that always stuck with me, and made me aware of the fact that I could never read in my dreams. After this realization, Bruce runs off in a panic again, and enters a room with T.V. showing footage of Batman. Bruce knows that whoever is actually in that Batman suit, some how knows whats going on, and can make this dream stop. So he immediately leaves Wayne Manor to confront Batman, and to try and escape from this dream world.

On his way to confront Batman, Bruce get’s pulled over by two Police officers who were made aware of his condition by his parents. Refusing to go with them, Bruce easily evades the two cops and makes his way to a bell a tower in the Gotham cemetery, knowing that Batman will show up there, since this bell tower is part of his nightly patrol. Batman does show up at the tower just as Bruce predicted, and before Bruce explains to Batman how he figured out this was a dream, he at first just goes and attacks Batman which then leads to a brief scuffle, and then demands for him to tell him exactly whats going on. But Batman doesn’t explain anything to him, and when Bruce gets distracted for a second by the police officers calling out to him from below, that’s when Batman makes a sneak attack on Bruce, in what turns out to be a really cool fight sequence. The finale for “Perchance To Dream” has to be one of my favorite climatic sequences from the whole series, as the setting of the bell tower at night, with a huge thunderstorm going on in the background, helped create a great atmosphere for Bruce and Batman to have their final showdown. Speaking of Bruce and Batman, how cool was it to see them both fighting each other during this sequence? They were both of course evenly matched where no one really had the upper hand, which helped make this fight sequence a really cool one to watch.

During the fight, Bruce is able to remove Batman’s cowl and see for himself just who is behind all this. And to his surprise, it was none other than the Mad Hatter. At first Bruce is worried that the Mad Hatter now knows all of his secrets, but the Mad Hatter explains to him that he’s not actually the real Mad Hatter, but just a figment of Bruce’s imagination, and that the dream device he’s using on Batman reveals nothing to the real world. He goes on to further explain to Bruce that he created this dream world, or as he calls it, Bruce’s own “Private Wonderland,” for him to live the life he’s always wanted, and that there is no way out of it. Knowing that the Police are making their way up the bell tower, Bruce decides he has only one option left to get out of this dream world. And that is to kill himself in the dream. Despite the warnings of the Mad Hatter saying this is no ordinary dream and that there’s no telling what will happen in the real world, Bruce just goes ahead and plunges himself off the bell tower, falling to his death in the dream. Even though this sequence with the Mad Hatter and Bruce had some great dialogue and great voice acting by both Kevin Conroy and Roddy McDowall, this is the scene where I had the one complaint about the episode. I never understood that if the Mad Hatter was a figment of Bruce’s imagination, what made Bruce think about the Mad Hatter in the first place to have him show up in his dream? He didn’t know he was captured by him in the beginning, and also, how would this dream version of the Mad Hatter know the real one’s plan and explain it to Bruce if he was just a figment of his imagination? It just doesn’t seem to me that it was a good enough explanation for having the Mad Hatter show up in the dream world, and made it seem like it was a coincidence that the villain Bruce thought of in his dream, just so happened to be the villain who had captured him. Again, as much as I love the interaction between the two characters in this scene, the lack of sense the Mad Hatter’s appearance made here, keeps this episode from being truly perfect.

After Bruce jumps off the bell tower in the dream, we see that his idea worked, as Batman immediately wakes up from the fall and sees he’s being held captive with a device over his head. He breaks free from the machine, and immediately goes after the Mad Hatter who can’t believe he got free. I love how when Batman is making his way toward the Mad Hatter, he has this severe angry look on his face like he’s going to rip the Mad Hatter’s head off for what he did to him. He then grabs the Mad Hatter and demands him to tell him why he did this. This actually brings the Mad Hatter to tears, as he starts screaming to Batman that he ruined his life, and that he would have gladly given Batman any life he wanted, just so he could keep him out of his. I thought this was a nice touch to have Mad Hatter’s reasoning for doing all this harken back to the first episode he appeared in, which goes to show you just how important being with the girl Alice was to him from the “Mad As A Hatter” episode. And also how much he blames Batman for keeping her away from him.

The episode then ends with the Police taking the Mad Hatter away, as Gordon, who is holding the dream device, asks Batman just what exactly this machine is. And Batman has the perfect response to end the episode on. “The stuff that dreams are made of.”

“Perchance To Dream” is without a doubt a truly classic episode of “Batman The Animated Series.” The concept of having Bruce live a life where his parents are still alive was fantastic, and made for many memorable scenes throughout the episode. The voice acting done by Kevin Conroy in this episode was also one of his best performances throughout his entire career of playing Batman. He has often said that this was his favorite episode to work on, as he really had to play three parts in it. Not only does he play Bruce Wayne and Batman, who are two vastly different characters in this episode, but also had the chance to play Bruce’s father as well. But to me, the way he played Bruce in this episode makes this an outstanding performance all in itself. The many different emotions he had to portray as Bruce were a lot, and he nailed them all perfectly. Again showing me why he will always be my favorite Batman actor.

There are a couple of things that keep this episode from being perfect though, such as the complaint I mentioned earlier about why the Mad Hatter showed up in the dream, as well as the fact that the animation for this episode wasn’t as good as it should have been for a story as good as this. Several characters looked off model in certain scenes, which just didn’t make the episode look right. But even with these two problems, “Perchance To Dream” still continues to hold up not only as a great episode, but as a great story in general that Batman fans dream of.

Score: 4.5/5