Skip to main content

story identification - TV show episode with a woman in a park who keeps "dreaming" of doctors around her



Back in the mid/late 90s I saw a show where a woman and man were having a picnic in a beautiful park. The woman fell asleep and woke up with (maybe) doctors around her that told her everything was okay and to close her eyes. She woke back up at the picnic with the man, and thought she had a bad dream. Then things started “glitching” in the park, kind of like when the holodeck malfunctions in Star Trek.


She then wakes back up with several people around her (maybe doctors) who say she’s in shock and dying. After she dies, the (maybe doctors) say something like “she’s the third one this week” or something like that. The camera pans out and shows that everyone was in a giant building or maybe a ship, and she had been plugged in some kind of machine like The Matrix.



Answer



This is the 1985 Twilight Zone story, "Dreams for Sale."





Per Wikipedia:



On an idyllic outdoor picnic with her husband, their daughters, and their dog, a woman becomes confused and disoriented when her vision stutters and events begin repeating themselves. Eventually, her reality become so distorted with repeating images and sounds that she screams. Waking in a dream-making machine, she discovers she is in the future, alongside hundreds of others. They are all in a sterile, industrial indoor environment. A technician explains to her that she was in a Dreamatron, which is a "Fully Interactive Dream Machine," and it was running a "Country Picnic" program.



He fixes the circuit board for her dream bay and tells her to relax and enjoy her last six minutes before returning to work. Still confused, she returns to her dream world and relaxes again. She tries to tell her husband about her "dream" but forgets it almost straight away. She asks her fantasy husband if she can stay with him there forever. He tells her that yes she can and that he wants her to stay forever, too. Meanwhile, the machine burns out before the technicians can disconnect her, trapping her in the alternate reality forever.


They note, "At least she died happy."



Here is the image of the giant building in the future, which I found impressively creepy when I first saw this story.


Factory


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?
Post a Comment
Read more