SYFY TZ Marathon - Perchance to Dream

It is no surprise "The Hitch-Hiker" is the prime real estate of prime time on Night One of the Twilight Zone marathon, but I like that "Perchance to Dream" got the chance to precede it in the SYFY schedule. I always want Robert Florey's ("Murders of the Rue Morgue") work in this episode to get some serious consideration because of the first season, "Perchance to Dream" and "A World of Difference" are the two episodes who have definitely risen in my personal ranks of the first season. "Perchance to Dream" was a big surprise last year and once again watching the episode just reiterates the previous two viewings of the episode, particular Conte's haunted performance where it definitely looks as if the poor guy badly needed a good night's rest. Fear of heights, fear of death, fear of what lurks within the mind; Conte is at the breaking point. When he "takes a flight" out his psychiatrist, Larch's window (the script by Beaumont hints at this twice; once, when Conte looks way up at the building and nearly faints, and, a little later, when opening up Larch's window to "get a little air"), it wouldn't be a surprise that any escape from "Maya" (Lloyd; certainly va-va-voom but also a symbol of encouragement towards the abyss) was preferable to any further terror. That all of the episode just about takes place in Conte's mind is a clever trick by Beaumont. Larch to his secretary Lloyd is perplexed at Conte's "peaceful departing" when resting on his couch a bit...basically there were even dreams within dreams and flashbacks told to Larch in a dream. But, the nightmare sequences with the carnival and how Florey is able to convincingly create this place so sinister and how the "dream" sequences separating it in Larch's office as Conte tries to explain his mania are what I personally consider the episode's bread and butter.

That "The Hitch-Hiker" followed the episode, I like this as a nice one-two-three punch with "Time Enough at Last", too. Good sample size of what the first season could produce, although the first season was about the entirety of New Year's Eve day.