Waking Moments ( episode ) The crew begins to experience vivid nightmares , all containing the same mysterious alien . Summary . Teaser . The senior staff is asleep . They are each having their own separate dream s , but in each of the dreams , something unpleasant happens . In Lieutenant Tom Paris ' dream , he is flying a shuttle when it suddenly begins to malfunction and he crashes into a planet ; Lieutenant Commander Tuvok forgets to put on his uniform and arrives at the bridge naked with the entire senior staff present and laughing at him ; Captain Kathryn Janeway walks into a darkened mess hall to discover members of her crew sitting at a table , dead , because she didn ' t get them home in time , and Ensign Harry Kim dreams that Seven of Nine tries to seduce him in a Jefferies tube ; however , after passionately kissing , he suddenly sees the face of a mysterious alien instead of that of Seven . In fact , the same mysterious alien appears in the dreams of everybody shortly before they wake up . Act One . Lieutenant B ' Elanna Torres arrives at Paris ' quarters upset that he missed their breakfast date . Paris apologizes , telling her that he had a wild nightmare and was out like a light . He then goes to the mess hall to get a cup of coffee , but Neelix inadvertently pours him a steaming cup of cooking oil instead . He apologizes and says that he has in fact had a rough night . Paris makes his way to the bridge , apologizing to Chakotay for his rather late arrival when he discovers that the captain herself has been late this morning . Captain Janeway , who had arrived just moments before Paris , appears somewhat disoriented and groggy , and explains to Chakotay the nightmare she had last night and the mysterious alien she encountered in her dream . Chakotay explains that he also had a nightmare in which his father turned into a vicious - looking alien when they had gone deer hunting . Janeway is surprised that both had this strange alien in their dreams . Paris , who couldn ' t help but overhear their conversation , interrupts and comments about an alien in his dream as well . They soon discover that Tuvok had a nightmare too : one nightmare that – just like everyone else ' s – involved an alien with ridges on his face and neck . Realizing that the appearance of this mysterious alien in all of their dreams couldn ' t have been a mere coincidence , Janeway calls the senior staff together , but Harry Kim is nowhere to be found . After repeated unsuccessful hails to reach Kim , Janeway and Tuvok finally go to his quarters . Upon entering his room , they find Kim asleep but cannot wake him . They decide to bring him to sickbay . After a thorough examination by The Doctor , it turns out that Kim and several other crew members are in a so - called hyper - REM state – or simply speaking , just fast asleep . For some reason , however , he cannot wake them up – not even with direct cortical stimulation . The Doctor advises that everyone avoid going to sleep for the time being until he knows more . Janeway concludes that all this must be related to the alien in their dreams . In the briefing room , Torres , Chakotay , Janeway , Paris , and Seven of Nine each describe the alien in their dreams in an attempt to reconstruct his image . Eventually , they arrive at the picture they want and Seven states that the Borg have never encountered this species before . They cannot find any starship s in this vicinity or planets capable of sustaining humanoid life . Chakotay suggests that they use their dreams to make contact with the alien , because that is the only place anyone of them have seen the alien . He suggests a technique called lucid dream ing in which the dreamer takes complete control of his or her dream . He tells the senior staff that he can use the same techniques he uses during a vision quest to enter a lucid dream . He will do so by remembering a visual cue – such as Earth ' s moon – to remind him that he is dreaming . He can use this cue to wake himself up by tapping himself on the back of his hand three times . This is their only option , as they cannot stay awake forever and have to come up with ways to get themselves out of this situation with the means they have . In sickbay , The Doctor is ready for Chakotay to go to sleep . When Chakotay falls asleep and is in his dream , he is holding a spear and is deer hunting through the corridor s of the . When the deer enters the mess hall , Chakotay sees the full moon outside the window and confirms that he ' s dreaming . He now has complete control over his dream . He goes to the other end of the mess hall and finds the deer turning into the alien . Chakotay tries to strike it , but it knocks the weapon out of his hand . Act Two . In a confrontation with the alien who is surprised that Chakotay is aware of his dream , Chakotay finds out that they are dealing with a species that exists in the dream state only . The alien believes that " Voyager " – as yet another " waking species " – is out to destroy them . Chakotay assures him that " Voyager " had no intention to destroy them and that they are only interested in waking up the rest of their crew and leaving immediately . The alien explains that when " Voyager " passes through their space , its crew will awaken . He tells them to go to a six - planet system – which marks the nearest border of their space – less than a parsec away . He warns Chakotay to pray that he will never dream of them again . Chakotay taps his hand three times and is instantly awake in sickbay . Chakotay heads to the bridge with Captain Janeway and they begin laying in a course toward the six - planet system the alien talked about . Chakotay talks about what the alien told him , referencing Australian aborigines whose creation mythology states that the world was in fact dreamed into existence . He wonders if the aliens ever wake up and how they evolved this way . Janeway states that they may in fact never know as sometimes first contact is the last contact . After they reach the border of the alien territory , Kim and the others finally wake up . Interestingly , Seven of Nine asks Kim to join her in a Jefferies tube similar to that he had dreamed about being with her ; this time , however , he gives her an excuse to stall for time . In the mess hall , Torres , Neelix , and Tuvok are discussing their respective nightmares . They tease Kim about his dream , which Torres believes involved a woman of sorts . They laugh it off and then turn to Tuvok , wondering what a Vulcan nightmare would be like . Even as Neelix jokingly suggests that it would involve being trapped on a planet where the only means of communication is laughter , Tuvok , remains rather stoic and does not entertain the group ' s funny inclinations . Suddenly , the ship is under attack by the same aliens responsible for the dreams . The crew of " Voyager " realize that they had been led into a trap . The aliens surround " Voyager " with a dampening field and " Voyager " suffers a complete power drain . Act Three . A squad of aliens board the ship and escort the crew to the cargo bay . There , Janeway decides that they should create a diversion so that someone can access a Jefferies tube and retake the ship . Seven of Nine punches Kim and explains quietly that she is creating a diversion . Janeway pretends to handle it while Torres and Chakotay access a Jefferies tube . While accessing manual control , Chakotay suddenly sees the full moon on the control panel – realizing that he must still be dreaming and that he , in fact , never woke up the first time around . The aliens try to restrain Chakotay but he taps the back of his hand three times and instantly is awake in the real sickbay . Finally really awake , The Doctor explains that Chakotay has been asleep for nearly two days and that the rest of the crew has fallen asleep one - by - one , leaving only Chakotay and The Doctor ( " No rest for the never weary " ) . Based on readings The Doctor took while everyone ' s been asleep , they conclude that all of the crew are sharing the same dream , when a monitor identified Blain , , Swift , Samantha Wildman , and others crewmembers with the same pattern of brain waves , as the result of an alien neurogenic field . Act Four . Chakotay is convinced the aliens are somewhere , also asleep , and chose this way to attack others . He realizes they need to be searching for the neurogenic field ' s signature to find them , and leaves for the bridge . Later , The Doctor comes with an injection to keep Chakotay awake . Finally , Chakotay finds the aliens and sets a course , having to move Paris ' body in the process . In the common dream , the senior officers are speculating about what is really going on because Chakotay has strangely disappeared . They assume that maybe he was right and that they are all dreaming . Janeway says that they should still treat this like it is an alien invasion , so she , Torres , and Tuvok eventually make their way through a Jefferies tube and into main engineering . Torres tries to shut down the dampening field , but the warp core suddenly turns on . The computer then warns that a warp core breach will occur in sixty seconds . The core cannot be ejected , so they surround engineering with a containment field and evacuate . Janeway hesitates and orders Tuvok and Torres to go out while she stays in . When the breach occurs , the ship shakes but is not destroyed . Janeway comes out of engineering a few seconds later and concludes that they are definitely still dreaming . Act Five . Janeway suddenly appears on the bridge with Chakotay and explains that she woke up the same way he did . The crew gradually begins to wake up . They set a course away from the alien space , but then Chakotay sees the full moon on the viewscreen again . He tries to wake up but cannot . The Doctor explains to Janeway that Chakotay is paranoid and tries to sedate him and despite Chakotay ' s resistance , he succeeds . Just then , Chakotay wakes up on the bridge again . The Doctor says that he fell asleep again and that he had to inject him with a powerful compound to wake him up . When they scan for a certain neurogenic field , they are finally able to locate the exact location of the aliens . The Doctor sends Chakotay down to the alien ' s planet with a hypospray to keep him awake . In the dream world , Janeway , Tuvok , and Torres cannot wake themselves but they know that they are dreaming and are thus in complete control . They grab phaser rifle s and come across the aliens near the cargo bay . The aliens try to shoot them , but they cannot be harmed . Janeway orders everyone to stay in control of the dream , but the aliens threaten that they will slowly waste away because they are not getting nutrition or muscle stimulation in the waking world . Meanwhile , Chakotay is on the planet and cannot disable the field that is making the crew sleep . He finds a whole population of sleeping aliens lying around , all of whom seem to be in a dreaming state . He begins to have trouble concentrating and is about to inject himself when he decides to inject one of the aliens instead because they look weak . He orders The Doctor to target that chamber with a photon torpedo and destroy it if he does not hear from Chakotay in five minutes . Chakotay wakes one of the aliens and orders him to turn off the field or he will start shooting , but just then he falls asleep and enters the dream . There , he tells the aliens that they will all be killed if they do not stop this dream immediately . The Doctor is able to successfully revive all the crewmembers after the aliens deactivate the field , however now no one can actually fall asleep . After Chakotay , Paris , Kim , Tuvok , and Neelix find each other up early in the morning in the mess hall , Chakotay suggests that Neelix might as well start breakfast . Memorable quotes . " " Resistance is futile . " " " " It appears , that in my haste to report to the bridge , I neglected to put on my uniform . " " " " What are you looking for ? " " " " The moon . " " " " What ? " " " " Either I ' ve become impervious to antimatter explosions , or we ' re still dreaming . " " " " Captain , Ensign Kim , Commander Chakotay . I ' m glad to see you all up and about . . . " " " " I wonder what a Vulcan nightmare would be like . " " " " Alone , exiled on a planet , where the only form of communication is laughter . " " " " Oh , come on , Tuvok . " " " " I won ' t dignify this Inquisition with a response . " " " " And the next thing I knew I was being boiled alive in a pot of my own leola root stew . " " " " Talk about a nightmare ! " " " " Well , it was perfectly seasoned . " " " " A - koo - chee - moya . Far from the sacred places of my grandfathers , far from the bones of my people , I seek to sleep to meet the one who has visited us in our dreams . " " " " Sometimes first contact is last contact . " " " " Congratulations , commander . You ' re awake . " " " " As captain , you should not be taking risks with your life . " " " " I ' m touched by your concern , Tuvok . " " Links and references . References . 2374 ; 47 ; all hands ; animazine ; assimilation ; Astrometrics ; auxiliary power ; away mission ; battle stations ; Blain ; brain wave pattern ; breakfast ; chief medical officer ' s log , USS " Voyager " ; centimeter ; Chile ; coffee ; collective consciousness ; collective unconsciousness ; comparative pharmacology ; cooking oil ; dampening field ; deer ; defense procedure omega ; delirium ; dream ; dream species ; Dream species ' homeworld ; Earth ; egg s ; first contact ; ; Friday ; holodeck ; hoverball ; hyper - REM ; hypothalamus ; isolation door ; Jefferies tube ; Kolopak ; leola root ; lucid dream ; Luna ; neurogenic field ; neurogenic transmitter ; nightmare ; nudity ; phaser rifle ; photon torpedo ; red alert ; self - hypnosis ; shuttle ; scrambled eggs ; sickbay ; skiing ; Sleeping Beauty ; somnolence ; spear ; spring ; stimulant ; Swift ; turbolift ; warp core breach ; vision quest ; Vulcan s ; water skiing ;