JLUCast 16: “Only A Dream”

While the Justice League contend with a prison break of some of their most powerful foes, a new villain emerges. Dr. Destiny has the power to invade dreams, and an axe to grind with the World’s Greatest Super Heroes. Each Leaguer will have to face their greatest nightmare, and struggle to realize it’s “Only A Dream”, before it’s too late!

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Clip credits:

Clips from Justice League “Only A Dream”, music by Michael McQuistion, theme by Lolita Ritmanis

“Mahna Mahna” skit from The Muppet Show

27 responses to “JLUCast 16: “Only A Dream”

  1. I always wondered if Wes Craven read any Dr. Destiny comics before he wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street.

    Batman’s line about “my brain isn’t a nice place to be” is one of my favorite pieces of Batman dialogue, too.

    Thanks for the show.

    1. Wes Craven did a comprehensive oral history of Nightmare for Vulture ( https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/nightmare-on-elm-street-oral-history.html ) and Doc Destiny doesn’t rate a mention. The premise itself came from an article about survivors of the Cambodian killing fields, specifically a boy’s nightmares about a monster trying to get him, so he tried to stop sleeping, and eventually died in his sleep in the middle of night terrors. Dark stuff.

      1. Yeah, I think that is mentioned in the “Never Sleep Again” documentary on the Elm Street films. I highly recommend that documentary. It’s very informative, and does a deep dive into the series, but has a lot of fun with it too. Other than dark stuff like that!

        Chris

  2. Batman, the accomplished singer/songwriter[1], has the XM Satellite radio in the Batmobile tuned to Public Domain Remixes? Awesome! So did the ice cream truck driver from “Legends”, yes? This week, “Farmer in the Dell” is lit, I hear.

    [1] “The Lego Movie”, for one.

  3. When I think of the Three Musketeers of Hal, Guy, and John, Stewart stood out to me for his marriage to Katma Tui and his dedication to The Mosaic. He seemed the one who most “lived the life” or “went native” as a spacefaring GL. So I never got the “garbled dream speak” when I first saw the episode, instead taking it as an alien language to show how distant John may have gotten with his Earth roots.

    Now that you mention Volcana and Fire, I’m left thinking of the unaired JLU episode where Volcana and Killer Frost faced off with Fire and Ice.

    1. I thought Chris’ (the kid, not me) garbled language was maybe meant to be alien as well, and maybe even the signage, but John’s reaction made me rethink he was noticing he was in a dream from what the creators thought were clues to tell him that. But maybe you were right, and I shouldn’t have second-guessed myself!

      I don’t think I was aware of a Volcana/Killer Frost vs. Fire/Ice episode that was scrapped. Hmmmm!!!

      Chris

      1. Sure it was scrapped, like the episode where Ted Kord debuted in a team-up with Capt. Atom; or the one where J’onn led his Detroit teammates against the Cadre and its mysterious Overlord 🙂

  4. Loves me some Dr. Destiny. Probably one of my favorite underappreciated villains, so this is definitely a good episode to discuss.

    Batman snores just like Cindy? I damn near spit out my coffee, Chris!

  5. Impressive podcast. Most impressive. I had to lesson to this as I fell asleep. Still was a pretty cool one. I liked this show. Was a bit of a pro Bats story, but this one fits. It’s a story were his will would be the one to break it. And J’ohn being the one to help free the others. Glad Flash was shown to be here… since this season of the Flash TV show is making Barry look like a male soap star… that dumb. Uggh can’t wait till the Mirror master story is over. Any way back to the JLU cartoon. Glad to see Volcana. back. But, she was a good gal in Supes. He took her to an island…..oy. Ah well she’s a descent villain here.

    er and Fire fly dating, could be fun ware they fight Huntress and the Question…hmm. Copperhead ,,, oy. Oh I saw the Fire Water’s U-tube page it was pretty cool grats. Speaking of U-tube I also have a U-tube page. That Elizabeth Anne Oswalt on U-tube. Ah the bared alive bit. It’s always a workable clenches. While doc did ware the skull face first his costume wasn’t blue. That’s a defiant homage to Skelator. . Yep John Dee looks bad at the end of this, but still not as Bad as he looked at the end of Super girl… well the Else world’s cross over in the CW verse. There shutter. Granted Super-Girl’s writing staff always makes me shutter.

    Save Dreamer. Finaly! One of mine as a Super-Hero and some times she has a personality of her own. And not Queen Token. So at lest she’s not Captain Marvel in Marvel comics. (Carol Danvers.) Any way this was a cool show and fun to see again. They always did a great job on all of the Charters in The Tim verse. Hmm, a WW story next. Should be cool to see….as long as she doesn’t sing Imagine by John Lennon. Can’t wait to hear the next pod cast.

    1. You listened to this falling asleep? I hope you aren’t trapped in some nightmare! Maybe I should have put a warning beforehand!

      I can’t believe I forgot Dr. Destiny’s appearances on the CW shows. I keep forgetting to mention those. I’ve kind of fallen off the wagon a bit with them, but I watched most of them for the first several years.

      Chris

  6. Like with the last KNIGHTCAST, Dr. Destiny is another underrated skull-faced villain! This episode made great use of him. And good job Chris on pronouncing “materioeptikon”, something I struggled with on the last TREASURYCAST.

  7. Interesting about J’onn saying “I’m stronger than you in here” in Superman’s dream, but then in Flash’s, he still succumbed to the temporal dilation. (Look at me, sounding like I know what I’m talking about.) My thinking is the rules of the dream overpowered J’onn, not Flash’s mind, but interesting. When you can think as fast as Flash, that could have remarkable effects on a telepath. Oh, and Chris, that issue of Flash stuck in stopped time was fantastic! Good callback!

    So if Hawkgirl is claustrophobic, how did she manage being cramped with GL in that little ship on the way to Warworld? Just a thought.

    “Materioeptikon” is one of the worst names to say. It makes “Psyche-magnetron” and “Absorbascon” sound easy.

    I think Chris got beat up more than Destiny in this episode. Course they were both asking for it. 🙂 Thanks, Franklins!

    1. I think maybe J’onn is “powerless” in Flash’s dream, because Wally has totally given in to Destiny’s will at that point. The person has to be willing to work with J’onn to escape. That’s my take, anyway.

      Good call on the “Warworld” bit. Maybe because GL was there she didn’t fill so “enclosed”?

      I definitely took a beating in this one. Cindy made up for some rather peaceful episodes prior.

      Chris

      1. I’ll take that no-prize explanation over the boring-but-realistic “the writers came up with claustrophobia for this episode”.

  8. I can’t believe I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed Flash’s nightmare sequence, since so many of his nightmares were based on Silver Age covers. That was one of my favorite shot-outs to the comics and I didn’t even think about it when commenting. Urrgggghhh……getting old stinks.

    1. Well, the old Flash covers bit wasn’t in this one, but was in “The Brave and the Bold” that introduced Grodd. So see, you didn’t miss it this one!

      Chris

      1. Well, now I feel worse. I’m not even able to remember what episode something was in. 🙂

        Either I’m getting old, or I need to go back and watch the series again. It has been a while since I’ve gone through it.

  9. Great show. I too had forgotten about the twist in Hawkgirl’s nightmare.

    Regarding John’s nightmare, I saw the unreadable signs and indecipherable language not as a reference to the BTAS episode “Only a Dream”, but an extra detail to showcase John’s fear of becoming out of touch with the humanity of Earth. But that is only a guess.

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