Dreams

Bio
Dreams are the mental successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep; the content and purpose of which are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest through recorded history.

Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. Their length can vary from a few seconds to 20–30 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase. An average person has three to five dreams per night, but some individuals may have up to seven dreams in one night, tending to last longer as the night progresses.

The Castaways tended to have vivid and partially surreal dreams reflecting current problems and emotional states occurring on the island, such as their relationships to each other. Gilligan tended to have dreams where he saw himself as someone larger in life, but he was still bothered by the reality of his ineptness. Both the Howells had dreams of guilt toward each other and the other Castaways. Mary Ann used the safety of her favorite radio soap opera, Old Doctor Young, as a construct to cope with her fears. Even the Skipper and Professor had dreams from time to time; although the Skipper's dream once resulted in him sleepwalking and re-enacting his war-time experiences. Ginger was the only one to never have dreams on the island, possibly because her real life was a dream in itself.

The Anniversary
Episode: Meet the Meteor

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: After a meteor crashes into the island, the Professor discovers it is causing everything to grow older. Gilligan dreams it's fifty years later and everyone is old. All the men have long hair and beards, and the women have grey hair and arthritis. Gilligan has to help the Skipper to the party for their Fiftieth anniversary, Mrs. Howell chooses a heavy diamond necklace to wear and a doddering Professor escorts the faded Ginger and Mary Ann to the party. During the party, Mr. Howell gives a toast, and while dancing to music from the radio, the aged announcer reveals a storm is about to hit. As everyone runs for cover, Gilligan sits at the table and watches the wind pick up around him.

Cinderella
Episode: Lovey's Secret Admirer

Dreamer: Mrs. Howell

Summary: Cinderella lives in the crumbling ruins of her once grand mansion with her step-mother and step-sisters, Gizelle and Frederika. A knight appears with invitations to the palace ball, but Cinderella is not allowed to attend with her step-sisters. As she is dancing somberly with her worn out mop, her fairy godfather arrives and after several attempts, uses magic to give her a beautiful gown and coach to ride to the ball. He warns her to be home by midnight since he's Union and still in training. Meanwhile, at the ball, Prince Charming isn't impressed by the step-sisters, offering one of them the job of doing his laundry. When Cinderella arrives, he falls in love with her, and Cinderella's fairy godfather sends her step-sisters away so they can be together. When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella rushes off, leaving Prince Charming with her old shoe which magically turns into a glass slipper as he calls out for her to return to him.

Dr. Gilligan and Mr. Hyde
Episode: And Then There Were None

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Dr. Gilligan is the most beloved doctor in London, and he is more shocked than anyone when he is accused of the crimes of Mr. Hyde and being held on trial. Overseen by a bailiff calling everyone together, Dr. Gilligan is supported by Mary Ann, the poor Cockney flower girl he befriended, and defended by Mary Puffins. Unfortunately the case does not look good when it turns out the prosecuting attorney is the nephew of Judge Lord Anthony Armstrong Hanging, the magistrate over the case. There's not much evidence to prove Dr. Gilligan's guilt until the Lady in Red is called into court and reveals that Dr. Gilligan becomes Mr. Hyde whenever someone mentions food. Dr. Gilligan scoffs at the idea until she starts calling out food orders like a fry cook. With Dr. Gilligan standing before the window, everyone watches him transforming bit by bit into Mr. Hyde and finally attacking the Lady in Red when she whips out a large turkey. As he tries to take it, everyone converges on him to take him to prison.

Gilligan and the Beanstalk
Episode: V for Vitamins

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Gilligan is a young boy who lives alone with his mother, Mrs. Howell. When she discovers they are out of oranges, she gives him the family jewels to buy oranges in town, but Gilligan runs into a man named Lester J. Frothingham III, a con-man who gets him to give up the family jewels in return for magic seeds. Upset over what he has done, Mrs. Howell reminds Gilligan they have nothing but beans before tossing the seeds out the window. After they grow into a beanstalk reaching into the sky, Gilligan climbs it to the top and finds a castle in the clouds. He meets Mary Ann, the housekeeper of a giant who hordes the oranges laid by a magic goose. Gilligan wants to steal the goose for his mother, but he also has the urge to free the giant's captives, a beautiful princess who becomes young again when kissed, and an old man, who lies about being a prince to get kissed by Mary Ann. Gilligan steals the giant's goose, but he loses Mary Ann showing the others to safety before getting captured and waking up from the dream.

Gilligan and the Pirates
Episode: Court-Martial

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Lord Admiral Gilligan is the bravest Admiral in the British Fleet, and it is his job to transport the Queen Mother and her daughters, Ginger and Mary Ann through pirate-infested waters when Captain Hook, Long John Silver and Captain Kidd take over his ship and him hostage. Fortunately, Gilligan manages to escape his cage with his belt and check on his guests before fighting the pirates. He fights valiantly against them in a sword fight before losing his weapon and getting forced to walk the plank.

Gilligan the Matador
Episode: St. Gilligan and the Dragon

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Gilligan dreams that he is the most heroic matador in the world with Mary Ann, Ginger, and Mrs. Howell as his fans, Ginger gives him a tiny sword to use on the little bulls, and Mary Ann gives him a bullfighter's cap. Mrs. Howell gives him roses to celebrate his bravery, but when gets stuck by them, they all offer to kiss his wound. When he refuses them to kiss it himself, they act like bulls and he wards them off with his cape. He soon wakes standing up and waving his blanket like a cape.

Howell the Great and Powerful
Episode: St. Gilligan and the Dragon

Dreamer: Mr. Howell

Summary: Mr. Howell dreams he is being cared for and lavished on by the women. Ginger massages his head tenderly, and Mary Ann is giving him a manicure. His wife, Mrs. Howell, gives him a pedicure and washes his feet in champagne which Howell believes must be a vintage 1867 because it's so cold to his feet.

The Little Dictator
Episode: The Little Dictator

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: President Gilligan is the ruler of a small Latin American kingdom, but he starts to suspect strife after finding holes in the country flag. His assistant warns him of strife in the kingdom and shows him people running loose in the streets from the window, but his adjutant advises him to dismiss the problem. Likewise, the Minister of Finance shows him the country is under-going a depression and the Secretary of the Navy shows off the failing Navy, but the adjutant just shrugs off the problems. Agent 0036 finally reveals the severe state of the nation in decline, but when Gilligan turns around, he discovers his adjutant has shot all of his supporters. Gilligan runs out looking for more of his supporters only to discover he was a puppet ruler with his corrupt adjutant pulling his strings all along before taking away his power and his kingdom.

The Maharajah
Episode: St. Gilligan and the Dragon

Dreamer: The Skipper

Summary: The Skipper dreams that he is a Sultan wearing Eastern robes with the women as his harem of wives dancing to show his devotion to him, even though Mrs. Howell looks as if she's just bouncing around with ice down her back. When he tells them that he has an itch, he tells Ginger and Mary Ann that is pleasant wherever they scratch.

Marshall Gilligan
Episode: The Sound of Quacking

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Marshall Gilligan is a sheriff in the Old West trying to protect Emily for a trial, but everyone for some reason wants to eat her, even his starving deputy who would do anything for a duck dinner. He's fired after being caught with a knife and fork in his holsters. Even Ginger, the saloon hall girl, tries tempting Gilligan to steal the duck, but he spurns her advances after realizing she's trying to get him drunk. About the only one Gilligan can trust is Mary Ann, the schoolmarm, who warns him about Mr. Howell and the Professor in the lynch mob. Gilligan frees Emily to save her, but Howell's wife, Mamacita Howell tries giving him a gun to fight her husband. However, he doesn't trust her motives after catching her with duck gravy on her person. A gunfight ensues with the deputy on a porch nearby munching on an apple, but despite just a few feet apart, the lynch mob's shots are so lousy that none make a mark on the Marshall. Gilligan chases them off, and Mary Ann rushes to congratulate him, but as Gilligan fires his gun in victory, Emily falls out the sky dead.

Old Doctor Young
Episode: The Postman Cometh

Dreamer: Mary Ann

Summary: Mary Ann Forbisher wakes in the hospital and learns from Nurse Blabbermouth that she is dying from a fatal disease. Her physician, Dr. Zorba, has called in three specialists to help. Dr. Boyer arrives and pronounces her dead. He is followed by Dr. Dillon, who diagnoses her with a broken leg off her bed frame, and Dr. Grant, who reveals Mary Ann is suffering from a fatal case of Roomus Degloomis caused from eating poisonous mushrooms. Nurse Ginger enters to help the doctors scrub for surgery, revealing a tray of surgical tools in the process. Mary Ann just keeps calling out for Old Doctor Young or his son, Young Dr. Young, to come help her, but no one seems to listen to her until Ginger comes over and gently wakes Mary Ann awake.

Prehistoric Gilligan
Episode: The Secret of Gilligan's Island

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Gilligan is a caveman during the Stone Age who carves a picture of the land over the hill, but his Chief comes in and shatters it to keep his people from leaving the area. He talks the Skipper to go with him over the hill, and while he gets furs from Ginger and Mary Ann to keep warm on the trip, Gilligan goes to the Professor for his latest invention to transport their supplies. Ready to go, Gilligan and the Skipper are taken hostage by Chief Howell and imprisoned. Gilligan's supporters don't know the way around the hill so Ginger frees them by distracting Chief Howell, but she gets chased off by Chief Howell's wife. Freed, Gilligan leads his followers around the hill, but they discover a dinosaur guarding the valley, scattering for cover as Gilligan stands alone before it.

The Prospector
Episode: The Sweepstakes

Dreamer: Mr. Howell

Summary: An old prospector comes down out of the hills after forty years. He has struck it rich and arrives in town to file a claim with the county assayer who tells him he is worth a million dollars. He tells the prospector that he needs protecting, so the prospector hires Marshall Gilligan for protection, paying both of them with IOUs. At the saloon, the prospector meets the saloon owner, paying for his drinks with an IOU, and giving money through an IOU to Mary Ann, a western damsel in distress. In a card game, the prospector meets a saloon gambler, and loses a lot of money to him. When the gambler wants his money, the prospector can't find his promissory note to prove he has a million dollars. When the townsfolk learn he doesn't have the money to pay for their services and debts, they decide to string him up as an example.

The Spy Who Snubbed Me
Episode: The Invasion

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Government Agent Agent 0014 has been hired by his Chief to deliver a briefcase to the Secretary of Defense. As they cover the self-destruct button in the briefcase and his weapons, Agent 10 of EVIL posing as the chief's secretary reports to her superior, Boss Howell, but she fails to kill him with a gun hidden inside a chrysanthemum and instead gets shot herself by his bow-tie gun. Meanwhile, EVIL Agent 5 has been posing as Agent 0014's girlfriend. She tries killing him with a poison kiss, but he's protected by a lip guard. She kisses him so hard that the poison takes her life instead. Heading home, Agent 0014 tells his mother about his assignment only to realize that she has been replaced by EVIL Agent 1, forcing him to eat his own poison soup. Since then, Boss Howell has killed and replaced the Secretary of Defense, taking the briefcase from Agent 0014 on arrival and shooting him, only to discover he's a robot. The real Agent 0014, meanwhile, enters gun drawn with the real briefcase to arrest him, but Boss Howell and Mrs. Howell distract him to start struggling over the gun and briefcase as Gilligan wakes.

Stage Door
Episode: St. Gilligan and the Dragon

Dreamer: The Professor

Summary: The Professor dreams that he is famous movie star Cary Grant with Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell as waiting fans outside the stage door of his theater. They're so excited to meet him, he wonders if he's an actor or a virus, but they get so excited that they start pulling at his clothes for souvenirs and are soon tearing all of his clothing off his person. The Professor wakes on his own cot tearing at his own shirt, now open to his bare chest, and immediately and embarrassingly pulls it shut to rebutton it.

The Vampire
Episode: Up At Bat

Dreamer: Gilligan

Summary: Gilligan is a vampire, Duke of Evil, Prince of Darkness and other Rotten Things, and Ginger is his wife living in a large mansion with a servant. She invites the Howells to be his guests in his house and set them up in a room with Gilligan's coffin disguised as a bed. They don't believe in vampires until Gilligan appears from behind a bookcase to attack Mrs. Howell. Mr. Howell faints into a chair. Unfortunately, their servant has double-crossed them by calling Inspector Sherlock and Colonel Watney to stop Gilligan. Although they arrive years late by walking from England across the English Channel and looking for a hansom cab, they arrive in time to stop Gilligan from attacking the Howells, pummeling him into submission to take into custody.

Trivia

 * Ginger is the only Castaway to not have a dream in the series.
 * Both Gilligan's dream in The Sound of Quacking and Mr. Howell's dream in The Sweepstakes were filmed on the Western sets for "Gunsmoke," the series that actually led to the cancellation of "Gilligan's Island."