It had been a long, hard day for the men of Stalag 13, especially for Newkirk. Though they had been able to blow up the refinery without a hitch, they had come across some Gestapo agents on the way back into Camp. Newkirk had barely managed to escape from being caught before a noise caught the agents' attention, who turned away long enough so that he could quickly escape. He later thanked Hogan back in camp, who had tossed a rock in the opposite direction from where Newkirk was hiding, which had provided the distraction.
It was no wonder then, as Newkirk drifted off to sleep, that he would have the strangest dream up until that point in his life. Possibly even of his entire life.
Newkirk found himself just off stage, staring out into an orange room that had a strange-looking, blue board up on the wall. As his eyes scanned past the board, he noticed two groups of people on opposite ends of the room, each standing in single file by two long tables. Past that was a strange machine that Newkirk had never seen before. While he was trying to make sense of everything, a calendar that was also off-stage in the same room that he was caught his eye. Walking to the calendar, he could see that the year was 1978. What the bloody 'ell is going on around here? he asked himself.
From out of nowhere a young man approached him. "Mr. Dawson, are you prepared? You'll be on soon," the man informed him. What do you mean, "on?" On what? Newkirk was afraid that the Gestapo had actually caught him earlier in the woods, and that he was being forced a new drug that was making him see things that he simply couldn't.
The young man saw the confusion in Newkirk's eyes. "Mr. Dawson, are you feeling alright?" Newkirk slowly nodded his head, not wanting to give anything away to this possible Gestapo agent that he shouldn't. The young man seemed satisfied by his boss's answer, before turning away to attend to his other duties.
Before he knew what was happening, he heard a voice saying "With the star of Family Feud- Richard Dawson." Feeling very unsure of himself on the inside, he nonetheless took what he hoped was his cue and walked out into the room, hoping that instinct would take over and that he would not give away any information to the Gestapo that he shouldn't have. All right, I'll play their ruddy game he thought to himself. Of course, how was he to know that he was playing a real game?
As the game progressed, he found that it was surprisingly easy for his instincts to take over for him. He mustered all the charm that he knew Hogan would use, even flirting with the female guests and kissing them on the cheek. All the while he still had very little idea of what the purpose of this Gestapo game was about. He began wondering whether all of the people around him were Gestapo agents, and what was the purpose of them trying to guess the most widely-surveyed answers to various questions, such as naming something that people kept spares of. [1] He wondered if it was some sort of Allied or Gestapo code. However, as the game progressed, he found that he was becoming more and more at ease. He actually began to enjoy his role as the leader of the game, whatever it was. At one point he even thought about resorting to his old habits and pickpocket one of the male guests' wallet, but knew that the last people on earth that you want to be caught stealing from are the Gestapo.
During what was known as a "commercial break," his young assistant checked up on his boss to make sure that he was alright, but the smile on Newkirk's face told him that he didn't need to bother asking the question. Just to make sure that his boss knew what was going on, he informed him that something known as a "speed round" was coming up, while assuring his boss that he was doing a "fine job on this week's episode of the game show." Before Newkirk even had time to ask what in the world a "game show" was he spotted Hochstetter standing in one corner of the room, gun drawn at the ready. Just as he was about to be shot, Newkirk woke up with a startle.
He was very relieved when he woke up in his barracks, and that instead of being in the orange room or the off-stage room, that he was laying comfortably on his bunk. Taking a quick inventory of the barracks and looking out of the window, and seeing that Hochstetter wasn't there, he went back to bed and was able to fall back to sleep without any weird dreams entering his mind.
Later that day he tried explaining his bizarre dream to Hogan, while still trying to make sense of it all himself. He had just told his commanding officer that he was on a "game show" when Hogan gave him a very quizzical look. Newkirk decided to drop the matter and walked away with Hogan still looking after him. He knew that that this was one dream the Gov'nor would never understand.
[1] This is an actual question from one of the episodes of the series.
AN: The "strange machine" that Newkirk saw at the beginning of his dream was the television camera.