Above left: Heywood Floyd sleeps during part of his trip on the lunar lander. Above right: We are provided with a hint that Floyd is dreaming this scene: A stewardess would not normally be serving another stewardess a meal. This hint has the purpose of characterizing this part of Floyd's trip as having a certain unreality, and based on this, we conclude that Floyd is dreaming.
Top left: David Bowman sleeps while Poole is on duty. Top right: Poole sleeps while Bowman has the 'watch'. Dave is sketching pictures of the hibernating astronauts, indicating that he has an artistic impulse. The white coloring of the Discovery One centrifuge symbolizes the idea of confinement. Above left: This room contains items which are visually and intellectually stimulating, and thus represents the fulfillment of Bowman's wish that he be in a stimulating environment, to compensate for the sterile surroundings he experienced while on Discovery One. The aliens have constructed this environment (the room) based on their knowledge of Bowman's unconscious contents. The 'clinical white' coloring of the room suggests that Bowman is being 'held under observation' by the alien race, as if he is part of an 'experiment'. Above right: Another wish of Bowman fulfilled: real food, as opposed to the machine-dispensed fare eaten during the Jupiter mission. The aliens have carefully constructed Bowman's dream environment here, in part for the purpose of in some way 'testing' him, to see if he will 'qualify' as a suitable being with which the alien can combine.
