Sci-Fi Body Swap Shop

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2 Farscape

“Out Of Their Minds”

The Cause: An alien weapon interfering with a forcefield. Side-effects ensue.

Who Gets Swapped? Crichton ends up inside Aeryn; Aeryn is in Rygel; Rygel is in Crichton; Chiana is in D’Argo; D’Argo is inside Pilot; Pilot is in Chiana. Still with us?

The Verdict: Could this be the big daddy of all bodyswap episodes? Farscape was never a show to do anything by halves, and so – unsurprisingly – their token bodyswap story was so unashamedly ridiculous it ran through every joke in the switcheroo joke book. The tiny, irascible Rygel, for instance, ends up inside Crichton and can’t figure out how to pee, requiring instructions. Crichton, meanwhile, is so happy to have boobs that he has a little scene all to himself where he delights in making them jiggle. (We find out later that Aeryn didn’t mind – and she did some fiddling with Crichton’s body to make up for it – so all’s well that ends well on that count.)

And as for Chiana… watching Anthony Simcoe, in full Luxan warrior get-up, trying to mimic Gigi Edgley’s sinuous, cat-like movements (a head-tilt here; a hip-wiggle there) is a scream. Even if the rest of “Out Of Their Minds” wasn’t a blast, Simcoe would still walk away with the entire universe as a prize for his work here. We can only imagine what this must have been like to film…

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