An alien weapon causes everyone to switch bodies. Hijinks ensue!
(Originally aired on July 7, 2000)
Written by Michael Cassutt
Directed by Ian Watson
GUEST STARS
Lani Tupu -- Bialar Crais
Dominique Sweeny -- Yoz
Angie Millikin -- Voice of Yoz
Thomas Holesgrove -- Tak
Nicholas McKay -- Voice of Tak
WHAT HAPPENED
Crichton stumbles toward the bridge, trying to pull his boots on. Moya has been targeted by a badly damaged alien ship, and nobody’s sure why.
D’Argo is frantically patching the defense system together, but it’s only at half power. Hoping to talk sense into the aliens, Zhaan has taken a transport pod to the other ship and docked, but it seems to be deserted.
After some searching, she finds a vulture-like alien lying on the deck. He swears to die rather than surrender.
Zhaan tries to convince him that Moya’s crew means his ship no harm, but he demands to know why their "smaller ship" and its captain attacked him. It appears that Talyn is responsible for the carnage.
We come in peace – shoot to kill
Zhaan assures the alien that Moya is harmless, telling it that she doesn’t even have weapons. Hearing this news, the alien – not as wounded as he appeared to be – rears up and orders a crewmate to attack.
The alien ship prepares to fire. D’Argo jams a last cable into place, and Rygel turns on the defense screen.
The ship fires a blast at Moya. The defense screen holds, but a strange energy leaps from Crichton to Aeryn to Rygel.
They stagger, and look at each other in shock.
"What the frell’s going on?" Rygel asks. "That’s my body. I’m Aeryn. Who are you?"
"I’m Crichton," says Aeryn.
"By the Hynerian gods," says Crichton, "I’m not me." (spoilers)
ANALYSIS
Body-switching episodes may fill reviewers with trepidation – how do you make clear who’s who? – but audiences and actors love them. The entire Farscape cast obviously had a ball with this one.
As such shows go, "Out of Their Minds" is unusually ambitious. Puppets play human characters, humans play puppet characters, and everyone switches not once but twice.
The big picture isn’t as important as the little details, though. This is a show to watch at least twice, looking for all the quirks the actors are copying from each other.
Hulking Anthony Simcoe imitating Chiana’s birdlike mannerisms, Claudia Black slowing down her fast-paced delivery to fit Crichton’s slight drawl, and Ben Browder going wild with his rarely used flair for physical comedy – there are treats in every scene. Even Jonathan Hardy and the puppeteers get into the act, pulling off three distinct characters with nothing more than voice and the limited mobility of the Rygel puppet.
Despite the light tone, there are also some thoughtful serious moments. Pilot’s inability to adjust to the vastly different bodies of the humanoids makes perfect sense, and man-of-action D’Argo finds himself in a position where the only thing he can do is give and receive information.
Zhaan gets a little shortchanged, unfortunately -- Virginia Hey has some good scenes, but she must have been a little disappointed that she didn’t get to join in all the fun. Hopefully she’ll get a chance to play the other characters in another episode.
Innuendo? Bah!
One thing that takes this episode over the top is the frank approach to sex and other bodily functions. A little sexy innuendo is typical of this kind of story, but it usually feels painfully forced and self-censored.
Farscape avoids this by diving whole-heartedly into its sex, urination and vomiting scenes. Rygel’s got a point when he says that bodily functions are no big deal on Moya, and this gleefully open approach makes the comedy that much funnier.
The only thing that really feels forced in this episode is Chiana’s decision to flee the ship. The Chiana we’ve seen in recent weeks has been an integral part of the family – she might leave for her own reasons, but she’s not likely to leave the others in the lurch anymore.
There’s an explanation for this out-of-character behavior. Writer Michael Cassutt says the episode was largely written between the first and second seasons, without an insider’s knowledge of the earlier events in season two. Chiana’s behavior is a lot more like the self-centered girl of her first few episodes than the young woman who defended Zhaan in court and survived the crisis of her brother’s death.
That’s a minor flaw, though. "Out of Their Minds" is a Farscape classic, one of the episodes fans will be remembering fondly for years to come.
WHAT WE LEARN
Moya communicates with Pilot through a vast number of simultaneous sound cues, though Pilot frequently visualizes these sounds as colors.
In addition to repairing starships, DRDs make great instant cameras.
Zhaan is able to wilt parts of her body if necessary. Healing is a slow and complicated process, though.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
The crew gets too much of a good thing in "My Three Crichtons".
What do you think? Send your comments to the editor.
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