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Starfire: "Very very good! What was your joyful thought?"
Raven: "You don't want to know..."
Starfire: "Oh, but I do... please tell me... what did you imagine?"
Raven: "You not talking."
- Starfire teaching Raven to fly, after switching bodiesOriginally aired: Sept. 6, 2003 Written by Rick Copp
Directed by Ciro Nieli
Starfire and Raven don't really 'hang out'. Star doesn't understand Raven's repression. Raven can't deal with Starfire's emotional outbursts. They just don't understand each other. But when the Puppet King imprisons Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy inside wooden puppets and takes control of the boys' bodies, the girls are going to have to understand each other -- if they want to survive.A mix-up with the Puppet King's spell winds up switching the girls' bodies: Starfire's mind is in Raven's body and vice versa. Will gushy Starfire be able to suppress her feelings enough to control Raven's wildly sensitive powers? Can Raven loosen up enough to unleash Starfire's emotion-driven abilities? Will the two of them be able to save the boys before the Puppet King destroys their wooden bodies and makes the three flesh-and-blood Titans his slaves forever?
Tracey Walter as Puppet King
The Puppet King is based on the comic book foe, The Puppeteer.
Producer/Story Editor David Slack on Starfire: "Yeah, well, that's part of a Story Editor's job to make sure the voices are consistent. I catch a lot of contractions people may put in for Starfire. That's one of the things all writers try to do - to make sure they write the characters the way they should sound. Yeah, each character has his own voice and specific sense of humor and I definitely try to provide coaching on that. I think Starfire is the most pronounced because she has a strange way of speaking and approaching things.""My favorite joke with Starfire is when she approaches her little marionette puppet in SWITCHED. Initially the joke we had in there was how the puppet looked relative to her. Then, at a certain point, we realized "What if she's never SEEN a puppet before?" Things like that with Starfire you have to think outside the box. That, and all the alien words you have to make up. It takes a certain ear."
Producer/Story Editor David Slack on SWITCHED: "SWITCHED was fun to work on. Rick Copp wrote that one, and he's a tremendously funny writer. He wrote the "Brady Bunch" movie. That episode came up with a lot of great character moments for the girls. That's one of the things I'm really proud about our show; The female characters exist as individuals, not just as foils for the male characters or characters that define themselves in terms of men. Raven and Starfire are defined by the content of their own characters. So it was really cool to let them carry the show."
"Another interesting tidbit from that episode: We originally toyed with the idea of letting Hynden Walch do Raven's voice and Tara Strong do Starfire's voice when they switched bodies. And we tried it out in the recording session. But both those women are so talented that we couldn't tell the difference. There was only something slightly off. Hynden does a really good Raven, and Tara does a really good Starfire - so we couldn't really tell the difference. In the end, we just decided to go with the original plan."
Producer/Story Editor David Slack on the girl Titans: "I remember telling the licensing folks "I think people are going to really like our girl characters." That's generally not the case. I think sometimes, girl characters aren't written with a lot of depth. We've worked really hard to make sure that on Titans, that isn't the case."
Writer/Story Editor Amy Wolfram on the girl Titans:"And our girls are girls. They aren't boys in capes and tights. They have things that girls go through. And that's great."
The Puppet King is based on the comic book foe, The Puppeteer. The Teen Titans battled the Puppeteer in New Teen Titans #9 [1981]. On Tamaran, Starfire's home planet, everyone is very open with their emotions. By contrast, Raven keeps her emotions bottled up so her evil side is not released.Raven starts to tell Starfire about herself and mentions "I was born in a place called Azarath." Raven's mother Arella, involved in a mystic cult, was chosen to become the bride of the demonic Trigon. Arella later discovered she was pregnant and she was taken in by the pacifistic disciples of Temple Azarath, a group who had centuries earlier forsaken life on Earth to pursue their own nonviolent lifestyle.
For more information on the comic book versions of the characters - including many images - visit titanstower.com's meeting room page.
The body-switch episode. We've all seen it before. Character A is swapped with character B and is forced to see their point of view - and learn a little something about themselves in the process.The format works best when you have two foils to play off each other. Choosing Raven and Starfire is about as foil-y as you can get. Raven is creepy, introverted and cynical. Star is friendly, outgoing and trusting. Can two teen girls swap bodies without driving each other crazy? Of course, the answer is "no." And that's where the fun starts. The interplay of Star and Raven when they are switched is what gives this episode its juice.
The series seems to have found its unique version of storytelling halfway through its first season. Whereas "Justice League" can do an hour episode of world-threatening demi-gods... and reveal nothing new about the cast, TITANS takes a different approach. In contrast, the characters drive the action (rather than the action driving the characters). Revealing character becomes the strong suit of the series - and creates an audience that becomes intensely invested in the members of the team.
Another nice thing about the series is its subtle continuity. After this episode, Star and Raven do become closer. We see them meditating together in future episodes. Solid episode. Grade: B