A type of body swap!

[sasha_feather]

A friend and I were talking about a very interesting trope in SF/F: an older character inhabiting the body of a younger person, or vice-versa.

Examples we could think of are:
-Five in the Umbrella Academy, who is an older man in the body of a teenager.
-Trevor Holden in Travelers, a very old man in the body of a teenager (the actor is somewhat older than the character though).
-Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in "Third Rock from the Sun," which I barely remember and did not watch regularly.

-Freaky Friday films, which involve a kid/adult body swap.
-Big, in which Tom Hanks plays a kid in the body of a grown-up.
-13 going on 30, which I don't think I ever watched, or maybe did and forgot it.

I love Five and Trevor especially, and the actors do such a great job portraying these characters. There is a kind of confidence in movement and action that suggests these people are at ease with themselves, in a way that young people often are not. The trope touches on a fantasy of having a young body that has energy and health, paired with an older, wiser, soul; or conversely, having an adult body with its associated freedoms and respect, but with a sense of child-like wonder and play, as in "Big."

Five is in his own younger body due to time travel. His personality is that of a grumpy old man: he's caustic and impatient, and focused on getting things done. The actor is 16-year old Aiden Gallagher.

Trevor Holden is, in contrast, gentle and kind, willing to break rules to help other people, firm in setting boundaries. The body he's occupying is that of a popular high-school athlete. The actor, Jared Abramson, was about 30 when the show aired.

What do you think about this trope? Do you know of other examples?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I adore this trope -- it presents a grand acting challenge while side-stepping the rocky path of imitating actors who won't get hired because racism/normate bigotry.

I hesitate to do this but https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FreakyFridayFlip

[sasha_feather]

while side-stepping the rocky path of imitating actors who won't get hired because racism/normate bigotry.

Can you elaborate? Not sure what you mean (you can explain on phone call if easier.)

[owlectomy]

"Rascals" is not a great episode of Star Trek TNG, but I love where preteen-boy-Picard accidentally calls Riker "Number One," and he has to clarify that he's his "number one dad!"

[sasha_feather]

OMG I loved that! It was so funny.

[sasha_feather]

Also Riker has the bridge for ONE DAY and loses the ship to Ferengi raiders.

[davidgillon]

There's Dax, both Jadzia and Ezri, in Deep Space Nine, where the two Trills are sequential hosts to the Dax symbiont, which is on its seventh or so human host IIRC. It was never entirely clear how much personality came from the symbiont, but memory persisted across hosts. One episode showed a flashback of the transfer of the symbiont from its preceding host, a very old Trill man, to Jadzia, which is why Ben Sisko, who first knew that host, consistently refers to his young female officers as 'Old Man'. Jadzia was mature and confident, because she'd had the symbiont for a few years and been prepared for it even before that, while Ezri was notably less mature and confident, because she'd never expected to become a host and was dropped in at the deep end when Jadzia was killed - she had all of Dax's memories to use, Jadzia's and all the preceding hosts, but not the lived life experience either singly or joined to fully exploit them.

[sasha_feather]

I didn't think about Dax but YES, this is an amazing take on that trope! You are so right. Jadzi and Ezri in contrast to each other, was really interesting.

[bibliofile]

Symbionts reminds me of the Goauld in Stargate, though that's also a bit more of an age gap than Freaky Friday.

Freaky Friday was a book, first, in 1972. It was pretty good, back in the, er, '70s; I haven't read it since, I think.

Not quite living each other's experiences, more one sided, is Prelude to a Kiss, a 1992 film that was a play first apparently.

Over on LibraryThing, 450 people use the tag "body swap" on a lot of different works. THey're not all the same about ages, but if you're looking for lots more, maybe that's one place to start?

[davidgillon]

And Stargate reminds me that Stargate Universe had a body-swapping maguffin to let them bring 'new' people onto the ship for an episode and was using it pretty constantly, including one episode in which the person swapped with was a quadriplegic.

[sasha_feather]

I remember there being a lot of critique of that story line when it aired as there were some issues with consent and ableism, though my memories of it are fuzzy.

[thingswithwings]

Yes, I love this too! Especially all the scenes on Travelers where Trevor is good at things that no one expects from the original Trevor - like consent, love, kindness, curiosity.

There really is something cool about it that speaks to how our bodies match the people we've become in them.

[sasha_feather]

Trevor is such a good guy, and the actor has these kind eyes and quiet manner, it really works. I love how he calls the dad by the dad's first name.

[thingswithwings]

Yes!!!

I'm now contractually obligated to tell you that the actor is from Manitoba, which makes me extra proud. He's from a town called Flin Flon, which is named after a fictional character from a scifi novel, Flintabbatey Flonatin. #ManitobaFacts

[sasha_feather]

YESSS That is so awesome :D :D

[melannen]

This is not a favorite trope of mine, partly because "Big" was one of the first movie I saw in a theater and I was just the right maturity that the plot was all my worst nightmares (literally, for weeks!) but I give you:

1. The movie "Little", which I have not seen due to the aforementioned trauma, but I was just reminded exists
2. Case Closed/Detective Conan, which is on volume 98 of this trope and no sign of ending.

[sasha_feather]

"Little" looks kinda cute, I'll request it from the library!

[runpunkrun]

Stargate SG-1 has an episode where a teenager shows up claiming to be the adult Jack O'Neill, except the adult Jack O'Neill is already there: Fragile Balance.

[sasha_feather]

I don't think I ever saw that one!