More convincing? Rose as Phoebe or Alyssa as Paige?

[jdpm1991]

Who was the most convincing in "Enter The Demon"?

Rose McGowan as Phoebe Halliwell
or
Alyssa Milano as Paige Matthews

[Melinda Halliwell]

Neither actually. Both actresses didn't get either sister down correctly I think especially Alyssa I mean the way she talked and tried to be Paige please. I'm surprised no-one suspected anything earlier on actually.

That type of episode shouldn't have come around till season 5 at least
and focused more on Paige's past as both sisters didn't really know one another then.

Now had it been Prue and Phoebe who'd done the body swap thing originally which probably would've happened had Shannen stayed season 4 that would've being okay then.

[adzpower]

God it was just awful wasn't it? Alyssa talking like a 4 year old nursery child made me want to puke, PAIGE DOESN'T SPEAK LIKE THAT! ARE YOU DEAF?! Eurgh. The episode as a whole was enjoyable except for those parts, I will say that Holly did a great job of playing an old Zen master though.

[West]

Neither. That story would of worked better for Prue and Phoebe. It was too early to attempt a story like that, when they just introduced Paige.

[Deleted]

Now had it been Prue and Phoebe who'd done the body swap thing originally which probably would've happened had Shannen stayed season 4 that would've being okay then.

A few here, me included, think that this was originally written for Prue.  Notice that Phoebe in this episode is suddenly the mature, older sister, right out of left field.  It seemed that Prue's role was assigned to Phoebe once Shannen was fired, and Phoebe's role was given to Paige.

This episode should have been scrapped or, as others here have said, pushed back.  Paige was WAY too new for this kind of story line.

[Chrisaholic]

For me, it was way too early with Paige to have such an episode. Later on, yes but not when Paige was just introduced. When all roles were established.

[Deleted]

Some scripts are usually written months in advance, especially if trouble is expected.

In 2001,  there was a real possibility of a writer's strike in Hollywood.  So it was not usual for shows to stockpile scripts just in case.  It's likely that this was one such script.  At the time the script was written, Shannen was still part of the cast, so the idea was to have Prue and Phoebe switch bodies.

When Shannen was fired, they changed it around and gave Prue's role to Phoebe and Phoebe's role to Paige. 

This is the only reason, in my mind, that Paige was given such a story so early, she inherited a story that was not originally written for her.

As for the writer's (and actor's, which was also a possibility) strike, it never happened.  I'm guessing that 9/11 had something to do with that.  After that tragedy, the writers and actors guessed that they would not be getting much sympathy from the public, so they wisely called the strikes off.

There is precedence for this theory.  The actors were going to go on strike in 2008, then the economy collapsed.  Once again, they realized that no one would be very sympathetic to them (Courtney Cox had just bought a mansion, while many folks were losing their homes), so they wisely called the strike off.

[Deleted]

They should've had Piper and Phoebe swap souls, and play on the "adjusting to their new roles" theme. Holly is the best actress of the three by far, so even if Alyssa mucked up "Piper", Holly would still be able to portray "Phoebe" adequately. Plus, this would've given Paige a much better "proving herself" moment in Limbo and with An Ling, much better than her memorising potion ingredients for one of Piper's infamous quizzes. When had Piper ever quizzed someone prior to this, she was the least interested in the craft.

[lordumbrex]

I think the story would have been alright if they had just tweaked it. Make it so that Phoebe and Paige just have a difficult time communicating since they are so new to each other, Phoebe hasn't adjusted to being the middle sister and Paige hasn't adjusted to being a sister at all, instead of Phoebe and Cole having difficulties communicating. That way, the body swap comes more of a "walk a mile in her shoes"-type thing rather than..."oops, this was an accident, the real plot deals with a Zen Master and is actually pretty cool!".

[BookShelfy91]

This being one of my favourite episodes, Pheobe pretending to be Paige is incredibly irritating! She sounds and acts like an immature child, which I supposed being the youngest child in the family and trying to adjust to being a witch kind of makes sense. I do agree with lordumbrex, a crossover of Pheobe and Piper and them attempting to adjust to their new roles would have been far better.

Shelfy

[Aaeiyn]

Rose McGowan portraying herself as Phoebe. Alyssa thinks acting all baby like is what Paige is, and it's not. At least Rose gave an effort into not making Phoebe sound all baby like.