Hunger Pangs sees yet another god, Hecate, interfering in the life of Jason and his friends.
The story starts with a starving Jason trying to steal food. Running away from a bread seller, he stumbles across a mysterious temple. Of course he ignores the various sinister warnings and steals a piece of meat clearly meant for sacrifice. As a result he is cursed to be a Hound of Hecate (think werewolf but more dog). The story then follows the efforts of Pythagoras and Hercules to save him.
The weredog story is all too familiar: night falls, Jason goes off hunting animals and wakes naked in the morning with a mouth full of chicken feathers. Pythagoras determines that as a cure needs Jason to drink a silver-based medicine, which allows the story to work back in the royal family. We are reminded of Pasiphae’s poisoning of King Minos and also have Ariadne helping out by delivering the silver to Pythagoras.
The episode also takes time to look at the way Hercules cannot cope without Medusa and it is this type of interlude that was missing from the previous two stories. Scriptwriter Julian Jones also does a good job of weaving the affairs of court into the story without allowing them to dominate.
There is also one amusing scene to mention where Ariadne visits Jason as he is on the cusp of transformation. We have a classic Jekyll and Hyde scene where Jason twists his face, growls and ducks behind a sofa before coming out with hairy hands. This is all unseen by Ariadne and makes for a fun tribute to classic Hammer and Universal horror.
So, all in all, a better balanced tale, though one that added little to any understanding of the bigger story. The viewer might also be left wondering how such a temple happens to be unnoticed until Jason wonders into it. Like many of the stories this is a little over-packaged.
