Twist of Fate has the briefest of setups: Jason, Pythagoras and Hercules are out hunting and find a baby boy left out to die. They can’t leave it; so they bring it back Atlantis. Meanwhile, the city is currently playing host to King Laius (Tristan Gemmill) and his young queen (Elen Rhys). Our heroes have little to do in the bulk of this story except look after the baby. This does give a good opportunity for the relationship between Hercules (‘what will she see in me? I’m old and fat’) and Medusa to deepen and this is one of the elements of the show that Starburst has been impressed with.
Most of the drama takes place in the palace; Sarah Parish as Queen Pasiphae is excellent, both flirting with King Laius and arguing with her daughter Ariadne. Sadly her husband King Minos (Alexander Siddig) has become something of a minor character that adds very little to proceedings. Given how well his role in Star Trek: DS9 developed we expect more from this character.
Inevitably we learn that the baby is the child of Laius, but are surprised when we find out that his wife is the child’s mother – this is not some out-of-wedlock bastardy story. When we learn her name is Jocasta distant bells ring and eventually we twig that this is the story of Oedipus, destined to kill his father and marry his mother; all very mythic and all very true to the original.
We do have a chase sequence to give Jason and company something to do but it is rather formulaic. Unlike previous stories, this takes a Greek myth and does nothing new with it. We enjoyed the episode as part of a series but in its own right we’re afraid it adds little. Overall an entertaining but forgettable:
