Created in 1999, A Twist in the Tale was a TV show in the vein of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. Every week another science fiction or fantasy story would be presented, shows that were supposed to be mysterious or intriguing. Unfortunately, they were neither which explains why the show only lasted 15 episodes. Aimed at children, these stories are dumbed down for their audience, and consequently too bland to really capture even the youngest viewers imagination. Now the complete series is available on a four DVD set from Image.

William Shatner hosts the show as the Storyteller. In each episode, he spins a science fiction ro fantasy tale to a group of children, one of whom stars in the story. This anthology series has stories about King Arthur, time travel, magicians and ghosts. Made for children, none of the stories are too complicated or scary, which is fine, but they aren't really very interesting either.

This show has two real problems. First the hour long format is just too long for these stories. Nearly everyone has padding or a superfluous plot wrinkle that doesn't add anything to the story aside from making it longer. The stories are all slow starting off, they take a lot of time setting up the premise. With a beginning that drags it's hard to imagine many children sticking with the show.

The other problem is that the stories themselves just aren't that interesting. The two dimensional characters and the simple plots aren't a problem, it never hampered the Twilight Zone, it's the writing itself that's weak. Things seem to happen for no other reason than that the writers wanted it to happen. The stories don't unfold with a logical progression, something that they'd have time to do with an hour long show, events just happen in a haphazard way.

There isn't much suspense to these shows, and the writing doesn't draw the viewer in, so there's really not much reason to watch. Even the children to whom Shatner is relating the stories look bored and tired just sitting on the set. If you can't get paid actors to look interested, how can you expect the viewers at home to enjoy the show.

This wasn't all bad, some of the programs were fun once you got into them, but this was the exception rather than the rule. A Matter of Time, about a boy who has the time machine that he's been working on stolen, was fun and had it's moments. Another good episode was Jessica's Diary in which a young girl obtains a 100 year old diary that seems to be talking about her life, including the step father who is trying to kill her.

These good shows are the exception though, with most of the programs being very bland and dull. Not the type of thing that you want in a fantasy anthology.

These 15 shows are presented on four DVDs. They come in a book style case which is housed in a slipcase.

Audio:

The English stereo soundtrack was fine. The dialog was clear and the music sounded fine. There wasn't much directionality but the audio suited the program well.

Video:

Surprisingly for a low budget syndicated show from 1999, this show is presented with an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 widescreen image. I didn't notice any unusual cropping, so I assume that it was filmed in that aspect ratio.

The image is about average for a recent show. The colors were fine and the level of detail was good. On the digital side, things weren't as good. There was a bit of edge enhancement, which was disappointing. Digital defects were also present. Aliasing appeared in the background in most episodes too. It wasn't a major defect though.

Extras:

There are no extras on this disc.

Final Thoughts:

This could have been a good series, there was some potential in most of the stories, but very few of them really worked. The writers tried to create shows for children instead of just good stories that children would like. The shows are filled with illogical plot devices and many holes, but most of all they are just too long. Running at an hour each (when commercials are included) the shows are padded and drag, especially at the beginning. While there are some good episodes, these are in the minority. If you're really interested in this recent anthology series, it's worth a rental, but not more.