The Omega Factor

I too have been waiting 25 yrs for this to be repeated or appear on VHS or DVD, but now it is available as a complete 3 DVD set: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009UCET6

Very good review here: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58025 which notes:

"When Mrs Whitehouse called the show "thoroughly evil", executives giggled behind their hands, but they also conceded that guidelines had been breached, mistakes had been made, and so forth. They would "forcibly" remind producers about their responsibilities. So they solemnly promised. And while they patronised her - no such reminder was made - they also gave in to her, because when it came to deciding which shows to renew, this one disappeared in the night. I doubt if there was any explicit prohibition, but it was never repeated, never shown on UK Gold, never syndicated abroad, never released on video tape. In the quarter-century since broadcast, these ten 50-minute episodes acquired considerable mystique. Every now and again I would hear about somebody who had a friend who had a copy."

I never saw this before until I purchased the DVD recently. Very interesting, even more so for seeing the combination of Louise Jameson AKA Leela from Doctor Who, teamed up with what to me is a Tom Baker lookalike, and the fact that his name in this series is _Tom_, seemed kind of funny. Rather like watching an alternative version of Dr Who and Leela, OK, it was maybe mainly the character Tom Crane's hair that made me think of Tom Baker, but I can't believe I'm the only one to have noticed a similarity, and maybe it's just me, but I think the similarity is more than just his hair, his face too bore a look of Tom Baker to a certain degree. Anyhow, that bit of trivia out of the way, I really enjoyed the series for the story too, very thought provoking with it's tales of mind control and secret organisations and not knowing who to trust. A shame they never made another series. Apparently another one looked likely, but the rumour is that Mary Whitehouse and her listener's association complained, (she did the same with Doctor Who, "The Deadly Assassin" story mainly, maybe she had an aversion to curly haired men! Or Tom Baker and any lookalike! LOL) and the series had loose ends that would maybe have been dealt with in a second series. How Mary Whitehouse came to have so much sway over what got shown on TV, is anyone's guess, but Doctor Who had to be 'toned down' on her say so, cuz the makers got fed up with her complaining about it. Nice to see these much loved series getting DVD releases now, this one, along with the Saphire and Steel series, and the complete set of "Timeslip", and now the Armchair Thrillers being put out on DVD too, have been well worth waiting for and praise be to whoever is responsible for them seeing the light of day now.

I've only just recently been able to prize the tremulous fingers away from my fear blanched boat-race after watching show runner George Gallaccio's anxiety-inducing, pioneering small screen spook show 'The Omega Factor' again, which actively remains some propah old school creepy telly, mayte! This has the kind of insidious 'creeps-under-the-skin', 70s freak-beard weirdness you just don't see manifested today! And our handsome proletariat hero Tom Crane (James Hazledean) still remains one of my favourite truth-seeking TV psychic protagonists! And the delectably lithe, foofy-haired Crane is ably assisted in his increasingly dark conspiratorial travails by the deliciously dynamic, no less aesthetically appealing scientist Annie Reynolds (Louise Jameson), whose radiant beauty is readily matched by her inquisitive, equally luminous mind!

The Omega Factor's starkly beauteous, majestically moody Edinburgh setting adds a grim, palpably ominous veneer of inclement atmospheric despair, with its dizzyingly eclectic, mind-warpingly wicked terror tales of morbid body snatching, malign government conspiracies, demoniacal displays of terrifying telekinesis, macabre black magic rituals, weird flights of astral projection, deadly duplicity, Machiavellian brainwashing, and old fashioned, black-handed murder! The persistently paranoid, oppressively sinister series that dared to venture far beyond the nebulous veil of reality and eerily expose mad, disturbingly alien, nightmarishly vivid vistas to terminally quake the stoutest heart, unhinge the most resolute of minds, 'The Omega Factor' may even have those fearless, fright-loving boys and girls of all ages anxiously peeking into the dusty voids under the bed before lights out! Don't say I didn't warn you!!!!!!!!!

A ten part series made by the BBC back in 1979. It starred James Hazeldine as Tom Crane, Louise Jameson as Anne Reynolds, John Carlisle as Roy Martindale, Cyril Luckham as Edward Drexil.

The series focuses on Tom Crane, a journalist with a high level of dormant psychic powers. Tom tragically loses his wife, he blames rogue Psychic Drexill and swears vengeance. Tom joins a Government Department, known as 7, a unit set up to look at cases out of the ordinary. The team learn they are up against a powerful organisation known as Omega. Whilst working at Department 7 Tom works closely with Doctor Anne Reynolds, and their relationship gets closer.

What an absolute travesty that only one series was made, I think there was definitely more mileage in it. There were some great characters, Tom, Anne, Drexill etc. I imagine Mary Whitehouse would have had a field day with the Series, she must have had a fit watching Powers of Darkness.

It was a wonderfully well made series, great writing, really well acted, and who wouldn't enjoy anything with the beautiful Louise Jameson in it. Always a degree of the wacky and strange in the episodes, but they never went absurdly over the top, they remained fairly grounded.

Anyone who likes a bit of mystery, and a little element of sci fi will enjoy this series. 9/10

A man with psychic powers is recruited by a secret department devoted to the rum and uncanny. Good fun and very atmospheric and creepy at times. The first main villain is described as 'The man Crowley refused to meet... just in case.' I wonder if the spooky recurring symbol motif from 'Watchmen' was unconsciously borrowed from the very similar one in the early episodes of this?

In some ways it was ahead of its time and it's a shame a second series wasn't made. Re the other reviewer who suggests Mary Whitehouse put the kybosh on it - this seems unlikely as I found an interview with Louise Jameson online where she says that whenever Whitehouse attacked the show everyone involved was delighted as the ratings would go up.