The Omega Factor

I don't recall this from when it was on, but having read reviews it seemed to be my kind of thing, so bought the dvd set. Well, with the exception of the 'Powers of Darkness' episode, this is seriously tedious stuff. I have no problem with the acting, cinematography, limited budget, or special effects, but it's just that it is all so dull. I actually fell asleep watching a couple of the episodes. Not recommended.

I bought this after seeing rave reviews on the Net, but frankly I found it a disappointment, even allowing for the fact that it is a Seventies BBC production. Even when compared with other BBC video-taped productions of the time, such as Doctor Who and Survivors, this is terribly slow and unconvincing. The actors are obviously doing their best with the lines they have been given, but honestly their faces display the boredom and dissatisfaction that I experienced when watching this ! I think the problem is with the terribly disjointed scripts. As the DVD booklet relates, this series was conceived and rushed into production with the kind of speed that didn't allow for enough thought to be put into what would nowadays be described as a story "arc". Someone seems to have made the conscious decision that each episode would end, not with a spectacularly frightening event (of which there are many in this series) but with a dull, inconclusive talky scene that makes a half-hearted attempt to persuade us to tune in next week. I felt sorry for actors who were required, week after week, to be demon-possessed or something, yet who had to turn up for the next scene apparently completely unaffected by their experiences ! And could no-one think of a way to end the whole saga? It just peters out ...

This is an excellent TV series that clearly inspired The X-Files with its secret government paranormal unit, claustrophobic atmosphere of distrust, sexual tension between the male and female leads, and clandestine testing by the military on the unfortunate public. There's even a gifted boy who becomes a pawn and potential weapon, a la Gibson Praise. Although episodic in nature, across the series there are allusions to a higher authority within government, the shadowy Omega group, and with each episode the plot thickens. It's all delivered with a sort of downtrodden gloom that only BBC Scotland can deliver and feels distinctly British, with echoes of spy thrillers and Hammer horrors resonating through the screen.

Naturally, some episodes are stronger than others as Tom Crane investigates various paranormal goings-on, but they are mostly pretty gripping and I was completely absorbed by the overarching story, ripping through the whole series in a few days. Unlike The X-Files, it is all brought to a dramatic, logical and satisfying conclusion in the final episode, with the writers also opening further doors on an even greater conspiracy. The fact that no second series was made is a huge disappointment.

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!!!!!!!!!

I saw the series just once, but I longed for each episode to come round. I have the book (which is good) but OHHHHH I would like to see the series again.

Expect atmosphere. Expect uncanny. Expect thrills. If you get the chance, take it. You'll be haunted by the memory! Don't expect fantastic effects, ray guns, funny aliens or obscenities. You don't need those to ice your spine. In fact, good stories, good acting, and good dialogue are far more important, and although it's been a few years now, I seem to remember that the Omega Factor has all those.

Why it isn't on DVD is a mystery worthy of the program itself. It's like Kolchak:Night Stalker and Australia's own "The Evil Touch". An absolute gem, but as with all gems, hard to find.

Channel 2 (in Australia) showed this series, so perhaps if you live in God's own country you might like to pester the ABC into a reshow.