THE OMEGA FACTOR (1979) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

THE OMEGA FACTOR (1979) – This eerie BBC series combined the best elements of Doomwatch with Department S and injected supernatural scares that anticipated the much later series Twin Peaks and The X Files.

James Hazeldine, remembered as the snarky butler from The Musgrave Ritual episode of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes, starred as Tom Crane. Tom was a reporter whose untapped psychic abilities bring him into conflict with an Aleister Crowleyesque villain named Edward Drexel (Cyril Luckham) and an organization called Omega.

Crane’s wife is killed through Drexel’s machinations, motivating him to give up journalism and join Department 7, a secret British government agency which researches the supernatural and the paranormal.

Louise Jameson, famous from Tenko and as Leela on Doctor Who, is Dr. Anne Reynolds, a physicist colleague of Tom Crane’s. She was a friend of Tom’s late wife and through her he discovers that he has been under Department 7 surveillance since he was a boy because of his nascent psychic powers.

Even worse, his late wife Julia was one of his handlers all this time, unknown to him. Tom and Anne’s deskbound superior is psychiatrist Roy Martindale (John Carlisle), whose cautious approach puts him at odds with the impetuous Crane.

Brown Derby (his actual name) also starred as the enigmatic Andrew Scott-Erskine, a high government official who is in charge of Department 7 and other agencies. Nicholas Coppin appears now and then as Tom Crane’s brother Michael, who seems to be developing abilities similar to Tom’s.

Natasha Gerson completed the cast of recurring characters as Morag, a mysterious, silent woman who uses her psychic powers at Drexel’s command.  

Though listed as sci-fi/ horror, The Omega Factor was largely horror even in episodes dealing with science. The program ran for 10 fifty-minute episodes and wrapped up most of its subplots but allowed for the possibility of another season. Unfortunately, no more episodes were forthcoming.

THE EPISODES:

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY – Freelance journalist Tom Crane tracks down a notorious cult leader/ psychic and rumored mystic Edward Drexel, whose career of infamy has left a trail of dead bodies in his wake going back decades. Drexel threatens Tom to stop investigating him and causes the car crash that kills his wife Julia when threats don’t work.

      Devastated, Crane experiences further shocks when he learns how Department 7 has been studying him for years, with his late wife and even his brother Michael secretly observing him on their behalf. Despite his distaste, Tom joins the department hoping to take down Drexel and a larger organization called Omega.   

VISITATIONS – Tom Crane has been serving as part agent and part human guinea pig for Department 7’s experiments in weaponizing psychic phenomena. A department employee is murdered during their probe of a supposedly haunted mansion previously used by Drexel and his cult. Tom, Anne and others move into the place to investigate, unleashing dark forces that lead to additional deaths.

NIGHT GAMES – Tom’s brother Michael is left in a half-crazed state from his participation in Top Secret British Army research into sonic weaponry and conjuring up figures from the past. Crane wants to get to the bottom of the research despite Anne, Martindale and Scott-Erskine’s warnings not to get involved.

      Tom disobeys and learns that the conspirators of Omega have their own psychic agents infiltrating Department 7 as well as other agencies around the world.   

AFTER-IMAGE – Drexel, working closely with American scientists in a covert operation, abducts Anne to try turning her into an unknowing operative of Omega. Tom and other Department 7 members work to find where Drexel is keeping her. Anne is saved, but Drexel is killed, revealing to Tom as he dies that he is only a small part of the Omega conspiracy and it was they who ordered his wife’s death.

POWERS OF DARKNESS – Three students hold a seance and inadvertently unleash a demonic presence. Tom, Anne and Martindale battle the vile entity and ultimately defeat it. Morag resurfaces, still active despite Drexel’s death.

CHILD’S PLAY – Department 7 begins studying the son of one of Anne’s friends. The boy is far more powerful than Crane and can wield telekinetic energies of immense destructive potential. Omega wants to get their hands on the young man, but will they?

ST. ANTHONY’S FIRE – Tom and Anne investigate when a scientist studying plants is driven to murder her husband then kill herself. It turns out they’ve discovered another covert Omega operation which has been having its British government agents use HMG as their cover. Tom’s powers save the day.

OUT OF BODY, OUT OF MIND – Tom and Anne once again wonder who’s worse – Omega or the world’s “official” governments when Tom’s brother Michael is further exploited for experiments in astral projection. It all ties into an attempt to assassinate an African president.

DOUBLE VISION – When Tom begins spotting his wife Julia seemingly alive and walking around Edinburgh, Anne assures him he’s mistaken. Crane isn’t so sure and begins to suspect everyone, including Department 7, of deceiving him.

ILLUSIONS – Final episode of the series. Department 7 is assigned to protect an East German defector who has his own mind control abilities and is knowledgeable about Soviet agencies that are like Department 7. Omega’s highest British operative steps forward and reveals herself as she makes her move.

*** I won’t offer ultimate spoilers in case anyone wants to check out The Omega Factor online. It’s very good within the limits of British television during the 1970s. In my opinion it’s superior to The X Files largely because its conspiracy story was actually going somewhere.

        Like any work of fiction, the program had its share of plot holes and story contrivances. The one I rolled my eyes over the most was the way the operatives of this oh-so-secret conspiracy called Omega conveniently wore pinky rings or carried cigarette lighters with an Omega symbol on them. If only they hadn’t been so brand conscious there’s no telling how far they might have gone.

The ubiquitous Big Finish productions went on to do audio stories continuing The Omega Factor with Louise Jameson. Unfortunately, James Hazeldine had passed away by the time the audio stories began.

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