The Omega Factor
Encyclopedia
The Omega Factor is a British television
series produced by BBC Scotland
in 1979. It was created by Jack Gerson and produced by George Gallaccio
, and transmitted in ten weekly episodes between 13 June and 15 August.
Tom Crane (James Hazeldine
), who finds that he possesses psychic
powers which in turn bring him to the attention of the team of scientists who comprise Department 7, a secret "need to know only" government off-shoot investigating paranormal
phenomena and the potential of the human mind. The phenomena explored include hypnosis
, brainwashing, extra-sensory perception
, telekinesis, poltergeist
phenomena, out-of-body experiences and spiritual possession
.
Crane joins Department 7 as a means of finding and revenging himself on Edward Drexel (Cyril Luckham
), a powerful rogue psychic who is in part responsible for the death of Crane's wife in an automobile accident. His work with the department, and his own psychic gift, lead Crane to suspect a deadly conspiracy by a mysterious organisation called Omega to take over the world using mind control. The members of Department 7 include physicist
Dr. Anne Reynolds (Louise Jameson
), an old friend of Crane's wife; and the shady head of the department, psychiatrist
Dr Roy Martindale (John Carlisle
). Most episodes see the driven and impetuous Crane in impatient conflict with the cautious and secretive Martindale, with Anne (who falls in love with Crane, though she also has a brief relationship with Martindale) caught in the middle. Various subplots develop over the course of the series - notably Crane's hunt for Drexel, his growing suspicions about the Omega conspiracy and his developing relationship with Anne.
Only lasting for one series of ten episodes, The Omega Factor promptly vanished without trace, possibly thanks to the objections of public moralist Mary Whitehouse
, who called the episode Powers of Darkness "thoroughly evil" because it depicted hypnosis, the supernatural and a man burning to death (another suggestion, however, is that the series was only made to fill the gap left in BBC Scotland's contributions to the BBC1 schedule which was created when the second run of a poorly performing newspaper series called The Standard
was dropped, so a second season was always unlikely).
However, a recent DVD
release has prompted a long overdue re-evaluation. The series' combination of science fiction
, horror
and thriller elements, and its narrative focus on shadowy government departments and conspiracies to gain world domination, as well as the chemistry between James Hazeldine's and Louise Jameson's characters, in many ways anticipates the 1990s TV phenomenon The X-Files
, while some elements of later episodes (as the conspiracy begins to fight back against Crane) recall The Prisoner
. Although the final episode resolved several of the subplots, it raised several more issues and its ambiguous ending suggests that a second season was anticipated.
A novel
by Jack Gerson, telling the story of Crane's hunt for Drexel (a substantially different story from that in the broadcast series, aside from the first episode which the novel duplicated faithfully), was published to accompany the series.
Produced by the BBC Scotland arm of the BBC, the series was shot on location in Edinburgh (making use of a number of Edinburgh landmarks such as the Royal Mile
, Holyrood Park
, and Edinburgh Zoo
), with studio production conducted in Glasgow. Unlike most BBC programmes of the day, the series was shot almost entirely on videotape (as opposed to the then-common practice of using film for exteriors); nonetheless a few filmed scenes were shot for one episode.
The complete series of The Omega Factor was released by DD Home Entertainment on DVD in Region 2 (UK) on 20 June 2005.
In Region 1, Entertainment One
released the complete series on DVD on May 2, 2006.
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
series produced by BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
in 1979. It was created by Jack Gerson and produced by George Gallaccio
George Gallaccio
George Gallaccio is a British television producer, whose most prominent work was as producer of the BBC programme Miss Marple, based on the novels by Agatha Christie....
, and transmitted in ten weekly episodes between 13 June and 15 August.
Overview
The series concerns journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Tom Crane (James Hazeldine
James Hazeldine
James Hazeldine was a British film, stage and television actor. He was born in Salford, Lancashire.James started his career in repertory theatre, firstly in weekly rep, then at the Manchester Library theatre and on to the Royal Court Theatre in London's Sloane Square, where he appeared in the...
), who finds that he possesses psychic
Extra-sensory perception
Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was coined by Frederic Myers, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairaudience, and...
powers which in turn bring him to the attention of the team of scientists who comprise Department 7, a secret "need to know only" government off-shoot investigating paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
phenomena and the potential of the human mind. The phenomena explored include hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, brainwashing, extra-sensory perception
Extra-sensory perception
Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was coined by Frederic Myers, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairaudience, and...
, telekinesis, poltergeist
Poltergeist
A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
phenomena, out-of-body experiences and spiritual possession
Spiritual possession
Spirit possession is a paranormal or supernatural event in which it is said that spirits, gods, demons, animas, extraterrestrials, or other disincarnate or extraterrestrial entities take control of a human body, resulting in noticeable changes in health and behaviour...
.
Cyril Luckham
Cyril Luckham was a British film, television and theatre actor.Luckham played the White Guardian in the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. He appeared in The Ribos Operation, the first serial in The Key to Time season, and Enlightenment...
), a powerful rogue psychic who is in part responsible for the death of Crane's wife in an automobile accident. His work with the department, and his own psychic gift, lead Crane to suspect a deadly conspiracy by a mysterious organisation called Omega to take over the world using mind control. The members of Department 7 include physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Dr. Anne Reynolds (Louise Jameson
Louise Jameson
Louise Jameson is an English actress, best known for playing Leela, the leather-clad barbarian warrior companion of the fourth Doctor in Doctor Who. Jameson has also appeared on Emmerdale , The Omega Factor Louise Jameson (born 20 April 1951 in Wanstead, London) is an English actress, best known...
), an old friend of Crane's wife; and the shady head of the department, psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Dr Roy Martindale (John Carlisle
John Carlisle (actor)
John Carlisle is a British television and stage actor.John Carlisle had regular roles in Emergency - Ward 10, Scotland Yard on ABC, 1957–1958, and the London Weekend Television series New Scotland Yard as Detective Sergeant Ward.He also appeared in the BBC series The Omega Factor as the morally...
). Most episodes see the driven and impetuous Crane in impatient conflict with the cautious and secretive Martindale, with Anne (who falls in love with Crane, though she also has a brief relationship with Martindale) caught in the middle. Various subplots develop over the course of the series - notably Crane's hunt for Drexel, his growing suspicions about the Omega conspiracy and his developing relationship with Anne.
Only lasting for one series of ten episodes, The Omega Factor promptly vanished without trace, possibly thanks to the objections of public moralist Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, who called the episode Powers of Darkness "thoroughly evil" because it depicted hypnosis, the supernatural and a man burning to death (another suggestion, however, is that the series was only made to fill the gap left in BBC Scotland's contributions to the BBC1 schedule which was created when the second run of a poorly performing newspaper series called The Standard
The Standard
The Standard is an English free newspaper of Hong Kong with a daily circulation of 231,018. It was called the Hong Kong Standard and changed to HKiMail during the Internet boom, but it changed back to The Standard in 2001....
was dropped, so a second season was always unlikely).
However, a recent DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release has prompted a long overdue re-evaluation. The series' combination of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
and thriller elements, and its narrative focus on shadowy government departments and conspiracies to gain world domination, as well as the chemistry between James Hazeldine's and Louise Jameson's characters, in many ways anticipates the 1990s TV phenomenon The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, while some elements of later episodes (as the conspiracy begins to fight back against Crane) recall The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
. Although the final episode resolved several of the subplots, it raised several more issues and its ambiguous ending suggests that a second season was anticipated.
A novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Jack Gerson, telling the story of Crane's hunt for Drexel (a substantially different story from that in the broadcast series, aside from the first episode which the novel duplicated faithfully), was published to accompany the series.
Produced by the BBC Scotland arm of the BBC, the series was shot on location in Edinburgh (making use of a number of Edinburgh landmarks such as the Royal Mile
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...
, Holyrood Park
Holyrood Park
Holyrood Park is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of whin providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its area...
, and Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo, formally the Scottish National Zoological Park, is a non-profit zoological park located in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland...
), with studio production conducted in Glasgow. Unlike most BBC programmes of the day, the series was shot almost entirely on videotape (as opposed to the then-common practice of using film for exteriors); nonetheless a few filmed scenes were shot for one episode.
Production
- The documentary "Inside the Omega Factor", produced for the 2006 DVD release, includes claims by the programme's production staff of strange happenings during production that could have been supernatural in origin. For example, during the filming of one episode all the clocks in the studio stopped simultaneously, and during rehearsal a ouija boardOuija BoardOuija Board is a Thoroughbred mare racehorse owned by Edward Stanley, 19th Earl of Derby and trained by Ed Dunlop. In a career spanning four seasons, she won 10 of her 22 races, 7 of them Group 1s, including the Epsom Oaks in 2004 and the Hong Kong Vase in 2005...
fell over on its own. Actress Natasha Gerson, who played the mysterious recurring character of Morag, says her character's regular costume (a wooly dress) also disappeared without a trace. - Recurring guest star Natasha Gerson is the daughter of the show's creator. According to her interview for the 2006 DVD release, she auditioned for the role under an assumed name so that the casting agent was not aware of the relation.
- The series was originally allotted to run thirteen episodes, but to maintain a certain level of quality, the production was scaled back to ten episodes to allow more money to be budgeted per episode.
- This was actress Louise JamesonLouise JamesonLouise Jameson is an English actress, best known for playing Leela, the leather-clad barbarian warrior companion of the fourth Doctor in Doctor Who. Jameson has also appeared on Emmerdale , The Omega Factor Louise Jameson (born 20 April 1951 in Wanstead, London) is an English actress, best known...
's first post-Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
role.
DVD release
In Region 1, Entertainment One
Entertainment One
Entertainment One Ltd is a leading international entertainment business operating in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand...
released the complete series on DVD on May 2, 2006.