The Omega Factor
The Omega Factor
| 13 June 1979 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
    Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
    Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
    Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
    Paul Evans 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
    artilevel 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.
    newcastleboy-1 I found what I've seen of this series to be too slow and not very interesting for my liking. I must admit I bought this series blind thinking it would be another good BBC like production - how wrong I was. The most interesting part of the series is how it is an early version of X-files. Also the mysterious element kept me watching, because I wanted to know what happens next, more so out of curiosity. I bought this set around March / April and haven't watched all of it yet - Ifind it difficult to finish episodes and need a frequent breaks before I can come back and finish watching them. I'm hoping when I start watching the remaining episodes - there's about six to go - my opinion might change somewhat, and I'll be able to watch the rest of the series without needing to feel I have to leave the room. I've never done this with any BBC TV series, so obviously this series isn't doing much for me. I will have to make sure I do my research more thoroughly before investing in a TV series I know little about. This is the only dud purchase I've made, and even though it is so, there are elements of The Omega Factor I find slightly interesting... like the psychic connection, visions of the main protagonist. I will report later what I think of the entire series once I'm finished, but I can see why it only lasted one season.
    Christopher Moore 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.