Reviewed: The Omega Factor Series 1

Tony Jones is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Yet again, Big Finish has produced a powerful piece of audio drama any fan of the show or connoisseur of quality should listen to.

In 1979, BBC 1 broadcast a ten-part series, The Omega Factor, written by Jack Gerson, starring Louise Jameson and James Hazeldine. It dealt with themes of the supernatural and psychic powers. Set in Edinburgh, it charted the story of Tom Crane (Hazeldine), a journalist whose emerging powers bring him to the attention of Department 7, and Dr Anne Reynolds (Jameson). The series charted Tom Crane’s quest to challenge a secret organisation known as Omega, intent on taking over the world through mind control. The series was cancelled after one season as it fell foul of moral outrage as expressed by campaigner Mary Whitehouse. Following their success with the Survivors, Big Finish has produced a four CD boxset (plus a CD of behind the scenes material) telling the story of Department 7 in the twenty-first century.

The stories

The first story, From Beyond by Matt Fitton, has the unenviable task of both explaining the setup and telling a scary story in its own right. Matt was also script editor for the series and he neatly covers the arrival of John Dorney as Adam Dean (Tom Crane’s son with a different surname) who is in Edinburgh to let Dr Reynolds know his father has passed away. He has a legacy from his father in the form of a whole stack of papers. This is a great vehicle for the series and Adam is a sceptical character with some medical background who, like his father, has emerging psychic powers. The story introduces the two main characters and also a woman trying to contact her dead brother as part of an experiment. Underneath the gentle exterior lies a darker tale that sets the tone for the rest of the set.

The second story, The Old Gods, is by Phil Mulryne. Phil has acted in several Big Finish pieces, but this is his first foray into writing that we have heard. On the evidence of this taut script, it won’t be the last. The core of the story is a relatively timeless piece about a hippy (-ish) commune in the middle of nowhere. Around a familiar story of naivety and a simple life without technology, Phil weaves a tale of a dark presence reaching out to Adam and a would be druid/priest (Terry Molloy playing the part of Edmund Fennick) exploiting young people for his own ends, while Dr Jane Wyatt (Camilla Power) is studying their condition. The story is brought up to date with a condition whereby people are allergic to the electromagnetic radiation of modern life and this adds to the balance of science and supernatural threading through the stories. Adam gets to be the hero as he confronts the evil at the heart of the community and this story satisfies on many levels.

Cavan Scott wrote the third piece, Legion and this starts to link into the backstory of Adam’s father and his investigations into Omega. It is also a tale of a exorcist, the morally bankrupt Wanda Maccrum (Georgie Glen) who has more than one encounter with creatures more normally labelled as demons. I can’t give too much away except to say once again Adam and his as yet uncharted powers are pivotal to this story and it manages the tricky job of conveying the mostly visual acts of poltergeist on audio to powerful effect.

The final story, The Hollow Earth by director Ken Bentley is the most powerful of all and is constructed in real time. This gives the listener a strong sense of urgency and intimacy pulling them into the story of homeless people going missing and a dilapidated church at night. The setup has Anne and Adam in classic ghost hunter mode, setting up cameras and microphones all over the building as they attempt to garner evidence of the supernatural. Ken then takes the story up several gears by widening it to include ley lines and deeper secrets of the church. Every performance is spot on from Tracy Wiles as Reverend Lucy Douglas, Derek Huchinson as warden Fraser Kirkland and Lauro Dos Santos as a young homeless girl, Lorraine. Tensions rise until they peak in a climax that changes the destiny of Department 7.

The production

Not only does this set provide four stories straddling the supernatural / scientific / psychic / religious divides, but is also superbly directed and has a terrifying sound-scape to boot. Almost all Big Finish productions have high-quality music and sound, and should be listened to with decent equipment, not the basic headphones you get free with some MP3 players. If you can listen to this loud on decent speakers you will be rewarded. The effect will be stronger if you listen alone at night, but you may find you can’t sleep afterwards!

What next?

This series is clearly demanding of follow-ups, but these will inevitably depend on sales. The scope is wide, meaning there is a lot of opportunity to tell new stories. There is a lot we don’t know about Adam’s personal history and we have no sign of the mysterious off-stage Omega conspiracy. There is also a wider Department 7 in Edinburgh we haven’t met and even hints of other branches. We learn that Louise’s character hasn’t achieved as much as she wanted in the 35 years since the TV show, but she was clearly up to something. Plenty more to learn and enjoy, with plenty more scary moments lying in wait.

Wonderful stuff and I urge you all to discover this future classic for yourself — The Omega Series 1 from Big Finish.

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