The Omega Factor: After-Image
Content warning: suicide.
Spoiler alert: this post gives away how the episode resolves at the end.
My last post highlighted the ways in which this series is a sort of precursor of The X-Files and this episode continues very much in that vein. The Omega Factor has a certain advantage over The X-Files because when all is said and done Mulder doesn’t mostly claim to have psychic abilities, however Crane as the protagonist of this show, definitely does. The show makes use of his abilities as a repeated way of moving the story on: he falls asleep, sees things which are going on elsewhere, reports them back to Department 7, and so we all know what is happening elsewhere without anyone having set a foot out of Edinburgh.
We start the episode by seeing Crane’s nemesis, evil magician Drexel, carrying out sensory deprivation experiments on people. We then go back to the department and discover that the government has put significant restrictions on the department’s activity as a result of Crane’s escapade in the last episode resulting in the death of the army major who worked on the mind control experiments. We also discover that Drexel was behind the experiments and the suicide.
Notwithstanding the restrictions Anne has arranged to spend a c ouple of days at the Mayer Institute in Paris, which does work on sensory deprivation, to find out about their work. She sets out on the night train from Edinburgh, accepts a drink from a man on the train, and next finds herself waking up at the Mayer Institute a couple of days later, remembering nothing of what has happened in between. She agrees to take part in the institute’s experiments into sensory deprivation. Of course we see in no time that the evil Drexel is experimenting on her.
Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh it becomes apparent that Anne is missing and enquiries start being made. Again, despite the restrictions on his movements, because he has been told he is going nowhere, Crane slides into the Fox Mulder role by going off and making enquiries on the railways. The result is that back at the department nobody can find him. The way he just wanders into places, finds the exact worker who was on the train, and gets them to answer his questions posed pretending to be a reporter, may perhaps be improbable, but I love this narrative tachnique’s use as it again makes the narrative quite light and gives answers without the need for much explanation. I think there is naturally a sense back at the department that they’re regretting taking him on for his remarkable gifts, because of course he’s also a complete liability.
The episode naturally raises concerns about the effect of Drexel’s experiments on Anne, and whether he may have left her vulnerable to being ‘activated’ in some way in the future. The episode does not explicitly raise this subject but lays the foundation for it in another way, which will become apparent below. It’s a very effective way of doing it.
The episode culminates with Department 7 going to the house in Scotland where Anne is actually being held and experimented on. It becomes apparent that not only did the management of Department 7 know what was going on with her but Drexel is actually working for one of Britain’s allies (there is an American there) who are carrying out the experiment with Britain’s agreement as a result of negotiation at a diplomatic level. Ultimately a previous subject of the sensory deprivation experiments bursts in and shoots Drexel who dies. This is the way the worry about the potential effect on Anne is sown.
The main criticism of this episode is, of course, that while it is a great drama and hugely suspenseful, the plot is absurd. It is absolutely ridiculous for the department to perform a fake kidnap on Anne to do sensory deprivation on her when she would obviously have consented to it in the first place. As a way to run a research institute it’s a bit potty. This plot does, however fulfil the function of ensuring that Crane has no idea who he can trust at all.
Exactly like Fox Mulder.
This blog is mirrored at
culttvblog.tumblr.com/archive (from September 2023) and culttvblog.substack.com (from January 2023 and where you can subscribe by email)
Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an incomplete index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog
There is an index to posts on the Substack version here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/index-of-posts?r=1q6qo6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
About this blog: https://culttvblog.substack.com/about
Vote Green for real hope and real change! greenparty.org.uk