The Omega Factor: St Antony’s Fire

I have mentioned before that this series of only ten episodes, despite having a single plot arc, is also an anthology series and each episode has a different writer. This has the effect that each one has a slightly different tone.

Here, we are into territory which on the surface feels much more like straightforward detection. Crane reads in the paper that his friends, Bob and Jean McKenzie, have died, and he wants to go and find out what happened. doesn’t want Crane to go, and we’re immediately into Mulder territory where that decides Crane that he’s going regardless. The McKenzies’ life’s work was to start a community, which is likened to the real-world Findhorn Foundation, working on plant psychic abilities and things like that: very much classic seventies parapsychology. Before their deaths they sold the community to a company to run it.

Crane is immediately catapulted into a sort of caricature of a remote Scottish village. All the villagers know each other, are infinitely suspicious, and the village is frankly incredible. A village dance turns into a free for all where people just lose their shit and start fighting. I will admit to having been to a ceilidh in my time, and I don’t remember that being part of the proceedings.

There is also much suspicion about the Mckenzies’ deaths, which eventually turn out to be incredibly a result of ergot poisoning then murder. Of course you know that in no time Crane (followed by Anne, who experiences an attempted murder by the extraordinary method of locking her in a greenhouse and gassing her) is going to have attempts made on his life, and of course so it is. I love the method they plan to kill them at the end, by sending them up in a dodgy helicopter which isn’t safe.

I am astonished that the episode names the real-life Findhorn Foundation at all. Frankly, it probably didn’t really have a choice, since the community the McKenzies founded is so clearly based on the Findhorn Foundation that I can only surmise they thought they might as well go the whole hog and name the inspiration. The foundation is the largest New Age intentional community in Britain (or was, I gather it has rather faltered of recent years), with as you’d expect an eclectic spirituality with roots in Moral Rearmament and Rosicrucianism. The aspects of the foundation which most resemble aspects of this episode are that most of the episode takes place in a large hotel near the community. The Findhorn Foundation famously ran the Cluny Hill Hotel (pictured), nicknamed the Vatican of the New Age, as a sort of educational centre. The other aspect very reminiscent of Findhorn is the horticulture aspect of the community. Famously, one of the leading lights of Findhorn, Peter Caddy, experimented with gardening at Findhorn in Scotland while unemployed and living in a caravan, as a way to feed his family. His huge success garnered national and international attention: he attributed his success to his spiritual practices but the locals attributed his huge vegetables to a local micro-climate and the huge amounts of manure he obtained from locals! Perhaps it should be said that while the Findhorn Foundation has its critics, I’m not aware of allegations of murder such as we see in this episode. This is why I’m so surprised the show went with the obvious identification of the murderous community with Findhorn.

So far so real, but the episode doesn’t lack paranormal aspects. Crane goes to the McKenzies’ house and psychically relives their deaths. It is also clear (to us, but not to Crane) that Martindale, their boss at Department 7, is in on the strange events and murders at the village. The episode also brings up a mention of the mysterious Omega. Now this is my fault completely for not mentioning it before, but periodically the titular Omega has appeared in the episodes, however there has been no explanation for what it means. Finally, the situation where Crane and Anne are stuck in the scary village, is resolved by Crane using his psychic abilities.

One of the things which comes across loud and clear is that Crane is what my late mother would have called a sexy piece. No sooner does he arrive in the village than one of the women from the unit is all over him like a rash, which is reciprocated. Then Anne arrives and she is all big eyes because we’ve already seen him dropping very heavy hints to her he wants something to happen. I don’t object to this thread to the show, although it’s a bit difficult to see what function it plays.

I do have one criticism, which is a broader one about the series rather than about the episode specifically. It is that the omega theme is produced rather sotto voce when it is introduced. I happily acknowledge that I have failed to mention it so far, but it is also mentioned for seconds in an hour-long episode. Given that the Omega mystery is what gives the series its title I think probably it should be more prominent.

I really enjoyed this episode: I like the way it feels more like a mystery with supernatural elements than the others. It was also fascinating seeing Crane with two women on the go!

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