An Autist Reviews: From Beyond (The Omega Factor 1.1)

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

Department 7 was created to study otherworldly events such as ghosts and ESP; however, Department 7 is being shut down. Dr. Anne Reynolds is furious, especially since one of her trials seems to be producing results and, to make matters worse, the insomniac son of an old associate has just dropped by with dreadful news and voices in his head. The dead are speaking to the living, Adam Crane is showing signs of the second sight, and to top it off, both he and Dr. Reynolds only have a few short weeks together. This could be the beginning of a new era of Department 7, or, more likely, it could be the end.

Okay, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. The exposition is a mix of very subtle and intelligent and very straightforward and out of nowhere, the ending sufferers from occurring too fast and extremely annoyingly horrible voice effects, and the twist surrounding Mary and her brother, while hinted at a tiny bit, really seems to come out of nowhere, and not in the sense that Adam is using his powers, it just seems like he took one or two small statements and somehow put together the exact scenario perfectly. Aside from that, there’s a lot of talk about Adam and how he is like Mary’s brother, Malcolm, and his father, Tom, which gets really annoying, even if it does make sense since one needs to get an idea of who Adam is, but it could have been done SO MUCH better. Adam also agrees too much too easily. Aside from that, this story is brilliant. The eeriness is great, the humor is amazing, the base plot is utterly fantastic, and god Dr. Reynolds and her foil are so brilliant with each other, it really is amazing. There’s lots of setting up for future stories, there are lots of small character moments, and there are tons of emotional and painful scenes. It’s easy to poke holes in this story’s flaws, but that doesn’t make it bad, it really is stellar.

Wow, who could have guessed, John Dorney and Louise Jameson are brilliant actors and work brilliantly together. There is the occasional bit of stiff or out-of-place acting, especially when it comes to semi-emotional scenes, but the majority of dialogue is performed utterly perfectly. The side characters, especially Mary and Dr. Reynolds’ foil are also just brilliant, aside from the odd acting drop from Mary, once again, during semi-emotional and, in this case, properly emotional scenes. As for the bad guys, from what I COULD hear of them, they were utterly flawless, like, without a doubt, but I could make out very little of what they were actually saying, sadly, and I’m about to get into why.

Screw it, let’s start with the horrible voice effects. Want brilliant muffle effects? Want voices to sound pre-recorded? This story has AMAZING examples of both. However… the damn static sounds… There are lots of scary moments here, but they are all held down by the fact that all the mysterious ghostly voices are completely bogged down and covered up by static noises that it makes it impossible to tell what is actually being said, so you just have to use what the characters you CAN hear are saying and go from there guessing what the actual message was. Like, this story would have been LEAGUES better if it JUST DIDN’T USE THOSE DAMN VOICE EFFECTS. Like, it’s so annoying. The static sounds that come from ghostly voices and ghostly goings ons is also annoying as can get out since it replaces the vast majority of what should be spooky ghostly ethereal and windy effects. The static drags down the action effects so badly that the fact that I have almost no other complaints about the action effects basically does not matter. Every minute thing is detailed exquisitely by the effects, every plate, every press of a remote, every step, it’s all perfect aside from the occasional iffy effect, such as the breaking down of a door near the end. The Music in this is brilliant, mixing gothic organs with brilliantly time-ringing noises and more. Really the only bad parts are that occasionally it seems to be missing and that occasionally it doesn’t really affect the scene. The background noises are also next to top-notch. Every plate being picked up in the background, every conversation happening, every drip of water, it’s all so perfectly put together. Sadly though, sometimes there just isn’t any background effects and at other times there just aren’t great ones, usually sounding overly muffled or inconsequential, dragging the rating down from a 10 to an 8. As for the transitions, they’re generally done very subtly, usually just being swift jumps from one point in time to another, but occasionally they’re too subtle, resulting in getting slightly lost and not quite being sure where you are at the moment.

Replay as per usual is easy as can be. I love this story, I really do, but look at all of these complaints. I simply don’t love this story enough to be able to overlook these issues and want to listen to this again soon. Also, you won’t find yourself clueing into more as you relisten. You, at best, will notice another plot thread that will surely be pulled on down the line.

All in all, I am sad to say that upon a relisten this story didn’t live up to my memory of it. That being said, it’s a brilliantly strong start with brilliantly strong characters and an amazing soundscape, aside from the static sound effects. The acting is top-notch, the emotional scenes land brilliantly, the humor is never out of place, and there are plenty of scary moments. While it is sad that this story has so many issues with it, that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad listen or that it’s even a mediocre one, because, in the end, this story IS still amazing, even with all of its flaws.

Total - 8

Original Guesstimate - 10

Plot - 7
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Story - 9
Pacing - 9
Dialogue - 8
Narration - NR
Exposition - 7
Enjoyment - 8
Twist/s - 4
Resolution/s - 7
Ending - 7

Acting - 9
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MC/s - 9
SC/s - 9
BG/s - 10
Narrator/s - NR

Effects - 7
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Music - 8
Voices - 3
Actions - 7
Background - 8
Transitions - 8

Replay - 7
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Re-Enjoyment - 8
New Details - 6

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