Psi Factor rode a rough road in its 4 years as a series. Conceived as a series based on the purportedly real organization of the OSIR, the stories were supposedly inspired by real life incidents investigated by the organization.
In its first year, the series used a docudrama format, with two 1/2 hour stories a week. They gave the major facts of a case, and the investigators were mostly there to present the story, and not to be active participants. In a lot of ways, while it was interesting, it was not necessary compelling. In two separate episodes, however, they used a single episode format, and the stories presented offered a great more promise than the rest of the episodes that season.
In order to keep the series alive, the producers changed the format for the second season, killing off a major character in the first season finale, and introduced two new character in the first episode of second season. The new characters were Matt Praeger (Matt Frewer) and Michael Kelly (Michael Moriarty)--one, a flippant criminologist with a background in mechanical engineering, and the other, a conspiracy theorist.
Matt Praeger took over the "A" team of the OSIR: the characters who survived the cast culling from first season: Peter Axon (Barclay Hope); Lindsay Donner (Nancy Ann Sakovich); Anton Hendricks (Colin Fox) and a myriad of secondary characters: Claire Davidson (Soo Garay); Lennox Q. Cooper (Peter Blais); Ray Donahue (Peter MacNeill) and Frank Elsinger (Nigel Bennett).
While the series survived through three additional seasons, more changes were instituted, including fourth season characters going missing, the introduction in fourth season of Mia Stone (Joanne Vannicola) and more intimate storylines [with less investigating team members].
The most disturbing change for many fans was the killing off on first season character, Connor Doyle. Many fans were extremely upset at the character's demise, making him very sorely missed for the rest of the show's run. Producers tried to make up for the loss several times, but logistics prevented them from bringing back Paul Miller until near the end of fourth season, where an episode entitled "Regeneration" brought him back to bring some closure to his character's demise.
Overall, the series had some promise, and while it didn't live up to its full potential, there were some promising episodes, and characters that were interesting and full of energy.
