Join us as we take a trip into the Pacific North-West... To a town with a population way too high for how its depicted. And an eccentric population.

We are, of course, talking about Twin Peaks this time. Taking in the views of the feature length first episode (critically not the International Pilot version of this which we will get into later), we find that the series is a lot more subdued this early with few of the hallmarks that would be infamous as it went on...

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Alas we have reached the end of Darkplace with so much of the series still left unglimpsed... What sights and truths could it reveal? Maybe that Dean Learner actually can act since once again he actually does for a brief moment.

Given the title and subject matter for The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shoggoth, we end up talking about HP Lovecraft. But there's also some Clive Barker and Quatermass in here too...

Next time, we're off to Twin Peaks!

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Looking past the less than subtle "borrowing" of John Carpenter's back-catalogue, we end up zeroing in on the actual theme of Scotch Mist! Doesn't have much to do with xenophobia, fog, mist but is very prevalent in the episode!

Inevitably we also talk a lot about Stephen King...

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We reach the infamous episode! The one with Garth Marenghi's attitude to subtext... Also his questions no one else asks...

Despite the very obvious Planet of the Apes styling, we talk more about Avatar, Star Wars and Rawhead Rex and have fun trying to get back to the point as usual.

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Content warning: mentions of sexual assault

We're not wild about this episode of Darkplace, but as discussed it contains some of the more quotable lines. Also the episode has the absolutely incomprehensible production mistake of Thornton Reed actually acting in the episode!

Otherwise, as is our way we meander off into other avenues of the 80s and in particular 80s horror...

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Episode 2 of Darkplace has perhaps one of the more obvious inspirations from a famed horror author's work and perhaps quailing from the maddening reality of that we talk about why where horror is set seems to dictate what kind of horror you wind up with.

More fake lost media and horror projects that intend to hide their actual horror nature and how thin the border between horror and comedy is; all derived from Mr. Marenghi's work.

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In a surprising move, we change our focus to something quite different: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace! A comedy, sort of horror series from the early 2000s.

We get into how it all works and talk about how it belongs to the weird sub-genre of fake lost media. Also the bewildering cloud of comedy projects the various cast are involved with.

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A wrap up now we're done with The X-Files for now. A whole franchise overview, out top comedy, top serious, worst episodes and best villains!

Next time: Something Quite Different.

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