DAEMON OF DARKPLACE

I was looking through some left-over files on one of the old 90s 
era computers that I've picked up over the years. It's not unusual 
to find some old documents, or even a simple database, left behind 
from a business or organisation long forgotten. Somehow I'd missed 
it before, but this time I discovered a directory named "DAEMON", 
and inside were a whole bunch of files from some sort of internal 
information system, apparantly made by "Hospital Electronic Lists 
Limited" for a hospital in the UK. By coincidence the system 
actually seems to have been Gopher-based at that time.

The system was called the "Darkplace Administrative Electronic 
Message Optimisation Network", so apparantly specially written for 
this strangely named "Darkplace Hospital" in the UK. Actually it 
seems that the hospital closed some time later, after a series of 
scandals relating to patient treatment, and becoming a target for 
nutcases believing that it was concealing dark experiments into the 
supernatural. It's not clear what the state of the facility is now, 
though some sources claim that it continues to be used by a private 
research foundation, under the leadership of the leading doctor 
Rick Dagless who was also clearly working there back when this 
system was in use.

So I figured that I might as well put some parts of DAEMON here in 
my Gopher hole. I haven't read through all of it yet, but some of 
the internal messages do seem quite odd, maybe some of those 
'nutcases' were actually getting at something...

OH ALRIGHT,

Actually Darkplace Hospital was the setting for a very little known 
80s British TV series written, directed, and starring, acclaimed 
horror novelist Garth Marenghi as hot-shot surgeon Dr. Rick Dagless 
M.D. Marenghi was then at his peak as a horror writer, having 
pioneered numerous horror genres, including "scary porn", whilst 
unafraid to use his art in order to direct attention at the true 
"boogie men" of our society, such as the real secret powers behind 
our government, and the extraterristrial origins of wasps.

While targeting a more general audience than his previous foray 
into film, the poorly received 70s movie "Bitch Killer", "Garth 
Marenghi's Darkplace" aimed to fully realise Marenghi's vision not 
just for the future of the horror industry, but for civilisation in 
its entirity. Simply put, it was true balls to the wall. Then 
metaphysically through the wall. Horror.

Tragically Darkplace proved just too radical for the then "powers 
that be" and though since accliamed as one of the best British 
horror series ever produced predominately in a garage, none of the 
television networks there would buy it. Beyond a breif run by a 
broadcaster in Peru, Darkplace was known only as legend within cult 
horror circles until its remarkable rediscovery and partial 
restoration in 2004 allowed it to finally see light with a 
late-night broadcast on Channel 4. Then about ten years later I saw 
it on a late-night back-to-back broadcast on SBS here in Australia.

What I've made is a tribute site to the work of Garth Marenghi, 
which has truely helped me to re-evaluate my perceptions of 
so-called reality, and also of broccoli.

OH ALRIGHT,

Actually "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" is a spoof 80s horror show 
made in 2004 by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade (who play Garth 
Marenghi and Dean Learner respectively (who play Dr. Rick Dagless 
and Thornton Reed respectively)), the first of two TV comedy 
colaborations, and following a stage show that I never saw. The 
multi-layered irony of the script combined with the deliberate 
production mistakes, all while remaining resolutely in character 
throughout, really works for me. It probably doesn't for everyone, 
but I really love this nonsense. It probably also helps that I've 
watched enough genuine low-budget rubbish from the 80s on old VHS 
tapes, and the excentric self importance exhibited in DVD 
introductions to cheap re-releases of forgotten old movies, that I 
really get the in-jokes.

gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Garth%20Marenghi%27s%20Darkplace

Following Darkplace they made a series called "Man to Man with Dean 
Learner" which I actually like even more, though it doesn't lend 
itself so well to Gopher. So here is DAEMON, for the attraction of 
any Darkplace fans who browse Gopher. I accept it's possible that I 
am the only Darkplace fan who browses Gopher, but hey I'm in 
agreement that Gopher should have more content than just talking 
about Gopher and tech, and this is just the sort of non-tech quirky 
thing that I think people love from the "old web", albeit usually 
if they actually understand what it's about.

I've got the Darkplace DVD (which is packed with special features), 
but just a quick DuckDuckGo search for "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" 
brings up a whole lot of full-episode YouTube, Vimeo, etc. links, 
so it shouldn't be hard to watch if you want to.

As for my tribute site itself, check it out from the DARKPLACE link 
at my home gophermap. It's not that great, but I've been slowly 
chipping away at the task of putting it all together for months. 
I'll admit that I did cheat in the end with the "staff profiles" 
which are just copied from the booklet that came with the DVD. I 
don't know how many people run Gopher clients that are set up to 
play WAV audio files linked from "s" item types, but the "play 
welcome jingle" thing works for me, and hey that might be my whole 
audience anyway.

Enjoy my DAEMON from HELL.

 - The Free Thinker