Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: Once Upon a Beginning (S1E01)

Plot Summary

The opening episode of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace drops us straight into the haunted, badly lit corridors of Darkplace Hospital, a medical facility apparently built on cursed ground and even shakier scripts. Dr Rick Dagless, M.D., arrives as the hospital’s new consultant, bringing with him a haunted past, an unreadable accent, and an intense stare that suggests both trauma and poor acting choices.

Almost immediately, Darkplace is beset by supernatural trouble. A mysterious force is killing patients, possessing staff, and generally ignoring all known laws of medicine, physics, and good television writing. Dagless teams up with the permanently sweaty Dr Lucien Sanchez and the emotionally distant Dr Liz Asher to investigate the evil presence, which manifests as a floating eyeball and a series of vague threats.

The episode lurches from one plot beat to another with wild abandon. Characters seem to know things they could not possibly know, emotional arcs appear and disappear without warning, and the rules of the supernatural shift scene by scene. This is very much the point. The joy comes from how confidently the show barrels through its own nonsense, aided by clunky exposition and dialogue that sounds like it was translated several times before filming.

Some elements deliberately do not work. Scenes end too abruptly, reactions are mistimed, and key moments are undercut by baffling editing. The possession storyline never quite explains its own logic, and the threat is resolved with a solution that feels both rushed and inexplicable. Again, this is where the comedy lives, lovingly skewering low-budget 1980s horror television that aimed high and landed somewhere near the floor.

Highlights

• Rick Dagless’ introduction as a brooding horror hero, complete with inconsistent accent and unexplained intensity.
• The haunted hospital setting, which perfectly parodies cheap 1980s horror TV aesthetics.
• Delightfully stilted dialogue that sounds profound while saying very little.
• The floating eyeball entity, a wonderfully low-rent supernatural threat.

What Doesn’t Work:

• Plot logic is almost entirely absent, with supernatural rules changing scene to scene.
• Character motivations are unclear, even by parody standards.
• Emotional beats are introduced and abandoned without payoff.
• The resolution feels abrupt and nonsensical, even within the episode’s own logic.

Final Thoughts

“Once Upon a Beginning” is a perfect mission statement for Darkplace. It establishes the tone, the absurd confidence, and the strange affection the show has for terrible horror tropes. The episode is packed with intentional mistakes, questionable performances, and narrative gaps big enough to summon a demon through. For fans of horror comedy, it is an immediate signal that this series knows exactly what it is doing, even when it pretends not to.