US cable network The Sci Fi Channel is giving us all (for some reason, they haven't banned British viewers like they normally do) the chance to watch a couple of TV shows streamed over the Internet in not very high quality. Hoozah.

The first is Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, a Channel 4 series that starred Richard Ayoade of The IT Crowd among others. It's a parody of just about every 80s sci-fi/horror anthology series and serial going, with references to The Twilight Zone and The Ray Bradbury Theater in the opening titles alone, although the likes of Stephen King and Shaun Hutson are the main victims.

It's not actually very funny though. It's like something a bunch of students put together to show how clever they are (I, erm, wrote similar things when I was 16...): yes, you can see exactly what they're satirising, but it doesn't make you laugh, only go "Oh yes. Very clever."

Also appearing in stream-o-vision is The Amazing Screw-on Head, a pilot for a new animated series based on a comic book of the same name. Not too great either, but you can vote on it at the end to decide whether it should be made into a series.

While you're about it, if you decide to watch anything on the site, you'll get the SciFi video player and be able to watch interviews with the Doctor Who team. It has Eccles-cake in full humourless mode, sucking the fun and joy out of the atmosphere. But it'll make you all nostalgic for 2005.

Updates and related entries

October 23, 2006: Garth Marenghi makes his return on Man to Man with Dean Learner.

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