Once Upon A Time

   Originally given the working title of Degree Absolute, the transmitted episode of Once Upon A Time was to have been a stand alone episode, just like it's fifteen predecessors, and was to have been a much earlier episode in the screening order of the Prisoner. Which would surely have meant that No.2 having died of a possible heat attack, from exhaustion, who might have been poisoned by the drink, would have remained dead. There would have been no resuscitation for the 'late' No.2 {Leo McKern} as we are witness to in Fall Out. and so Once Upon A Time was used as a prequal to Fall Out, at the beginning of which there is a reprisal of what had taken place in this previous episode.
    Of course the working title of the episode is used twice by No.2, once when on the telephone to No.1, I presume it is No.1, although this has never really been confirmed in any of the episodes, that it is No.1 who No.2 speaks to on the telephone. And 'Degree Absolute' is given to the Supervisor in the Control Room, who wanted to check the order, but is told to check nothing! Quite obviously the Supervisor is aware of what No.2 is about to face undertaking 'Degree Absolute,' as he tells No.2 that it's a risk, that he would hate to see him go!
   No.2 told the authority, perhaps No.1, over the telephone in his office, that No.6 is a good man, that he was a good man, and that either one of them must be risked. It has to be one or the other you see, not both. And so 'Degree Absolute' is about to be put into operation.
    It is a somewhat familiar, and irritated No.2 who has been brought back to the Village, given a second bite at the cherry so to speak, this to discover the reason behind the Prisoner's resignation. No.2 doesn't seem to be happy to have been back to the Village, he even barks angrilly at his most loyal servant - the Butler - to take the breakfast away, but to leave the coffee, The Coffe leave it!
   No.2 is put through an almost sleepless night, as he constatnly recites nursery rhymes to the slumbering No.6, this as part of the regressive process in order to take No.6 back to his childhood. And so it is with the lack of sleep, and possibly still irritated about being brought back to the Village, which already might put No.2 one-down to No.6, who escorts No.6 to the Embryo Room, where they will be locked in a psychological and physical battle, acting out certain stages of life within the seven ages of man, aided and abetted by the Butler, who also tends to the daily chores, of cooking meals, washing up, keeping the cage clean etc. The Butler who seems to understand what is happening, and is about to happen without being told!
   So No.2 wants to know why the Prisoner-No.6 resigned. Having regressed No.6 to his childhood, No.2 then brings No.6 to school, and eventually to the prize-giving day. As the Headmaster-No.2 asks the pupil No.6 if he has anything to say, but No.6 has nothing to say, to thank him for everything. And it is then that No.2 jumps the gun and asks the school pupil 'Why did you resign?' 'From What Sir?' the pupil-No.6 asks, because he has no idea what the Headmaster is talking about, having barely left school he hasn't yet had a job from which he might resign! So No.2 jumped the gun! But even when in a quiet moment in their deliberations, when No.6 finally told No.2 why he resigned, but apparently No.2 wasn't listening at the time. He asked No.6 to tell him again. But No.6 was never a man to repeat himself and simply tells No.2 that he's been told.

    A week is a long time to be locked away in but a single room, locked in both a physical and psychologocal battle. I mean you can't be role-playing every minute, of every hour, of everyday for seven days. There has to be periods of 'time-out,' and this might be one of those times. No.6 is having forty winks. The poor boy has worn himself out, and that goes for McGoohan as well!
   And what else did No.6 and No.2 talk about? I mean as the television viewer of Once Upon A Time, we only get, what I see as being, the edited highlights of the episode. So a whole week is a long time to be at each others throats, to be playing mind games in a psychological battle. So in the quiet moments, what is it that the two men, the inquisitor and the Prisoner, talk about? How things are in London? Who is in government at the moment? They might talk about the international scene. After all there is much the Prisoner doesn't know about the outside world since his incarceration in the Village, such as the Torrey Canyon supertanker disaster off the Cornish coast on March 18th 1967. Developments of the war in Vietnam. How Fulam football club is doing in the first division. The latest fashions and trends. What's happening in the music scene, who is No.1, the Who, the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles? Of old colleagues. How No.2 found himself in the posion he has. Or simply small talk to help pass some of the time. I'm sure No.6 would have many questions to ask No.2 of the outside world, seeing as how No.2 had only recently returned to the Village, probably from London. And perhaps seeing as No.2 was beginning to like No.6, he might have told No.6 what he wanted to know, and quietly chat together. And of course there was the need for sleep at some point, if only for the Butler. This is of course all supposition yes, but as I say, a week in the Embryo Room is a very long time, and there is more that would take place there than we are privy to on the television screen, that at least must be obvious, even if it's only to eat, wash, shave, and go to the toilet!
    No.2 said of No.6, that he was beginning to like him. And at the end of once Upon A Time, I think the same can be said of No.6 judging how angry he was, smashing that glass on the floor like that. Angry yes, at the death of No.2!
    I'll be seeing you