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Thursday 25 August 2011

'Report To The General...... That's A New One!'

    Is it by accident that the episode of The Schizoid Man is followed by The General? Because in The Schizoid Man mention is made of the General during the conversation between No.2 and No.6 {who was impersonating Curtis at the time} during their taxi ride to the helicopter outside the Recreation Hall.
    No.2 'Look old chap, we've been through many scrapes before, but we've never fallen out over them. The General's not going to behead you.'
    No.6 'We won't know...until I've reported to the General, will we?'
    No.2 'Report to the General.....that's a new one!'
    No.6 'I don't mean report to him personally.........'
    So the question is, is the General mentioned in that conversation betwen No.6 and No.2 in The Schizoid Man a reference to the General of the following episode, and that's why No.2 found reporting to the General a 'new one' because the General is a computer? Or is the General a title or rank like that of the Colonel of whom we have made the acquaintence of in the Prisoner from time to time. I don't think for one minute that he's the General of The Chimes of Big Ben, just for the record.
    I recall John Drake of Danger Man encoutering two Generals, one General Carteret in the episode of The Black Book. General Carteret's brother in-law, Sir Noel Blanchard was being blackmailed, and uses  Drake to achieve his own ends, and in that preserving both his brother in-laws reputation, as well as his own. Then in Such men Are Dangerous Drake meets a General who is dedicated to discipline, and for the moral authority that derives from that discipline. He sees that most men are honest and simple, but are by nature incapable of deciding their own destiny. {Incidentally both Generals are played by the same actor - Jack Gwillim}. But of course there is nothing to say that the General is directly behind the Village, or indeed Curtis's superior. Certainly the General is no-one to No.6, even John Drake' immediate superior is the Admiral! So it might simply be that the General is of a rank higher than the Colonel, who No.6 went running to to report on the Village in Many Happy Returns.
    So you pays your money and takes your choice, whether or not the General made reference to in The Schizoid Man is that of The General, it might very well be sheer coincidence, because the two episodes were written by two different script writers, those of Terrence Feely and Joshua Adams repectively. Besides which, even if Curtis was to have reported to the General in person, computer or not, why would he be leaving the Village, when the General could already have been in the Village! Which in turn begs the question, just when did the General arrive in the Village? I suppose that question would in turn depend upon the time lapse between The Schizoid Man and the General, and whether or not the General was created ouside the Village, or developed within the Village in some scientific laboratory.  
    'Questions, questions.....you don't expect answers!' as John Drake once said.    BCNU.

2 comments:

  1. It cannot have been mere coincidence.

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  2. Hello Moor,

    Perhaps not. But if Terence Feely had the General as a superior to the Colonel, why have No.2 make the enigmatic comment 'Report to the General? That's a new one!' if the General was a person? But on the other hand, did Terence Feely know there was a computer on the horizon which would be called the General, in a script of the same name, written by Lewis Greifer? I really don't know.

    David
    BCNU

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