The Therapy Zone

Here’s A Thing........................

    How during the time of the Prisoner's de-briefing by No.2 on the day of his arrival in the village. No.2 reaches for a black file and when upon opening it, the wall screen depicts enlarged pictures contained within the file, which No.6 snatches from No.2's hands. But instead of turning the pages from the front of the file, No.6 opens it from the back and works backwards through the file, and turning the pages quickly as though in a race against those shown on the wall screen. But although the Prisoner was working through the pages of the file from the back, the enlarged pictures shown on the wall screen were in order from the front of the file!

    The pictures depict images taken from his former life, when he is seen in his former home getting ready to meet with a colleague, Chambers, who didn't turn up, but proved so talkative. Every facet of the Prisoner's former life is shown, perhaps in part even of McGoohan himself, from his childhood years to the time he was thinking of going on holiday, he was also suffering from a cold at the time, he sneezed his way out of one of their cameras! "Ireland? Bit too cold that time of year, Paris? Maybe not. What was that, sounded like a click in the mirror, over there, yes over there too!" The prisoner was undersurveillance by someone, long before his abduction to the Village. Perhaps he had become suspect!

   It would appear that someone has been gathering images of the Prisoner's whole life, from the cradle to the act of his resignation. Not one single moment of the Prisoner's former life has been overlooked, entered and filed away for future reference. The evidence is conclusive and cannot be denied, that the Prisoner had been under surveillance by someone long before the act of his resignation, perhaps by his own people if he was suspect! And if not, then by another agency, another department, or even another country, and that would account for the gathering of all the information on the subject as they could. I don't know how they missed his date of birth though! But then no organisation is infallible. Another example would be from A B and C, they didn't know the age of 'B's' son, his name, or the fact that 'B' even had a son in the first place! Perhaps No.6 can be given a position of authority in "Information & Records."

Report To The General – That’s A New one!

    Is it by accident or intention that the episode The Schizoid Man is followed by that of The General, because the latter is mentioned in the former, that of the General in the conversation between No.6 and No.2 during their taxi ride to the helicopter outside the Recreation Hall.

    No.6 {in the guise of Curtis} "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 is the General mentioned in that conversation between No.'s 2 and 6, that of the General in the next episode of the same name? It would surely be difficult to say, but the remark made by No2 "Report to the General......that’s a new one." So agents don't report to the General direct, this could be an indication that the General is that of the computer 'the General' of the following episode.

    However, the title of The General is also a rank, after all we are faced with not two Colonels, but three in the time of Prisoner, in The Chimes of Big Ben, Many happy Returns and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, all of which are of a very different character. So where would we have come across the General before, save for the Prisoner? Well obviously in certain episodes of Danger Man, two of which I can instantly recall, The Black Book - General Carteret, who tries to use John Drake for his own ends, by involving him with his brother in-law Sir Noel Blanchard who is being blackmailed.  And in Such Man Are Dangerous - the General who is dedicated to discipline, and for the moral authority that derives from that discipline. And sees that most people are honest and simple, but they are by nature incapable of deciding their own destiny{incidentally both General's are played by the same actor}.

    So I suppose you pay’s your money and you takes your choice. For me, I first thought that both the General mentioned in that conversation between No.2 and No.6 was the same General of the episode The General But that would be too coincidental wouldn't it, and certainly there was no other continuity between the episodes other than the General, because the two episodes were written by two different writers, Terrence Feeley and Joshua Adam respectively.

    Besides the man who No.2 first took to be Curtis was leaving the village, surely by this time, the computer-the General, was being shipped to the village. With the Professor and his wife already having decided to volunteer themselves to the village, would soon be arriving in the village, depending of course on how much time there is to lapse between The Schizoid Man and The General.

BCNU