Don't Get Yourself Killed - An Unused Script for the Prisoner By Gerald Kelsey
As the title suggests Don’t Get Yourself Killed by Gerald Kelsey is one of two unused Prisoner scripts. A brief synopsis of the plot is that No.6 encounters the escape committee, which consists of a group of villagers who claim the right to vet all escape attempts, much like the escape committees of World War 2 prisoner of war camps, No.6 initially shuns them, but is then coerced into joining them.
Through this meeting with a member of the escape committee known as "The Miner", who appears to be attempting to dig his way out of the village, No.6 concocts an escape plan which involves The Miner and an oddball of the villages administration referred to in the script as the "HOF
The plot requires the "HOF
No.6 refuses to co-operate with the "HOF HOF
Between the three of them, they concoct an escape plan which involves stealing a helicopter from the village's 'helicopter service depot', but the plot is foiled at the very last moment, thanks to the greed of The Miner who refuses to take off without his sack of gold.
Curiously the script of Don’t Get Yourself Killed has a Georgian House as the residence of No.2, this would have been Portmeirion's pink and white Unicorn cottage, which was originally considered for No.2's residence, and not that of the Green Dome. The Unicorn cottage was however rejected for film production reasons, those of the pair of gates, the steps, surrounding bushes and undergrowth, which would lead to poor camera angles.
Also the finding of gold by The Miner in his tunnel, falls into line with the original background to the village, ie; that there are two old gold mines which go deep into the bowels of the earth. However the suggestion that the village has a "Helicopter Service Depot" seems quite ridiculous, and to be able to actually steal a helicopter suggests very lax security. And for there to be an actual escape committee, surely the village administration would have stamped that out long before there was time for any village citizens to form such a committee. Yet having thought about it, there was mention of the "Jammers" in It's Your Funeral, Jammers who talk, talk about the plots they've been hatching. Escapes mostly, but plans and developments of all kinds of mischief, they did it to confuse the observers. The plots they talk about are always make-believe, non existent, but control can't know that until they've checked them out. Used to run themselves ragged investigating the schemes of "Jammers." But they don't bother any more. Now they keep a list of all known jammers, and anything control picks up from these they just let ride.
This to me suggests a smacking of citizens working together as "Jammers", possible they had formed a committee, a previous escape committee before they became "Jammers" creating mischief inside the village, having failed to find any reliable way of escaping from the village!
Anyway the script for Don't Get Yourself Killed turned out to be fool's gold and I feel that the Prisoner series would not have been made the stronger for this scripts inclusion. However having said that, one part of the script I found to work very well, all things considered in the village, and to be quite eerie, are the "re-education lectures" played over the village loudspeakers. Re-educating the citizens as they speak out such nonsensical slogans as they work as "Individuality is the expression of revolt against the community." Such a slogan would have fitted in very nicely in the episode of A Change of Mind.
There were also several ideas floating about at the time for further Prisoner scripts. One such idea was that a Magician arrived in the village, and No.6 affected an escape through the Magicians magic cabinet.
I find it interesting that although some now suggest there was a desperation for scripts as the Prisoner project was being finished, there clearly wasn't that much *desperation* because both this and Moris Fahri's one, were decent ideas for a storyline and were abandoned. I also found it telling that Jammers appear in this script too, just as they did in Michael Cramoy's, so was that idea moved from one script to another? Or suggested for both? That would be even more telling...... ;-D
ReplyDeleteHello Moor,
ReplyDeleteYes, well there was two sctipts that could have been used for 'the Prisoner,' 'Don't Get Yourslef Killed' and 'The Outsider.' But I wonder also if funding was a problem. McGoohan went and worked on 'Ice station Zebra' so that the money he earned from that could be put into the production of 'the Prisoner,' as there was no more money from Lew Grade. Not to mention that the crew working on the series were actually putting their own wages back into the production towards the end. But no, script wise why did they use 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,' which is pretty awful when all is said and done, but to reject two far superior scripts, it simply doesn't make sense!
Yes, 'Jammers' in two scripts, that would have made for some fine continuity between the two episodes had 'Don't get Yourself Killed' been used. But whether the idea was moved from the one script to the other, or suggested in both as you say, well as you say, that would indeed be even more telling. Only Michael Cramoy and Gerald Kelsey could say I imagine.
Best Regards
David
BCNU