The Therapy Zone

 Dance of the Dead

 Dance of the Dead it's mostly about death of course, but what a merry dance No.6 leads them all in towards the end, as originally in the script, everyone at the dance should have died, save for No.6. The "spectre" at the dance you might say.

   But its all another game, and No.2 seems to hold all the cards. A female orientated episode, with a female observer-No.240 who cannot use the correct protocols for reporting, and a somewhat stern female Supervisor-No.22, who takes great pride in putting the observer-No.240 in her place. When asking whether she should watch No.34, the Supervisor informs the observer that No.34 is dead. Which No.240 sees as a shame, because she was getting to know No.34 very well. But then No.34, as the supervisor says, didn't know her - did he?

                                 OBSERVERS OF LIFE SHOULD NEVER GET INVOLVED

This probably because the Supervisor saw No.240 was getting too close and chummy with No.2, in the way she hung around with No.2, her reporting direct, cutting out the Supervisor and her general manner towards No.2.

   Dance of the Dead, mainly concerns itself with just that, death, the death of the man whose body was washed up on the shore and discovered by No.6. The ordered termination of Roland Walter Dutton, and the execution of No.6, to be carried out by the people, who carry it out in the name of justice, as well as the original final scene in which everyone takes part in a frenzied dance of the dead, at which everyone dies save for No.6!

                                       Of the people

                                       for the people

                                       by the people

    Then there are "the rules" which no-one has ever seen, the unwritten rules which govern the villages society. The Prisoner is put to trial, his crime, the possession of a radio set. But there was no radio he could have borrowed, nowhere he could have got a radio, so when he did.... hang on a minute, the prosecuter-No.240, who is also No.6's observer, just said that there was no radio No.6 could have borrowed, no place he could have got a radio - so how did the dead man, washed up on the beach, acquire such a radio set?

The Whole Earth As The Village!

   That is No.2's hope. "What in fact has been created" he tells No.6 during The Chimes of Big Ben, "Is an International community, a perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realise they are looking into a mirror, they will see that this is the pattern for the future." An International community with a single currency the work or credit unit, and the first language spoken by the taxi driver to the Prisoner in Arrival is French.

   Well perhaps not the whole Earth as the village just yet, but certainly that is the view of Europe today, an International community, a united Europe, under the control of a European Parliament in Brussels, and with a single currency the 'Euro.' But No.2's views are certainly nothing new. In fact No.2 appears to share the same views as those of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French 1769 - 1821.

   Napoleon's vision of Europe was the state of things as they are today, a federation of free peoples in a united Europe under a liberal government. Napoleon Bonaparte thought only of France and what would follow his death. The present situation, at the time, with France and Europe as Napoleon saw it, was as a sketch of a picture that must be finished. He saw that there must be one universal European code, one court of appeal, the same money, the same weight and measures the same laws must  be in currency throughout Europe. He thought to make one nation out of all the states of Europe, and Paris was to have been its capital. Only the Tzar of Russia could prevent that, and history proved it to be so.

    Napoleon brought in the new law codes - seven in number - and believed in government "for" the people, he rejected government "by" the people. His France was a police state with a vast network of secret police and spies. The press was controlled by the state. It was impossible to express an opinion without Napoleon's approval. {Reads to me that Napoleon Bonaparte also acted with the village in mind!} He also had plans laid down for the construction of the first Channel tunnel.

    With Europe as it has become today, is only a final accomplishment of Napoleon Bonaparte's vision of a United Europe back in the 18th and 19th century. But the thought of a European Parliament in Brussels, and not Paris would have Napoleon Bonaparte spinning in his tomb!

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