Here's a chap undergoing therapy. there's a tank of water set in front of him, with a glass screen, and a spout of water upon which there's a table tennis ball! Now I'm not going to ever try and put an interpretation on what this form of therapy is. It's inexplicable as to why a hospital patient should be given the Prisoner's own suit of clothes to wear? Could it have been a warning to the Prisoner, that perhaps he himself might have to be put through some kind of aversion therapy? Or then again, perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all, just being something the viewer has to accept. But then again, McGoohan had a deep mind, I cannot think that he'd have a hospital patient dressed in the Prisoner's own clothes simply for visual effect. Ah, that's more like it, with the Prisoner McGoohan was messing with our minds!
Be seeing you
Hello David
ReplyDeleteI often like the idea that The Village was growing 'doubles' much like the scenes seen the 1956 classic sci-fi film 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. In this scenario the man in No.6 garments is an early embryonic version of No.1. He is to 'grown' gradually siphoning off No.6 mind and personality. The Village gardeners are just half baked drones or early experiments of The Village.
In this case it is No.1 who is The Prisoner struggling to be born.
Sincerely
Mr. Anonymous
Hello Mister Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat's a very original idea you have there, certainly that patient who is walked along the corridor seems to be a shell of a man with no mind of his own, perhaps because he hasn't got one yet. He's not Curtis is he?
"In this case it is No.1 who is The Prisoner struggling to be born"
Yes, I like that.
Kind Regards
David
Be seeing you
Me2.
ReplyDeleteLike many other things in this show, the point about this guy wearing the clothes of No6 had completely passed me by for years. The depth of subtle detail in this show is truly incredible. What is so sad nowadays is that many watchers dismiss such things as coincidence or mere happenstance. I can see how the dates on a Tally Ho might just be expeditious continuity *errors*; but to deliberately dress this man like No6 was dressed had to have been deliberate and intendeed to be noticed by the viewer. McGoohan's creative immersion perhaps blinded him a little to the fact that none of us viewers could have possibly taken all these tiny details in on one watching. His genius was making the show so balanced between simplicity and complexity that even if we didn't notice, we still thought it was a brilliant show..... ;-D
Hello Moor,
ReplyDeleteIn all my years of appreciation for 'the Prisoner' I've never been able to figure out the meaning of the hospital patient being dressed in the Prisoner's suit of clothes, especially after the doctor told the Prisoner that his 'old clothes' had been burnt! The patient is deliberately dressed in the Prisoner's clothes, didn't the Prisoner notice that himself? If he did he made no mention of it! Such is, as you say, the depth of subtle detail, not mention the complexity of McGoohan's mind, or that of the scriptwriter, or both.
I've been watching 'the Prisoner' for many, many years, and for more times than I can remember. Yet I can still find new things to see in the series today, that I had previously missed. As for the tally Ho, they put the date, Feb 10th, yet not the year!
What has annoyed me over the years is how people read the most complex reason into the most simplest of things. A fan once wrote how the Prisoner, having parked his car in the underground car park during the opening sequence, then shows his rebellious nature by entering a building via the 'Way Out.' When in the real world the Prisoner is merely departing the underground car park by the 'Way Out!' It's no wonder some fans of 'the Prisoner' cannot understand the series, if they are reading such complexities into a simple thing like exiting a building!
Regards
David
Be seeing you