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Friday 18 May 2012

Did Professor Jacob Seltzman Escape?

   I have always assumed that Professor Jacob Seltzman was the only person to escape the village in the pre-Fall Out episodes. But did he actually escape, because the film of the Allouette helicopter supposedly carrying Seltzman away in the guise of the Colonel, is the same film seen at the end of the episode 'Its Your Funeral,' but which is a fraction shorter, you do not see the helicopter turn back on itself, back towards the village.
   So that piece of helicopter film footage, which is stock footage, is in itself suggestive enough to make us think that Professor Jacob Seltzman did in fact escape the village. But the helicopter could have been brought back through contact with the pilot from the control room. Or returned back to the village under remote control via an operator in the control room. And then don't forget the helicopter takes passengers to a landing stage, which is mentioned by No.2 during .The Schizoid Man.. But I suppose in the long run, its less complicated if we simply believe that Seltzman is the one who got away!

Be seeing you

11 comments:

  1. No.2 in "The Schizoid Man" does mention the landing stage. But in the words of another No.2, "Can we trust him?"

    No.2 may well have been suspicious of the man who appeared to be Curtis and might've been "sounding him out", giving some false information to see "Curtis"'s reaction.

    Then again, No.6 and Seltzman knew each other very well. Perhaps they had a plan for a future eventuality whereby they're involved in a 3-way mind transference in some distant village. What if they had agreed that Seltzman would pretend to be No.6 if they found themselves in such a situation!

    be seeing you
    ZM72

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    1. Hello ZM72,

      I think there was a landing stage, because of the range of the Allouette helicopter. The Village was isolated, and so presumably well away from any metropolis, or civilization.

      Seltzman and the Prisoner knew each other. I think the Prisoner was protecting Seltzman, and where he was living. So in return for his help, Seltzman could have helped the Prisoner to escape, but to do so he would have to give himself up to the Village.
      When Seltzman was busy changing the mind of three people simultaneously, he could have kept the Prisoners mind in the Colonels body, and then it would have been the Prisoner who might have escaped. Ah, but would the Prisoner have been able to put up with the Colonel's body, going around for the rest of his life as someone else? That seems highly unlikely. And then of course there would be the Colonel, the moment he woke up on the operating table in the Prisoner's body he would have instantly given the game away. So much for thinking outside the box, it doesn't always work.

      Regards
      David
      BCNU

      Delete
    2. Hello again
      Yes, I must confess that I cannot see any good reason for Seltzman to pretend to be No.6 whilst in the body of No.6, whilst No.6 in the Colonel's body leaves via the helicopter, it would hardly constitute a good resolution for any of them!

      be seeing you
      ZM72

      Delete
    3. Hello again ZM72,

      Always a pleasure.
      No, I wasn't not too sure about it myself. It was an idea which came to me yesterday, but one which has been rejected by myself, and mentally thrown into the waste paper basket!

      Regards
      David
      BCNU

      Delete
  2. Insofar as the self-contained narrative of The Prisoner is concerned, it makes no sense to imagine that Seltzman escapes. In fact, there is a certain evil genius to the way No6 gives away the secret in his moment of triumph. If he had said nothing, then the "Colonel" would have been undetectable (assuming Seltzman was clever enough to maintain the fiction).

    The exquisite irony that it is The Prisoner himself who ruins the plot, by alerting the (obviously surprised) No2 to the ruse, is cold and cruel, very very cruel, like a scalpel slicing the ripe flesh of the innocent mind.

    Thus we see the helicopter turning... and the bars close once more. Not for the last time was McGoohan revealing that the worst enemy No6 had to fear, was himself.

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    1. Hello Moor,

      That's an interesting comment you made, and in so doing made some valid points. The scene can certainly be seen in the way you state, Number 6 giving away the secret in his moment of triumph. and Seltzman as the Colonel would certainly have left the Village undetected. Except for one small detail.....Number 2 realises that it's the Colonel lying on the operating table, that it's not the Colonel departing in the helicopter before the Prisoner confirms the fact.

      Another small detail.... before 'the Prisoner' is returned to London, he is put through the amnesia process, which takes away all remembrances of the Village. I know we do not see this in the episode, but how could they release Number 6 back into the outside world with knowledge of the Village still inside his head? That being the case, how is it that when Number 6 wakes up on the operating table he regains his memory so quickly? In the original script 'Face Unknown,' the Prisoner's memory is regressed back to the day before he was to hand in his resignation, I imagine that is what happens in the epsiode, but is something we as the viewer are not privy to.

      Regards
      David
      Be seeing you

      Delete
  3. The 30-year cult campaign against this episode has turned your mind David. No2 is about to launch into a eulogy about the Colonel, and says, "The man who is about to fly out of here..." But No6 sits up and interrupts, "is not who you think he is...." No2 then is shocked; so the correct interpretation is that No6 gives the plot away. He wrecked the escape of Seltzman, and McGoohan gives the message by showing the turning-back of the helicopter. His annoyingly brief clues are largely missed by the modern viewer, except for the unmasking one of course, which they never shut up about.

    There was some memory interference as you say, and that is obvious, even if we are not shown the mechanism, but I think we are meant to realise that when No6 sees his Face Unknown in the mirror for the first time, that he is rapidly shocked back to the reality of what has gone on - not a dissimilar notion to the effect of shock on the human mind that electricity provides - in Schizoid Man.

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    1. Hello Moor,

      I can tell you my friend, that my dislike of 'Do Not forsake Me Oh My Darling' goes back further than 30 years. For me there are just too many imponderables. Even the script writer Vincet Tilsley doesn't like the epsiode. At a 'Prisoner' related event last year, a 'Mind Mash' at which 'the Prisoner' was dicussed in-depth, the guest was Vincent Tilsley. The organiser wanted Mr Tilsley to do a live commentary on 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,' but he said no, he was too embarrassed by it, and so did a live commentary on 'The Chimes of Big Ben' instead.

      Just becasue I was a member of 6of1 for a number of years, a brainwashed imbicile it doth not me make, afterall, Patrick McGoohan was also a member, as Honorary President.

      In my mind {and nobody else's} Number 6 doesn't give the plot away, he simply confirms Number 2's suspiscion. You can read the sudden realisation of the situation in the face of Number 2. I think Number 2 cannot believe what he is thinking, before Number 6 speaks out.
      As far as 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling' is concerned, I feel that it would have been better if David Tomblin and co had retained Vincent Tilsley's orginal script of 'Face Unknown, in its original form.

      Kind Regards
      David
      BCNU

      Delete
  4. Yes, the Colonel in the body of Seltzman prompts the suspicion of the No2, but there would have remained doubt perhaps, if it hadn't been for the immediate confirmation of No6.

    I'm always surprised that the aficionado's of the "Drake=6 Theory" don't quote this episode more, as it does include an Agent called Potter and the entire structure of the episode, with it's Prologue, directly replicates the way Danger Man episodes were put together.

    http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/mcgoohan-in-his-own-words-i-question.html

    "it is startling to note that the very first fans who began to study this series as more than just a passing piece of TV ephemera actually thought Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling was the richest, most complexly rewarding program in the series. That was the opinion expressed in the viewing notes published to accompany the Ontario Educational Communications Authority study of the show in 1976 – a College/Open Learning course, which involved the series being re-broadcast and this exercise culminated in the well-known Troyer Interview with McGoohan in 1977."

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    1. Hello Moor,

      To borrow one of Number 2's sayings {to coin a phrase} "One man's meat, is another man's poison!"

      Regards
      David
      Be seeing you

      Delete
  5. ** To borrow one of Number 2's sayings {to coin a Phrase} "One man's meat, is another man's poison!" **


    Except in the case of this episode there seems a curious modern uniformity that this episode is Poison. The Wisdom of Crowds is a thing to be marvelled at, as No6 might have commented, but never did.

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