The Therapy Zone

Once Upon A Time

    Originally as seen as being one of the 7 episodes that Patrick McGoohan would keep, but which was to become the penultimate episode in a 17 part series. For one week, one teeney weeny week, No.2 and No.6 would be locked in the embryo room in a psychological fight, the ultimate method known as 'Degree Absolute.' In which it has to be either one of them, No.2 tells No.1 that he was a good man, he is a good man. But if he gets No.6 he will be better.

    It is a familiar, but somewhat irritated No.2, who is brought back for a second bite at breaking No.6, to discover the secret of his resignation. But even when No.6 actually tells No.2 the reason behind his resignation, No.2 still isn't satisfied, he doesn't seem to understand that he has been told.

   No.2 is in an irritable state of mind, he bellows at his ever faithful butler, and goes without sleep when he spends the night in No.6's cottage reciting children’s nursery rhymes to him as part of No.6's regression, back to his childhood. This irritated state of mind together with the lack of sleep must surely put the boy Prisoner in a 'one-up' situation in the enclosed confinement of the embryo room right from the start.

   With Shakespeare's seven ages of man, from the cradle to the grave, No.2 takes No.6 through his life. From Childhood, to second childishness and possibly the grave, in No.2's death. Well that is how many see the end to No.2, as being dead. This because No.2 is addressed by the President during his trial of Fall Out, as being "There have to be some security secrets that are kept from a......late No.2." But 'late' need not mean that No.2 had actually died, you will recall that in Fall Out No.2 was resuscitated, to revive when apparently dead or unconscious and not resurrected, a revival, rising from the dead! No.2 said that he "Apparently died" 'apparently meaning evident, easily seen, but not real.'

    And I also think that No.2 was looking for a quick result, locked away in that embryo room with No.6 and the Butler. After all No.6, in his childhood state of mind, had only just graduated from school, when No.2, as the boys head master, jumped the gun by asking the pupil why he resigned. The pupil answered with "From what sir?" Of course the boy could not answer, he hadn't done anything yet!

   But all this is known, previously documented in the synopsis of the episode in at least two Prisoner based books. What interests me, as it does between all the episodes of ‘the Prisoner,’ as it does here with ‘Once Upon A Time,’ is not so much what we see, as what we do not see. As in the photograph below taken during, either the episode itself or at least its production.

   We see that Patrick McGoohan/No.6 is asleep in a chair. this could very well be a simple production photograph, but easily it could be actually an unused scene from the episode itself. After all, the Butler, who was in the embryo room simply to aid in their deliberations, and to look after No.2 and No.6, to cook them meals and so on had to sleep as did No's 2 and 6. There would have to be times when a break would have to be called in their deliberations, to wash, shave, go to the toilet, and sleep a little. The changes of costume as they continue in their role-playing through the life of No.6. I mean at meal times for example, what might No.2 and 6 talk about? The outside world perhaps, seeing as how No.2 has only recently been brought back to the village, against his will perhaps, he certainly didn't seem too happy about it! No.6 might ask questions, like who is in government now? Perhaps about music, old colleagues perhaps. Small talk about almost anything, even how No.2 had found himself in the position he has!

   I find thinking about ‘the Prisoner’ in this way is helping me develop a new concept about the series. It can be fun trying to fill in the blanks so to speak. I mean just because by the end of ‘The General’ the Professor is dead, No.2 defeated with the General gone up in smoke, does not mean that that was the end of the experiment. And of course there had to be a time when the General was brought to the village, as well as the Professor and his wife in connection with the 'Speedlearn' experiment. The way in which the episodes of the Prisoner present things, it is almost as though it all just happens, the instant arrival of the Professor and his wife together with the General. After all as No.6 sits outside the cafe there is an announcement through the public address system;

                  "Attention. this is an announcement from the General's department. Will all students taking the Three Part History course, please return to their dwellings immediately. The Professor will be lecturing in approximately thirty minutes. I will repeat that. This is an announcement from the General's department. Will all students taking the Three Part History course, please return to their dwellings immediately. The Professor will be lecturing in approximately thirty minutes."

   This certainly gives the impression that 'Speedlearn' courses have been going for some considerable time between the end of the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man’ and ‘The General’ itself. Its all to do with the lapse of time that takes place between episodes.

BCNU