The Therapy Zone

The First Cut

   If memory serves right, Arrival was originally to have been ninety minutes in length, which means 40 minutes of film, and original unwanted scenes, ended up on the cutting room floor. Well, not all of it apparently. Take the episode of ‘Its Your Funeral’ for example. No.2-the heir presumptive and No.100 are awaiting a visit from No.6, who is about to warn No.2-the heir presumptive of an assassination plot against him.

    No.6 leaves the Watchmakers shop, and makes his way along a cobbled path, through an archway, crossing the chess lawn he goes up the steps and across the central piazza. In this scene No.6 can clearly be seen wearing his charcoal grey suit he wore in Arrival. And so clearly this scene was cut from the opening sequence of Arrival, because it is clearly obvious that in Its Your Funeral No.6, wearing his arrival suit is on his way to the cafe, not the Green Dome!

   And also in the episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ Patrick McGoohan is in this episode more than you first might imagine. The Prisoner can be seen driving his Lotus 7 through London on his way to his home in

Buckingham Place

- more cut film footage from Arrival's opening sequence, kept and later used as stock footage in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’

   Fall Out also contains stock film footage from Arrival's opening sequence. After the Prisoner drives away from No.1 Buckingham Place, the Lotus 7 is seen turning onto Mill Bank from Westminster Bridge, Past the Houses of Parliament, and so it is quite clear to me that the Prisoner is driving towards the turn off to Abingdon Street car park, as he does in the opening sequence of Arrival.

A Chink In The Armour!

   If No.6 has an Achilles heel, then it's his weakness for a damsel in distress. No.6 first demonstrates this during the Chimes of Big Ben, when he comes to the aid of No.8-Nadia after seeing how No.2 is having her interrogated. Then he wants to help 'B' of A B & C, who is in distress. Then there's No.73 of Hammer Into Anvil, whose death he avenges. Monique-No.50 who seeks No.6's help in preventing the assassination of No.2. And finally vengeance rears it's head once more, as No.6 guns down The Kid in the frontier Town of Harmony, as he avenges the murder of Cathy.

An Overweening Sense Of Self-Importance

    It's hardly surprising is it - seeing as the whole Village is there for No.6 alone, and everyone in it is there for the convenience of No.6.

   It seems to me that this works well, if what takes place is all in the Prisoner's mind. The Village, and everyone in it will have been created by the mind of the Prisoner. He is No.1, and The Village, and the citizens therein, to do with as he pleases. In Once Upon A Time No.6 shouts at No.2 "In my mind, in my mind you're smart!" That's perhaps because if one follows this "all in the mind" theory, No.6 created No.2 in his own mind, and made him smart! And if it's all in No.6's mind, he should always be one step ahead. It's no wonder that No.6 plays a fine game.

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