The Therapy Zone

  

Its Your Funeral

   "By assassinating the retiring No.2, the citizens of the village would have faced mass reprisals from the authorities. And they would have gained nothing - merely removed a man who they hadn't any use for any more."

   Well that is one fans take on the plot behind the assassination/execution of the retiring No.2. But it's not right, is it? after all, in the village you are looked after for as long as you live. That is the village health and welfare policy, and No.2 would have ended up, retired into the Old People's Home. As for only getting rid of a man they had no further use for, well that was not the idea at all. The plot behind the assassination was so that mass reprisals could be carried out on the villages population, to rid themselves of a number of "Jammers" or malcontents, of which No.6 is top-of-the-bill you may recall.

It’s All Relative

    just as some episodes can be parallel to certain feature films. I mean look at 'The Schizoid Man,' a film well suited to that episode would be The Prisoner of Zenda, in which an Englishman, who is a doppelganger for a Crown Prince, is persuaded to impersonate the Prince who is abducted prior to his being crowned King. Well isn't The Schizoid Man all about one man impersonating his twin?

   And what about 'Dance of the Dead,' what film would you draw a parallel with? Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death perhaps? In which Prince Prospero has his loyal court of Noble men and women sealed up in his castle, whilst the peasants outside die in their thousands from the Red Death. Prince Prospero holds a costume Ball, but the Red Death gets into the castle and everyone dies. and the only figure seen to move is that of the Red Death!

   Well there's a costume Ball in 'Dance of the Dead,' and the Ball is held in the Town Hall, overseen by No.2. And originally at the end of the episode everyone was supposed to have died, save for No.6, who could have been akin to being Death!

A Thing About The Prisoner

  Is that ‘Arrival,’ ‘Once Upon A Time,’ and ‘Fall Out’ apart, all the remaining episodes can be screened in any order, and you don't lose out on any continuity of the series - because there isn't any! Because each episode, although being part of a series, is a story in its own right and easily stands alone.

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