Do Not forsake Me Oh My Darling
Profiles
Number 2
Male
Height…. 5 feet 10 inches {approx}
Weight….182 lbs {approx}
Hair……..Silver
Age……..50 {approx}
Age……..50 {approx}
Nationality…. English Speaking
Chief Administrator
Chairman of the village
Village attire, single breasted black blazer {a white handkerchief in the breast pocket}, grey polo neck jersey, dark grey trousers and deck shoes. Steel framed glasses and a signet ring on the little finger of his left hand.
Wear’s the penny farthing badge upon the right lapel of his blazer.
This Number 2 has been given the assignment of locating and abducting Professor Jacob Seltzman to the village. In this regard, he needs the mind of Number 6 to help him.
He has no idea where professor Seltzman is, but he knows that number 6 does, he having the last contact with Seltzman.
Number 2 is a shrewd man, calm, precise, both calculating and manipulative.
A charming and gracious administrator, who can appreciate the full advantages of the Seltzman machine.
Most major power’s have in their prisons, one or two of each others spies. From time to time, diplomatic swaps take place. Imagine the power we would have, if the spy we returned had the mind of our choosing. We could break the security of any nation!
He appears to relish the prospect of being able to break any nation’s security.
But there is an air of casualness about him, as he briefs the Colonel, Number 2’s hands buried in his pockets.
However to see this dream a reality, Number 2 must first acquire Professor Seltzman, this in order to acquire the reversal process.
So as the integral part of the plan, Number 2 oversees the mind of Number 6 placed into the body of the Colonel, and then released from the Village, back to London
But number 2 is nobodies fool, he has Number 6/the Colonel closely followed, by an agent of the village.
Once the assignment is successful, Professor Selzman having been abducted to the village, number 2 tries compassion upon him, the Professor answer being no to why he was brought to the village. Surely he cannot leave this poor young mans mind wrongly housed, he must feel some responsibility towards him? If Number 2 cannot persuade Professor Seltzman to perform the reversal process, then he will have failed on two counts, one they would not have the reversal process and Number 6’s mind {the Villages prize prisoner} would be wrongly housed for all time!
But for all the cleverness of Number 2, there is one final part of this operation which is beyond his control, the reversal process itself.
Because he had not accounted for amount of progress made by Professor Seltzman, he could not have foreseen that the Professor was able to change three minds at the same time. That way Number 2 was completely outmanoeuvred, by the Professor.
On the surface this may very well look like defeat for Number 2, the astonished expression upon his face, of the sudden realisation that he had failed and would have to report his failure, not to mention the consequences of his failure.
However there are one or two saving graces here, for a quick thinking and calculating Number 2.
Firstly, the Village now has the reversal process, Number 2 having ordered that the cameras film everything and that the scientists observing the operation, note down everything the Professor did. Secondly, it would take only but a moment for Number 2 to have ordered the return of the departing helicopter to the village, it was only a radio message away. Or indeed fly the helicopter back to the village by remote control, as seen in ‘Arrival’. And of course there was also the landing stage, if all else failed, then Colonel/Seltzman could be returned to the village from there!
The Colonel
Male
Height….6 feet {approx}
Weight….200 lbs {approx}
Hair……..light brown, thinning
Age……..45 {approx}
Nationality…. English
Occupation… Middle Civil Servant
Salary………. £300 per month {approx]
Attire, dark two piece business suit, white shirt, stripped tie and black shoes
Blue pyjamas, blue silk dressing gown and brown slippers
Charcoal grey suit, black polo shirt, black boots…. {the prisoner’s suit}
Black dinner jacket and trousers, white dress shirt, black bow tie and cumberband, black shoes
Double breasted blazer, white shirt, stripped tie, grey trousers and suede shoes
He does wear glasses, for reading or watching things on a screen, say television for example, these are in fact National Health framed glasses, which was the general custom for some people at the time to wear National Health glasses, when not wearing glasses all the time, say just for reading.
At first sight, this man does not appear to be a typical field agent, he seems more suited now to sitting behind a desk all day, otherwise he seems perfectly ordinary.
But he does seem to be a strange selection, to send on such an assignment!
Like the Colonel’s before him, of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ ‘Many Happy Returns,’ certainly they were all superior’s to the prisoner, he working for their department. So is this Colonel, another of the Prisoner’s superior’s? After all the Colonel’s title remains the same, only the man behind the title changes, much in the same way as does Number 2!
He is keen to know his duties as soon as possible, having been brought to the village, but not briefed as to why!
He is gratified to know that he has been sent to the Village by the highest authority.
The Colonel appears not to be shaken by his arrival in the Village, this then would presuppose that he had pre-knowledge of the village, perhaps worked for the village.
Whether the Colonel was recruited by the village is not certain, however as the village is a British installation and run an unknown government department or other, it is quite possible that the Colonel may well have been assigned from another department for this assignment.
What highest authority, higher than Sir Charles Portland?
Did he work for Sir Charles Portland, as a member of his department? It seems unlikely, he may have known of Sir Charles and how to reach him through his department. But Sir Charles made no sign of recognition of the Colonel.
The Colonel has travelled, India
Watching the figure of Number 6 pacing the floor of his cottage, the Colonel thinks that anyone spending his time doing that must be rather stupid!
So the Colonel is not a rash thinking man, but the sensible, down to earth, judicious sort of man. He does not believe in the fantastic, the untenable, he does not believe that it is possible to put the mind of one person into the body of another, until he receives first a demonstration and then a personal mind exchange all of his own.
Soon he finds himself lying upon one of two operating tables within the steel framework of the Seltzman machine.
The process to begin with, was probably as traumatic for the Colonel as it is for the prisoner, but at least the Colonel’s mind inhabited the tranquilised body of the prisoner, whilst the conscious mind of the prisoner was entrapped in the body of the Colonel.
So since the process of mind transference had taken place, the Colonel is effectively The Prisoner, after all he woke up in his home of 1 Buckingham Place , Westminster London
He drove the Prisoner’s Lotus 7, KAR 120C.
He even wore the prisoner’s charcoal grey suit, black polo shirt and black boots.
No one recognises the Colonel, least of all Janet, whom the prisoner’s mind does recognise but cannot say who he is or why, well who would?
There is now way the prisoner can prove to Sir Charles who he is, only sufficiently enough to see that he is followed every minute of where he goes!
Strange, how Sir Charles Portland does not recognise the Colonel, perhaps the Colonel doesn’t work for Sir Charles department after all, well no one there recognised him. However the Prisoner does, and it is he who sets about all the things that need to be done.
But once the prisoner is returned to the village, along with Professor Seltzman, it is the Colonel who pays the ultimate price, his mind now occupying the frail body of Seltzman ‘You must contact Number 1, and tell him that I did my duty’.
So the Colonel knew about Number 1, proving that he was not simply assigned to the village, but knew more about the village than at first met the eye, working for the village as he did.
The Colonel, who in the end, died for the cause!
The Prisoner-Number 6
So the prisoner is manhandled out of his cottage of ‘6 Private’ but by four security guards, that’s how many it takes to deal with the struggling Number 6.
He is then whisked off to the Hospital, where he is taken to the examination room and heavily sedated, and laid upon an operating table within the steel frame work of the Seltzman machine, along side the Colonel, ready for the mind exchange.
But the mind exchange is very traumatic for the Prisoner, as his past times in the Village play back in his mind.
Waking up in his home, the prisoner seems to have no recollection of the Village, such memories had been temporally wiped from his mind in the process.
Tomorrow he wakes up a new man!
And when he does wake up, he is wearing his wrist watch, as is the habit with the prisoner. But strange how, when the prisoner lifts his arm from out beneath the sheets to check the time that the prisoner does not recognise the fore arm, wrist and back of his hand, as not being his own!
The Prisoner’s hand writing does remain the same as it was, must be grateful for small mercies!
During a vicious fight with Potter, the prisoner tries to give as good as he gets, but this for him is not easy, his mind not used to the body it now inhabits. Far from being that of his own athletic body, it is more stockier and less fit and therefore slower to the reactions of his mind.
The dentist appointment has to be cancelled, due to Sir Charles lunches, they go on and on, well who can blame him he’s the boss.
And he has his car serviced regularly.
His favourite dish is Jugged Hare.
The prisoner works for Sir Charles Portland.
He is engaged to Janet Portland, he had asked Sir Charles permission to marry his daughter.
He has been away for a year, the last time he saw Janet was for a fitting for Janet’s dress of yellow silk.
A year since he left that roll of fill in the safety possession of Janet.
A year since he last had contact with Professor Seltzman.
So did the Prisoner’s resignation have something to do with Seltzman in some way?
The Prisoner has been a citizen of the village for one year!
So all that time, the village authorities had been taking care of both his house and all its contents, together with his Lotus 7 car. Garaging the car and renewing the lease of his house.
At his home, he has a small wall safe, hidden behind the television set, set in an alcove of shelves.
The money he takes from the safe is good old American US Dollars!
His kind of work the prisoner does, can take him out of circulation for up to a year, perhaps even longer!
Undercover work, behind the Iron Curtain perhaps, top secret, confidential work for a department of the British Government.
He has code names; in France Duval, in Germany Schmit and ZM73.
The Prisoner should not have been so irate at being given a number in the village, after al within his department of M9 he was known by a coded number ZM73.
So is his mind intact, so to is his aggressive attitude, especially when it comes to dealing with Danvers
When in his department, he would keep an ear to the ground, he knew all about Danvers Paris
In his guise of the Colonel, the prisoner recognises Janet, when she pays a call at his house, seeing his car parked outside.
However the prisoner cannot explain to Janet who he is, or why, well who would believe him?
This is the third occasion upon which the prisoner has been free of the village, the third occasion since his resignation that the prisoner has returned to his old department and that of his ex-colleagues, like some homing pigeon and demanding to see Sir Charles Portland.
Ex-colleagues to whom he has the devil of a job proving who he really is, claiming to be ZM73, but at least he does succeed in getting them interested enough for him to be taken to see Sir Charles Portland.
So even after a year since his resignation the prisoner still feels an affinity with his ex-colleagues, even after previous betrayals, after all I suppose that they would be the first people he runs to when he is in trouble.
This time unlike the previous two times, he is not looking for answers, but their help.
The Prisoner is allowed by Sir Charles to speak as freely as he wishes. However whatever the prisoner says to try and prove that he is who he claims to be, basing it on a very personal level. Yet everything he says can be countered by Sir Charles, he could have learnt it all from tape recordings, information extracted by fair means or foul and he could have learnt it all parrot fashion!
So the prisoner is followed every inch of wherever he goes, first by an undertaker in a black Hearse, and later by a man called Potter, who also works for Sir Charles department.
The Prisoner was the last person to have contact with Professor Seltzman, and now he has no choice but to find him, in the hope that he has perfected a reversal process, if not…….. pity!
He attends Janet’s birthday party, where he gives her a message that only he can give, there by confusing Janet even further.
But what of his engagement to Janet, in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ the Prisoner was asked by Nadia if he was engaged? He did not answer Nadia’s question, was he unsure of the engagement?
Why was the prisoner going to marry Janet in the first place? Well she was the bosses daughter, marrying her might help to further his career within the department.
But Janet was not his type one would have thought, he is enigmatic, energetic, cleaver, he has travelled the world, he is worldly. The prisoner had been a field agent, what kind of husband would he have made, when he would be away from her for so long and unable to get in touch with Janet!
Nadia of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ was far more the Prisoner’s type of woman.
And then comes the question of the prisoner’s actions directly after his resignation. He returns to his home, where he has two suitcases already waiting. The Prisoner was going to do a runner, but was he intending to take Janet with him? It seems unlikely somehow, he probably hadn’t even told her of his intention to resign.
With regard to the transparencies, it can go unquestioned that they had all been photographed by Professor Seltzman, and one of himself by persons or persons unknown.
The roll of film had then been sent to the prisoner by Seltzman, knowing that they contained the clue as to where the Professor could be found.
At the photographic shop, the transparencies had been recently signed for by a Mr Carmichael, who had supposedly returned then to the shop, after realising the mistake. The was taken in good humour by the prisoner, but it told the prisoner that someone had gone through the transparencies before him, but had not been able to figure out the hidden meaning.
Knowing how important those transparencies were, the prisoner gave the receipt to Janet for safe keeping, Janet probably the only one he felt that he could trust.
But of course the Prisoner had maintained contact with Professor Seltzman, because he had sent him a letter when the professor had been staying in Scotland
Mr Seltzman
Filey Clyde
So the Prisoner having been in contact with Professor Seltzman, has also at the same time, taken it upon his own shoulders to protect him from the authorities of the world, those who would do him possible harm to the Professor, and there by gaining his knowledge and perverting the use of his mind transference process.
Obviously the Prisoner could foresee what would be the likely outcome, should those authorities gain a hold upon him, and at the same time see the importance of the professor’s work when placed in safe hands.
So having located Professor Seltzman, the prisoner sets off in his Lotus 7 from London along the A20 to Dover {closely followed by Potter} and from Dover across the Channel by ferry to Calais, through France and Switzerland, into Austria and to the village of Kandersfeld.
The question of the Prisoner’s passport now in the hands of the Colonel meant that the photograph was wrong, hence his need to have a passport photograph taken at World Cameras. Then the Colonel would have to apply for an urgent passport {British Visitor Passport}, this he would have to do at the crown post office and after application would take two weeks to be issued.
So the Colonel was in London
So how long did this journey take the Prisoner? From London England Austria
Then of course there is customs at both Dover Calais
The Prisoner has the same trouble trying to convince Professor Seltzman of who he is, as he did with Sir Charles. However the sentimentality of Seltzman saves the prisoner from further struggle, as the prisoner’s hand writing has remained the same.
So why not escape, is that not possible for the Prisoner?
Once the mind transference has taken place, the prisoner is then returned to his house in London
The Prisoner is keen to prove his true identity to his ex-colleagues as well as to Sir Charles Portland, who in turn has the prisoner closely followed every inch of everywhere he goes.
Not only does the prisoner have Potter following him, but unknown to the prisoner, also an undertaker, agent of the Village!
Escape, in the body of the Colonel, a body not of his choosing? That would not be the prisoner’s way he would want his own body back, not spend the rest of his life in the body of someone else.
Besides, even if the Prisoner could break away from those constantly following him, his face would still be known by the village authorities, Number 2 and Number 1 at the very least. So how long would it take for the village to catch up with him? It would only be a question of time, an agony which the Prisoner would not want to prolong!
Previously we have only seen the character of the prisoner from the view point of the village. In the Village the prisoner is a rebel, even disharmonious!
He will not conform to the rules of the community, he will not try and settle down. He is always aggressive, watching, waiting always trying to escape.
But here we see a different side to the Prisoner, he accepts his surroundings, for the people he worked for and the department, he was part of the institution, until his resignation of course.
But he was certainly no rebel, resigning his job certainly didn’t make him one. He accepted, he was engaged to be married, and he was going to settle down.
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling continued next time
Be seeing you
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