THEPRIS6NER

THEPRIS6NER

    93, the old man who died in the desert. He was the first we see die, "Tell them....." he said to the Prisoner "........Tell them I got away." And so 93 did, because through a Village death, which is no death at all, 93 returned to his other life in that "other place." But exactly what "other place" was that? True, there was a sketch of St. Stephen's Tower of the Houses of Parliament hidden in an empty wine bottle in 93's apartment, which does suggest London, so how did 93, the former No.6, come to be brought to The Village?

    Okay, the last we see of the Prisoner he is driving his Lotus Seven in London during the final episode of Fall Out. Yet as we know, the ending of Fall Out is the beginning of Arrival, well it is in my book if not yours. And so it is that the Prisoner begins all over again at the end of Fall Out. The Prisoner has not escaped, but remains a prisoner of his own personal vicious circle, which is all in his mind. So if the Prisoner-No.6 is still living his own tormented dream in the prisoner, how was it that No.6 was brought to The Village in THEPRIS6NER, if he wasn't actually living in New York but London. And if not London, The Village! And if then The Village, surely 93 would have had a sketch of the Bell Tower, and not St. Stephen's Tower.

   I may not be able to tell you how 93, was brought to The Village, or indeed how long ago. But the reason for his having been brought to The Village is plain. No.6 was damaged, mentally. He was troubled about something which brought about his resignation. So Two had the former No.6 brought to The Village, given the number 93, in the hope that the former No.6 would be made better and then returned to his former life in the "other place, to which 93/6 returned to upon his death out there in the desert.

    Why the ships drift anchor as a folly in the middle of the desert? I have absolutely no idea, as that was never explained, and follies are rarely explained. "Follies are as follies do" as Braithwaite would say, they need no explaining, otherwise they would not be follies. Personally I think it would have been a nice tribute to the original series to have had a canopied penny farthing bicycle discovered by Six, half buried in the sand, what think you?

   So Michael took over as the boss of Summakor, Michael sat in the chair in the control room like a Supervisor amongst so many observers sat at their monitors. Such is the modern day take on the Village Control Room.

   I don't see it, do you, what it was that sent 313 running out of that dark corridor in Checkmate. You see it was said that all the questions will be answered in the final episode, well the basic ones maybe. Not the fact that no-one in The Village seemed to actually pay for anything. Not even why wraps were the basic nourishment in The Village, or exactly what the Therapy Zone is. And did you notice just how Six spent so little time in his apartment in The Village? And why did Two's wife give The Village a fifties/sixties atmosphere, even 313 rode a sixties style bicycle!

    Despite what fans of the original series might think, basically the two series are not that dissimilar from one another. Okay you haven't got the quirkiness of the original, there are no huge painted backdrops as used in the original, no studio sets purposely built, and in it's way there is less style of the original series in the reinterpretation, with Two the stronger of the characters, Six being the weaker. But if you take away the "filler" episodes of the original series, episodes like ‘Living In Harmony,’ ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ ‘It's Your Funeral,’ ‘A Change of Mind,’ ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ ‘A B & C’, because originally McGoohan envisaged the Prisoner being only a 7 episode series. So if McGoohan had managed to get his way, instead of having 17 episodes, you would have only 7. Because when you look at the original series, there are some which basically are really unnecessary to ‘the Prisoner,’ and are considered as simple "fillers" used to "pan out" the series.

    The Village has a Postman, he delivered Six's Clinic appointment card you'll recall. But does it have a newspaper I wonder? And to get on the bus in The Village, and to get off the bus and arrive in the Village is just the wildest thing!

    If a Village death isn't an actual death, in the way Two died having blown himself up with a hand grenade, and by which he returns to that "other place," as others have who have died in The Village, then that means that no-one is actually buried in The Village cemetery. And that can be said of the original series, as Cobb died in The Village, there

was his funeral of course, but then Cobb wasn't actually buried in The Village graveyard - was he? Cobb was allowed to leave The Village to return to the "other place." It's not exactly the same thing I know, it's more of an interpretation, as is THEPRIS6NER series itself.

DAS - BCNU

A Favourite Scene From THEPRISONER Comes When

   Six enounters some newcomers just getting off the bus.

Six "Who are you people?"

"Woman "Newcomers."

"So where have you come from?"

"We just got off the bus."

"Well where did you get on the bus?"

"The Village."

"This is the Village, you've arrived here."

"Isn't this just the wildest thing."

DAS - BCNU