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Wednesday 21 November 2012

The Professors Lecture

   THEPRIS6NER, what is it all about? Thankfully during my time in The Village I never encountered that membranic "thing," what is it, a Guardian? But there it is, as large as life, proving the fact that the guardian did not die in Fall Out.
   But is it all really in the mind? Does not The Village physically exist? It's a poor look out for me, an many others if it doesn't! There has been a theory put forward that this new Village has been built on the site of the previous one. That the desert shows that there has been a dramatic climate change, well I don't subscribe to that particular theory, but a theory it is nonetheless for that.
    I question the educational policy, I do not see the value in teaching pupils the art of surveillance, set against each other, set against their elders, and to report any suspect.
   There is history, the history of The Village, but just who was Lady Two the Great, and how far back does the history of The Village go? I mean No.2 did say that soon they would be writing their own history, seems to me that they succeeded!
   This new Village is not for me, even though there is the feel of the 1950's and 60's,
not to mention the "retro" look The Village enjoys. Yet there has been advancement in technology, just look at Two's lap top, the top being made of glass!
  You may think that I'm crossing over from the one Village to the other, but I assure you that is not the case. People are having their say on THEPRIS6NER, and I simply thought to exercise my right to do so. I've been reading DAS’s blog, and I was curious. But gratified to see so many echoes of the original series within the new series, and that education was touched on, if ever so briefly.
   I understand that people are switching off rather than watching THEPRIS6NER, that fans do not like it because it's not a remake, did they really want a simple remake? I think that it is very poor to think fans of the Prisoner have turned their backs on this new series, especially after they have dealt with the complexities of McGoohan's Prisoner. I would have thought that to them THEPRIS6NER would have been a piece of cake. But really, is THEPRIS6NER so very different to that of the original? In my opinion, no, it's all there, just wrapped up a little differently if you ask me.

The Professor

2 comments:

  1. Arthur Butterworth22 November 2012 at 12:02

    It was never a good idea to try to remake or re-imagine The Prisoner. Unlike Kight Rider, Battlestar Galactica or Bionic Woman, say, The Prisoner was not so much a TV show as a work of art. You wouldn't want to add brush strokes to the Mona Lisa or even attempt to completely paint over it.

    Even if the remake had managed to make a good stab at saying something to the audience of today (which it didn't) it would still have been a mistake. The Prisoner is a timeless classic - let it stand as it is - a work of art created by a true genius using the medium of television as his canvass.

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    1. Hello Arthur,

      Fair enough. Can I ask you if you watched all the 6 episodes of THEPRIS6NER? I only ask because I know of one fan of the original series who condemned the whole series after only watching half an hour of 'Arrival' and condemned the series on that basis, which I thought totally unfair. If one has watched the whole series, and then still condemns it, well fair enough. On the otherhand I know a number of fans of the originl series who have given the new series a second chance, and now see the value in it.

      'The Prisoner' is indeed a remarkable television series, a timeless classic, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a work of art myself. As for THEPRIS6NER-09 it's not a remake, what would be the point of a remake, which is what many fans thought the new series would be. However, if one studies closely there are many homages paid to the original series within THEPRIS6NER, along with some of the same ideas which have been reinterpreted within the new series.
      When I first began to learn what fans of the original series thought of THEPRIS6NER-09 series, I wondered what they would think had Patrick McGoohan appeared in the series, or had lived long enough to have seen it and so perhaps endorsed it? Of course we shall never know, so perhaps that's unfair thinking. But I know some fans, who had McGoohan appeared in or had endorsed the new series, they would have proclaimed it as being the best thing since sliced bread, or the original series for that matter.

      Regards
      David
      Be seeing you

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