It's strange that in text both Two and Six are written in words, yet when it comes to other numbers in The Village they are written in numbers and not text as with 11-12, 313, 93, 455, 909, 147 for example. At one point in THEPRIS6NER, when Six is being wheeled away on a trolley he shouts back at Two "I am not a number, I am Six!" So perhaps Six is not a number, but a name, and the same can be said of Two, and that could be what set the two men apart from the other citizens of The Village.
There is a place where some lucky citizens can go on vacation, that place is "Escape Resort," a plush hotel and holiday resort, where citizens can go to relax and enjoy themselves. I wonder if this is akin to what was supposed to have been in the original series, a place which appears on Maps of Your Village, but which never appears in the series - The Palace of Fun. According to the original script idea, The Palace of Fun was a place where one could go in The Village to enjoy oneself, to gamble in the Casino, to watch the theatre. A place to dance, have a drink in the bar, to rest, relax and have fun away from The Village.
This is a man of mystery in the Clinic, as he mouths to Six "help me" the one minute, and has completely disappeared the next! Six later encounters this man playing solitaire outside the Solar Cafe. The man turns his head to look up at Six and gives him a funny knowing stare!
With the episode of ‘Darling’ there is a scene straight from the original series of ‘A B & C,’ the way in which Six is taken from his apartment at night to a laboratory in the Clinic, where 313 and Two have things done to Six,but in this case it's nothing to do with why Six resigned, but love. 313 injects Six with 4-15's genes, as Two sees that love is "all in the genes." The theory being that we fall in love with those who match our own genes, but Two and 313 have taken this one stage further. And so carrying 4-15's genes inside him, he cannot help but love 4-15, and she him. It's called "Gene Sympathy Therapy." There is doubt, suspicion even, but Six cannot help himself but to love 4-15.
And it's strange, but Lucy-4-15, develops a relationship with Six much in the same way as Nadia did with No.6 in the original series, but without the sex, although Nadia might have, had No.6 been willing! More then that, 4-15 is forced to love Six in the same way that No.8 is hypnotised into loving No.6 in the original episode of Checkmate, only the methods are different. Lucy is clever and ambitious, whereas 4-15 is the wholesome, un-ambitious side to her character. She has had affection from her father, and probably sees getting the same affection from Six.
313 has a complicated relationship with Six. Because she works for Two, and injects Six, and this is where the contradiction is, she is attracted to Six, and that is why 313 kisses Six at his wedding, so as to stop the wedding, and was successful in that. 313 is a go-between Two and Six, so that 's what the contradiction is, her attraction to Six, attracted to what Six has to offer. 313 and Six respond to each other. They both have love, pain, fear. They are quite similar in that way, they are people who respond to each other, and that is where the love lies between them.
As for 147, he is entirely satisfied with his life inside The Village, until a terrible thing happened. His daughter 832 fell into one of the holes which were appearing in The Village, and after that he becomes a broken man. Is this the kind of treatment that is dished out to those like 147 who were brought to The Village to be made better in the first place! Once 147 loses his child, he has lost all his reasons for believing in The Village. after that 147 is on Six's side.
The holes which are a nothing, oblivion, and beyond hope. They are not holes in the ground, they are holes in reality. What are they? where do they come from? And what do they tell us about The Village? Well if we had not been told, this would be a difficult one to figure out! And that is where the difference lies between the two series, McGoohan would never have explained holes appearing in his Village!
DAS - BCNU
"I am not a number, I am Six!" - "I am a free man"
ReplyDeleteIn the "The Schizoid Man" Number Six has to prove that he is a number, the "correct" number, actually. The German version of the P09 translates the famous outcry "I am a free man": "Ich bin ein freier mann!" which may seem quite an innocent thing but being aware that English "man" can be taken for both "mensch" = "human being" and "mann" = "male human being" it becomes obvious that here to some degree the (original) Prisoner's universalism is reduced to the trouble of one single man. This is something that former dubbing director Brinkmann in 1969 never employed for his work apparently knowing what he was doing.
The "mystery man" in the clinic.
I kept thinking this man was to be 93 or perhaps a reincarnation of some kind used to puzzle 6. A bit like the technician/gardener doppelgangers.
Village salute.
You may be right; I cannot tell if this is the only instance of the Village salute in the mini series. But I feel, like so many other things here, like the 93 character, this serves the only purpose of attemping to pick up those fans of the true Prisoner without giving it a second thought, if perhaps there might tbe more to it than just a vain phrase. - BCNU!
Hello Arno,
DeleteThat's a very interesting translation, and I'm sure readers of my blog will enjoy it also.
The "mystery Man" in the clinic is as I see it, a prediction of that which is yet to take place. That being the explosion at the Solar Cafe, which at the time Six was in the Clinic had not yet happened! The "Mystery Man" is playing chess outside the Solar Cafe, and is hurt in the explosion. But why the prediction of what is to come, the man mouthing the words "Help me" I don't know.
I cannot see anoyone else using the salute in the series. Of course the Shopkeeper may not have been giving a salute at all, but a simple show of the hand in a goodbye gesture. But I like to think of it as a salute. I have wondered why it is that the Village salute used in the original series was not adopted for the 2009 series.
Kind regards
David
BCNU
The new salute is an accordance with the hand/palm symbol of the Village which is evident on bottle labels and signposts.
ReplyDeleteThe "man" - "mann" - "mensch" issue comes up only once in the series (?) and in the German dubbing version which, it has to be said, at no stage reaches the quality of that of Mr. Brinkmann's work with the original in 1969. - BCNU!
Add: In the P09 there is the "Escape" resort, the spa section of the Village. Its German name being "Reiss aus" and although the meaning of which is "to escape", "to get away" it is something sounding rather odd in this context and one further indication of a "shot from the hip" dubbing process where especially Ian McKellen's No. 2 with regard to his style of speaking receives a very careless treatment. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteVery interesting, and revealing comments. And you are perfectly correct, the hand salute being in accordance with the Village logo, which is everywhere, even the eye chart in 313's medical room in the Clinic is made up with the Village logo instead of letters of the alphabet!
Regards
David
BCNU