The Therapy Zone

The Zendazoid Man

    Shave him and he’d look like No.6!

   Well allegedly a favourite film of Patrick McGoohan’s at the time of the Prisoner was The Prisoner of Zenda - starring Stewart Granger in the roles of Rudolf Rassendyll and King Rudolf V, who are not only cousins, but the very image of each other, just as Curtis-No.12 and No.6 in The Schizoid Man. Each also has a moustache - Rassedyll and No.12, as a way of telling the two apart.

    In the film The Prisoner of Zenda, the soon to be crowned Rudolf V, is both drugged and kidnapped, and Rudolf Rassendyll is recruited to impersonate his cousin, and attend the Coronation in his cousins stead. This to stop the crown from being usurped by the brother of Rudolf the V. There is even a character named in the film, I forget his name, who knows Rudolf the V intimately and so keeps his eye on him throughout the Coronation. The named character has a glass eye and it is his glass eye which he uses to watch the newly crowned King. Leo McKern has a glass eye - the left one!

   So both the episode The Schizoid Man and The Prisoner of Zenda are likewise linked by the use of identical look-a-likes. Well what if we carried this idea forward to Fall Out. No.6 who has now become known as Sir, is about to go through an Inauguration ceremony. Swap the word Inauguration for Coronation, and you could have the President and members of the Assembly attempting to usurp the "throne" upon which Sir now sits, by using a look-a-like for No.1, and to place him permanently upon the throne. There is even a man present at Sir’s pending Coronation who has a glass eye, his right eye - No.2 with which he gives No.1 a stare!

   I find it fascinating as to what can be done with the Prisoner, placing different interpretations on aspects of the series, by what is there already. Don’t you?

The Truth Test

    A few years back I received sections of the De Agostini ‘the Prisoner’ part-work, which came each week with a DVD of an episode of ‘the Prisoner.’ I never bothered to collect the work myself, already having the Prisoner several times over on both video and DVD, and of course much of my work has been spent in researching both the Prisoner and all related material.

   By what I have read of the De Agostini Prisoner part-work simply scrapes the surface of the Prisoner series, with some information a bit scratchy, and other information not there at all. There are also a number of mistakes, but one real howler of a mistake has to do with a phrase used by No.6 in the episode Free For All. No.6 says in the conversation with No.2 in his cottage on the morning of the Election period "Playing it according to Hoyle?" "Oh all cards on the table. You may rely on that" No.2 replies.

   Now for some ungodly reason the authors of the De Agostini Prisoner part-work have taken the phrase "Playing it according to Hoyle" completely out of context. In stating that the Prisoner's reference to Sir Fred Hoyle 1915 - 2001 {a distinguished British astronomer, scientist, physicist. Fellow of St. John's college Cambridge, and in later years a writer of science fiction} is a fitting introduction to his encounter with No.20 - the labour Exchange manager and the truth test to follow. What exactly Fred Hoyle has to do with any of this I cannot imagine, because the phrase "Playing it according to Hoyle" used by No.6 has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Fred Hoyle. In fact the phrase "Playing it according to Hoyle" is to with

Edmond, also known as Edmund  Hoyle  

 {1672 - 1769} best remembered for his works on the rules and play of card games. Hence No.2's response "Oh all cards on the table. You may rely on that." Meaning openness and fair play at all times. Nothing to do with Fred Hoyle at all!

    You see the truth of the matter is, if your going to write about any particular subject, its always best to do proper in-depth research first.

I'll be seeing you.