A Point Of View
I think the following lines from the Guinness Book of Cult TV sum up very well the conflict between Patrick McGoohan, script writer/editor George Markstein, and the Prisoner.
"One man wanted a spy series, the other wanted to escape from a spy series."
Dance Of The Dead
No.6 is an "absolutist" who is sentenced to death. However it is a death sentence which is never carried out, nor do they have any intention that the sentence should be carried out. Because it is nothing more than intimidation designed to try and break him!
Roland Walter Dutton In A Fools Paradise
Is a man who No.6 thinks he once knew! Certainly he recognised the man instantly standing at the mouth of that cave during ‘Dance of the Dead,’ after all he did say his name "Roland Walter Dutton."
Dutton had been in the village a couple of months, yet they have never previously met in the village. Probably Dutton had been confined to the hospital for much of that time, as the doctor carried out his medical experiments upon him, in an attempt to extract all the information Dutton has. And in being unable to tell them any more, he has been allowed out into the peaceful atmosphere of the village for 72 hours, so that he may reconsider.
Now some years ago it was suggested that No.6 didn't know Dutton at all, that there is no evidence that they ever knew each other. Well that's ridiculous. No.6 knew Dutton's name. Asked how long he'd been in the village, and as Dutton explained his position to No.6, that he knew that he didn't have access to the "vital stuff."
It was also suggested that No.6 had actually been brainwashed into knowing Roland Walter Dutton, hence the doubt at the Prisoner's trial "He's a man I think I once knew." That the meeting on the beach was contrived, so that Dutton could spin No.6 a line that he had only 72 hours to reconsider in the peaceful atmosphere in the village. That soon Roland Walter Dutton will cease to exist! And in this, No.6 might feel sorry for the man, that he would open up to him and reveal the reason why he resigned to an old colleague. Well I suppose this is viable, after all the doctor-No.40 had used Dutton earlier in the episode to try and extract information from No.6.
"Who is this, who is this?
"It's Dutton. Hello, hello are you there?"
A Sceptic With A Devious Mind
Thorpe is very sceptical about his ex-colleagues report about the Village, but is there more to this man than first meets the eye? Is it possible that he already knows of the existence of the Village before his ex-colleague divulges the information about the village to him and the Colonel? If so, then Thorpe would be ideally placed to keep an eye on this former citizen of the village, and be influential in seeing his ex-colleagues return there!
Thorpe might have been an influential agent in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ who used the information to have himself brought to the village and placed in a position only to one in the episode of Hammer Into Anvil.
And it is now that we see the darker side to Thorpe, a darker side which we knew was there. A professional sadist, who takes enjoyment from tormenting others, who took enjoyment in torturing his ex-colleague. But who as it turned out, was merely a weak link in the chain of command waiting to be broken!
Thorpe was brought to the village, and having been so, was determined to show that he could manage without any help, not even from his appointed assisstant No.14. this No.2 would not be allowed to leave the village, as soon he would be residing in the psychiatric ward of the hospital!
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