Prismatic Reflection

    The Prisoner isn’t a difficult series to comprehend, not if you keep it simple, or treat it simply as an action adventure series, or a spy series such as a sequel to ‘Danger Man.’ Sometimes the simple answers to ‘the Prisoner’ are the best answers, the tricky bit comes when you try and solve the conundrum. It has been said, that the more you look at ‘the Prisoner,’ or the deeper you delve into the series, the more complicated, the more ambiguous it becomes.
    I remember once when I was studying one aspect of ‘the Prisoner,’ I forget what it was, there have been so many. But I remember how I was led down one particular avenue, and that was fine, until the avenue split, and I ended up going along a different avenue, which took me far away from the original subject I was researching in the first place! It was like “File Number six, subsection six, paragraph five, back to the beginning!”
    Or then I would probably retrace my steps back to the junction, and take the other avenue, to follow it to it’s ultimate conclusion. Then at a later date, find my way back to the junction, and turn left instead of right. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you start out with a fixed idea of trying to resolve a matter within ‘the Prisoner’ series, you do not always end up where you think you will. Such is the series’ diversity and complexity, of this particular conundrum.
    It has been both said and written that ‘the Prisoner’ is a timeless series. Personally I think it could have happened yesterday, it might have happened today, or worse of all, it could happen tomorrow. But really, the question has never really been asked, as far as I know that is, just how timeless is ‘the Prisoner?’ I mean all you have to do is look at the cars and vehicles in the London streets that actually date ‘the Prisoner’ to the 1960’s. So perhaps not quite so timeless after all. Ah, but then there is the Village, that’s a totally different kettle of fish. The Village is not only timeless, being difficult to date, but also it could be anywhere! There is very little, if anything at all to date the Village. Yes, there is The Tally Ho newspaper you say. But only one issue has a date, Feb 10^th, but no year is indicated. Well what about the Village taxi, the Mini-Moke? Well there are such vehicles today, the Mini-Moke gives no date for the Village, they could be new vehicles, or old! Once you are in the Village, you could be at any time, in almost any place, such is it’s mixture of architecture.
    New arrivals to the Village, I wonder………………I wonder if they speak to other citizens about what is happening in the outside world? Or indeed, citizens ask new arrivals about the outside world? After all Roland Walter Dutton asked No.6 about London. True he didn’t get much of an answer “About the same” No.6 told him. And those born of the Village, lets be honest, anyone who doesn’t believe that sex does not take place in the Village must be in a world of their own.
    So what do those citizens born of the Village, think of the outside world, should they hear two people talking about it? To them the outside world would be completely alien to them. From busy city traffic to supermarkets. From skyscrapers to films and cinema.
    In ‘Fall Out’ the Village was evacuated. Where would the population of the Village be evacuated to? They just couldn’t allow the citizens, captive of, or born to the Village to roam free. Think of the adjustment citizens born of the Village would have to make to being in the outside world, full of wonders to them as it might be. There would be the noise for one thing, then the hustle and bustle of busy life for another, which they would certainly not be suited to.
    You may remember that in the early 1960’s the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, had top be evacuated in a hurry because of an erupting volcano. The islanders came to Britain. It was a completely alien environment, like nothing they had ever experienced.
   I recall when I first stayed as a guest in Portmeirion in the September of 1988. I deliberately remained in the Village, in isolation from the outside world so to speak for four days, again I wanted to follow in Pat McGoohan‘s footsteps. Eventually when I did leave the Village to go into Portmadog, the noise and bustle in contrast to the peaceful atmosphere of Portmeirion, of the Village, even after that short time was astonishing, and took a little getting used to again.
    And yet, there is another Village, the Village of the mind. The mind of the subconscious, which we carry around with us each and every day. We each fill our Village with all kinds of information and images. We put people in it, people we see everyday, or every so often. Some of the people we know, others are strangers. Sometimes animals appear in our Village, if not, then perhaps it’s because you are not allowed animals, it might be against the rules! We fill our Village with experiences. Likes, dislikes. Hate, loathing, love, and desire. We can never leave our Village, and the only escape comes to us through death.

I’ll be seeing you