Thursday, 1 August 2013

The Therapy Zone

The Most Industrious Number 2 in ‘It’s Your Funeral
  A loyal, and willing servant of the Village but who was to have been sacrificed for the cause!
   No No.2 has served the village better, for amongst his achievements are;
* The electrification of the clocks.
* The new mural in the library
* The golf course
* The clock golf
*The new cafe facilities
* The new flower garden
*The extra "blue zone" in the post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
* And plans laid down for the new concert hall to be built
   This No.2 is an administrator, not an interrogator, and appears to have nothing to do with No.6 during his term of office. Because when No.6 paid this No.2 a call during the episode of Its Your Funeral, No.6 didn't recognise him!
  So much work done in so short a time, or so much took place between the end of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ and the beginning of ‘It’s Your Funeral’ that we do not see!
   It’d no wonder No.2 was ready for retirement!

Reinterpretation Of The Prisoner
    Well after decades of rumour, talk, continuous disappointment, and waiting, at long last a remake of the Prisoner is finally going ahead.
   Ian McKellen has been cast as No.2, and Jim Caviezel as No.6, who wakes to find himself in a village with no memory of how he has arrived there. A sinister No.2 is in charge of the village, sadly not Portmeirion, but somewhere in South Africa/Nanibia.
   Having read the ITV press release I feel that this 6 part remake of the Prisoner could be very successful in such modern times as we live in. Yet I am fully aware that there are many fans of the Prisoner, world-wide who are totally against any such remake, even to say that no such remake should be made. Well fans who think like that are going to be disappointed, I trust I will not be, with this reinterpretation of the Prisoner.
   I know that the Prisoner is an iconic piece of the 1960's TV, and for me it has become my life, but times move on and although the Prisoner is a timeless series it is about time for a remake of the series, and I can appreciate that.
   As a writer and author myself, I wrote a Prisoner manuscript an number of years ago, and have been trying to get a publisher interested in it, even as a screenplay. But sadly no takers - yet.
   As both a fan and writer I feel excited about this new series of the Prisoner, am I the only one to feel this way I wonder? And already the questions begin to mount up:

* Who is Number 6?
* Where is the village?
* Who is No.2?
* Why has No.6 been brought to the village?
* Will No.6 escape to his previous life, or will he simply survive?
* Who can No.6 trust?
* Why are no names used in the village?
* How come citizens are known only by their number?
*Will the truth behind the village be finally discovered?
It's already sounding very familiar to me, doesn't it to you?
   (Such were my initial thoughts on THEPRIS6NER-09}

“Remember, everyday above ground is a good day”
                                                                    {Two – Arrival}

A Quantum Leap Too Far
    There he was having just resigned his top secret, and confidential job. Then abducted to the village, having both his liberty and identity taken away. Interrogated, manipulated, experimented on, pumped with a variety of drugs, and then the day arrived when No.6 woke up back in his London home, but in the body of the Colonel!
   If anything, this aspect of the episode of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ puts me in mind of the television series ‘Quantum Leap.’ And its just as dangerous for the Prisoner-No.6, just as it was for Sam Becket who used a quantum leap to become a multitude of various people in the television series ‘Quantum Leap.’

Secret Agent Man
    That's the song which would have it that "They've given you a number and taken away your name," which alludes to the fact that John Drake, once a secret agent, now a Prisoner in the village and given the Number 6.
    Well hardly, because the song Secret Agent Man, written by P.F. Sloan & Steve Barri, performed by Johnny Rivers is for the American title Secret Agent for Danger man written long before the Prisoner went into production. No, the song surely alludes to the fact that in the 25 minutes episodes, John Dake is an agent of Security NATO, and then in the 50 minute episodes Drake works for British Intelligence M9, or MI9 as I see it to be. But he's never given a number, and they certainly haven't taken away his name!
   However, we do learn during the episode of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, that the Prisoner did have a number before that of No.6 - that of ZM73.

I'll be seeing you Secret Agent Man!

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