The Therapy Zone



Fight Or Flight?

  There is a saying "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day." Yet it would seem that No.6 would rather desert the village, as he does in ‘Fall Out,’ than take on the fight within as he has in the previous 16 episode ordeal. The challenge is not to break out and run away, but to stay and fight, and confront his fears. Yet what is No.6 afraid of? What is there to fight? Well possibly his ignorance for one. His ignorance of where he is, why he was brought there. Which side actually runs the village, although he should know the answer to that one.

   And yet didn't No.6 stay and fight, and by facing those fears in himself, by confronting No.1? And by that, it was No.1 who could not stand up to the truth. That he, No.1, is just as much a Prisoner as No.6! It was No.1 who ran away, whilst No.6 stayed to bring down the Village from within. This was achieved by the launching of the rocket, and the evacuation of the village.

   We all have our own fears, and we are often told to stand up and face those fears. But it doesn't always work. Look at No.6, he faced up to himself. He took control of the situation, and brought down the Village from within. Yet at the end he remains just as much a prisoner, as he is at the beginning.

Playing It According To Hoyle!

    "Oh, all cards on the table" No.2 replies assumingly.

     {The only trouble is, No.2 is playing with a stacked deck!}

There Never was A Number 1!

    How was Patrick McGoohan going to wrap it up Once Upon A Time, to solve the question of who Number 1 is? According to Tony Sloman, Film Librarian on the Prisoner says that McGoohan was never going to solve the question. There never was a Number 1. Pat McGoohan was Number 1. We were all Number 1. There was never a Number 1. The extra shots were never there on the original. That was the end. Because Once Upon A Time was originally just another episode, being one of the early written episodes. The piece at the end, where the Supervisor asks No.6 what he desires? To which No.6 replies "No.1" was later added.

  The above fits in with what 1,100 said of No.1 in THEPRIS6NER episode ‘Anvil,’ that there is no Number One. There never has been a Number One, and there never will be. Makes you think... doesn't it?

Why Did You Resign?

   "Now that's all we really want to know" are the words spoken to the Prisoner by No.2, during the debriefing session upon the morning of his arrival in the village.

    Had the prisoner answered that question at the time, what then would have been our next question?

General Connotations

    The General a super computer ideal for use in conjunction with Speedlearn. Yet generally speaking there is more to generalise about this episode, in the way No.2 uses the military metaphor when visiting No.6 in his cottage "Mopping up operations Number Six?" quips No.2, No.6 mopping up the spilt tomato juice on the carpet. This after quelling the outspoken remarks of No.12 against the Professor with military discipline.

    "How long have you been with us Number Twelve?"

     "Me Sir? Quite a long time."

    "Obviously not long enough."

   In other words don't think, just obey orders, which was just the advice No.2 gave his assistant No.14 in ‘Hammer into Anvil.’

   The military march goes through the entire episode, in the plaster busts of military leaders in the drawing room of the Professor’s home. And in the decor of the Professors study, in pictures and statuettes. And also in the military march played as the body of men leave the educational boardroom, along corridors to the Generals office, in military procession.

    Confidence in the General, confidence in the Professor, and now No.12 shows our confidence in you, well members of the educational board, he will give you a confidential breakdown of the entire operation, in confidence of course. And confidence is at the very core of all educational processes, even militaristic ones.

Be seeing you