Number 6 Running Away?
Strange how No.6 only attempted 4 escapes during his 17 episode ordeal. However some see that there is a fifth attempt, in ‘Dance of the Dead’ as No.6 is running along the beach with Rover in close proximity. But that is not an escape, No.6 is not trying to run away. He's pitting himself against the white membranic village guardian, which brings No.6 to his knees in the end.
Hang On A Minute!
Nadia's contact man isn't even Polish! Karel isn't a Polish name, it should be Karol. What's more Nadia converses with her so called "contact man" in Russian, not Polish!
A Juke Box I Think I Once Knew
In my youth I used to spend a good deal of time playing chess and drinking "Coke a Cola" in the Cafe in my old village of Crowland in Lincolnshire .
And in that Cafe there was a Juke Box, very similar to this one. An old friend, well remembered. I can still hear the dulcet tone of Rod Stewart singing Maggie May belting out from the Juke Box.
The Nightmare World Of The Prisoner
True to say that the Prisoner has been seen as many things, so how about the Prisoner as a horror story?
Certainly Rover - that white membranic Village Guardian is the most original creature ever devised - because you don't know exactly what it is, what it's made of, of this Earth, man-made or alien. Yet we know what it does, it terrifies, suffocates, and originally it was to have been seen to fill with the blood of its victims, and you can't get more horrific than that.
Several of No.2's characters are threatening, and seem capable of almost anything. And there is the hidden face, the secrets behind the locked door. Doctors, who in the confines of the hospital, are unafraid of carrying out the most horrendous human experiments, along with the implication that the villages administration could do, if forced, adds a chilling atmosphere to the Village.
The episode ‘Dance of the Dead’ is probably the darkest of the 17 episodes, and ‘Dance of the Dead’ is just about right. Even the original actor to have played No.2, Trevor Howard, would have been in costume as Jack the Ripper. Murder was to have been done on No.6, at the bare hands of the screaming citizens, who were baying for blood. Would they not have torn No.6 limb from limb, had they caught up with him in the corridors of the Town Hall that evening at the ‘Dance of the Dead.’ And don't forget that originally the script called for everyone at the Dance to die, save for No.6!
‘Living In Harmony’ has its fair share of this nightmare world. Yet nothing equals the creepy sight of seeing the eyes of No.8 staring at No.22 from beneath the steps, and out of the darkness. And once No.8 has his bare hands around No.22's neck, and as he strangles the poor young woman, the look on No.8's face equals any maniac you can bring to mind.
And finally, if that bomb hidden in the "Great seal of Office" had actually been detonated by the Watchmaker, there would have been "blood, guts and smashed bone" all over the place!
The Prisoner as a horror story? Its certainly equals many nightmares!
Why didn't No.6 take with him a "Map of Your Village" as to back up his photographic evidence, together with the copy of The Tally Ho newspaper, and his schoolboy navigational log?
Be seeing you
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