The Therapy Zone

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!

   Each original, or now Mathmos Astro, or Lava lamps if you prefer, do not behave the same. Each one is as individualistic as you and I.

Point Of Observation

  Apart from two specific instances, in ‘Arrival’ when he's laying out the Prisoner's breakfast, and during ‘The Schizoid Man’ when he's giving No.2 a massage, the butler never takes off his gloves!

Who Would Be Number 6?

    Any real person in No.6's position would crack up. Heroes always have faults, they feel pain. According to the test results carried out on No.6 during ‘Checkmate,’ he showed a negative response to pain, such a thing like that would take super-human will power.

   Perhaps at times No.6 was quite rigid, and would be more believable if he had shown times of cracking up. Plots and schemes against No.6 are too well stacked in his favour, and all too easily is No.6 allowed to turn the tables against his foe. As in the Schizoid Man, when No.6 easily reversed all that electric shock therapy by simply earthing himself to a gas pipe and using a short circuiting table lamp. That was all too easy for me. And ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ if Karel's watch had had the correct time, and if only No.2 of ‘Hammer Into Anvi’l had trusted in his assistant No.14 No.6's plan to bring No.2 down would never have succeeded.

Dance Of The Dead

   Someone wrote "I believe No.6 wanted Dutton as a "character witness" to persuade the court that No.6 would not have killed the man on the beach."

   Well that's all fine and dandy, but No.6 wasn't on trial for murder, simply the possession of a radio set!

Be seeing you