The Therapy Zone

    In the episode of ‘Checkmate’ No.8-the white Queen offered to help No.6 with an escape attempt if it's a good plan, at least she could tell him what not to try, a sort of one woman escape committee. Incidentally in an unused script entitled ‘Don't Get Yourself Killed,’ No.6 hears about an "escape committee" which used to be in every POW camp during both the first and second World Wars, who would assess and authorise inmates escape plans. No.6 joins the "escape committee" and meets the bottle man, who puts SOS messages in bottles and throws them into the sea. An attempt to organise a helicopter for an escape attempt is foiled, No.6 having been betrayed by the Miner, who had discovered "fools gold." And a man who had built a "pedal copter" hidden in a cave, and it was there that No.6 met the Miner.

    This script ‘Don't Get Yourself Killed’ was rejected, but I think it may have added something to the Prisoner series, because it shows that other inmates were actually involved with escape plans. After all in the actual series we only hear about escapes, or being too old to escape, apart from No.6 who does attempt four escapes from the Village, other than that we only witness one escape which involves other citizens of the Village, and that was in the plan drawn up by No.6 in ‘Checkmate.’ Other than that there was only one other escape attempt, and one I do not count as it was "stage managed," that escape attempt of Nadia's who could not swim so far - how far? 30 miles, according to Nadia.

   Seeing as there are so many unhappy people in the Village, you'd think that more people would try to escape, and the law of averages would say that sooner or later one citizen would succeed. But having successfully escaped, where would the escapee send the postcard? Anyone successfully having escaped POW camps during World war II, having made a "home run," would send a postcard to the POW camp from England.

   There is a piece of dialogue in the original script of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ which takes place as No.6 takes a large white envelope which he has hidden under the bed sheet, and hides it under his blazer.

   No.6 enters the lounge and goes over to the window. The street is dark and deserted, a voice over the loudspeaker announces   "It is quarter to midnight. Curfew in fifteen minutes. Repeat - curfew in fifteen minutes."

   Well that's a bit of an eye opener, curfew time is usually eight o'clock. But in any case this piece of dialogue never made it into the completed episode.

    I was sitting here at my desk thinking how THE PRIS6NER episode Anvil looks at the morality of surveillance. Surveillance is a strange thing, if you've nothing to hide then you've got nothing to worry about. Yet the trouble is no-one is without guilt, the trick is for "Undercovers" is having to work out what it is people are guilty of. The trouble is, that the most innocent of actions or inactions, a deviation away from the daily norm like not keeping a Yoga class for example possibly through not feeling well, can result in them becoming suspect!

   In the Village I would have thought that with such modern day technology it would be possible for observers to watch the citizens from a Control Room. But it would seem not to be the case, hence the need for "Undercovers." There are different "Undercover" cells operating in The Village, and no-one knows who is in each of the cells, so that everyone in The Village is watching everyone else. Well almost everyone else, because when Two tells his son 11-12 that someone is watching him, 11-12 is surprised about this, because who would deem to be watching him, or so that is 11-12's reaction.........

    It also occurs to me that 11-12 is very selfish, as he doesn't want his father, Two, to find out about his relationship with 909. So 909 or 11-12 must die, and seeing as it's not going to be 11-12 then it's got to be 909! But the trouble is Two does already know of the relationship between his son and 909............................But why did 11-12 turn to 909? Perhaps to gain the love and affection he wasn't getting from his father. Sometimes all 11-12 needs is a cuddle! The relationship between 11-12 and 909 is very heavy, dark even..............................see the way 909 accepts his death.

   It must be that everyone in the Village lives in fear. Everyone watching everyone else.......................or are they? After all rumour itself that everyone is under surveillance might be enough to keep everyone on their guard.

    There are people who run our credit cards, run the finances, and runs the government, puts up television cameras to watch and record our every move. THEPRIS6NER is partly about that.

    Basically everyone is nosey, we want to know each others business, we want to know what people are doing in their lives. The difference in the Village is, if someone reports you, you get sent for treatment!

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