Prismatic Reflection

    A man is under close surveillance. We don’t know why, or by whom, but it is enough that we know that this man is probably suspect of something, otherwise he would not be under such close surveillance. It might be that he knows that he is under surveillance, and for whatever reason he decides to resign before he is pushed. He could be a traitor, even a double agent, always assuming he worked for British Intelligence, the British Secret Service. But whoever, and whatever, and having reigned his job, this man is about to do a runner. In fact he couldn’t get away fast enough. A pair of suitcases packed, his passport and airline ticket waiting for him on his desk. This is not a spur of the moment thing, the action of resigning his job was planned, pre-arranged, his packed suitcases and pre-booked airline ticket are proof of that. But he’s left it too late to get away. This man should have driven from that car park straight to the airport! The trouble was they came rather sooner than he was expecting them, and even in his hurry to get away, he was not quick enough!
    He’s followed from the car park all the way through London to his home in Buckingham Place, by two undertakers in a hearse. As this man is preparing to make his departure, the two Undertakers enter the house carrying between them a coffin, they have a key to the house, and let themselves into the hallway. They stop at the study door, one puts a nerve gas gun to the keyhole and pulls the trigger filling the study room with the nerve gas. Inside the room the man suddenly stops packing, he stares out of the window at the two skyscrapers which to him become fuzzy and appear to tilt. He then falls backwards unconscious onto a recliner.

   The man wakes up in that he thinks is his own home, but pulling up the blinds of the window and staring out he can see that he is no longer in London, where the hell is he? Within the first few minutes the Prisoner has a surreal encounter with a man who isn’t there. He learns that he’s in the Village, from a waitress at the Café, and that it’s not possible to make a telephone call without a number, from the telephone operator. Looking for information he consults an electronic “Free Information” Board. Just as he’s about to find out the residence of No.1, a taxi pulls up. “Where to sir?” the taxi driver asks him. Then speaks to him in French, French is International, she thought he might have been a Pole or Czech! And yet all the signposts are in English! The taxi is a local service only, you can go anywhere you like, but just as long as you end up where you started in the first place!
   The man tries to buy a map of the area, but either map, black and white, or colour is useless, as it only shows the Village, and not the area beyond. Well there’s no call for larger area maps in the Village!
   He goes on to meet a maid who was not there! Well she was, or appeared to be flicking a yellow duster on the balcony of the cottage he woke up in. But when he dashed round to the door of his cottage, he observes a sign which had not been there before, it read, ‘6 Private.’ The man enters his cottage to find the maid gone. Perhaps she was never there…..oh but there she goes, running off down the steps!
    The telephone rings, breakfast with No.2, which turns into a de-briefing session. All they want to know is the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation, that’s not a lot is it? But the only piece of information the Prisoner will give is the time and date of his birth, other than that his life is his own!
   What follows is an aerial tour of, and a briefing on the Village, even the possibility of promotion for a man like the Prisoner. Oh look, there’s the Café, the Town Hall, Number 2’s residence, and the Citizens Advice Bureau. It all looks very peaceful and picturesque, it will grow on the Prisoner, so he is told!
    In the Labour Exchange, signs “A still tongue makes a happy life,’ ‘Of the people, by the people, for the people,’ ‘Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for oneself,‘ and ’Humour is the very essence of a democratic society.’ The manager of the Labour exchange attempts to de-brief the Prisoner with questions of his own. But the Prisoner will have none of it and throws his toys out of the pram!
    Feeling not a bit at home in his home from home, the Prisoner takes out his frustrations on a black speaker, trampling it to pieces under foot. An electrician turns up with a replacement. It’s not an emergency, so the electrician came on one of those tractor things, bit slow but they get you there in the end. But the Prisoner isn’t a man to hang about, he feels like a bit of a walk, which leads him to his first escape attempt that ends in a confrontation with the membranic Village Guardian. The Prisoner did not heed No.2’s warning to “be still,” which is all well and good, but for how long? So the Prisoner tries good old fashioned brute force, which avails him nothing as the Village Guardian offers no resistance, leaving the Prisoner lying on the sand unconscious!

    The after affects of an encounter with the Village Guardian can be pretty nasty, and having woken up in a bed on a hospital ward {did you know that the old lady who was sitting watching the Prisoner in that bed, who went to fetch the doctor after he had woken up, in ‘The Prisoner’ by Thomas M. Disch turns out to be Number 1. More than that, she a robot!} Anyway after a medical examination the Prisoner is confirmed to be absolutely fit, and is released the next day into the Village dressed in full Village attire, and given the number 6. I forgot to mention the Prisoner’s meeting with Cobb on that hospital ward. I’ve always had the feeling that the two should never have met, otherwise why bother to go to all the trouble of faking Cobb’s suicide and death?
    The Prisoner, like the Emperor, is given a new suit of clothes, his old ones have apparently been burnt! Now why would they want to go and do that? Perhaps they were thought to be contagious, as though it were possible to catch a does of individuality from them. But no, they didn’t burn the suit of clothes at all, they were simply given to another man….why? Perhaps simply to confuse the television viewer!
   But now there’s a new Number 2, so the Prisoner has to start all over again, but now he gets involved with a woman at Cobb’s funeral. But what Number 6 doesn’t know is, that Number 9 is assigned to Number 6, just as she had been assigned to Cobb. But Number 6 knew this, he confronted Number 2 with this, as well as Number 9, but he took the electro pass anyway, well it was a source of escape and the Prisoner couldn’t miss the chance. But in the end Number 6 had no chance. There was never any possibility of escape. As for Cobb, he was sorry about the girl, but had to go as he couldn’t keep his new masters waiting. He had resisted so easily, but does the fact that he’s able to leave the Village, make him free? As for his old colleague Number 6, well there’s always tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow!

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