The New Number 2!

   So Number 6 the people’s favourite, finally attains that position of authority which Number 2 of ‘Arrival’ once said he might be given. Having been elected as the new Number 2, he is taken to the Green Dome by his predecessor.

   "No need to go into details. If you want to know anything, just press a button."

   The new Number 2 is accompanied by Number 58, why? She helps him settle into his new sanctum, The wall screen is showing dots and circles of light moving across the screen. The pressing of a button by Number 58 and the black spherical chair rises up through the floor. A button is pressed on the control panel of the desk to show the image of the Council Chamber which has been vacated by the members of the Town Council. More buttons are pressed and with each one a different view of The Village. As well as accessing the Department of Visual records, film of  the day of the Prisoner’s arrival. And then he gets a glimpse of the internal workings of The Village, the Control room, but then a telephone bleeps. A brief telephone call takes place between the New Number 2 and the manager of the Labour Exchange, and the view on the wall screen has changed back to the dots and circles of light crossing the screen. There is more pressing of buttons, the scene appears almost frantic, as a number of different chairs rise and descend through holes in the floor. Then a pulsating blue light and a piercing sound, and something overcomes the new Number 2. He seems to be under the influence of the blue light. Number 58 takes him before the wall screen. The circles of light speed across the wall screen. There is no struggle by Number 6, he seems powerless. Then he is stripped of his Number 2 rosette, his authority {if he ever had any} and then is viciously slapped across the face by Number 58, slapped 7 times in order to bring Number 6 back to his senses.

   Number 58 is now the new Number 2, has been all the time, and she played her part very well.

   “Will you never learn…. This is only the beginning…We have many ways and means but we don’t wish to damage you permanently….are you ready to talk?”

   It would seem not. I have often thought that it is such a pity that Rachel Herbert’s character of Number 2 isn’t carried over into another episode before ‘The Schizoid Man.’ And yet it always strikes me that this Number 2 would have something very nasty up her sleeve for Number 6 during her term of her office. She might not want to damage Number 6 permanently, but she would take it to the limit!

Be seeing you