I shouldn't think Number 1 has a point of view, or does
he? He seemed to be as mad as a hatter upon that meeting with Number 6, hiding
behind masks and showing No.6 his future in that crystal ball.
But Number 1 is the man who Number 6 was asking Little Bo-Peep
about at the ‘Dance of the Dead.’ The power on the throne, and instigator of
the village. Are we expected to believe that no-one knew who Number 1 was, that
he went around all the time in a white cowled robe and black and white mask. That Number 2 didn't recognise Number 1's voice when they spoke on the
telephone? Surely he didn't spend all his time aboard that rocket in ‘Fall
Out’? Number1 must surely have had other quarters in that underground complex of
the village, he had to eat and drink. Who served him his meals? And go to the
bathroom just as his supposedly alter ego does above ground in his cottage in
the village. And an office would be called for, for a man in Number 1's
position, an office from which to administer the village, and surely Number 2
was not the only Village administrator to speak with Number 1.
And if we are to touch upon the subject of alter egos, why then
did Number 1 put his other self through so much? Perhaps he had to, in order
for him to become Number 1 in the first place!
There is even the chance that Number 1 actually got his
hands dirty during the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man,’ in the guise of Curtis
perhaps. After all we only have Number 6's word that Curtis-Number 12 actually
died by suffocation by the membranic Village Guardian, not everyone did you
know. And if Curtis was No.1 getting his hands dirty out and about in The
Village, then it would not be the first time that such a meeting had provoked
such a violent reaction between the two. After all John Drake had previously
met with his other self in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘The Ubiquitous Mr.
Lovegrove.’ that meeting also broke out into a fight, as indeed it would have
done between Number 6 and Number 1 in the control room of the rocket, if only
Number 6 could have got his hands on Number 1 as he gave chase around the
control room in the rocket.
During Number 6's tormented, interrogated and tortuous time in The Village, through his disappointments, failures and victories, how did No.1 feel
about his other self? In the way Number 6 thwarted Number 2 and The Village's
administration, in ‘The General’ and ‘It’s Your Funeral’ for examples. Number 1
saw Speedlearn as purely a military exercise, according to Number 2, and then
there was the failed execution of the retiring Number 2. Number 1 surely didn't
make this all happen as mere tests for his alter ego-Number 6. And the drugs,
therapy, and interrogation techniques used against Number6, had Number 1 no
feeling for his alter ego at all? And how could Number 1 have felt when Number
6 was taught a lesson in episodes as ‘Free For All’ and ‘Many Happy Returns?’
Perhaps Number 1 saw himself as the stronger, and Number 6 as the weaker side
to his nature. But in the end Number 6 was proved to be the man of steel who
had survived the ultimate test of ‘Once Upon A Time.’ But what if Number 6 had
not survived, there would have been no meeting with Number 1, and how do you
think he would have felt then? And would Number 1 have actually survived
without his alter ego the Number 6? Because throughout the series of tests he
set Number 6, there were enormous risks taken by Number 1, anyone of which
could have proved fatal!
Be seeing you
No comments:
Post a Comment