Names – Numbers – Titles!

    It is very interesting that at the end of ‘Fall Out’ the word ‘Prisoner’ is shown on screen, indicating that the Prisoner is still just that. Had that single word not appeared on the screen, then viewers may very well have accepted that Number 6 had finally managed to escape The Village, and that would have been the end of the story. The idea that ‘the Prisoner’ begins all over again might never have entered the enthusiasts mind.
    At the outset we only know the Prisoner by that name, if “the Prisoner” can be considered to be a name rather than a title, and yet name and title can be the same. Yet “the Prisoner” is a meaningless designation like The Village, the Mountains, and the sea, they tell us what they are, but does not tell us anything about them. Later of course the Prisoner uses the name Peter Smith, which is somewhat nondescript, and only slightly better than John Smith or Peter Jones. And even later, while in the guise of The Colonel, the Prisoner uses the code name ZM73 which doesn’t tell us anything, and yet is better than calling the Prisoner “the Prisoner!”
   Names are not used in The Village, well only on occasion, when there is a relationship between two characters. Best to reduce everyone to a number, for official purposes, even to –dehumanise the citizens, because really there in The Village there is no need to call anyone else except by their number. Everyone in The Village is a “prisoner,” so that is a general term for everyone. Everyone is given a number, and each number is used only once, unless someone dies, or is permitted to leave The Village. So you will only meet one Number 8 in The Village at one time. Yes, there were two 6’s in The Village at the one and same time, but that was under extreme circumstances. A couple of times there were two Number 2’s in The Village at the same time, but one was Number 58 before she was promoted to the position of Number 2. While another was only interim, until he was made permanent. But that permanency wasn’t to last.
   Number 6 rejected his number, why? Was he afraid of being known simply by a number? He shouldn’t have been, is he forgetting his code name ZM73? Numbers in The Village are individual, even when there is the reporter for The Tally Ho, Number 113, there is his photographic colleague Number 113b. So in this instance there are two people who do share the same number, but one is distinguishable by having been sub-divided by the letter of the alphabet. In this instance b. Number 113b has a twin in The Village who operates the Tally Ho newspaper dispenser. Like his twin he wears no badge, but possibly his number might be 113c. So, if there is 113, 113b, and possibly 113c, might there not be a 113a? The twelve members of the Town Council are all sub-divided Number 2s from a-l.
   Like Number 6, to give the Prisoner his correct name in The Village, the Butler doesn’t wear his number either. Seeing as how 2 is second only to one, although 3 might dispute that statement, the Butler might be Number 3, 4, or indeed 5. But whichever the number, a number doesn’t tell you everything about the person who bears it. However a number can give an address of the person or individual, as in ‘6 Private,’ or denote one’s position in The Village hierarchy.
    Having been given a number can take away your anonymity, which gives one no meaning, no character. And yet because of that, in a way, it preserves one's anonymity. Because who is anyone in The Village?
     Numbers in The Village most frequently used, apart from 2, are 8, 10, 12, 14, 22, and 113.
    Number 93 who confesses that he’s both disharmonious and inadequate in ‘A Change of Mind,’ whilst in ‘The General’ he used to be a Guardian with the number 250. So according to the hierarchy of the number system in The Village, the man {if fictionally speaking 250 and 93 are the same character} was promoted from 250 to 93, but then became disharmonious. However it would seem that confession is good for one, because the next time we encounter 93 he is a delegate of the Assembly in ‘Fall Out!’ He’s easily recognisable by the grey bushy beard poking out from under his black and white mask. He reads out the charge against the Prisoner-No.48. He is charged with a most serious breach of social etiquette, total defiance of the elementary rules which sustain the community of The Village. Questioning the decisions of those voted to govern them, unhealthy aspects of speech and dress, not in accordance with general practise. And the refusal to observe, wear or respond to his number! So 93 having been disharmonious, who having made his confession, is then brought back into the fold, if fictionally speaking, the delegate is the same character as Number 93.

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