They Do Not Like Failure Here!

    “Failure is not changed by the narrowness of the margin.”

    It begins with the maid-Number 66’s failure to obtain some sort of information from the Prisoner. It is not know how much thought had been put into this attempt. It may have been something off-the-cuff, a spur of the moment thing. The Supervisor-Number 26 told Number 2 that he thought the maid was most convincing. The Prisoner didn’t, he soon saw through the facade of her crocodile tears!

    Then came the failure of Number 6’s attempt to escape The Village, twice, both by Village transport. First in a taxi. Its just as well the sand of the beach was hard. Had it been soft sand the escape attempt would have failed as soon as it began. The Mini-Moke was designed as an all terrain vehicle, yet was only good on tarmac, and would soon have become bogged down in soft sand. Later the second attempt was by Alouette helicopter, having been given an Electro-Pass which by- passes the alarm system. But Number 6 had not reckoned on the capability of flying the helicopter by remote control by an operator in the Control room. The first demonstration of ‘Drone’ technology!

   Allow Number 6 to escape The Village, make him think he’s back in London, in an office he knows very well. Have the Colonel de-brief the Prisoner, and gain the reason behind his resignation. And it might have worked, had it not been for poor timing which eventually brought about the Colonel’s failure!

    Number 2 was under the impression that Number 6 was going to sell out. In having the Prisoner’s whole life researched and computed, it may be wondered what it was that led Number 2 to that belief. The idea of getting into the Prisoner’s dreams, and manipulating those dreams was a good idea. But Number 2’s failure was to under estimate the Prisoner. Was the doctor-Number 14 also responsible for this failure? Well basically her drug worked, they were able to get into Number 6’s dreams. If Number 14 is in any way responsible towards this failure, it is her failure to advise Number 2 that the Prisoner opened his eyes while lying on the operating table, and saw her, projecting her image onto the screen.

    Another escape attempt by Number 6, and again by Village transport, the Jet boat! This ended in failure by the intervention of the Village Guardian, a watery reflection of the Prisoner’s first escape attempt on land by Taxi. Number 6 was elected as the new Number 2, even though the so called election was rigged in his favour. But even then he failed to have the administrative ability to manipulate the citizens. “Obey me and be free” ordered the new Number 2, but no-one was listening!

    Curtis-Number 12 succeeded in impersonating Number 6 well enough. But had he survived he would surely have shared the failure to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation, with Number 2. Number 6’s failure was trying to escape The Village by impersonating Curtis!

    It was the doctor-Number 40’s failure to extract any information from the Prisoner, even when using Dutton as a communications medium! The doctor underestimated Number 6’s strength of resistance, his loyalty, and stubbornness not to talk!

    Number 6’s failure was in not attracting anyone to The Village from his World, by the idea of using the man’s dead body as a distress buoy!

    The Doctor-Number 22’s failed experiment in using Number 8’s emotions as an alarm to Control, via a reaction transmitter.

    The Rook had been fooled before, and he was not about to be bitten twice! His failure was to put to Number 6 his own test, judging him by his attitude. Because when Number 6 took command of the little venture for escape, Number 6’s air of authority convinced the Rook that 6 was one of them! But even so, it is unlikely that escape would have been possible. Unless of course Number 6 had taken the Rook with him on board M. S. Polotska. As an electronics expert, he might have been able to de-activate the steering lock on the helm - that was Number 6’s failure!

    Number 2, a weak link in the chain of command just waiting to be broken. His failure was to recognise that Number 6 was carrying out acts of “jamming” against him! Number 14’s failure was not to assert his authority and better advise Number 2, as he should also have recognised what Number 6 was up to. 14 also failed to give Number 6 a “dusting down” twice! Number 6’s failure was not to dunk Number 14 in that tank of water at the end of the bout of Kosho!
    An interims Number 2 failure to see “Plan Division Q” to a satisfactory conclusion! And Number 100’s failure to retrieve the detonator from Number 6.

    “He who ploughs a straight furrow, need hoe for nothing.” Well that’s as maybe, but Number 2 still failed to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. It would seem it’s as Number 6 said “He who digs a pit will one day lie in it.” And Number 2 certainly dug his own pit in his misdealing with Number 6! Number 86’s failure was not to maintain the Prisoner’s state of mind. The “stupid woman” allowed Number 6 to turn the tables on her!

    Fill the Prisoner with hallucinatory drugs. Put him in a dangerous environment. Talk to him through microphones. Give him love, take it away. Isolate him. Make him kill. Face him with death….he’ll crack. Well he didn’t! It failed, and Number 2 would be the scapegoat, and have to pay for that failure. On the plus side, despite the failure of this elaborate experiment, it would appear that Number 8 had been successful developing for first “Virtual Reality” game!
    Once Upon A time, that’s the way all good fairytales begin. But such was Number 2’s failure, because Number 6 wouldn’t drop his guard with children! Whatever was it that made someone think that Number 6 would drop his guard with children in the first place? It may be supposed that the idea didn’t originate with Number 2, as he didn’t seem at all happy with it, the way he said “Might drop his guard with children. He might give something away!” he was frustrated and disappointed with the result yes. Well it was worth a try, seeing as they’d tried most all other things which had all failed!

    ‘Degree Absolute,’ a recognised method used in psychoanalysis as the patient must come to trust the doctor, and in extreme cases, they change places! Number 2 was a good man, is a good man, but his failure was in not listening when Number 6 actually told him at least part of the reason behind his resignation.

    And finally we come to ‘Fall Out’ and the failed final manipulation of the Prisoner-Number 6. They tried it once, and perhaps thinking it was worth a second attempt, they faced Number 6 with himself again. Perhaps they thought that if Number 6 came to realise that he is responsible for The Village. That he must shoulder the burden for his self-persecution complex, via the treatment he received while in The Village, then that would break him in his mind, and he would be theirs! They failed to do this, and the Prisoner’s escape was secured. Or was it? Another failure perhaps, because “a miss is as good as a mile,” as upon the screen appears but one word PRISONER.

    And so it begins all over again, with the exact same mistakes being made. And yet there can be no beginning, as ‘the Prisoner’ has no ending.

Be seeing you