Thought For The Day

    The Village Guardian, is the Guardian of The Village. It serves and protects the community by helping maintain the security of the citizens. This it does by acting as a policeman, or rather as a “guard dog” when summoned.
    It is not a natural thing, certainly not natural or indigenous to the planet earth. It is unlikely to be of another planet, so therefore it has to be a man made thing. Genetically engineered, beginning life as a piece of synthetic membrane born in a Petra dish in a laboratory. And yet the Guardian is just as much a prisoner as any other prisoner in The Village, whether confined in a containment area somewhere on the seabed, or in so termed Lava Lamps. The Guardian, a malevolent being in a Lava Lamp, acting as a reminder of that which awaits any malcontent Prisoner or potential escapee.
   Man or woman if cunning enough may escape The Village, but the Guardian is born of The Village, even if escape for it was possible, where would it go? Where could it exist other than in The Village? But to be a prisoner is to know confinement, to be put away from others of one’s kind, to be isolated. But the Guardian although confined, has not been isolated from others of its own kind, because there are no others of its kind, it is unique! We do not know if the Guardian is capable of conscious independent thought, and thereby realising its own circumstances.
   The Guardian is also a slave, at the beck and call of those who command, and to them it must obey when summoned. Like a Kraken being summoned by the Gods on Mount Olympus during some game of chess in which Jason and his Argonauts are but pawns. We do not know whether or not the Guardian was genetically engineered for The Village itself, or that it was part of an experiment carried out for use in the world beyond.
    Of course The Village must be protected, while at the same time have a deterrent, something so fearsome that the very thought of it would be deterrent enough for any would-be escapee. And if not proved to be sufficient deterrent enough, a means of subduing a malcontent prisoner, or to pursue and recapture anyone attempting to escape. Such is the Guardian, it’s just as much a prisoner as Number 6.
   It is written that the Butler appears in ‘the Prisoner’ second only to Number 6, so what of the Guardian? If we set aside both the opening sequence and the closing credits of the series, the Guardian appears in a total of 9 episodes. In ‘Arrival’ it puts in 3 appearances, and in two other episodes there are three Guardians. And in ‘A Change of Mind’ the Guardian appears only on a screen in the Aversion Therapy Room. So after Patrick McGoohan as the Prisoner, Angelo Muscat as the Butler, and Peter Swanwick as the Supervisor, the Guardian is placed forth in the appearance stakes in ‘the Prisoner.’ 

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