A life time fan and Prisonerologist of the 1960's series 'the Prisoner', a leading authority on the subject, a short story writer, and now Prisoner novelist.
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Friday 26 June 2015
Bureau of Visual Records
That’s a strange piece of Village technology they have there. That’s the gizmo through which the Professor’s lectures are transmitted on to the cortex of the brain of the students watching their televisions. What is they call it? Oh yes the Sumblimator. It spins, it thrusts, its got a spotlight attached to it, as well as a gyroscope. I had one of those when I was a boy. A gyroscope that is. It’s used to keep something on course, a torpedo, a missile, a rocket, or a ship steady on its course. Is that what the gyroscope is doing to the Sumblimator, keeping it steady? And the projectionist, what’s he about, looking through that periscope? He’s not in a submarine, although the projection room is below ground. Mind you, I’ve seen that before, men in a sealed room, observing something through periscopes. It was during a television documentary several years back. I wonder what the projectionist is observing through that periscope? The transmission of the Professor’s final lecture perhaps? Or maybe the effect of the lecture on the students, from the safety of the projection room?
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I can't help thinking that this is one of those devices, oscilloscopes and wall-sized mailframes, gadgetry that dates The Prisoner. While the simple weather balloon doesn't, in no way. On the contrary. The spherical, amorphous shape, its unexplained origin in terms of: how did they do that, lift it above even contemporary technology. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
ReplyDeleteYes they say 'the Prisoner' is timeless, or is thought to be timeless. And yet there are things which do date the series, one of them is the technology and gadgets used in the series. Except of course, and as you righty say that spherical amorphous, membranic Guardian. What is it? How did they do that? And yet that simple piece of technology could not be bettered for the 2009 series. The production crew could come up with nothing which bettered the Guardian of the original series. So seeing as it wasn't broken, they didn't try to mend it...just improved it slightly!
Very kind regards
David
BCNU