Village Launch Fall Out Rocket! by our own reporter

    World leaders have condemned the launching of what has been termed the Fall Out rocket. England’s Prime Minister Harold Wilson said the test launching of an ICBM {Inter Continental Ballistic Missile} flies in the face of world armament agreements. Both American President Lyndon Johnson put America on DEFCON 3, while French President De Gaulle called for calm and sanctions against The Village. While the leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev demanded to know how The Village acquired the technology to launch an ICBM, and accused Britain of supplying The Village with a Blue Streak missile in the first place, while at the same time placing the Soviet Union on an increased state of combat readiness!

    Then the question of which side is actually behind The Village was tabled. Both east and west went silent as the question was considered. Then both sides put out an absolute denial of any such knowledge of The Village, while President Johnson asked “What Village is this?”

   A radio communication was received from someone claiming to be a spokesperson for The Village, that he has a message for the World leaders, as well as the United Nations. That contrary to World belief, the rocket launched by Village technicians is not designed to carry nuclear warheads, but to launch satellites into orbit. Indeed, the Fall Out rocket carries only a small payload which has ended up in a low-orbit above the Earth. Number 1 actually confirmed that he is the payload, that Village rocket scientists had in fact launched a man into space, and that he is evidence of this. The trouble being that he is trapped in space, unable to separate the capsule from the rocket and unable to return to Earth!
   “This is Number One calling Earth, Number one calling earth……..”

Be seeing you

Page 6

    Last night I went to bed as myself, but this morning I woke up in a strange apartment as someone else! Number 2 said he can use a man such as I, because I bear a remarkable resemblance to their prize prisoner Number 6! I’m then given a make-over so that when I look in the mirror I’d hardly recognise myself!
   I’m then put in a cottage which is familiar to me, but they’ve changed things, little things. Just a minute, who’s that coming in through the door, whistling, I’ve never gone about whistling! He seems familiar to me, he looks like me, hells bells it is me! But how can I be here and over there at the same time? And why is he wearing a cream blazer, I’ve never worn a cream blazer with black piping in my life! If he’s supposed to be me he shouldn’t be wearing a numbered badge, I never wear that badge! But perhaps he’s not me, perhaps I’m him. In that case shouldn’t I be wearing a cream blazer as well? What's it all about this time?

I'll be seeing you, and if I won’t, he will!

ZM73

   ZM73 is the code name of a British Intelligence agent.

   ZM73 a singing due, pronounced Zem Em Seventy-Three, they have been making music for almost twenty years.

   ZM73 is a Jewish primary school.

   Apparently in astronomy ZM=73.

   ZM73 appears to have something to do with electron rest energy.

Be seeing you

Living In Harmony

   It was once suggested that the episode ‘Living In Harmony’ should be placed in the running order of the Prisoner second from last, just before ‘Once Upon A Time’ in fact. This is due to the idea that during ‘Living In Harmony’ "they" are grooming Number 6 for a position of authority offered to him during ‘Fall Out,’ as Sheriff in Harmony.

   But surely the Sheriff had resigned his job at the beginning, just as the Prisoner had done, and for reasons of his own. Perhaps he had become fed up with putting his life on the line every day for a few dollars a month. Having to face up to every two bit gunslinger who rode into town looking to get himself a reputation! True the Judge was using every strategy to coerce the stranger into becoming Town Sheriff of Harmony, which the stranger resisted. But one can only resist coercion for only so long, and so reluctantly he was forced to accept the position of Town Sheriff, when his hand was forced.

   It's one point of view I suppose, that The Man With No Name was being groomed for a position of power, as Sheriff. But really at the end of ‘Living In Harmony’ we do actually learn the reason behind the episode "Fill him full of hallucinatory drugs! Put him in a dangerous environment! Talk to him through microphones. Give him love, take it away. Isolate him. make him kill, then face him with death. He'll crack. Break him, even in his mind, and the rest will be easy."

Be seeing you

An Election Won!

   "If you win" Number 2 informed the potential candidate Number 6,  "Number One may no longer be a mystery to you, if you see what I mean."  Well no, to be perfectly honest at the time I didn’t know what Number 2 meant. Number 6 asked Number 2 what physically happens if he wins the election, to which Number 2 told him he’s the boss. But Number 6 sees Number 1 as being the boss. And yet to the people of the community Number 2 is the boss, as to them in their everyday lives Number 1 doesn’t matter.
    So with Number 6 winning the election there was no point in going into details, Number 6 is the boss. If he wants to know anything, all he has to do is press a button. When Number 6, then the new Number 2, at the time, after speaking with the Labour Exchange manager on the telephone, I half expected him to put a call through to Number 1. But he didn’t. And yet who was it who put the telephone call through to Number 6 {new Number 2} when the phone began to bleep and Number 58 picked it up? It certainly wasn’t the Labour Exchange Manager, because a call was put through to him, but it was Number 6 {new Number 2} on the telephone.
   “Anything I can do for you?”
   “Just checking, be seeing you.”
   “And you.”
   So if Number 6 didn’t put that telephone call through, and neither did the Manager of the Labour Exchange, who did? Number 1 Perhaps!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

    “If it’s the Gents you’re looking for, it’s second on the right!”

BCNU

60 Second Interview With No.14

    Number 113 “Excuse me…………..”
    Number 14 “Why what have you done?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Well there’s no need for you to be excused then.”
    Number 113b “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Who is he?”
    “He’s Number One, One Three b my photographic colleague. And I am Number One, One, Three, we contribute to The Tally Ho.”
   “Fascinating.”
   “Do you think so, I’m so glad you do. Only most people think my colleague and I are the two most boring people in The Village.”
    “Oh really.”
    “I observe you have been buying flowers.”
    “You’re not an Observer as well are you?”
    “No.”
    “Good.”
    “Who are the flowers for?”
   “What’s that got to do with you? You’re not going to write about it in The Tally Ho are you.”
    “Write about what?”
    “The fact that I buy myself flowers.”
    “Do you?”
    “Yes, well I……………………”
    “I think that’s terribly sad.”
    “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Sad?”
    “It’s a human story.”
   “The doctor who is so dedicated to her work at the hospital, who has no time for relationships. And has no-one to buy her flowers!”
    “They could be for someone who is ill, or someone who is getting better.”
    “Are they for Number Two?”
    “What makes you ask that?”
    “You are his doctor, presumably you’re treating his stomach ulcer.”
    “I’m not that kind of doctor.”
    “Oh my mistake.”
    “Don’t worry, we all have to make mistakes. Sometimes we have to.”

Reporter Number 113
Photographer Number 113b

Quote For The Day

    “In an emergency we walk.”
                   {the electrician - Arrival}
   Well that’s true enough, the electrician came via truck when the lights in Number 6’s cottage fused. But then, like the time the Prisoner trampled the loudspeaker under foot, fused lights in a cottage didn’t really merit being an emergency. Now there was a real emergency in ’Hammer Into Anvil,’ the time Number 2 was under the impression that Number 6 had left a bomb hidden in a Cuckoo clock at the door of the Green Dome. But the bomb disposal men didn’t walk, they came by Mini-Moke, what’s more there was an irritating siren blaring out! Well it wasn’t so much of a siren, more of a high pitched whining.
   There have been other emergencies, medical emergencies with an ambulance towing a Red Cross trailer behind it. The Red Cross in The Village, that’s a laugh. Mind you generally speaking all the citizens are looked after very well, especially the ones who resisted for so short a time. For them life in The Village can be quite pleasant and charming, almost like being in Shangri-La. For others, it’s a nightmare world, one from which escape is most desirable. But escapes have been tried so many times, and as far as it is known, no-one has never escaped. At least not until Fall Out. That evacuation may well have come as a sudden shock to many. Their lives in The Village brought to a sudden end by the order to evacuate. But never mind, the fabric of The Village was virtually undamaged so soon after, everyone could have been returned to The Village to get on with their lives once again. Well where else do you think so many people could be put? They could hardly be left to roam free, not with the knowledge they all had about The Village. To have Number 6 go shooting his mouth off about The Village is one thing, but to have so many others at large would have been completely unacceptable. It would have been nothing less than a tremendous breach in security. Somewhere would have to be found to put all those people, and what better place than The Village!

Be seeing you

What’s That Number 6 Been Up To?

  Don’t tell me he’s been to the Cat and Mouse nightclub again! The last time he went there he came out in a drunken state. I don’t know how he did it, they don’t sell alcohol there, the gin, whisky, and vodka may look and taste the same, but no matter how much of it you drink, you can’t get drunk on the stuff. That’s something I find astonishing really. I should have thought that if they really wanted to know why Number 6 resigned that badly, they would have someone take Number 6 to the Cat and Mouse nightclub and simply get him really drunk. An inebriated man cannot keep himself from talking. Alcohol loosens the tongue, and a drunken man, well he’ll always speak the truth, you may depend upon that.

Be seeing you

Fall Out

    In the eyes of The Village society, Number 6 represents the ultimate threat, the lone individual who seeks the destruction of their society, of their very way of life. "Society is at stake and we have the means to protect it!" states the High Court Judge "We draw your attention to the regrettable bullet....." Two men sit at either end of the steel seesaw device previously seen in the control room. But here instead of a pair of monitors, a pair of Lewis or Maxim machine guns have been fitted. Such is the seriousness of the democratic crisis which The Village administration finds itself in. What democratic crisis might that be? How can there be a democratic crisis when the administration behind The Village has done away with the democratic process? The Village is a suppressive state, it is totalitarian, and in that state people are told what to do.
    Number 48 being representative of youth which rebels against nothing it can define, why all the rigmarole of a trial? They should have just administered mind controlling drugs, either that or put him up against a wall and shot him. And Number 2 who apparently died, what really was the point in resuscitating him? After that length of time being dead, there would have been some brain damage! Perhaps in the “late” Number 2’s case they simply wanted their pound of flesh. And the former Number 6, he wasn’t on trial at all. He had been praised for reaching that far. He, as a man of steel magnificently equipped to lead them. Number 6, citizen Number 6 who was once to be tolerated, and if necessary shaped to fit. But Number 6 never fitted in, he was never at one with The Village and its community. He is an individual, and individuals are always trying, trying to escape from something or other. Number 6 resigned his job. He was escaping, out of the frying pan into the fire one might say. Number 6 would never have been right as the figurehead of The Village. He would have been more confined as Number 1 than ever he had been as Number 6.

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    I don’t know why I’m here, sitting on the floor with all these other people. I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to have done. When I’m not sitting here they put me in a room, strap me in a chair in front of a television screen, and all the time they play films. They say that if I watch the programme for long enough, I’ll get sick of it, and not want to watch it any more. Aversion therapy they call it, that’s why I’m sat here on the floor with all these other people. Sat on the floor wearing a blindfold, and head phones. They are playing music constantly, the same music over and over, more aversion therapy. But they just don’t get it you see, I like it, I like to watch the series, and listen to the soundtrack music. I just wish Two would take me away from all this, to take me to a better place than this, The Village!

Village is best for me.
Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

    Patrick McGoohan described Number 1 as being the alter ego of Number 6 who he was trying to beat, Number 1 being the darker side of the Prisoner’s nature. But which side of the Prisoner’s nature forced him to hand in his letter of resignation, was it Number 1? If so that would explain why Number 6 agonised over his resignation, that much is clear at the end of ‘A B and C’ when we see Number 6 lying on the operating table, whilst he is reliving that act of resigning on the wall screen over and over again. And that being the case, Number 1 didn’t need to know the reason why the Prisoner resigned, he knew all the time. And he knew that it would be difficult to make his alter ego talk. But also he knew not to allow Number 2 to go too far against Number 6. Because to spoil Number 6 might mean reducing Number 1 to a man of fragments!  

Be seeing you

Drink It While It’s Hot!

  Apparently it’s good for one, good for someone! So what happens when you don’t drink your night cap of hot chocolate, well it goes cold! But apart from that you’re not relaxed, far from it, you become restless, you can’t sleep, and when you try, you find the cat lying on your bed. And when you lay back on the recliner there are the dulcet tones of a seductive disembodied voice “Sleep, sleep, sleep. That’s it, sleep softly till tomorrow, lovely gentle sleep and a lovely tomorrow,” trying to lull you to sleep. But you can’t sleep, so you go out.

    As Number 6 once described it he had a terrible night, insomnia, he couldn’t sleep, so restless, and there’s no point in lying in bed when you’re awake is there? So he got up, went out, he had a long walk on the beach, it’s marvellous that time of day. Invigorating, the air is brisk and clear, the rain on your face, the wind on your cheek.

    So is this the same way Number 6 got out of his cottage during a night in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ as he once did during ‘Dance of The Dead?’ Well that would depend upon two things. Whether or not you believe Number 6’s description he made to Number 14, and if the French window had been left unsecured for a second time! On an evening in ‘Dance of the Dead,’ having found the door to his cottage locked, Number 6 exited his cottage by the French window and went out into the night. I cannot see them making the same mistake twice about leaving that French window unsecured. If indeed it was a mistake the first time, but left unsecured on purpose. Well how else could Number 6 help them to test their own efficiencies? 

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                  “ESCAPE!”



BCNU

Caught On Camera!

   The Prisoner was once abducted from his London home. Now we witness Number 6 being abducted from his cottage in The Village! I wonder why they went to such extreme measures? You will observe that it takes four security guards to extract a struggling Number 6. Why when they could have subdued him with a blow from a truncheon? But somehow Number 6 is subdued, or sedated, as he lies perfectly still in the Red Cross trailer towed by the mini-Moke.
   And yet they could have made it much easier for themselves. After all in the past when 'they' had come for him it’s usually been during the night, after Number Six had been sedated with a sleeping draught in his nightcap of hot chocolate! But perhaps on this occasion Number 6 had not drunk his nightcap, and therefore was not sedated. But on the other hand, Number 6 may well have been taken from his cottage later in the day, and therefore on this occasion the use of force was unavoidable. 

 Be seeing you

The Girl Who Was Death

    Number 6 may well have told the three children, and anyone else who might have been watching, a fairytale, but it does include some interesting details. Such as a deserted village, an escape by helicopter, an eventual and escape by boat. There is an underground passage leading to an underground cavern, as well as a rocket which Number 6 eventually sabotages to explode.

    The fairytale features several ingredients which go to make up parts of ‘the Prisoner’ series itself. In ‘Arrival’ the Prisoner attempts to escape The Village by helicopter. In Free For All’ Number 6 attempts to escape The Village by jet boat. While in ‘Many Happy Returns’ Number 6 wakes to find The Village deserted. And finally in Fall Out an underground passage leads to a cavern, and there a rocket which the former Number 6 is able not to sabotage, but to set the countdown and launch the rocket into space.

   So by telling a fairytale to the three children, and anyone who might be watching, Number 6 was not only incorporating some of his past experiences in The Village, but was also foretelling the future!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “Where to guv?”
    “Take me to the Town Hall.”
    “Where?”
    “The Town Hall.”
    “Yes, I heard you the first time. Where’s that?”
    “You’re a taxi driver, you should know.”
    “Don’t you know?”
    “No, that’s why I’m asking you to take me there.”
    “But I’m not a taxi driver.”
    “This is a taxi isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you’re sitting in the driver’s seat.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well in my book, that makes you a taxi driver.”
    “You’re Number Six.”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m going to vote for you.”
    “Good. Look I have to be at the Town Hall in half and hour.”
    “What for?”
    “I’ve been invited to witness the dissolution of the out-going Council.”
    “Sounds exciting.”
    “Look don’t bother, I think I’d better walk.”
    “Walk, why are you in a hurry?”
    “Well if you’re anything to go by it could take you over half an hour to find the Town Hall, and that would make me late!”
    “Don’t be like that!”
    “Well alright then, you can take me, but only if you promise not to take the scenic route.”
   “Take you where?”
   “To the Town Hall.”
   “Where’s that? Oh well, I expect we’ll find it, get in.”
   “We could always consult your map of The Village!”
   “It’s in the glove compartment.”
    {Number 6 gets the map out only to find the Town Hall isn’t marked}
    “It’s not marked on the map!”
    “Oh well, we can always stop and ask someone for directions on the way!”
    “Yes, we can ask that chap you’ve just run over, who now sits on the bonnet!”
    “Or the chap whose just jumped into the back!”
    “Here what’s your game?”
    “I’m Number One-one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One-one-three b. We contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    No.113 “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Drive on.”
    No.113 “This is going to make a terrific story.”
    No.6 “What is?”
    “Local Council candidate cannot find the Town Hall!”
    Well do you know where it is?”
    “We’ve just passed it haven’t we?”
    No.113 “No it’s just up ahead on the right, or is it on the left?”
    No.58 “It would depend on the direction. Anyway we’re going to stop someone and ask for directions!”
    No.113 “What and spoil my story?”
    “I think we’ve just driven passed it!”
    “Botheration, I’ll never get there on time now!”

Be seeing you  

Escape And Escapabilty

   Once upon a time Number 99 tried to bluff the Number 2 into thinking he had managed to escape The Village. Over a period of days Number 99 managed to go into the woods, and with tools he had made himself, he managed to dig out a deep den in a mound within the woods. The entrance he camouflaged with tree branches and foliage. Then he spent time carefully collecting provisions, tins of food and bottles, which he smuggled to his den in the woods.
    Then when all was ready, one night just before curfew Number 99 jammed cardboard between the lock of his cottage door and the door frame. And when curfew time arrived, announced five minutes earlier by the calming female voice telling him to sleep, and wake to a beautiful tomorrow, the electronic lock of the cottage door did not engage. And he was able to leave the confines of his cottage and disappear into the night, keeping to the dark shadows, dashing from cover to cover away from the prying eyes of the Observers. And reaching the edge of The Village, disappeared into the woods.
   Thus Number 99 had effectively escaped The Village. And when morning came, the Observers could not find Number 99. He was not in his bed, he was not in his cottage, he was nowhere to be seen in The Village at all! The search lasted for days, and no evidence of Number 99 could they find. The Observers were the first ones to be blamed, followed by the Supervisor, and ultimately Number 2. And all that time Number 99 was tucked up as snug as a bug in a rug, well in his den actually.
   Eventually the search for Number 99 was called off, and security operations returned to normal. Number 99 had effectively put the Village to sleep, his intention being to slip quietly away once they had stopped looking for him.
    Certainly Number 99 was never seen again, and yet there he remains, in the woods. The den which he dug into a sandy mound, well the sand was soft, and there no time to shore up his excavation with wooden panels, and even if there had been, where should he get the slats of wood required? And so unfortunately the collapse of the den would have been inevitable, and simply a matter of time before…………

Be seeing you

The Professor Has It Taped!

    The Professor recorded a message on his tape recorder, about the citizens of The Village being tricked, that Speedlearn was an abomination. So how did he manage to record such a message when at the very least there is a doctor and a nurse always in close attendance to the Professor? More than that, how did the Professor manage to get out of the house, through The Village, and down onto the beach in order to hide the tape recorder in the sand? And why hide the tape recorder in the sand anyway, seeing as the message was for the citizens, why not simply hand the tape recorder to someone? Perhaps to someone in the crowd of people who chased him along the beach that time, in order to bring him back to The Village. Hiding the tape recorder in the sand like that, was that wise? After all the tape recorder could have been lost forever, sand might have got into the works of the machine possibly, or someone may have stumbled across it accidentally………….in the way Number 6 happened upon the tape recorder. And sometime later Number 12 found it where Number 6 had reburied it. It can be imagined that the Professor may have made it out of the confines of his house once, but not a second time!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

                                “ESCAPE!”

BCNU

Citizen No.2

    This Number 2 is the only Number 2 we see dressed in Village Administration uniform. That is because not only is he Number 2, making him the Chief Administrator, he’s a member of the Board of Education, overseeing the educational experiment of Speedlearn. Mass education, every student knowing the same answer to the same question as everyone else, word for word! If this happened in real life, it would put a great many teachers out of work. What’s more there would be no need for schools, colleges or universities.
   Years ago when I was watching ‘The General’ I wondered what happened to Number 2’s spectacles when he put those dark glasses on, because I didn’t see him take them off. So I watched him put those dark glasses on, over his spectacles frame by frame. Of course they are not just any old pair of dark glasses, they are larger than normal, seeing as they are safety glasses. But I didn’t realise that at the time. But then why the need for administrators to wear dark safety glasses, unless it’s to protect their eyes against some sort of dangerous lighting, not that there appeared to be any. Unlike that time in the Council Chamber in ‘Free For All,’ and later in the Embryo Room of ‘Once Upon A Time. Only in that instance both Number 2 and the Butler wore Inuit snow glasses to help protect their eyes against the intense blue light. 

Be seeing you

A Question Of Interpretation

   At her art seminar Madam Professor describes a man sat tearing up a book, to Number 6 as "Creating a fresh concept. Construction comes out of the ashes of destruction." But does it have to be the case that something has to be destroyed for something new and good to be created? Perhaps so, history is filled with such ideology. And yet that which is destroyed can never be replaced!
    And then there's a woman standing on her head, apparently "She's developing a new perspective.” Well does looking at The Village upside down make it appear any better? I should hardly think so, but it does make the blood rush to the head!
    And then there’s the man asleep in the chair simply because "The mind learns only when it wants to." Unless of course he’s unwittingly taking part in the educational experiment known as Speedlearn.
    Madam Professor is clever in her interpretations. Perhaps the man has read a book and found he doesn’t like it. The young woman is perhaps standing on her head because he’s bored and has nothing better to do. And the man in the chair is asleep simply because he’s tired! Madam Professor sees what she wants to see, while someone else sees something entirely different. It's all a question of interpretation you see. As we are only too fully aware, the exact same can be said of ‘the Prisoner’ as a whole.

I'll be seeing you

60 Second Interview With No.2

    Number 113 “I hope we haven’t caught you at a bad moment Number Two.”
    Number 2 “There couldn’t be a worse one!”
    "You look really down in the dumps!"
    Number 113b “Smile!” {click goes the camera}
    “Oh well at least no-one died this time.”
    “What?”
   “When the General was destroyed…….”
    “The General?”
    “Ah, but that hasn’t happened yet, but I think it was supposed to have.”
    “I don’t know what you are talking about. Get out.”
    “Well look at it this way, at least they have faith enough in you to give you a second term in office.”
    “A second term?”
    “Mind you, wasn’t there some question of you being fit for another term?”
    “If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to be alone.”
    “Come along Number One one-three b, I think we’re intruding. Mind you Number Six looks smug enough, don’t you think?”
    The two men leave the laboratory by the pair of steel doors.
    Number 113 “Think I’ll be able to get a photograph of the Professor?”
    “Don’t see why not, and his wife, if she’s obliging enough. You might get a picture of her in the garden.” 
    “Here.”
    “What?”
    “Who is the General?”

Reporter Number 113
Photographer Number 113b

ESCAPE!

   Reason must dictate that eventually at some point, there must come a time when inmates of The Village have tried every way there is to escape The Village. Of course that would not stop new arrivals from making the same attempts. Because there can only be a certain number of ways to try and escape. So then what, quiet acceptance of The Village? Anyone who is thinking of escape could do no better than to ask Number 8 {the white Queen} seeing as she’s helped others with their escape attempts. None of which ever succeeded, but at least she knows what escape plans have been tried already. Perhaps it might be amusing to see someone come up with a plan that’s been used before and failed. Take Number 6’s plan in ‘Checkmate,’ he learned how to distinguish between the warders and the prisoners from Number 14, who in all probability tried that same plan himself. And was himself involved with Number 6’s plan. Number 14 may well have instigated the same plan, in having gathered about him men he thought he could depend on. And yet the plan failed, perhaps because he was betrayed, or let down in the same manner Number 6 was by the Rook. And yet Number 14 went along with Number 6’s plan, because perhaps he thought where he failed, Number 6 might well succeed. It must have been heart breaking for Number 14 to see the plan fail a second time!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    In past years whenever I have seen an actor or actress on television or feature film who appeared in ‘the Prisoner,’ I would say to the wife, or she would say to me, look, there’s number so and so. Or there’s Guy Doleman {Number 2} or Peter Howell {the Professor}, and Hugo Schuster {Professor Seltzman} seen recently in the 1953 film ‘House of Blackmail,’ to name less than a handful. But now I’ve been doing this with actors and actresses who appeared in THEPRIS6NER, and now for me Ian Mckellen will always be Two. Vincent Regan who played 909 {Anvil} is always turning up in different television dramas. And only a few weeks ago Sara Stewart 1891 {Darling} appeared in the BBC drama ‘Mrs. Foster.’ That’s all really, its just a game I’ve played over the years, and continue to do so with actors and actresses from THEPRIS6NER.

Be seeing you

The Prisoner A Rebel?

    Outside of The Village, in the outside World, the Prisoner wasn’t confined. He was as free as anyone is able to be free. He was part of the Establishment, until he went and resigned his job that is. He was also well in with his boss Sir Charles Portland, he was engaged to his daughter Janet. Although one might ask what it was that brought those two together in the first place. But no, he wasn’t a rebel, he accepted society, was part of that society. Simply chucking up a job doesn’t make anyone a rebel, simply angry, disillusioned, or wanting to simply improve one’s position by moving to a better paid job, which offers better prospects.
    The Prisoner only became rebellious after he had been taken from everything he knows and incarcerated in The Village for no good reason, by people he didn’t know at the time. But even so, even given the Prisoner’s predicament, there is a time when rebelling against ones, surroundings is simply no longer an option. The Prisoner has to live. And eventually one does accept one’s current situation, because there is only self-torment in wishing for what you once had. That might be achieved through escape. But one quickly learns the lesson that escape from The Village is impossible. So one might as well as accept the situation and begin to settle down. But not the Prisoner, he’s going to escape and come back. Escape come back, wipe The Village off the face of the Earth and Number 2 with it! But he didn’t, because when he did eventually escape, what did he go and do, go blabbing to his ex-colleagues about The Village, it’s no wonder he had to be taken back there!
    It was simply the Prisoner’s confinement in The Village that brought about his rebellious nature. Anyone held captive under whatever circumstances rebels for long enough, that’s until they begin to get used to their current situation. However in that regard what makes the Prisoner known as Number 6 so special is, that he fought, resisted, held fast, refused to accept and settle down for so long a time. But then again it was because of his importance to the Village which denied their using extreme measures against him. Otherwise……. Well the Girl who was death summed the Prisoner up, by saying he was a born survivor. Which is what the Prisoner did in the end, he survived The Village.

Be seeing you

Citizen 51

    The Watchmaker. I can understand why some people were brought to The Village, but why the little Watchmaker? Perhaps he came to The Village of his own free-will. That being the case, then The Village and its community may well have come as a shock to him. But in time he learned of the injustice of The Village, that he had met no-one there who had committed a crime. And in the end, with some indoctrination from Number 100, Number 51 had been radicalised, and turned into an assassin and terrorist!
    It may be wondered whether the Watchmaker came to The Village alone, perhaps as a younger man, who might have met his wife there, and had Monique born to them in The Village. Unless of course he brought his wife with him, and Monique was born later. Or had been brought to The Village as a little girl. But seeing that there is no sign of Monique’s mother, that there isn’t even a mention made of her, the watchmaker’s wife must have died at some point.
   As for why the watchmaker was brought to The Village, the answer is a simple one. People have clocks and watches, and they need repairing from time to time. He may well have had a hand in the electrification of the clocks. So a Watchmaker was needed to work in The Village, just like gardeners, painters, motor mechanics, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, window cleaners. Electricians, security guards, scientists, bio-chemists etc, etc indeed anyone with any skill, or occupation could find themselves working for the Village!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                            “Watch The Birdie!”

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The Schizoid Men!

    The date calendars in Number 6’s cottage were set at Wednesday February 10^th. As for the newspaper showing the date, it is the only issue of The Tally Ho to display the date, and it was only to confirm to Number 6 that it was Feb 10^th, which of course it wasn’t. It was actually over a month later! We can judge that by the time it would have taken Number 6 to grow a beard, and the fact that The Village festival has come and gone. You will recall that on the evening when Number 6 was helping Alison with her mind reading and she was taking photographs of Number 6, there was still a month to go before the festival.

This made me notice something. February 10th was the day the Prisoner went to bed prior to his conversion to Number 12, wasn't it? In a way yes, but in truth the conversation between Number 6 and Number 12 was about a month or so later. But when he woke up again, they pretended it was still February 10th! If the Tally Ho showed the same date it should have been the issue of the prior day, unless they wanted him to relive that day. But why? It was to disorientate Number 6. It took something like a month, perhaps a little longer to condition Number 6’s mind, for him to grow a full beard, and to make him left-handed instead of right. February 10^th was in all probability the day Curtis arrived in The Village. So when Number 6 woke up in a strange apartment, 12 private,’ Number 2 simply played it as though Number 6 was Curtis who had just arrived in The Village.

   On the evening when Number 6 was assisting Number 24 with her mind reading the day date calendar was right. However when Number 6 woke up in the strange apartment of 6 Private the calendar was wrong, it should have been changed to Thursday February 11^th. So the date on the issue of The Tally Ho should also have been Feb 11^th. They got that wrong on both counts. Not only in the fictional episode, but as well as by the production crew, continuity should have realised that.

   But let us not forget Curtis in all this. As Number 6 was being given a make-over, to make him look like Curtis, and being conditioned to like what Curtis likes etc, as well as being conditioned from right-handed to left-handed, Curtis was also being given a make-over, in order to look like Number 6. He may not have gone through the same conditioning, but he would have to have read 6’s file, to learn all about him. To learn his speech, the way he walks, reacts to things. Curtis would have to live the part of Number 6, to become him, to capture his very soul. Especially seeing that those photographs that became evidence later in the episodes were taken on Feb 10th. If they had wanted him to relive that day the photographs wouldn't have existed. Well.... but maybe the Prisoner set the date on his calendar before he went to bed, that's always a possibility. But no..  The picture taken the night before shows the same date! I know, it was neither Feb 10th nor Feb 11th. But still it is a strange thing.  Might it not have been the case that they wanted Number 6 to relive that day of February 10^th? It might have been, but I do not think that that was the case.

    What’s more the Polaroid picture is a mistake! After Alison had taken that photograph in the evening of February 10^th, somehow it was given to Curtis and that compounded the mistake. Why? Because in the Polaroid picture Number 6 is wearing a dark blazer, but Curtis is wearing a cream blazer. When Curtis took that picture from the breast pocket of his blazer it should have condemned Curtis on the grounds he was wearing the wrong coloured blazer. Had both Number 6 and Curtis been wearing the same dark coloured blazer then the Polaroid picture would have been right. But in his wisdom Patrick McGoohan came to the conclusion that if both Number 6’s wore the same coloured blazer it would have become too complicated for the average television viewer, so the change in coloured blazer was made in order to make it easier for the television viewer to tell the difference between Number 6 and Curtis. I believe McGoohan took far too much on himself when judging the mental agility of the television viewing public. And he should have kept to the  original idea of Number 6 and Curtis wearing identical blazers. Then ‘The Schizoid Man’ would have been a far more complicated affair, and the viewer might not have realised which Number 6 had actually died and which was about to try and escape The Village!

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Thought For The Day

    Number 6 the lone Wolf! So very different from what had taken place before, Number 6 the defender of the people. And now those same people have been turned against him. Number 6 has effectively been sent to Coventry, and if he doesn’t toe the line he’ll lose all his privileges. No more credit, no more taxis, no more personal maids, oh he’d already lost that particular privilege!
   It was all very well trying to turn the tables on the Committee. That was when they mentioned the complaints, “well done,” Number 6 said “I’ve several,” as if that would wash with the Committee. And tearing up that questionnaire, what was that, an act of bravado? Number 6 treated it as a game, all this disharmonious-ness, and unmutuality. And yet it soon became less of a game. And it was whilst watching birds of a feather flock together, meaning the Cormorants, the game didn’t seem funny anymore.
    Number 6 may have felt that he had undergone the process known as Instant Social Conversion, but we as the viewer knew differently. We saw Number 86 turn that dial down to zero. And yet before the episode of ‘A Change of Mind’ commenced, we had a fair idea that they might have Number 6 posted as being disharmonious, and an Unmutual. But never would they take a risk with Number 6 as to perform a Leucotomy on him, to isolate the aggressive frontal lobes. True, such an operation could have had three differing effects on the patient. Firstly the operation could have been a success, rendering the patient docile. Secondly they could have lost Number 6’s mind altogether, leaving him a brain-dead imbecile. And thirdly, the operation may not have had any effect on the patient whatsoever! Thinking about it, I wonder if that’s what the doctor-Number 40 performed on Roland Walter Dutton in the end? That would explain Dutton’s final state of mind when Number 6 called him as a character witness at his trial in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ His mind having completely gone!

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Village Life!

   See that waiter there, he’s a blasted quisling! He might look like a waiter, but he’s watching, listening all the time. And any least little sign of any out of the order activity, even if one is heard to be whispering, he’s on the blower to Number 2 faster than you can say knife! And he’s not the only one. That Shopkeeper Number 112, he’s just as bad. He reported Number 6 for acting strangely that time he was listening to six records of Bizet’s I’arlesienne suite. Well the shopkeeper was played for a fool by Number 6, and more than once, so was this waiter. Didn’t either of them know about Jamming? Mind you if that waiter had been really on the ball he’d have reported that woman in the yellow hat sat at the table there. She’s reading a car magazine, and it doesn’t concern Austin Mink-Mokes either!

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   It’s surreal really, the way the three individual Guardians work as one to bring Number 8 back to the shore. To serve and protect, isn’t that how it goes? The Guardian serving The Village and its community, whilst at the same time protecting the individual. They must have thought the scene worked so well, they used it again but with Number 6 in ‘Free for All.’ It’s just a pity that you can see Number 8’s legs kicking in the water trying to keep up with the three balloons!
   I once found myself thinking how the scene might have looked after Nadia having been half drowned half suffocated by the membranic Guardian, had been picked up out of the water by the crew of the helicopter? Being fitted with floats the Alouette helicopter could have landed on the water with a medic on board. Then the crew or medics having retrieved the unconscious body of Number 8 from the sea, they could have flown her direct to the hospital. The scene would have seemed less surreal that way, but it might have looked more dramatic. And we as the television viewer wouldn’t be left wondering how it was that the three Guardians managed to bring Number 8 to the shore the way they did!

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The Therapy Zone

     After everything had become clear to Number 6 by gazing deep into the mirror, and once he had reversed his left-handedness, he felt more like his old self. He then went out into the night, it was then that he encountered to Guardians. As Number 6 told them that the atmosphere here is very different to what it was elsewhere check. Then one of the Guardians asked Number 6 for the password. To which he replied “Gemini.” But that wasn’t the right password, and yet it was the right password because Number 2 had given it to Number 6, so that when it all began Number 2 would be able to tell the pair of Six’s apart. So to Number 6’s thinking he gave the correct password because he believed it was. But it wasn’t, and that was a valuable lesson Number 6 learned. Because if he had not encountered the two Guardians he wouldn’t have known that Gemini was the wrong password. That’s why he forced the right password, Schizoid Man, out of Curtis.
    Imagine for a moment if Number 6 hadn’t encountered those two guardians, and so didn’t know that Gemini was the wrong password. After the fight with Curtis, and having gone chasing out of the cottage after him and encountering Rover. Curtis would have been alright no matter that he was afraid of the Guardian when he gave the password Schizoid Man, because it was the right password. Number 6 on the other hand would have given the password Gemini thinking that was the correct password, but it wasn’t. Then Number 6 would have been in trouble especially if Rover had not recognised that password. Then it might well have been Number 6 who had died! So although Number 6 didn’t know it at the time, that encounter with the two Guardians earlier, was very fortunate for Number 6!

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Rubbing Sea Salt Into The Wound!

    “Good evening citizens. Your local Council wishes to announce another exciting competition. The subject this time…seascapes!”                            
                                     {Female announcer - The Chimes of Big Ben}
   I always feel sorry for Number 6. There he was putting his trust in a young woman who he thought was Estonian, and probably wasn’t anything of the kind. And for what? Escape! But not only had he been betrayed by Number 8, but also by both Fotheringay and the Colonel, but he had discovered that it was his former employers who had had him abducted and placed in The Village! Why his former employers? Well if it wasn’t British Intelligence who put Number 6 in The Village, then that makes the Colonel and Fotheringay traitors! Of course they might have worked for MI6, and it was MI6 who was behind The Village, but that would still make the Colonel and Fotheringay betrayers of a former colleague, and to the department they work for. You will observe that as Number 6 looks up at them, 2, Nadia, and Fotheringay, he doesn’t say anything. Not wanting to waste words and energy on them. Besides what was there he could have said which would have achieved anything?
  And if it wasn’t bad enough having discovered that he’s not escaped The Village at all, there’s this cheery female announcer rubbing salt into Number 6’s wound. A great new competition, seascapes. Was that announcement by coincidence, or contrivance? I leave it for you to make up your own mind.

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Quote For The Day

    “Hello………enjoy your chess yesterday?”
    “Don’t tell me you care?”
    “Of course, we want you to be happy.”
    “Fine, just err give me a one-way ticket home.”
    “Won’t you ever give up?”
    “What do you think?”
    “You know you’re wrong, we have ways if you drive us to them.”
    “I can imagine.”
    “It’s done under the strictest medical supervision.”
    “I can guess that from the state of the man you took yesterday.”
    “What the Rook? Oh no, he’ll come to no harm, it’s just a rehabilitation course.”
    “What do you want me to do, envy him?”
    “I like your sense of humour. But we can’t have you worrying. Get in.”
    “Why?”
    “I’m going to the hospital, I thought you’d like to see our friend the Rook.”
    “Yes.”
                                     {Number 2 and Number 6 - Checkmate}
   Going with Number 2 to see the Rook at the hospital wasn’t Number 6’s first time in observing someone suffering at the hands of the doctors. There was Number 8, who was being put through interrogation, in trying to determine whether or not she had suicidal tendencies. But this time it was the Rook, Number 53, who was undergoing treatment. Pavlov’s experiments with dogs had been adapted for human experimentation. Number 53 had been dehydrated, and cried out for water, but he was trained to get water only when he obeyed. But really such dehydration couldn’t simply be quenched by a cup or two of water, it would take a great deal more than that.
   This then is the darker side to The Village, human experimentation. The doctor-Number 22 thinks of her patients as being no better than animals, and treats them accordingly. And that goes for Number 8, who she has had hypnotised into believing she is in love with Number 6, and he with her. What’s more Number 8 is part of an experiment once carried out on Dolphins. Transmitters were implanted in their brains for submarine detection. This doctor hadn’t got as far as that with humans, all she had was a reaction transmitter in a locket which Number 8 wore about her neck, making her part of The Village alarm system. The doctor enjoys her work, just as much as her predecessor in fact. More than that, she could easily be the doctor-Number 40’s female counterpart! Either doctor Number 22 and Number 40 are interchangeable and well suited for either ‘Dance of The Dead’ or ‘Checkmate.’ And for what it’s worth Number 6 will never give up!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                         “The Eye’s Have It!”

BCNU

Takes All You Want!

     “Soon Roland Walter Dutton will cease to exist.”
                             {Number 42 - Dance of The Dead}
    Did Dutton have a premonition about his imminent future, meaning he hadn’t got one? Shouldn’t think so, the doctor-Number 40 had been conducting any number of different experiments in order to extract any such required information, and Dutton would have been aware of the lengths to which the doctor would go. The doctor had no scruples, no medical ethics and thought nothing of using Dutton as a go-between in order to extract certain information from Number 6.
    Dutton had been released from the hospital for 72 hours so that he could reconsider his position in the quiet atmosphere of The Village. But he knew instinctively that once he stepped foot back into the hospital, and that doctor had his hands on him once more, he would take his experiments to the extreme, and such proved to be the case. Leaving Roland Walter Dutton a brain-dead imbecile! Obviously someone, perhaps Number 1, or the people on the other end of that teleprinter, had decided that they had no further use for Roland Walter Dutton. And so he or they, issued that termination order against him. But not realising just how far the doctor would take his experiments against Dutton. For him the termination order would have been a happy release.
    Footnote: The original script for ‘Dance of The Dead’ called for a scene in which the doctor-Number 40 was seen burying one of his poor patients/victims! But it was thought the scene would be too harrowing for the television viewer of the day. So the scene was cut.

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The Chimes of Big Ben

As reported yesterday in the news.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34565724

   So if Nadia Rakovsky wants to hear the chimes of Big Ben, she’ll have to be quick about it! Although technically it’s not Big Ben which creates the chimes, Big Ben only strikes the hour, bong! The chimes are made by the other peel of bells, Big Ben only What’s more the bell tower isn’t called Big Ben, it used to be called St. Stephen’s Tower until it was renamed Elizabeth Tower for the Queen Elizabeth’s diamond Jubilee in 2012.

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Thought For The Day

   In ‘the Prisoner,‘ more than that, in The Village, there is no glory in what takes place there, only misery and oppression. And if anyone says otherwise, then they are either on drugs, have been hypnotised, or brainwashed into thinking otherwise. Its either them or us, Number 2 would have you believe, and yet everything that takes place is a betrayal of someone by someone.
    Number 2 once told Madam Professor that what Number 6 wants is what we all want ultimately….to escape. That particular Number 2 had already suffered one defeat, what price a second and would he be able to survive it? It is not known what happened to that Number 2 after what, two deaths, and the destruction of the General. But it seems unlikely that Number 1 would pat him on the shoulder and say “There, there, it doesn’t matter. I’ll kiss it better for you.” I should cocoa! Whatever happened to Number 2, whatever happens to any failed Number 2, better he had died in the same way as the Professor and Number 12, because the fate to be suffered for failure can only be imagined. But to have two people die, and a piece of Village technology destroyed, Number 2’s fate can only be worse than a fate worse than death, which is quite unimaginable.
   And yet another Number 2 suffered two further deaths, that of Number 22 and Number 8. 22 who was strangled to death by Number 8 and then fell to his death in an act of suicide in the Silver Dollar Saloon. But am I writing of two different Number 2’s, or Number 2 as a collective entity? Outwardly Number 2 might well take on a different appearance, even change sex from time to time. But whoever Number 2 is, Number 2 generally wants the same thing. It has been said that in ‘the Prisoner’ it is Number 1 who Number 6 is trying to beat. But is that correct? Is it not more likely a battle of wits between Number 6 and Number 2, with the final objective Number 1. After all when Number 6 finally managed to defeat Number 2 in ‘Once Upon A Time’ it was Number 1 he asked for, Number 1 the final objective. And so eventually to the victor go the spoils, the key to his house, a passport valid for anywhere, travellers cheques one million, and a purse of petty cash!

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Playing their Game

2 Rolls The Dice – 6 Turns The Tables!

   The Colonel in ‘Many Happy Returns’ once told Number 6 regarding his report, that the dice are heavily loaded in his favour. In truth the dice are always loaded in Number 2’s favour, meaning that an outcome highly probable, or to predetermine a result, as in the result of the local election in ‘Free For All’ for example. And yet on occasion Number 6 is able to “turn the tables” on Number 2, as in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ ‘The General, ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ and ‘A Change of Mind.’

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Yellow Alert!

    This is by any other name a “caught on camera,” because the image of the balloon with vote written upon it appears on but one single frame of film. This is during Number 6’s first election speech in ‘Free for All,’ the citizens laughing at the statement made by Number 6 that he is not a number, he is a person. This one frame of the yellow balloon with the single word Vote written upon it, could be described as a subliminal cut, because my wife has no remembrance of it, perhaps in that way it failed as a subliminal cut! There are other balloons with the word vote written upon them, but there was a slight error with one, which is tied to the front bumper of a Mini-Moke, the word vote has been written upside down. I suppose Rover can think itself lucky that it wasn’t defaced with such graffiti! 

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