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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