Be seeing you!

    As Number 12 emerges from his cottage he is greeted by a passing Sikh

   “Good morning Number Twelve.”
   “Be seeing you” Number 12 salutes in response.
   Curiously this is the only occasion on which we see anyone give The Village salute left-handed. And yet Patrick McGoohan while acting the part of Number 12, who is supposed to be left-handed, gives the salute in the same casual way as Number 6 does even when left-handed. I might have thought that seeing as Patrick McGoohan wasn’t supposed to be Number 6, would, as Number 12, given the salute in a more formal way. The hand less open at the end of the salute, but still with thumb and forefinger still linked!

Be seeing you

Peter Smith

    Having arrived home in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ Mrs. Butterworth asked the nameless exile his name. I suppose she had to pretend not to know it so as to keep up the pretence. If she actually knew what his real name was in the first place of course. But why didn’t the Prisoner give his real name, something which has often puzzled me. After all what harm could it have done? I suppose to the Prisoner it could have been a matter of trust. Trust in himself, in his surroundings, and trust in this woman who he finds to be living in his one time home, when there was still six months on the lease left to run. After all he didn’t know who Mrs. Butterworth was, so he gave her a false pseudonym, Peter Smith. It was as good a false name as any, and after his recent experience in The Village, any name is preferable to a number!
    If Mrs. Butterworth had been genuine, and the log book of the car had been the original, then his proper name would have been on it. And she would have known she was being duped!

Be seeing you

Be seeing you!

   No.6 “What kind of salute do you call that?”
   No.100 “I was being friendly with you, giving a passing greeting, be seeing you.”
   “You mean everything’s okay surely!”
   “What?”
   “The sign you just gave me is to mean that everything’s okay. If it’s to mean be seeing you, here in The Village we incorporate the phrase by raising the circled thumb and forefinger to the eye.”
   “I was only being friendly, I didn’t expect a lecture!”
   “Well just do it properly or don’t do it at all. And you can wipe that smirk off your face!”
   “Ooh, someone did get out of bed the wrong side this morning!”
   “Just get out of my way, I’ve no time to bandy words with the likes of someone who wears a pink blazer!”

Be seeing you

Many Happy Returns

   After the Prisoner had set sail aboard his sea-going raft, the tree trunks, rope, and oil drums had to be cleared away before the citizens were allowed out and about The Village. But before that, someone with a camera went down to the quayside, and took photographs of the debris left behind by Number 6’s raft building activity. This then enabled the tree trunks, rope, and oil drums to be replaced exactly where they were in time for the Prisoner’s return to The Village. And that was also the case with the broken cup and saucer, as well as the cat. {They were very fortunate to have found the cat when needed!} So that when Number 6 was returned to The Village, everything was as he had left it. Even to the point of switching off the electricity and water, but leaving both the coffee percolator and shower tap switched on, thus giving the impression that The Village was still deserted. However the Prisoner must have realised that that was not the case, that they had been using him as a pawn in one of their games. Certainly the words of the aircraft pilot “Be seeing you” would have been enough to tell him that he was back within their grip. Number 6 wouldn’t have heard the pilot’s words, because he removed his comms/oxygen mask. But perhaps too much emphasis is placed on the words spoken, and not so much on the visual aspect of showing the Prisoner the pilot’s face. Hence pulling up the visor of his helmet, then removing the oxygen/comms mask, and looking at the Prisoner over his shoulder. That way he would have seen that it wasn’t the RAF Group Captain flying the jet Aircraft, before he was ejected from the aircraft. And as the Prisoner descended to the beach on the end of a parachute, he had time to contemplate his return to The Village!

Be seeing you

A Question of Identity!

    The above photograph was found in a wallet, taken from the dead man’s pocket by Number 6, who found the body on the beach one morning in ‘Dance of The Dead.’ There was nothing else in the wallet to give identity to the man, the other items, a few raffle tickets.

   The background in the photograph identifies that it was taken by the pool and fountain in the piazza of The Village. The young woman appears to be in Village attire, but wears no badge on her jersey. As for the man, he is wearing an open necked shirt, not of regular Village attire, and he is also not wearing a badge of identity. One can only suggest that the photograph was taken on the day of this man’s arrival, seeing as new arrivals to The Village wear their own clothes for a time. But why the photograph was taken is unknown, as is the identity of the young woman, as well the identity of the person who took the photograph. As for the identity of the man in the photograph, surely there can be no doubt of that. He’s Number 34, who was reported to his Observer-Number 240 by her Supervisor as being dead, and found on the beach by Number 6!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

    Citizens in The Village live in a society where there is no privacy. Surveillance is everywhere, and Number 2 might argue that it’s for the good and safety of the community. Each cottage has a number, that number is accompanied by the word “Private.” Which is ironic really, as there is no “private” anywhere, not even in Number 6’s bathroom! This is demonstrated in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ the camera in the bathroom being behind the mirror. And to take that idea one step further, when Number 6 is taking a shower, or indeed anyone else for that matter, male or female at their daily ablutions etcetera, do Observers turn the surveillance camera off?

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    What’s she doing there?

   Number 6, in the guise of Curtis was about to leave The Village {or so he thought}, but what was Alison-Number 24 doing there? Yes she told Number 6 that she wanted him to know that given a second chance she wouldn’t betray him again. But how did she know Number 6 was about to leave The Village by helicopter? He made no mention of it to her when Number 2 sent him to see Alison because she might have some insight into Number 6’s motivations. Although there seemed to be a small doubt in Number 2’s mind. Perhaps after Number 6 had left Alison’s cottage, Number 2 could have telephoned her to tell her to be at the helicopter at such and such a time. After all we don’t see everything which takes place in ‘the Prisoner.’ Thus making the reason for Alison being there, was simply to distract Number 6’s attention, while Number 2 spoke to the helicopter pilot about circling The Village before landing from where he took off. If that is the case about Alison in this scene, and it is only an idea, then it would make her out to be a liar! She told Number 6 that given a second chance she would betray again, but with my idea in mind she did, because she didn’t tell him what Number 2 was up to. Not that it would have done him much good if she had!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                             “DANGERMAN!”

                                                   {Do you think that’s wise?”}

BCNU

Curfew!

   Each night the good citizens of The Village are locked in their cells cottages, and rooms. A few minutes before curfew {it might be the same for every prisoner} a maid makes Number 6 his nightly bedtime night cap of hot chocolate. This is of course drugged, a sedative providing Number 6 with a good nights sleep, and at the same time providing security for The Village. However Number 6 doesn’t drink his nightcap, so it’s no wonder he cannot sleep! He paces up and down the floor of the study, clicking his fingers, wondering that to do, probably feeling like a caged animal. He tries the door to his cottage, it’s locked of course. Oh well, perhaps best to go to bed, oh he can’t, the cat’s lying on it, obviously Number 6 is a cat lover. So instead he takes to his recliner. The moment he lays back, the overhead light comes on, and off, what’s more there’s a seductive female voice encouraging him to go to sleep.
    “Sleep, sleep, sleep……….that’s it…sleep softly until tomorrow’…... Lovely gentle sleep, and a lovely tomorrow.”
   But that’s enough for Number 6, he jumps up off the recliner and into the study where he throws back the curtains of the French door. He turns the door handle to find the door unlocked, and flings it open. And climbing over the balcony he disappears into the night.
   If security is a primary objective, then why leave the French door unlocked? Was it an oversight on the part of someone, or might there be another reason? That it was part of some deliberate efficiency test set by Number 2, not to test Number 6, but to test their own efficiency, those of the Observers, and that of the Guardian. After all that’s what Number 2 told the Observer-Number 240 when she reported she couldn’t find Number 6.
    "Don't worry my dear” Number 2 told her “it will test our efficiency." 

Be seeing you

If He Will Answer One Simple Question!

    That was the idea shared by two Number 2’s, the one in ‘Arrival,’ the other in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ The idea being that if they could get the Prisoner to give some sort of information of his own free will, then all the rest would follow.  Number 2 of ‘Arrival,’ carried out the debriefing of the Prisoner on the day of his arrival in The Village. Number 2 thought that if he could get the Prisoner to voluntarily give the time of his birth, he could bring his personal file up to date by also adding the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation!
    "One likes to know everything, for instance I had no idea that you liked lemon tea."
    The Prisoner, looking at a page in his file: "The time of my birth is missing."
     "Well there you are, now let’s bring it all up to date."
    "Four thirty-one am nineteenth the of March nineteen twenty-eight, I've nothing to say, is that clear... absolutely nothing!"
    "Now be reasonable old boy, it's just a matter of time. Sooner or later you'll tell me, sooner or later you'll want to. Let’s make a deal, you co-operate, tell us what we want to know. This can be a very nice place, you may even be given a position of authority."
   "I will not make any deals with you, I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own."
    "Is it?"
    "Yes, you won't hold me.
   It was a nice idea, but it didn’t work, nor did it work when Number 2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ tried to get Number 6 to answer how many lumps of sugar he takes.
   “I can never remember, one lump or two?”
   “It’s in the file.”
   “Yes, as a matter of fact yes. But it would save time if you just answered.”
   “Why, are you running out of time?”
   It was one simple question, but Number 6 wouldn’t even answer that he’d given up sugar on medical advice! Never off guard is our friend Number 6, and gives little or nothing away, not even about himself. But they knew anyway, having everything on record about Number 6. The one lacking piece of information being the reason behind his resignation, and his personal file wouldn’t be complete until they learned what that reason was. Why was that so important? Because one likes to know everything! That “one,” is that as in an unspecified person or individual, or does it mean Number 1?

Be seeing you

A Slap In The Face!

  Mr X thought it was The Girl Who Was Death sitting on the caterpillar ride. So he quickly jumped aboard, but he got that wrong, and a slap in the face for his pains. But even when there are times when the Girl isn’t The Girl Who Was Death, there are times when Mister X isn’t Mister X. As on this occasion!

Be seeing you

Retirement!

    At the end of ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ Number 6 said to the new Number 2, as he stops him from removing the Great Seal of Office, “Yes and so the great day is nearly over, it went off rather well I thought. Better than planned. And now you can look forward to your own retirement, and I’m sure they’ll arrange something equally suitable for you when the day comes. Be seeing you….won’t I?”

   Will he? After all he’d never seen Number 2 {Andre Van Gyseghem} before he called by the Green Dome to see Number 2. Because when he told him he wanted to see Number 2, Number 2 had to tell Number 6 that he was Number 2! So where had this Number 2 been all the time, how long had he been away on leave? Obviously long enough for at least three “interim” Number 2’s to serve in office while he’s been away, possibly more, especially if every Number 2 is interim. Perhaps this Number 2 {Andre Van Gyseghem} was the permanent Number 2, who had been working behind the scenes on a variety of projects for the good of The Village and its community. Leaving interim Number 2’s to deal with the likes of Number 6. But that doesn’t take into account Speedlearn. Oh well. We’ll forget about that for the time being!
      If a new Number 2 is appointed once a year, on Appreciation Day, and the retiring Number 2 was the permanent Number 2, perhaps that makes the new Number 2 {Derren Nesbit}, the new permanent Number 2. After all Derren Nesbitt claims that he was to have been the permanent Number 2, well perhaps this way he did become just that. And that’s why Number 6 questioned where he would see him again, seeing as he’d never seen the previous permanent Number 2 before. His predecessor forced to carry on the work behind the scenes until the day came for his own retirement…..in a year’s time!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    Since when did Number 2 go on leave? And where did he go? Away from The Village, or did he remain in The Village but simply take time off on holiday, a sort of busman’s holiday if you like, on a fortnight’s leave. I suppose its possible that other Number 2’s might have gone on leave, had they held the position for long enough. But to my mind they all appear to be interim Number 2’s, not one of them is permanent. But perhaps that’s it, perhaps Number 2, who returned to work just in time for his own retirement, could have been the permanent Number 2, and all the others merely interim. Such as the interim Number 2 played by Derren Nesbitt, who himself claimed that he was to have been the permanent Number 2. But then he’s not the only actor in ‘the Prisoner’ series to claim that, so did Peter Wyngarde, Number 2 in ‘Checkmate.’ But if Number 2 in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ was the permanent Number 2, that would make the actor Andre Van Gyseghem the permanent Number 2, and in turn his successor would become the permanent Number 2!

Be seeing you

Teabreak Teaser

    In ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ at the end of that bout of Kosho, why didn’t Number 6 dunk Number 14 into the tank of water, the same way he did his opponent in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ when he had him at his mercy?

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

    “I’m not one of them.”
                          {Monique-Number 50 - It’s Your Funeral}
    That’s the trouble, no-one is, or no-one claims to be. And for the first time Number 6 isn’t about to be betrayed by a woman! Although Monique did come looking for Number 6’s help, although she’s not the first to do that. She involved him in an assassination plot against Number 2. Only when he came face to face with Number 2, he didn’t appear to recognise Number 6. And certainly Number 6 didn’t seem to recognise Number 2 that time he paid a visit to the Green Dome, because he asked to see Number 2! It can only be imagined that the current Number 2, who had been on leave, hadn’t had any dealings with Number 6 judging by the number of Village projects he had been involved with.
    As for Monique, she might have been duped into going to see Number 6, but her idea was pure enough. She wanted to save her father from a mad scheme of assassinating Number 2. But even then her father, Number 52, had been radicalised by Number 100 who was really in charge of Plan Division Q.
   Why go to all this rigmarole, when all they had to do was carry out a purge, to rid The Village of all known malcontents. But then that might have depleted the Village by almost half its population, although that’s only a guess. Because we might know how to distinguish between the prisoners and the warders, but we don’t know how many of each there are!

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   In ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ when the two laboratory technicians, Number’s 252 {I think} and 243 are busy testing for whatever is written on those blank sheets Number 2 found in the Stoneboat. Number 2 is convinced there’s something written on them, words, figures, but there isn’t anything. They are simply what they appear to be, blank sheets of paper, and no matter how many tests they try, and how many times they put those blank sheets of paper through those tests, not one word or number will be revealed. Number 2 isn’t going to like the result of the tests, and someone is going to have to tell Number 2. And that responsibility lies squarely on Number 253’s shoulders. I sometimes think his colleague is pleased about that, that he isn’t the one to have to tell Number 2.

Be seeing you

60 Second Interview With No.100

    No.113 “Does it take a great deal of courage to wear a pink blazer?”
    No.100 “I beg your pardon?”
    “Granted I’m sure.”
    “Who are you, and how did you get in here?”
    “Through the doors. I am Number One hundred and thirteen, and this is my photographic colleague Number One hundred and thirteen b. We contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    No.113b “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Yes I’ve read some of the rubbish you write.”
    “Oh don’t be like that, we’ve all got our jobs to do.”
    “Well what do you want here? Number 2 will be back in a moment.”
    “Have you anything to say about the rumours which are circulating at the moment?”
    “What rumours might they be?”
    “That someone has it in for Number Two.”
    “Are you jamming?”
    “Jamming? Oh no, I’ve never been the musical type.”
    “No I mean, oh never mind. You’ve not been speaking to Number Six have you?”
    “Why, is he worth talking to?”
    “Look I should go if I were you.”
    “Number Two’s right-hand man are you?”
    “We share a common goal.”
    “What goal might that be?”
    “Look I haven’t time to bandy words with the likes of you.”
    “Why what are you doing?”
    “I’m waiting for Number Two. And if he finds you here, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
    “What, the most irritating man in The Village!”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “The way he keeps taking off and putting on his spectacles. And the faces he pulls when he’s on the telephone. He acts just like one of Number One’s puppets!”
    “Just get out before I throw the pair of you out!”
    “Don’t be like that. Just one more thing before we go.”
    “Yes what is it?”
    “Have you ever been suffocated by the Guardian?”
    “No, why do you ask?”
    “Nothing, but I could have sworn…….perhaps I’m having a premonition.”
    “Well go and have it somewhere else!”
    “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Come on One-one-three, we’ll go and speak to the Butler.”
    “You won’t get anything out of him!”
    “Yeah, but we might get a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit!”

Reporter Number 113
Photographer Number 113b

Force and Resistance!

    It was as we witnessed, a matter of force with which the Prisoner resigned his position of employment. Although at the time, at least physically, he wasn’t a prisoner. He was as free as any man can be free, and he had made his choice. And he demonstrated that choice, to resign, with force, and to a man who showed no resistance.
   Then having been abducted to The Village, he woke up a prisoner in a strange environment. Now the canvas shoe was on the other foot, and force had been used against him, and he resisted. He used, what Number 6 is pleased to call “Good old fashioned brute force” against two guardians in a Mini-Moke in order to try and escape. And again when confronted by the white membranic mass of the Guardian, but it gave no resistance, that’s why Number 6 was so easily overpowered, and suffocated into unconsciousness. And it maybe supposed that earlier, when that young man in the Piazza was suffocated by the Guardian, that was a show of force.
   Of course ‘the Prisoner’ as a series is littered with demonstrations of force, fist fights and the like, and almost always Number 6 comes out on top. As I think through the episodes I can remember only a couple of fights Number 6 lost. The time when he stumbled into that cave towards the end of ‘Free For All,’ when the two motor mechanics took their revenge upon Number 6. {For want had happened in the estuary aboard the jet boat} He was on the receiving end of a dose of “good old fashioned brute force,” and to resist was useless seeing as he was firmly held hand and foot!
  Then there was the time when he is walking the range carrying his saddle on his shoulder, and is set upon by a gang of bushwhackers. After which he is tied to the back of a horse and taken off to the frontier town of Harmony. Yes more often that not Number 6 comes off best in a fist fight, but there are times when “Good old fashioned brute force” avails him nothing. Like the time he ripped the wiring and paper out of the teletype in that fancy room in the Town Hall. I suppose the way the machine started printing again a few moments later, still with its wiring hanging out and torn paper, it must have had a back-up system. Either that, or the Prisoner failed to do a proper job on it! Mind you, he had been more subtle with the General, all he had to do was ask it a question it couldn’t possibly answer. Number 2 once said of Number 6, as he was having his hands tied up, that he thought Number 6 would have thought of something more original. Number 6 leaves originality to Number 2, but that quickly he will learn that good old fashioned brute force can be very effective. Not all the time Number 6, not all the time. And of resistance, well you know what’s often said about that, resistance is futile. 

Be seeing you

Citizen No.2

   Is this how it was for you on the day you first arrived in The Village? It seems the usual thing for new arrivals to look out of the window. A natural enough thing to do I suppose, when you’ve just opened the curtains.

   Hardly surprising then for a man like you. Having worked in the Foreign Office having had the ears of statesmen Kings and Princes of many lands, you’ve swayed governments, defined policies, and nipped revolutions in the bud with a word in the right place. And at a propitious time, you would wake up in The Village. The moment when you draw back the curtains and look out of the window of ‘6 private’ demonstrates that moment perfectly.

   But really, are you sure you want to go ahead with Degree Absolute? After all you’re not in the best condition, having been up all-night reciting nursery rhymes to the slumbering Number 6. But I expect you know best, not that you have any option to do otherwise now, you have to go through with it. I know it has to be either one of you, you or Number 6. But why the need to risk the one for the other? Surely they could have found a way to keep you both. Degree Absolute is the last chance Saloon. How many others prisoners had reached this stage, or perhaps Number 6 was the first? As the Supervisor-Number 26 said, I’d hate to see you go. Because for me, you are my favourite Number 2, and it would be a sad day if we lose you for the sake of Number 6!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                 “Seascape!”

BCNU

A Favourite Moment in The Prisoner

    In ‘A B and C’ when Number 6 has been abducted {what’s new} this time by ‘A’ and his henchmen. It seems ‘A’ never could take a hint.

    “I don’t want a hint, I want you…………. I’m saving myself money!”

    They take Number 6 on a ride through Paris, which hasn’t changed much, and out into the countryside to a château.

    “Well you’re in my country now.” {What did he mean by that? Don’t tell me ‘A’ defected to France, or perhaps the car journey was longer than thought!}
    Number 6 claims diplomatic immunity. However he likes travel, it broadens the mind, and he punches ‘A’ on the chin. He then attacks the armed henchman, who does not dare shoot the Prisoner. ‘A’ comes back at the Prisoner, punching him on the chin.
    “Let us stay on different sides!”
    ‘A’ makes a grab for the Prisoner who dodges out of the way, and ‘A’ is left to fly over the bonnet of the Citroen car, and then viciously finishes off the henchman, before he straightens his bow tie, and with a sniff, utters those immortal words

   “Be seeing you.”

Who’s that On The Telephono?

    Number 2 is speaking with Number 1.

   “Yes splendid………..oh he’ll be no trouble, just a matter of time……… tomorrow night, we’re preparing for it now………… yes I wish you could come too.”

   Judging by the expression on Number 2’s face after the telephone conversation, it suggests that she thinks it might have been interesting had Number 1 been able to attend the Ball. Certainly judging by what Number 2 said, Number 1 not only asked about the Ball, but expressed the wish that he could be there.

   But in what way would it have been interesting if Number 1 had been able to attend the Ball? At this stage no-one knew who Number 1 was. He could have been there, in disguise, in fancy dress costume and no-one would have been any the wiser. And yet perhaps Number 1 had better things to do, being too busy to attend such frivolities as a Ball. Then again perhaps Number 1 wished simply to maintain his or her anonymity. After all anonymity is the best disguise. However with hindsight, perhaps Number 1 did attend the Ball, as himself, yet in the guise of Number 6!

Be seeing you

Cobb!

   After Cobb had supposedly committed suicide by jumping out of a hospital window, Number 6 was not afforded the opportunity of “making sure” in the same way he did after Number 73 had leapt through a hospital window to her death. He had to take it on face value what the medical orderly told him, that the amnesia case Cobb, had jumped out of the window, he’s dead! There was no reason for the Prisoner to doubt what the hospital orderly said. But why the need to fake Cobb’s suicide, and go to all the trouble to stage his funeral in the first place? After all anything could have happened to Cobb once Number 6 had left the hospital. He could have left The Village then, as there was no need for him to see Cobb again. But in this instance Cobb’s suicide and subsequent faked funeral, was all part of a master plan in order to bring Number 9 and Number 6 together at Cobb’s funeral. Otherwise how could the Electro Pass have been planted on Number 6, other than Number 9 giving the device to him? I’ll say this, whoever it was who came up with that plan, either Number 1 or Number 2, he thinks up plans well in advance. After all I cannot think it was a spur of the moment thing, to have Cobb placed on the hospital ward, so that the Prisoner would encounter him. Come to think of it, after the maid-Number 66 had failed to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation, Number 2 did tell the Supervisor that he’s no ordinary man, that this has to be handled very differently. So perhaps the plan involving Cobb began to be formulated after the failure with the maid. And yet that’s the last we see of Number 2, talking to the Supervisor in the Control Room. Because as soon as Number 6 is discharged from the hospital, his first port of call is the Green Dome to see Number 2. Only it’s a new Number 2, the former having been replaced. Was it simply because of the failure of the plan involving the maid-Number 66, that Number 2 was replaced? His successor brought in to over see a more elaborate plan, which will ultimately teach the Prisoner that escape is not possible. So there’s always a reason why they do what they do in The Village, although plans don’t always work out. Well, not when they involve Number 6!
  As for Cobb, was he really an amnesia case? It seems unlikely. He didn’t seem to have problems with his memory when he was ready to leave The Village. He could have been brought to The Village to have information extracted from him, as in the case of Walter Roland Dutton, and then turned to work for The Village in the outside world. Cobb being allowed to leave The Village. Or on the other hand, is it possible Cobb had been brought to The Village specifically for this latest plan? It seems incredible if he was, because it seems an awful lot of “round the houses” for such a brief encounter!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “Where to sir?”
    “Take me to the nearest town.”
    “Stop messing about, we’re only the local service!”
    “Then take me as far as you can.”
    “I can drop you off at the crossroads I suppose, you might pick up a lift from there.”
    “Good, to the crossroads then.”
    “Where’s that?”
    “Don’t you know the way?”
    “No.”
    “Have you got a map?”
    “No, but I expect we’ll find it.”
    “Don’t you use Sat Nav?”
    “Not likely. I tried it once, it sent me all around the houses, and  ended up back where I started from!”

Be seeing you

Living In Harms Way!

   But where’s the harm in Living In Harmony? Ho harm at all one should think, seeing as its all part of a form of virtual reality. There are only four people who are actually involved, Number’s 2, 22, 8, and The Man With No Name {Number 6}, and he’s the only one of the four to set foot in the American frontier town of Harmony. So when it comes to the scene where Zeke and the boys teach The Man With No Name its not safe to go about without wearing a gun, Zeke and the boys don’t really exist. That being the case, where did The Man With No Name get those bruises? And if comes to that, how did he manage to get those grazes on his hand and cheek, when the Kid was trying to provoke him into going for the gun on the bar in the Saloon? The bruises, the grazes, are all for effect. With Zeke and the boys, as well as all the other townspeople of Harmony, all there for the benefit of the television viewer. Otherwise the game would have been given away if Number 6 was seen to be the only person in Harmony. The illusion broken as the television viewer would have separated fact from fantasy too quickly. When Number 6 is in a fist-fight with “Zeke and the boys,” he’s seeing them in his mind, when in fact he’s all alone. Throwing punches, throwing himself about, and rolling on the ground, manhandling Zeke to the ground, taking imaginary punches, and getting beaten up by imaginary people. And when Number 6 finally comes to his senses, apparently having been shot by the Judge, the bruises and grazes are not there, and were never there in the first place!
   Living In harmony……it’s all in the mind!

Be seeing you

The Prisoner Unshot!

   The Prisoner: Un-shot film sequences for ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ recreated by Steven Ricks TR7 Productions 1994 for ‘The Prisoner – In Conclusion.

http://youtube-downloader-mp3.com/watch-the-prisoner-unshot-sequences-id-X3D7Dk-Kues.html?similar

BCNU

Caught On Camera!

    This laboratory technician in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ Number 253, I think because its difficult to make out his number, is telephoned by Number 2 and asked to go to the Green Dome, as he is required to undertake a number of tests on want appear to be blank sheets of paper. When he is on the telephone speaking to Number 2, the badge is pinned to the lapel of his white coat. However when he arrives in Number 2’s office, the badge is pinned to the breast pocket of the white coat. Perhaps on the way over from the laboratory the badge fell off, and being nervous about seeing Number 2, he pinned it back on, but to the breast pocket! Mind you that doesn’t take into account that when he returns to the laboratory the badge is pinned back onto the lapel!

Be seeing you

March 19th

   Again another day to bear the Prisoner in mind! All that time and effort in escaping the clutches of The Village, and so very easily picked up and returned. Its as Number 2 once said, “They’ll get me eventually. They’ll find me, wherever I am.” That’s as may be, but he need not have made it quite so easy for them. If the desire within Number 6 wasn’t so strong for him to want to return to The Village, things might have been different…..for a while!

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/many-happy-returns.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/many-happy-returns.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/many-happy-returns.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/six-candles-on-cake.html

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Many Happy Returns

   If Ernst and Gunter are just what they appear to be, gun runners, when Number 6 jumped overboard, and Gunter fired that pistol at him its just as well he missed. Not only for Number 6’s sake, but also that of The Village Administration, seeing what importance they place upon him!

   But what if Gunter had not missed shooting Number 6, and he had actually shot dead him? Surely Mrs. Butterworth, who was awaiting Number 6’s arrival at No.1 Buckingham Place, would get worried when he didn’t turn up. At the very least she would have to contact…….contact who, the Colonel? After all the Colonel had been involved when Number 6 was supposed to have returned to an office he knew very well in London. And if the Colonel was involved with The Village, what then? Number 6 had either absconded once he made it to shore, or he had died in an accident at sea. If the former there would be the chance of re-capturing said escaped Prisoner. If the latter, surely a search at sea would clearly be pointless, unless they came across the raft still afloat. And even then, if it had been found, it would have drifted for miles and miles, and miles. And then to find the body of Number 6, even if currents, drift and tides were to be taken into account….well it would clearly be better to wait until the body of Number 6 washed up on a shore somewhere, if indeed it ever would. As for the two gun runners, they would be long gone, besides, anyone searching for Number 6 would have no knowledge of the gun runners involvement.
   And what of The Village’s administration, all they have lost is a prize worthy Prisoner who had died in an accident at sea. Where there was one of his kind, there would be another. The name of James Bond springs to mind, but there might be the question of his morality. And yet he does have a ready made number 007 7.

    A friend of mine wrote recently in a comment “Dennis Chinnery seems genuinely peeved he missed when trying to shoot him at the end of the sequence!” That made me think about that end sequence again, and I agree Gunter does look angry that he missed shooting Number 6 with his pistol. But then I thought if Ernst and Gunter really wanted to kill Number 6, they could have gone after him as he swam away, then ramming him with their motor cruiser. The body of Number 6 mutilated by the vessel’s propeller as it passed over the body!

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Who’s That On The Telephono?

    No.2 “Get me the fish and chip shop.”

    No.253 “Yes what can I do for you?”
    “This is Number Two”
    “Yes Number Two.”
    “What’s happened to my order?”
    “What order is that sir?”

    “My order for Cod and three pennyworth of chips?”
    “I think you have the wrong number sir.”
    “Don’t give me that. I asked the operator to put me through to the fish and chip shop.”
    “This is the laboratory.”
    “Not the fish and chip shop?”
    “No sir.”
    “Hasn’t The Village got a fish and chip shop?”
    “Not to my knowledge, I’ve never seen one.”
    “Then why was I put through to you?”
    “I really couldn’t say sir.”
    “I don’t suppose you could……”
    “Could what sir?”
    “Fry up some fish and chips in your laboratory for me?”
    “With sodium chloride and acetic acid?”
    “Are you trying to be funny?”
    “Apparently not!”
   

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ESCAPED!

    There he is, all alone on an open raft in the Atlantic ocean, eating cold corned beef and baked beans out of tins. And even in these extreme conditions Number 6 does his best to maintain his personal grooming by shaving, but that didn’t last long.

   Despite his present circumstances, he might well be happier aboard said open raft on the open sea than he was in back The Village, for a time anyway!

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March 18th

   It is on days like this that I particularly bear the prisoner in mind, as Number 6 arrives back home in London, having finally escaped the clutches of The Village!

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/march-18th.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/many-happy-returns.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-18th.html

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Citizen No.?…… The Butler

  I would call you by your number, but apparently you don’t have one, or at least you do not wear a numbered badge. But then what is such a badge? Nothing more than an identification number to tell people who you are. And yet there is no mistaking who you are, butler and personal manservant to Number 2. You are unique in The Village. However one mistake people do make about you is, that they think you are mute, that you cannot speak. And yet you speak on at least two occasions, but sadly you are not heard to speak. On the first occasion in ‘A B and C’ you tell Number 2 on the telephone that Number 6 has called to see him. Why did you do that? After all any visitors to the Green Dome you usually show straight into 2’s office. Nothing to say for yourself eh? And then there was the occasion when Number 2 told you that he didn’t want to see anyone, hardly surprising when he had something else on his mind at the time. The small matter of his execution. He told you to tell Number 6 to go away. So you see you can talk…... still nothing to say for yourself? Well perhaps it’s a case of you having nothing worth hearing, is that it? Or perhaps you speak only when you have something worth saying. But how is it you get away with not having to wear your numbered badge? You have that much in common with Number 6, he doesn’t wear his either, unless on occasion it suits him to do so. Anyway I can’t stand here chatting away to you all day, things to do, people to see as they say. Where are you off to by the way? Oh you have your chess set with you, well I won’t keep you. Oh look out, here comes Rover!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                  “Peter Pan!”

                          {Or A Devilish Imp?}

BCNU

Quote For The Day

    “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed, or numbered. My life is my own.”
                                                  {The Prisoner - Arrival}
   Well by the time of the end of ‘Arrival’ the Prisoner has been all those things on his list. What’s more his life is no longer his own, because he is a prisoner in what is basically a detention centre. His life is there’s, and there’s no-one in the world {The Village} to help him. What’s more I shouldn’t think ZM73’s life was his own in his former life, working for British Intelligence. He would be at their beck and call any time of day or night. Plus he wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone about it because he would have had to sign the Official Secrets Act. It’s surprising that his fiancée Janet Portland knew about the work he did. Although working for Sir Charles Portland’s department, I don’t suppose it could be kept a secret from her. I mean it’s quite possible that ZM73 {for want of a better name} could be away for a year, even longer, doing what? And what price his life being his own for all that length of time? Perhaps he could be away working undercover, in the persona of someone else, again where is his own life if he’s working as someone else? “My life is my own.” I mean what kind of statement is that to go and make? You life is never your own. We all belong to someone, unless one is an orphan and completely unattached to anyone in the World. But ZM73 was engaged to be married. And as it was, he was married to the department, until something went wrong and caused him to throw his life away by resigning his job. I couldn’t see Sir Charles Portland wanting anything further to do with ZM73 after that, let alone allowing him to marry his daughter!

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Rover Teaches No.6 A lesson!

    Its highly unlikely that Number 6 was attempting to run away from The Village that night during ‘Dance of The Dead,’ I expect he just wanted to get out of the claustrophobic atmosphere of his cell cottage. So upon managing to get out he went for a moonlit run along the beach, the wind in his hair, the spray of the sea on his cheek and all that. But then along came the Guardian, summoned at the click of a button by Number 2.
    So Number 6 thought to put himself to the test against the Guardian. It was no contest of course, the Guardian outpaced him without even trying. But how did it know Number 6 was not actually attempting an escape? It seemed to realise that Number 6 was putting himself to the test against it, and so the Guardian obliged. But having done so, ran Number 6 into the sand, leaving him breathless and on his knees! He’ll know not to try that one again. And no doubt the Guardian was de-activated by Number 2, knowing full well that Number 6 had no other place to go, other than eventually back to his cottage. 

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Do You Play Chess?

    I wonder if there is a chess club in The Village, I expect so. After all chess is extremely popular, from human games of chess in which the players, not the pieces, derive some form of power from the manipulation of others, the human chess pieces. And there are chess problems printed in The Tally Ho broadsheet. Both the ex-Admiral and the General like to play chess; Number 6 himself is a keen student of the game, even though he found it difficult to distinguish between the blacks and the whites. Well you do when both sides look alike! Number 6 knows both 11 and 7 checkmate move wins, but ‘Checkmate’ itself, as an episode proved to be a fool’s mate for the Rook. That’s because he decided to play Number 6 at his own game, and that’s never a wise thing to do. Because you should never play a game you cannot win, although that’s not very English. To be English it’s not the winning or losing that counts, but how you play the game. And as Number 14 once said of Number 6, “You play a fine game,” but that’s nothing to do with the game of chess!

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Thought For The Day

    Quite out of the blue, the following has occurred to me.
    Number 6 returns to his cottage finding his counterpart lying on the bed who has been reading a book. He produces a gas-gun, nerve gas, five yard range, one squirt you’re paralysed, two squirts you’re dead. But then in such a confined space, so would Curtis be, don’t you think? But I digress, Number 6 goes on to say “I couldn’t sleep. I came here because….who am I?”
       Well there’s no need for Number 6 to panic, we know who you are, Curtis knows who he is, and more importantly so does Number 6! So upon impersonating Number 6, but as Number 12, he goes to see Number 2. Number 2 may have a slight doubt, but he sends the man he thinks to be Curtis, to see Alison, as she might have some insight into Number 6’s motivations. She doesn’t, but is left in no doubt as to the identity of the man who paid her a visit in the guise of Number 12. Later “Curtis” changes into his civilian clothes, and prepares to leave The Village. But just a minute, isn’t there a mistake being made by Number 2 in allowing Number 12 to leave The Village looking like Number 6? Surely Curtis should at least have undergone a make over in order to make him look like his former self before he was allowed to leave. Time might even have been given in order for Curtis to re-grow his hair to its correct colour of black, as well as his moustache, so that his appearance is the same as on the day he arrived in The Village. Because if Curtis was to return to wherever he had been seconded from looking like Number 6, people there, either wouldn’t recognise him, or if they did, would want to know what had happened to him? As it is, Susan died a year ago, but looking the way he did she would have hardly recognised Curtis when he returned to her!

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A Badge For All!

    I was browsing a few old Prisoner based magazines. In one copy there was a letter/article in which it stated that its only unmutuals and deviants who refuse to wear the Village symbol. Although it’s true that Number 6 refuses to wear his numbered badge, and only does on one occasion when it suits him to do so. But there are a number of other people who do not wear their badges. Amongst them, the butler, the doctor in ‘Arrival,’ as well as the medical orderly, the photographer for The Tally Ho, and his twin who operates the Tally Ho dispenser in ‘Free For All.’ And then there’s the Professor and Madam Professor in ‘The General,’ although they hardly need wear a numbered badge, being confined to their house the way they are. But they all have one thing in common, they are quite happy to serve, with the possible exception of the Professor and his wife.

   Number 93 who is unmutual and disharmonious wears a badge. Also Number 53, the Rook, who demonstrated his rebellious nature by making a move of his own while on the chessboard, and yet he never refused to wear his badge. And the same can be said of Number 14 the chess champion. He might be too old for escape, but he could still show resistance by refusing to wear his badge! A more active dissident was Number 51, the watchmaker, who was at the heart of an assassination attempt against Number 2. He was far from happy with his existence in The Village. He was not afraid to speak out, because he had met no-one in The Village who had committed a crime. Yet he still wore his numbered badge! So it might be the case that only citizens loyal to The Village are permitted not to wear their number, but the majority of people do. Otherwise no-one would know who anyone was. Because in ‘A B and C’ when Number 6 sat down at a table with Number 14 on the lawn of the Old people’s Home, he had to tell Number 14 who he was, because he wasn’t wearing his badge!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                 “Ridiculous!”

BcNu

Badge Of Authority

   The badge worn by the majority of Village citizens has been described as being a constant reminder of authority, its number a means of identifying citizens. Well what works one way, works another. Because in The Village, having been stripped of your own name and identity, at least a numbered badge gives you some kind of identity to cling on to. Look how Number 6 reacted when he had his number 6 taken away from him in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ He fought tooth and nail to establish that he was Number 6!

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Bureau of Visual Records

   This is Mister X. When ZM73 {to use his code name} spoke to the Chief {not the Colonel, because he’s dead} the chief told ZM73 to adopt the standard disguise. There is no need to describe it as we are all familiar with it. But I wonder, seeing that the Colonel had been wearing this standard disguise as well as ZM73, were all of British Intelligence agents going about dressed as Mister X?! Outrageous, and silly to suggest such a thing in the first place. But then it is Mister X’s fantasy, so you just never know.

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