Citizen No.118

  During a daily prognosis report on Number 6, a disembodied voice describes Number 118 as an eccentric resident, and it is implied that Number 6 is an eccentric resident as he sits to have his portrait painted, thereby humouring 118. So what makes someone an eccentric? Someone who deviates from a usual pattern, is unconventional, odd perhaps. So what’s so odd about being an artist? Many artists throughout history, and in modern times, have been unconventional in their work. Perhaps because in this instance, the painting turns out to be not a portrait of Number 6 but a piece of abstract art!

   Why would an eccentric artist be brought to The Village? Perhaps he wasn’t an eccentric artist at the time, perhaps he became one as a result of living in The Village. He might not have been an artist in his former life. After all painting is a form of therapeutic occupation. Number 118 may have once been someone of importance, in what capacity or where is unknown, but with information that either needed protecting or extracting. How long has Number 118 been in The Village? It’s clearly impossible to say, but quite a long time would be my guess. Unless they had taken to abducting senior citizens to The Village!

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Citizen No.8!

   Number 8, do you know you are the first male Number 8 in The Village, all the previous Number 8’s have been female. We hope there’s nothing significant in that! However with your special technique of manipulating Number 6’s mind, you are rather like Number 14 with her “wonder” drug, when she got into Number 6’s dream and manipulated it.
    You said that it had always worked. That means you’ve tried your technique more than once, with the same scenario? You also said that the people involved would become involved, and do what they would do in a real situation. Tell me Number 8, do you get on with women? Do women like you? Number 22 didn’t like you. How did you get on with your mother? You forced yourself on Cathy, and when she rejected you, you strangled her to death. You’re nothing more than a sex attacker turned homicidal maniac! Of course Number 22 was upset having to go through such a violent attack carried out on her by you! The experience of being strangled to death by your bare hands, even if it wasn’t real, must have appeared real to Number 22. It must have had a detrimental effect on her, it’s no wonder she ran out of the office like that. You want to be careful Number 8, they do say that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. And there is such a thing as life imitating art!

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Collector’s Corner!

   The Prisoner reclaimed! There are a few local charity shops which still sell video tapes, and it was from one of these which this Prisoner box set was reclaimed. I have done the same with a set of Channel 5 Prisoner videos before, and when I saw this Polygram box set produced in 1993 I just had to purchase it. As well as the 17 episodes of the series itself, it also contains ‘The “alternative” Chimes of Big Ben,’ as well as ‘Best of The Prisoner.’ The cardboard box is a little worn {as is the one I originally bought at the time in 1993} however the five video sleeves, as well as the videos themselves are in excellent condition and still play well, it makes a fine addition to my collection. These same videos were first produced in a box set by Polygram to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of ‘the Prisoner.’ At the time these five videos were also produced to be sold as separate tapes, but with amended sleeves.

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Tell Me Now, Who Am I?

    “Tell me now, who am I?” Yes that’s what we would like to know! In Germany you went by the name of Schmitt, in France Duval in fact you took the name of the most common surname used in each country, that’s why in Britain you chose Smith! And yet there is a remarkable resemblance between you and John Drake, but I suppose three look-a-likes for you would be stretching a coincidence too far. In The Village you are Six, Number Six, well I suppose it’s as good as any name, or number. And yet you claim not to be a number, you are a free man, well hardly that. But you are a person. But why protest? After all a number in The Village is more individual than a name. And even in the outside World you were known by a number ZM73. 73, that’s the same number as the woman who committed suicide by jumping to her death through a hospital window. So what’s the ZM stand for I wonder? Zebedee, Zeke, Zack? And the M, Mitchell, Michaels, Montague, Macbeth? Even your fiancée wouldn’t use your name. Tell us Number 6, who are you? Now where can the harm be in that? Unless you have such an embarrassing name that you refuse to use it. Do you know, that after almost 50 years there is one thing we can be sure about you Number 6, and that is we can be sure of nothing!

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Citizen No. 14

   Well if it isn’t Number 14, you’re a doctor, I’ve been having some nasty dreams of late, perhaps you could help me?
    I see you’re buying flowers, no-one to buy them for you? Oh perhaps they’re for the hospital, a patient maybe, not Number 6 surely? No, the flowers are for you. You do know Number 6, you should, you’re experimenting on him with a newly developed drug of yours, no don’t bother to deny it. But what’s it got to do with me, well nothing, nothing at all. Poor old Number 2, he’s under a great deal of pressure you know. You wanted a week to deal with the question of Number 6 and his dreams, but Number 2 hasn’t got a week, he’s got three days. Which means you had three days to get it right, otherwise Number 2 will see your drug tested on you! Was that wise of you not telling Number 2 that Number 6 opened his eyes and saw you? If only Number 2 hadn’t been distracted by “A’s” file at the time, he might have seen you projected onto the wall screen through 6’s eyes.
    You met with Number 6 once, outside the laboratory, well you feigned you didn’t know him. Tell me, did you know Number 6 was following you that time, through The Village, and through the woods to the laboratory? Were you in fact deliberately leading him there in order to discover what you and Number 2 were doing to him? Sorry, I’m beginning to sound like an interrogator, believe me, I’m not accusing you of anything.
    You put words into B’s mouth, and then you used that phrase of your? What phrase is that? “We all have to make mistakes, sometimes we have to.” That’s what you said to Number 6. But in the dream it was “We all make mistakes, sometimes we have to,” so which is the mistake? But its close enough to be a recognition signal, is that why Number 6 didn’t believe it was ‘B’s’ words he was hearing?
    And then finally ‘C’ was that really Engadine? No surely ‘C’ was Number 2! He failed of course, he blamed it on your drug, but the ultimate failure lies with him. And you were pleased about that weren’t you? Your drug didn’t fail, Number 6 succeeded, but may I say, with some small help from you?

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                               “Vote For 2”

BcNu

Breaking Curfew!

    Why was Number 34 on the beach just after curfew? Well perhaps not just after curfew, it must have been before, because we don’t know when he was killed. But he had been on the beach, it was Number 6 who found the body in the water. And the body was Number 34. One, because he’s wearing Village attire, and two, the Supervisor-Number 22 had told the Observer-Number 240 that Number 34 was dead. Perhaps she thought 240 should know, seeing as she was his observer. So why didn’t she know 34 was dead if she was his observer? To be fair to her 240 had just come on shift, so she couldn’t possibly have known 34 was dead. And in turn that must mean 240 couldn’t have been 34’s permanent observer, otherwise she would have been watching him! 
    So what was Number 34 doing on the beach? Perhaps he was going to meet someone, but instead encountered the membranic Village Guardian. Well how else would 34 have met his death? And yet why leave his body on the beach for so long? And where did he get that transistor radio? As far as we know there was no radio he could borrowed, so it must have been his own. That then leads to the question how was Number 34 able to smuggle the radio with him into The Village, and why? The why is an easy one to answer, to listen out for the message Number 6 picked up and listened to, the one about the moon turning to silver, and that the appointment could not be fulfilled because other things had to be done. And then it went on about grasping the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. But smuggling the radio into The Village with him, surely something like that would be found? And in that regard one could ask Number 2 of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ how he managed to smuggle that sword shooting stick into The Village with him? In 34’s case, perhaps it was a case of misdirection. Meaning he had two such radios when he was brought to The Village, and he let one of them be found when he was searched. If they do that sort of thing with new arrivals, if Number 34 was conscious when he arrived! One thing though, to my mind Number 34 might well have been a plant, and the voice reading out the message on the radio, not the one about typing speeds, was that of a former Number 2, Eric Portman!

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Caught On Camera!

   The chap pushing the old woman, possibly Number 113, in the wheelchair, is he wearing that hat for a bet or what? That’s a woman’s hat isn’t it? And purely as an observation, he doesn't appear to fit in with the rest of the citizens somehow. He looks a bit too rough and ready, too uncut, you might say, he could certainly do with a shave. What’s more he's smoking, observe the cigarette burning in his right hand. That makes him one of less that a handful of citizens who we see smoking in The Village, Alison being one, and Number 6 the other!

   Fictionally speaking, as a citizen of The Village, this man is evidence that citizens do actually smoke. However on the production side of ‘the Prisoner,’ I wonder if this man should have been smoking at all, and if he shouldn't, the fact that he was went unnoticed by persons of the production crew, but more noticeably, by Doris Martin who was responsible for continuity for ‘Free For All.’

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Fall Out

   We are witness to the Butler going round the back of the Scammell Highwayman Transporter in ‘Fall Out.’ We must ask ourselves the question, how did he know the lorry was there? More than that, the Butler climbs into the cab and drives the said lorry away along that tunnel, crashing through the wrought iron gates at the other end into the cold light of day and freedom beyond. The next question to be asked, is how did the Butler’s feet reached the accelerator, brake, and clutch pedals? And finally, how that cage which had supported Number 2, the Butler, and the Prisoner during the deliberations of ‘Once Upon A Time,’ had been lowered through the floor/ceiling, and very conveniently lowered onto the trailer of the lorry! It all seems to be deliberately planned, the fact that the Butler knew about the lorry, that the pedals had been adjusted in some way so his feet would be able to reach them. And the fact that the cage, which could be moved, which had food supplies for 6 months, a waste disposal unit, and all mod cons had been placed on the trailer of the lorry so conveniently. It’s as though his final escape had been planned right down to the last detail. Unless of course the lorry had been meant for Number 1. If it had, then Number 6’s actions soon put paid to that. And seeing as the Butler knew about the lorry, perhaps he was supposed to drive Number 1 out of The Village, to his London town house which had been prepared for him. After all it did have the number 1 on the front door, not number 6! Yes I realise that Number 1 and Number 6 are supposed to be the alter ego of the other, but at the beginning of the series, the very first time we watch the series we don’t know that!

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Thought For The Day

    The Meeting Of Two Selves! Myself and himself you might call them, or the on the other hand the one alter ego of the other. Certainly this meeting has been seen as too much for Number 6 to bear, in finding out that he is in fact Number 1, and has been so all along. The way he then goes berserk, chasing Number 1 round the control room, then launching the rocket in order to destroy his alter ego and The Village into the bargain.
   Yet is that scene really like that? Is not Number 6 the one who is unemotional, cold and calculating as he reveals Number 1 to be himself! He then proceeds to chase Number 1, who he finally seals in the nose cone, before setting the countdown for the launch of the rocket. As for the destruction of his alter ego – Number 1, well yes I have to go along with that. But Number 6 might not be quite the man he was without his alter ego. Perhaps he'll find himself quieter and more sedate in the future, unable to make the difficult decisions he once did, the hard and difficult decisions which his alter ego made for him on more than one occasion.
   Judging by the evidence of the scene itself, I would say it is not Number 6 who goes berserk, but Number 1! Number 1 who has been confronted by his alter ego, who cannot face the truth of the matter. That he has been the Prisoner-Number 6 all along.
   Faced with this truth, Number 1 starts running about the Control Room, laughing maniacally, as he desperately trying to evade his other self, which he finally does, by climbing the steel ladder up into the nose cone of the rocket. Giving one final defiant maniacal laugh as he drops the hatch on his adversary.
    Number 1, was he mad? Well that question was asked of Number 6 once, in ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’ The psychiatrist said not according to their records. In my own opinion, and that is a layman’s opinion, Number 1 was as mad as a hatter. But who wouldn’t be, cooped up in that rocket all the time. The only way he could enjoy The Village was though the experiences of Number 6. And many of those were far from pleasant!

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From The Bureau of Visual Records

   Upon returning from handing in his letter of resignation ZM73 {for want of a better name} returns home. He collects a ready packed suitcase, his passport and airline ticket. On a side table under the window is a brown attaché case into which he places two travel brochures. Outside in the hallway an undertaker puts a gas gun to the keyhole of the study door and pumps nerve gas into the room rendering ZM73 unconscious, if not paralyzed!
   We can only speculate about the contents of the attaché case, whether or not they are files containing sensitive information, private papers, or something entirely different.

    Eventually the Prisoner wakes up in what he thinks is his own home, and when he gets up to look out of the window. The brown attaché case can be seen on the side table beneath the window, because the room has to be exactly the same when he wakes up to what it was when he was rendered unconscious. However, after the Prisoner has been out and about in The Village, at the café, attempting to make a telephone call, taking a scenic taxi ride, and finds out about maps of the area, he leaves the General Store. If he had gone straight back to his cottage instead of going round the other side of the General Store and along the road, he would have encountered the housemaid in his cottage. Instead he sees from the road, a housemaid standing on the balcony flicking a yellow duster.

   The Prisoner then rushes back to his cottage not only to find his cottage now has a number, but the housemaid gone. He looks out of the window to see her hurrying away down a set of steps, and the brown attaché case which had lain upon the side table beneath the window has gone. The housemaid didn’t take the attaché case, she’s not even carrying that yellow duster, which she later goes back for.

It might well be that when the Prisoner had been brought to The Village, both his suitcase and the attaché case had already been searched before they had been placed in the cottage, and anything of importance removed. As for the non-presence of the attaché case, I can only suggest that in having dusted and tidied the cottage the housemaid placed the attaché case, along with his suitcase in the wardrobe in the bedroom. But just a minute, the Prisoner had only just moved in, the cottage didn’t need dusting let alone tiding up. More than that, at that time there was a dividing wall between the study and the rest of the cottage, making it impossible for the housemaid to gain access to the rest of the cottage! So both the suitcase and attaché case had to have been removed after the Prisoner had left his cottage to take his first tentative steps in The Village by person or persons unknown. After all he wouldn’t be needing either the clothes in the suitcase, or the items in the attaché case, any important papers or files removed and carefully filed away.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                   “The Girl Who Was Death!”

BcNu

Flags!

   In an email a good friend of mine had a spark of imagination, this not to be taken seriously, but he pointed out the similarity between Mrs. Butterworth’s dress and the flag for Bavaria!

   This made me think of other flags which fly in The Village, such as the flag for Wales which can be seen flying from the top of a flag pole on the Belvedere Outlook in some aerial shots of the cliffs. And the Penny Farthing flag which flies outside the Recreation Hall during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ And then I thought about these red and white sleeves sometimes seen on two columns of the Gloriette seen here in ‘Free For All,' Many Happy Returns,' 'Dance of The Dead, 'It's Your Funeral,' and 'A Change of Mind.'

  Now what do you think that are for? They put me in mind of a pair of flags, something to do with the colours, red and white horizontal colours of the flag of Monaco. The red and white colours being the heraldic colours of the Grimaldi family, the colours are attested as far back as 1339. 

    And then there’s the red and white colours of the flag of the Republic Indonesia which is called “Sang Saka Merah Putih.” Merah-Poetih simply means Red-White. The official name however is Sang Saka, Lofty Bioclolor. 

Red representing the human blood, standing for the corporeal or concrete, white represents the spiritual. Together they are a pair, like life on earth: day and night; man and wife, creation and individual. Traditionally almost all Indonesia since long ago has used red and white as their sacred colours, resembling the colour of sugar {red in colour because the sugar comes from palm sugar,} “gula {sugar} aren {palm-sugar} and rice {white in colour}.” Both rice and sugar are the major ingredients of daily Indonesian cuisine cooking.

    On the other hand there is the legend that the origin of the Indonesian flag, and the reason for the red and white was simplicity in both message and production. To symbolize the throwing out of the Dutch. The Indonesian independence movement tore apart the Dutch flags, tearing the red and white from the blue portion. Red could be understood as the blood of common humanity, or as the blood shed in the war of independence. And white being understood as purity, or as the colour of sugar which Indonesians toiled for.

   How’s that for spot of Speedlearn education?! Of course it’s quite on the cards that the pair of sleeves have nothing to do with flags whatsoever. They might simply be for decoration, but why bother to decorate two perfectly good columns, as well as string up that length of cloth there between the columns? The reason for both really eludes me, that length of cloth seems to me to be superfluous! Even after 50 years there’s still much to muse about within The Village of ‘the Prisoner.’

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What Was It Number 6 Said?

   “I never realized I had a freckle on the right-hand side of my nose. When they come to make a film of my life story, you’ve got the part.”

    That’s a strange remark for Number 6 to make. Doesn’t he look in the mirror when he’s shaving? Except it wasn’t Number 6 who said that, it was Number 12, but the same could be said of him. And yet he was looking at Number 6’s face when he said it, which is no proof that Number 12 has a freckle on the right hand side of his nose, after all he didn’t have a mole on his left wrist!
   And why should Number 12, as Number 6, think anyone would want to film his life story, was he really so important? No doubt this is a sarcastic remark. And besides he could play the role himself!

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A Right Pair of Six’s!

    “And what have you come as?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “That jacket!”
    “Don’t you like it? I think it looks rather snazzy!”
    “Do you?”
    “What have you got against it?”
    “It won’t stay clean for five minutes. You’ll need two of them.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Well one on, and one at the dry cleaners!”
    “Like you, you mean? I’ve seen you.”
    “No you haven’t.”
    “Yes I have, I’ve seen you wearing different jackets in the same episode. Occasionally one scene you’re wearing a jacket with broken piping at the lapel, as you do now. And in the next scene the jacket has joined piping at the lapel!”
    “Your point being?”
    “Is the difference in the piping so that you can tell which jacket you are wearing at any given time?”
    “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
    “You see that way, for those who are watching, they know you have two different jackets. Whereas if both jackets had the same piping it would look as though you had but the one jacket.”
    “And your reason for wearing that particular jacket?”
    “Well I wouldn’t want to look exactly like you, would I?”
    “I thought that was the whole point of the thing.”

    “Well in their difference, our jackets are identically different, except for the piping which is identical at the lapel in both cases!”
    “Say that again?”

    “Well think of us in photographic terms. I’m negative and you’re the positive.”
    “I don’t wish to think of us at all.”
    “Look lets have a drink, and discuss this like gentlemen.”
    “You can have one of my cigars,”
    “That’s very kind of you.”
    “Oh think nothing of it. Whisky is it?”
    “With ice.”
    “You’ll find the cigars in a box over there.”
    “And I keep the ice in a thermos bucket over there.”
    “You know if we swapped jackets, no-one would know who we are!”
    “I know who I am, I’ve no idea who you are!”
    “We are both opposite and the same.”
    “I’m nothing like you!”
    “I should take a look in the mirror if I were you!”

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Caught On Camera!

  “It’s just as well it wasn’t me rolling about in that wet sand. I would have got my nice jacket dirty!”
   “Well I did roll about in that wet sand, but I didn’t get my nice jacket dirty!”

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Citizens of The Village!

   Despite those people who were brought to The Village as prisoners, because they either knew too much or too little, no-one seems to have anything much about them, certainly not in the same way as Number 6. When compared to him, citizens generally appear ordinary and unremarkable. Is that because they have been worn down, their spirit broken, lacking the desire to try and flee the confines of The Village.

    It takes Number 6 to gather about him a number of so called reliable men. There is no better example than this which demonstrates that these reliable men, a section of The Village’s population, are no more than sheep! Number 6 puts his plan to them, and that’s that, they follow unquestioningly. Is Number 6 really their best bet to help them escape The Village? Is there no-one who can help themselves? It would have been nice to see someone else plan, and execute an escape plan, but not to involve Number 6. It strikes me that it would be impossible for Number 6 to take a back seat, and accept instructions from someone else. He has to be in the driving seat all the time. But I suppose seeing as it was his plan of escape………..yet at the same time he needed others to help him, and if it had not been for Number 14, Number 6 would never have learned how to distinguish between the prisoners and the warders!
    Between the Prisoner’s arrival in The Village, and ‘Fall Out,’ no-one other than Number 6 attempts to escape The Village. Number 9 did tell Number 6 that she and Cobb had planned to escape together, but since Cobb’s death she has completely given up on the idea. Even to the extent of refusing to try and escape with Number 6. Well that’s because she knows that to try will be in vain! One woman who did try to escape, was Number 8, although that was in the company of Number 6, who would have found it difficult to escape without knowing where he was sailing from, so that he could calculate where he was sailing to. And that’s where Nadia came in. Yes it was what is termed a “put up job,” on the part of Nadia, but it was to all intents and purposes as far as Number 6 was concerned at the time, an escape attempt. And after ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ no-one, except Number 6, tries to escape The Village, not until the advent of ‘Fall Out,’ which eventually turned into a free for all for everyone to escape, whatever their eventual fate may have been.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                  “I Won’t Be A Minute!”

BcNu

A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

    In “The Girl Who was Death’ as Mister X is creeping up behind the Girl, and almost lays his hands upon her, and would have done had it not been for the cockney photographer. But once slapped forever shy, and Mister X wasn’t about to make another mistake. Yet at that moment he’ll never know just how close he was in capturing his quarry!

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Caught On Camera!

   In The Kitting Out Room The Colonel, the RAF Group Captain, and Number 6 make final preperations in the Kitting out room for the long flight to RAF Gibraltar, while outside a milk float having arrived at the aerodrome, is driven to the Kitting Out Room and stops outside, then the milkman gets out to sort through his milk crates. Just a minute, there’s something not right here!

   Here is the milk float just arriving outside the Kitting Out Room, after which the milkman gets out, and then we see the Colonel and Number 6 in the Kitting Out Room. But they have already left the Kitting Out Room as the milk float is arriving, look through the back of the milk float.

   That’s Number 6 walking towards the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft, with the Colonel following behind! So how can they still be in the Kitting Out Room? This is either another case of doubles in ‘the Prisoner,’ in which case Number 6 and the Colonel might well meet themselves as they leave the Kitting Out Room. Or perhaps the scene, having become caught up in a twist in the time continuum, is about to play itself out again. On the other hand there could be a more mundane explanation, that there’s been another cock-up in the film editing suite!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                   “Howzat!!

BCNU

A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   In The Kitting Out Room Number 6 and the RAF Group Captain are preparing for a long flight. The Colonel is studying the navigation board, with 500 by 1500 to sweep, 750,000 square miles, quite an area. Clearance had just come through for refueling at RAF Gibraltar. Then they’ll sweep as far as they can today, then again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Number 6 is a stubborn fellow. As Number 6 and the Colonel leave the kitting out room the RAF Group Captain shouts to them “I won’t be a minute” and the doors to the Kitting out room are closed. The Colonel bids his ex-colleague good luck and they walk towards the Meteor jet aircraft which has been fuelled and prepared for the long flight. Meanwhile the milkman having parked his milk float outside the Kitting Out Room is sorting out his crates of milk bottles as he watches the Colonel and Number 6 walk away. He then picks up a crate of milk bottles and walks towards the double doors of Kitting out Room. We don’t see it of course, but the milkman enters the Kitting Out Room, and what takes place after that is complete supposition. But why did the Colonel hang back, “I won’t be a minute” he said. Was that deliberate because he was waiting for the milkman? Perhaps the Group Captain then helped the milkman into a flying suite, because the milkman had only a few moments before he had to join Number 6, having taken the place of the Group Captain as pilot of the Meteor jet aircraft. That would presuppose that the Group Captain was in league with The Village. Then again, it might be quite on the cards that the appearance of the milkman at the aerodrome was something ordinary and everyday, as he delivers the milk, and this agent has taken his place which would naturally get him into the Kitting Out Room. The Group Captain might have been taken by surprise for a moment by the arrival of the milkman, and then overcome by nerve gas! The milkman having produced a gas gun as he entered the Kitting Out Room, fired the gun subduing the Group Captain. Once the nerve gas had dissipated, he quickly got into his flying suit and helmet, and with the tinted visor down, hurried to the aircraft having taken the Group Captain’s place.

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Citizen No.2

    The question is, just when did this Number 2 arrive in The Village? Judging by her dress it must have been quite recently, because Mrs. Butterworth was wearing that dress when she was being questioned by a man from Special Branch, or another branch of British intelligence. In all likelihood she was in a hurry to get to The Village, so much so that she didn’t have time to change! It might be that this Number 2 arrived in The Village only a short time before Number 6’s arrival! Such is the impression given by the wearing of that dress, that Mrs. Butterworth hadn’t had time to change into Village attire!
   There is something which makes this Number 2 unique. Yes we know her name, or at least she is the only Number 2 to be given a name. Yet there is something else which makes her unique amongst her number, it’s the badge. She is the only Number 2 to wear the negative badge whereas her predecessors and successors wear the positive badge. Also the colour of the number on the badge is unique. Mrs. Butterworth as Number 2 is the only citizen in The Village to have a white number, whereas all other numbers on both positive and negative badges, as far as we can say, are red!

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Aftermath

   “Is this what it’s come down to, having spent over a year working practically day and night on a television series, having worn myself down to a frazzle in the process! What hurts is that no-one other than me seems able to comprehend. Now I’m locked in a cage like some prisoner, wearing Cossack looking clothes and a Russian hat, and a dwarf who refuses to take his costume off! If somebody doesn’t unlock this door pretty soon, something’s going to happen! I’m going to drink all that beer over there, then you’ll all look petty stupid for having locked me in here with it in the first place!”
    Voice from the back “Explain the Prisoner to us, then we’ll let you out”
    “No, you explain it to me!”
    Another voice from the back “Is he trying to create an impression?”
    “He’s just being eccentric that’s all!”
    “Let me out!”
    “You’re supposed to be the Prisoner, escape yourself!”
    “That’s the Prisoner!”
   
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Symbolism!

    ‘A change of Mind’ sees Number 6 pay a call on Number 2 wanting to carry on their previous conversation. Everything in his mind is clearer, much clearer, and happier, such peace of mind. And to think Number 6 resisted for so long. Now everything is clear cut, it’s quite simple. Ad the way Number 6 takes hold of the handlebars of the Penny Farthing bicycle, symbolizing that he is now taking the wheel. Number 6 will play the tune and Number 2 will dance to it! Number 6 is dictating terms now. He has a plan, a sudden desire to confess, but not just to Number 2, but publicly, so that his confession might encourage others with secrets to speak out also. In this, Number 6 shows his ability not only to manipulate Number 2 by promising to give him what he wants, and more, but also in the manipulation of the citizens, not to mention Number 86!

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Bureau of Visual Records

   Looks like Number 6 has had a disturbed night! First two men came for him in the night, and took him to the laboratory in the woods. It was a wet and dirty night for two men to trudge through the woods carrying a man lying on a stretcher. When they arrive at the laboratory Number 14 shouts at the two men to take their wet macs and boots off, wanting to keep her laboratory clean and uncontaminated by wet and mud. However when the two men brought Number 6 back to his cottage, they were not so careful, because they didn’t take their wet and muddy boots off! How do we know this? You will observe the muddy boot prints on the carpet, which could only have come from the two men carrying Number 6 lying unconscious on a stretcher.
   This observation was brought to my attention by blog reader Karen Marshall.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                       “The Arrival!”

Bcnu

A Favourite Brand of Cigar!

   “Cough, cough, cough, what’s in this cigar? It tastes of old socks!”
   “Don’t blame me, they’re your cigars!”
   Which is correct, also every cigar in that humidor must have had a thin piece of plastic running through it, otherwise Number 6 might have selected one which hadn’t. Not only that, but the humidor in ‘12 Private’ also contained cigars with plastic wire running through them. That might well have been in case Number 6 tried to smoke in that apartment. It seems they were taking no chances, although with hindsight that might have been a mistake, because Number 6, being left to his own devices, discovered a thin plastic running through a cigar. The question is, what was a box of Number 6’s cigars doing in ‘12 Private,’ unless they were 12’s cigars. Although there is no evidence that 12 smoked at all, after all he only offered to light 6’s cigar for him. But unlike Number 6, he didn’t know the proper way to light a cigar!

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Quote For The Day

    “What’s this?”
    “This is a new experiment.”
                          {Number 2 and the doctor Number 23 – Checkmate}

    I always think that when Number 2 uses those words he’s speaking in a derogatory manner about Number 8, having been wheeled into the Observation Room. Mind you he’s never seen the woman before, however he’s referring to the doctor’s next experiment. And the doctor is no better, describing Number 8 as a new experiment. She probably looks upon the woman in the wheelchair as just a piece of meat to experiment with, one adapted for humans from experiments using Dolphins in submarine detection. Another adapted from Pavlov’s experiments with dogs.
    Poor Number 8, hypnotised into thinking that she was in love with Number 6, and he with her. She had no idea that her love was manufactured. I do hope that Number 8 was later taken out of her hypnotic state of mind.
    As for Number 2, he might be an excellent administrator, he’s certainly unlike his predecessors, or indeed his successors. He doesn’t get his hands dirty when it comes to Number 6. Or with anything else, as he’s perfectly happy to let the doctor get on with her experiments, just as long as he keeps his hands clean! Mind you there was one other Number 2 who managed to keep his hands clean when it came to Number 6. But then he never really had anything to do, except to see that Number 6 and Number 8 escape The Village together, unhindered! It was later that he got his hands dirty when it came to Number 6, but it would cost him his life!

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The Kid

   Don’t look at me like that Kid, I’m not looking to make a reputation for myself. Cathy said that regulars get the first one on the house, so how could I refuse?! But let’s be friends Kid, they say you’re the fastest on the draw in there parts…….. Well where do you come from Kid?........................ Don’t say much do you?............ Why do you wear that hat?............. With a hat like that you should smarten the rest of yourself up, put on a shirt to cover up those filthy combinations! And those dungarees don’t flatter either. What did you pay for those threads?...............You didn’t pay for them?………….They’re the clothes of men you have killed!................Looks like you could go a couple more to complete your suit of clothes………….This shirt, its pure silk………and my frock coat, that once belonged to Doc Holliday.

   Voice from the back of the saloon “Why don’t you go for your gun?”
   I stepped away from the bar, and made for the door.
   “Say where you going mister?”
   “I’m going for my gun, I’ve left it at home!”

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Thought For The Day

   In trying to prove his identity Number 6 calls for Alison to go to the Green Dome. This in order to prove who he is by using his mental link with Alison-Number 24. The problem is, out of run of five cards Alison calls out only one correct card, and this is seen as a failure. However it might be expected that Alison would miss-call some of the five cards, as previously the score had been 17 out of 25, making 8 wrongly called cards. Taking that score of 17 out of 25, when she calls 5 out of 5 it seems just too perfect, and it would have seemed more natural if she had called at least one wrong card, considering the failure rate of 8 cards out of 25.

   Does the failure to call 4 correct cards out of 5 disprove the mental link between Number 6 and Alison? It’s certainly a sudden drop in percentages!

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Village Life!

    It doesn’t matter what they do to Number 6, Village life goes on much the same. Not just the same, exactly the same, in fact. Because after spending the entire night reciting nursery rhymes to Number 6, when Number 2 looks out of the window there’s the waitress just getting down from a table having opened that canopy. And there’s the gardener hosing down the patio, just like it was on the day the Prisoner-Number 6 arrived in The Village. It’s a scene that would take place every day in The Village. As Number 2 looked out of the window of ‘6 Private’ it could have been on the day of his own arrival, except it isn’t. But perhaps it reminded him of his first day in The Village. I wonder what his number was back then. I bet a pound to a credit unit that it wasn’t Two, seeing as he had been brought to The Village as a prisoner. Now he’s prepared to put his life on the line for the cause. He might have been a good man, he still is a good man, but if Number 1 gets Number 6 he will be better! But better than who, better than Number 2, or better than Number 1? Perhaps Number 1 was looking to hand the Village over to someone, someone better than himself perhaps. But seeing as Number 1 and Number 6 turned out to be one and the same, what’s the difference. Except perhaps escape for one and confinement for the other. But as it so happens both escaped at precisely the same moment, so what price the Village then? Presumably to be left alone, abandoned, and uncared for?! I feel quite sad all of a sudden.

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Bureau of Visual Records

   This isn’t usual is it? They usually come for Number 6 in the night-time after he’s fully sedated, having drunk his nightcap of hot chocolate. It’s usually a doctor and orderlies who come for him, not kicking and struggling as he’s being manhandled, out of his cottage by four security guards! What is it, an emergency or some such thing? Whatever it is, they must want Number 6 pretty badly to go to such measure as these. Surely they could have come for him in the night, and saved themselves a good deal of time and effort. As it is someone must have sedated the Prisoner-Number 6 as they placed him in that Red Cross trailer, probably by the medic sat behind the wheel of the Mini-Moke, otherwise Number 6 would have simply jumped out. And he’s not strapped into the trailer either, so seeing as he’s just lying there he has to have been sedated. Which would have been the case had they collected Number 6 from his cottage during the night!

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