A Question of Time - Revisited!

   It is most interesting this matter of time that crops up in ‘the Prisoner’ from time to time, I wouldn’t have thought a question of time would have entered into it. After all Number 6 isn’t going anywhere, I would have thought that Number 2 had all the time in the world. It began during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ with Number 2 asking Number 6 how many lumps of sugar, one lump or two? To which Number 6 replied “It’s in the file.” Number 2 said “Yes, as a matter of fact yes’ but went on to say that it would save time if Number 6 answered. Surely Number 2 wasn’t running out of time so soon in the episode? But then again ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ was supposed to have appeared much later in the series, so perhaps yes.   
   And then comes Number 2 in ‘A B and C’ who either felt the need, or was pushed into giving his guarantee that he would have a favourable result in two days, when he had already lost one day. Why the need to restrict Number 2 to three days in order to bring the current proceedings to a satisfactory conclusion? It’s as though Number 1 put Number 2 under pressure quite deliberately. But that wasn’t that case, the three days equates to the maximum three doses of the drug, a fourth dose would kill Number 6!

    As for Number 2 in ‘It’s Your Funeral’ why was Number 2 running late with this latest plan? Again Number 6 wasn’t going anywhere, unless it was the fact that Appreciation Day was drawing closer. And yet Plan Division Q must have been started well in advance of Appreciation Day, because firstly it would have taken time for Number 100 to “groom” Number 51-the watchmaker to become a co-conspirator with him. And secondly the watchmaker would have needed further time to make a copy of the Great Seal of Office, together with the bomb together with the remote detonator trigger. So if Plan Division Q was running late, Number 2 and the Supervisor only had themselves to blame, they should have sent Monique to see Number 6 much sooner than they did. Number 2 said if only he had a little bit more time, how much time does he need? Was that simply down to Monique taking time to make up her mind to go and see Number 6? And it might well be that they had to take into account that Monique would be late going to see Number 6. Why? Because the drug, one of the new super strength moprobamates that has been developed, they had administered to Monique the day before she went to see Number 6, which does remain dormant until triggered by the nervous system which then relapses itself to the desired quantity. And that in itself makes the drug highly questionable. Because seeing that the drug had been administered the day before Monique went to see Number 6, during that time anything could have happened to Monique for the nervous system to release the drug. Something could have happened to her father for example he might have had a fall and had to be taken to hospital, anything could have happened to Monique, her nervous system then releasing the drug by accident!

  And finally in ‘A Change of Mind’ Number 6 said he needed time to think, and Number 2 took this to mean that it was time………..that was it…………no it wasn’t time the Prisoner demanded…….. Number 2 went on to say the Prisoner couldn’t stand his job so he needed time to think…… Number 6 became angry at that, and Number 2 became angry and frustrated, because he was asking him, not telling him!

   And later in ‘Once Upon A Time,’ Number 1 limited Number 2 to one week in the Embryo Room. Why? After all they didn’t want to damage him. It’s just as though such time limitations were imposed on Number 2 by Number 1 on purpose. Why? To ensure they wouldn’t succeed in extracting information from Number 6?

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