The Colonel pictured left is the third Colonel we see, he had been sent to the Village by the highest authority. He should have felt very proud, he said he was gratified, but had been sent to The Village without being told why. Perhaps had he been told he would have refused to go, but perhaps would have been taken anyway! The highest authority, who might that be then? No.1, or those “masters” we hear about from Cobb, and of which No.2 in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ was so afraid? The Colonel asked No.2 if he would be kind enough to explain what it is he was supposed to do…….perhaps had he known….I’ve often wondered why the Colonel was sent on this current mission and not a field agent. But I suppose had it not been the Colonel, there wouldn’t have been any need for Sir Charles Portland. After all its always been the Colonel No.6 has gone running back to, only this time he is the Colonel, in a manner of speaking, hence the need for Sir Charles Portland for No.6 to go running back to!
No matter how gratified the Colonel might be, he does seem a little uncomfortable, perhaps being in The Village brings back unhappy memories for him. After all he wouldn’t be the first to have been brought to The Village as a prisoner, then having been turned as Cobb had been, released, later to be brought back to The Village as with No.2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and again for ‘Once Upon A Time.’
No.2 explained about Professor Selzman
being a neurologist who became interested in mind transference. The Colonel
said he’d actually seen it done when he was in India, but not in the way No.2 means! Transferring
the mind of one man into another, that the Colonel could become No.2 and No.2
could become the Colonel, well not quite, but close enough.
The Colonel was interested enough when No.2 took him along to the amnesia room where all unpleasant memories of The Village are wiped from a subject’s mind, ready for the person to be sent out into the outside world again, and gave him a dummy demonstration of the Seltzman machine. I have sometimes thought how it might have been for the Colonel. No.6 was taken kicking from his cottage by four security guards, then sedated as he was placed in the Red Cross trailer and taken to the hospital where he would have remained sedated. I would have thought it would have been easier had they taken No.6 from his cottage during the night, when he would have been already sedated after drinking his drugged nightcap. Something they had done before on no fewer than four occasions. As for the Colonel, was he taken kicking and screaming to the Seltzman machine when he realized what was about to happen to him, and because of that have to be sedated first?
There’s a question mark over this Seltzman machine. How did it fall into the hands of The Village’s administration? After all there cannot be many of these machines about, you certainly couldn’t buy them by the pound! Was it Seltzman’s original machine, which he for whatever reason had to abandon? Or was it constructed from plans stolen, or photographed? If so why not then bring Professor Seltzman to The Village together with his original plans and the Seltzman machine? Perhaps they almost caught up with Selzman, he got away but had to leave his machine behind, wherever that was. But then comes the question of subjects, people Professor Selzman could use in his mind transference experiments. After all how would he prove his machine without actual experimentation? He might need several subjects in order to perfect his machine. So it might well be that Seltzman worked on his machine, carrying out his experiments where there would be an abundance of subjects. Some institution perhaps, or a Nazi Concentration Camp during the war where he was forced to work. He might have evaded the liberators of such a camp by putting his mind in another person’s body, another of the prisoners there. Such is the possibility for speculation.
But what of this Colonel, he was just as much a traitor, or turncoat as his predecessors. Except he died on an operating table, his mind wrongly housed in Professor Seltzman’s body, and would no doubt be buried in The Village crematory in an unmarked grave seeing as he had no number. I’ve always felt sorry for this particular Colonel, having been seconded to The Village, but without knowing why, and perhaps after all he did face what there was to face with courage and dignity. His last words being “Tell Number One I did my duty,” and that is all anyone can do in The Village!
The Colonel was interested enough when No.2 took him along to the amnesia room where all unpleasant memories of The Village are wiped from a subject’s mind, ready for the person to be sent out into the outside world again, and gave him a dummy demonstration of the Seltzman machine. I have sometimes thought how it might have been for the Colonel. No.6 was taken kicking from his cottage by four security guards, then sedated as he was placed in the Red Cross trailer and taken to the hospital where he would have remained sedated. I would have thought it would have been easier had they taken No.6 from his cottage during the night, when he would have been already sedated after drinking his drugged nightcap. Something they had done before on no fewer than four occasions. As for the Colonel, was he taken kicking and screaming to the Seltzman machine when he realized what was about to happen to him, and because of that have to be sedated first?
There’s a question mark over this Seltzman machine. How did it fall into the hands of The Village’s administration? After all there cannot be many of these machines about, you certainly couldn’t buy them by the pound! Was it Seltzman’s original machine, which he for whatever reason had to abandon? Or was it constructed from plans stolen, or photographed? If so why not then bring Professor Seltzman to The Village together with his original plans and the Seltzman machine? Perhaps they almost caught up with Selzman, he got away but had to leave his machine behind, wherever that was. But then comes the question of subjects, people Professor Selzman could use in his mind transference experiments. After all how would he prove his machine without actual experimentation? He might need several subjects in order to perfect his machine. So it might well be that Seltzman worked on his machine, carrying out his experiments where there would be an abundance of subjects. Some institution perhaps, or a Nazi Concentration Camp during the war where he was forced to work. He might have evaded the liberators of such a camp by putting his mind in another person’s body, another of the prisoners there. Such is the possibility for speculation.
But what of this Colonel, he was just as much a traitor, or turncoat as his predecessors. Except he died on an operating table, his mind wrongly housed in Professor Seltzman’s body, and would no doubt be buried in The Village crematory in an unmarked grave seeing as he had no number. I’ve always felt sorry for this particular Colonel, having been seconded to The Village, but without knowing why, and perhaps after all he did face what there was to face with courage and dignity. His last words being “Tell Number One I did my duty,” and that is all anyone can do in The Village!
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