The Therapy Zone

    It was one of the great surreal moments when in ‘Free For All’ the inner wall of the Green Dome rotated, revealing a single steel door, through which Number 6 stumbled into what I believe to be the real Therapy Zone. The cave where Number 58 took Number 6 was merely a stage, and Number 6 had his entrance and his exit, and both Number 2 and the chemist had their parts to play. And Number 6 drank it all in, especially the drugged drink! It had me fooled when I first watched the episode in 1967. I believed Number 2 when he gave that toast “To hell with the Village!” I should have known better, but I was only 12 years of age at the time.
    Four men, dressed in overalls, and wearing dark glasses, who have been interpreted as Rover worshipers, that would make the Guardian an Idol, a God? It pulsates this Guardian, it’s the only one to do so, which has led to the theory that the four men are undergoing some kind of indoctrination, or brainwashing. Which is plausible, but would that not have to indicate intelligence on the part of the Guardian if it’s carrying out a session of indoctrination in this Therapy Zone. If indeed that is what it is. What is being placed in the minds of the four subjects? To obey, not to question, but to obey instruction, and follow blindly in the ways of The Village perhaps! And the four men, why did they take part in the rough treatment dished out to Number 6, by securing him hand and foot? Simply perhaps because Number 6 disturbed their therapy session!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      “Games of Cat & Mouse!”


BcNu

From The Bureau of Visual Records

   They say every picture tells a story, and that is true of the picture on the left, taken from ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’

  Janet Portland just happened to be passing by No.1 Buckingham Place, when she saw her fiancés Lotus Seven parked outside the house. Excited she mounted the steps and rang the door bell. To her disappointment the man standing in the hallway is not her fiancé!
   She points out his car, and asks the man standing in the doorway if he’s back. “Is he with you?”
  The man doesn’t quite know what to say for a moment, then says “Yes.”
   Janet steps over the threshold into the hallway calling out “Darling.”

   The man closes the door as Janet moves along the hallway again calling out ‘Darling,’ then goes upstairs thinking he must be in his bedroom. Fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s what we see and hear. However there is something wrong with the picture.

   The view through the door is supposed to be the view on the other side of Palace Road which forms a ‘T’ junction with Buckingham Place. The view through the door of No.1 Buckingham Place, should have been the house opposite, that of No.14 as seen in the bottom picture. Perhaps it was a case that the set designers had never been on location in Buckingham Place. But you would have thought someone would have known. Slapdash methods that’s what I call it!

Be seeing you

Eric Mival - 'Cutting Edge - My Life in Film and Television' PRESS RELEASE

  'Cutting Edge - My Life in Film and Television' is a new book from Eric Mival, who was of course Music Editor on 'The Prisoner'.

     The book, which covers the entirety of Eric's life and career, is available in both hardback and paperback editions, and over one third of the book is dedicated to Eric's time on 'The Prisoner' and his life-long friendship with Patrick McGoohan. 

   The book also covers Eric's time on TV series such as 'Doctor Who', 'Strange Report', and 'Top of the Pops', as well as his many years working for Central and the BBC, and films such as 'Wonderwall', 'Three Worlds of Gulliver' and countless other pieces of work.

   The book is available for pre-order until the end of November, with £2 off the cover price, direct from the publishers at

http://www.quoitmedia.co.uk,

      It will be available thereafter from The Unmutual Website, Amazon, and all good bookshops.

*Cover image shown is for the hardback edition.

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

    Tell me I’m wrong, but it’s always those same three girls messing about in The Village Lido, well two of them, the third is just out of shot, having just run passed Number 6. But they are there as the helicopter lands on the lawn after the Prisoner’s aerial tour of The Village, and they are still there when Number 6 passes by the swimming pool on his way to the helicopter, that time he attempts to escape in ‘Arrival’.’ And here they are once more, as the colonel arrives by helicopter in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ And much later, in ‘Fall Out,’ as The Village is being evacuated, those same three girls are still playing with that beach ball, paddling about in that boat in the Lido, and not taking the least bit of notice of what is going on around them!

    I’ve noticed something else, not once do any of those three girls actually enter the water of the swimming pool, but that doesn’t surprise me not when the pool is filled with water from the estuary. That would be cold enough, but the stone pool would make it even colder! And who left that punt unattended? I wouldn’t set out to sea in that, but it would be handy to use for an escape up river, its flat bottom ideal for shallow water!

Be seeing you

Village Time!

  It was once discussed between enthusiasts of ‘the Prisoner,’ how it’s possible for Number 6 to be sure of the correct time of the day in The Village? Yes Number 6 wears a wrist watch, but interestingly there is no clock in his cottage. So if Number 6’s wrist watch says eight for example, how can he be sure that is the actual hour of the day? There is a simple way to check if his wrist watch is telling the right time, by making a sun clock.

   A simple way would be for Number 6 get a stick about two feet in length, and a handful of stones. On a sunny say, perhaps on the beach, stick the said stick in the sand at 7am, use one of the stones to mark where the shadow of the stick falls on the ground. Then return to the sun clock an hour later and use another stone to mark the hour of eight, and so on, nine, ten, eleven, twelve and so on. The shadows would get shorter towards mid day, midday being the shortest shadow, then they start to get longer again. Carry on in this way until dusk and the sun clock would be complete at the days end. This way Number 6 would be sure that his wrist watch tallied with the correct time of day.
   It would have been a doddle for Number 6 to have made himself a sun clock, after all he made himself a compass in ‘Many Happy Returns.’

Be seeing you

Rover-Droid! by David A. Stimpson

    One day Numbers 231 and 217 were clearing out the back of the supply warehouse.
    Here Two-three-one, what’s that?
    What’s what Two-one-seven?
    This thing here under the tarpaulin?
    Oh, I’d forgotten about that!
    What’s under the tarpaulin?
    Pull the sheet off if you’re that interested.
    It takes but a moment to pull the dusty tarpaulin sheet off the vehicle underneath.
    What is it?
    Rover mark one.
    Rover mark one, what’s that?
   Well it’s a little before your time, but before the Rover that we know, we had this machine as The Village Guardian!
    It’s not activated is it?
    No, it was decommissioned a year or so ago. To be perfectly honest it wasn’t that successful.
   Why not?
   It was supposed to be an all terrain droid, on land, on the sea, underwater, and be able to climb steps, scale walls. It has a blue flashing light.
   What like a police car?
    More than that, the blue light was able to have such an effect that it observed you into the machine.
    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha don’t make me laugh!
    No its true man......................what’s that?
    What’s what?
    That whirring sound.
    I don’t hear any whirring..........don’t move, keep perfectly still.
    Why, what’s up?
    I don’t want to worry you, but I think Rover Mark one has just re-activated itself!
    That’s crazy.......oh my God, it moved.
    Moved?
    It’s turned towards us.
    Is the blue light flashing?
    I don’t know, I daren’t look!

    I’ll look.
    No, don’t look.
    That noise.......
    It’s coming from the Rover Droid.
    Shouldn’t we run for it?
    We’d never make it as far as the door.
    What then?
    When I count to three if you run that way, and I run the other way........
    What’s the point in that?
    Well that way one of us is bound to get away, it can’t come after the both of us!
    Right, on the count of three you say.
    One.......two.......
   What’s that blue light?
   What blue light?
   We’re surrounded by blue light........aghhhhhhhhhh
   It’s too late..........................aghhhhhhhhhh
   

    Later in the warehouse a foreman appeared on the scene.
    Oi, Two-three-one and Two-one seven, where are you pair of idle layabouts? I’ve a list as long as your arm for properties for 89 Private. What the devil.......................Aghhhhhhhhhhh

    In Number 2’s office the yellow telephone begins to bleep.
    Two here.
    Supervisor here.
    Yes what is it, what’s the matter?
    Two workers and their foreman who work in the supply warehouse have disappeared.
    Impossible! Look again for them.
    We have sir, twice, there’s no sign of them. What’s more there’s a piece of equipment that has gone missing as well.
    Equipment, what piece of equipment?
    Rover mark one, the Rover Droid, it’s reactivated itself!
    Can it do that?
    It’s not supposed to. I remember when it was first used it went berserk! If it’s got out of the warehouse no-one will be safe. Can you hear a noise Number Two?.................Number 2 are you there?

Be seeing you

Close To The Enemy!

    ‘Close To The Enemy’ by Steven Poliakoff is a new BBC television series about Military Intelligence soon after the end of WWII. A hotel room in London is a holding station, a virtual prison, used to keep very important people of one side or the other. One such important person was a high ranking NAZI previously of German Intelligence. This man had been turned so that he would work for British Military Intelligence. At one point in last Thursday’s episode {November 24^th} this former NAZI was to be taken ill with supposed pneumonia at the hotel, from where he would be taken to a hospital, and in the hospital would die. But in reality he was spirited away from the hospital so that he could begin working for his new masters in British Military Intelligence. This immediately struck me as being quite familiar, akin to the scenario involving Cobb in ‘Arrival.’ He was in a hotel, but in Germany, he was taken from that hotel and woke up in a hospital {never mind that it’s in The Village} where he was supposed to have died.  But instead he was taken away in order to begin working for his new masters! Fair enough, it’s not an exact parallel, but in some ways close enough.....................well for me anyway!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

   The other day when I looked at this picture I suddenly couldn’t help thinking of Rover MKI! It’s the umbrella I suppose, it’s suggestive!

BCNU

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

               “Is That All No.240 Has To Do?

         To watch the Prisoner all day – nice work if you can get it!
BcNu

The Prisoner - 50 Great Scenes!

    What are your fifty favourite scenes in ‘the Prisoner?’ Do you have fifty favourite scenes, and if you have can you list them? I’ve been sat here with a pencil and piece of paper and I have managed to list mine, but in no particular order. It begins in ‘Arrival’ when Number 6 is attempting to escape in a Mini-Moke. I’ve wondered what it is in the sand that the Mini-Moke collides with to throw the Prisoner out of the vehicle. Because had he remained in the vehicle he’d have been alright and Rover wouldn’t have got him, so perhaps that’s the point, as it is in a similar scene, but on water in a jet boat in ‘Free For all!’
    Daily Number 6 climbs the Bell Tower, he’s constantly watching, waiting, perhaps he simply likes the view. Well on the day of his arrival in The Village the Prisoner climbed the Bell Tower because he thought he saw someone leaning out of one of the windows. But when he got there it was only a statue, well that’s the impression given. Even if it isn’t right!
   Number 2 and Number 6 enjoying a nice cup of tea together during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ whilst watching Number 8 waking up in what she thinks is her own home, how many lumps was it Number 6?
     When Number 6 subtly puts the loudspeaker in the refrigerator bringing peace and quiet to his cottage. 
    Potter, as Number 2’s assistant, suggesting that there are methods they haven’t used yet against his old colleague. Has Potter been promoted, he was certainly underemployed in the Labour Exchange! Mind you Potter’s new found position doesn’t last long, seeing as Number 2 doesn’t really require an assistant, or perhaps it was his remark made about Number 6 that saw him relegated to the Control Room!
   In ‘It’s Your Funeral’ when the watchmaker tells his daughter and Number 6 that he must get on with his work, and having been discovered by Number 6 and Monique in the Bell Tower, “keep away” shouts the watchmaker. At the end of the episode when Number 2 looks to the sky, removes his spectacles for the last time, to see the helicopter turn back towards The Village! 
   At the end of ‘A B and C’ when that curved, over-sized red telephone begins to bleep, the look on Number 2’s face!  
    ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ and Number 2 is speaking on the telephone to Number 1 who asks if Number 2 requires further assistance, and Number 2 said he could manage. If he had trusted in his assistant Number 14, then the outcome of the episode might have turned out differently. There he is, Number 14 dozing in an armchair in the foyer of the Green Dome. As soon as he hears the pair of steel doors slide open he jumps to his feet, stands to attention as he straightens his jacket, giving Number 2 the impression that he’s been standing like that all the time! But he gets his just deserts when Number 6 throws him out of his cottage through the French window taking the balcony railings with him!
   Jumping to ‘Living In Harmony,’ The Kid being gunned down in the street. The Judges “boys” giving the new Sheriff a lesson that it’s not safe to go about not wearing a gun, and Cathy when she bites the Kid’s lip!
   When Number 6 comes whistling into his cottage. And later when everything that has happened to him is revealed in a mirror, and again in ‘Do Not Forsake me Oh My Darling,’ when much the same happens as well as restoring Number 6’s memory of The Village.
   Number 2 suddenly realizing that Number 6 wouldn’t drop his guard with his own grandmother, well it was worth a try Number 2!
    Potter working as a shoeshine boy…..how did that man in the street get his shoes so muddy?
    Mister X in the Magnum Record Shop, very Mission:   Impossiblesque wouldn’t

you say Mister Briggs?    
    Mister X going through the butchers, bakers, and the candlestick makers.
    Number 6 discovering The Village deserted. And just when he’s about to cast off and put to sea, there’s the sound of broken crockery. At that point hope is suddenly dashed away. But when Number 6 looks up and sees the cat hope is suddenly restored and he sets out on his voyage of discovery.  
    Watching Number 6 take part in one of those dangerous sports he mentioned in one of his electoral speeches in ‘Free For All,’ namely Kosho in both ‘Hammer’ and ‘Funeral.’ And Watching Number 14 about to be dunked into that tank of water by Number 6, but isn’t!  

  In the Cat and Mouse nightclub demanding an alcoholic drink! If only non-alcoholic drinks are served in the Cat and Mouse, how did Number 6 appear to be intoxicated? And in the Therapy Zone when Number 2 gives the toast “To hell with The Village,” the first time I heard that I believed Number 2 actually meant that toast! 
   At Madam Professor’s art seminar when Number 6 cannot find anything at all, but his favourite subject is military history, General’s and that kind of thing. Later when Number 6 takes a walking stick to the fake Professor’s head…how did he know, and why did Madam Professor cry out? Was it because she thought her husband was about to be murdered in his bed, or for the fact that her masterpiece was about to be destroyed? And when Number 2 tells Madam Professor what it is Number 6 wants, what we all want ultimately…..to escape!  
    John Drake, or is it Patrick McGoohan handing in his letter of resignation from ‘Danger Man’ during the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner,’ well that’s one interpretation!
   At the café when the Prisoner is offered breakfast and then coffee. Then trying to make a telephone call, and the taxi arriving on the spot just as the Prisoner was about to press the 1 button on the control panel of the electronic Free Information board.

    The de-briefing session with Number 2 in ‘Arrival’ when ZM73 discovers that he’s been under close surveillance in London, even to the point of in his own home, and then the briefing and aerial tour of The Village by helicopter. 

    In ‘Checkmate’ the human chess match, and Number 6 being instructed by Number 14 on how to distinguish between the prisoners and the warders. Then Number 6 wanting a word with the gardener and being told he’ll have to wait. Number 42 is more amenable, if his painting of the wall isn’t satisfactory, he’ll paint it again! And the shopkeeper whose books have never been checked before, but there’s always a first time isn’t there! And the scene when Number 2 is “lurking” on the beach “Hello” he says to the Rook. When Number 6 steals a taxi and he and the Rook go on a robbery spree. First the surveillance camera, then a telephone from a kiosk, and electrical equipment and screwdriver from the trailer of the electrics truck. 
    Number 2 being declared as being unmutual by Number 86.
    Number 56 telling Number 6 that unmutualism is now more than just a game!
    Number 42 instructing Number 6 about the people turning away from Number 6, being socially conscience citizens, who are provoked by the loathsome presence of an unmutual!

    ‘Dance of the Dead’ and Number 56 showing off her new dress to Number 6, but she won’t last, the maids come and they go! When Number 6 is sat on the Outlook listening to the radio, “Nowhere is there more beauty than here. Tonight when the moon rises the whole world will turn to silver. Do you understand, it is important that you understand. I have a message for you, you must listen. The appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight. If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored, we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured.” I’m certain that’s the voice of Number 2 formerly of ‘Free For All’ {Eric Portman}! And when Number 6 tells the gardener, attaching the window box.

    “Supposing I don’t want any flowers?”   

    “Everyone has flowers for Carnival tomorrow, be seeing you!
    And finally the end of ‘Fall Out,’ because that’s the start of ‘Arrival,’ and the whole experience is about to begin all over again!

Be seeing you

Six of One Half A Dozen of The Other!

    That’s what they say do they not, its six of one and half a dozen of the other. But what does that really mean? Is it that a choice has to be made, the one being six and the other half a dozen which is also six. It would seem The Village authorities had a choice to make between two Sixes, but the question is which is the right Six? There seems to be nothing to choose between them, they are both no better than they should be, and no worse either. In fact if truth be told it’s no choice at all! It might be that Curtis made a better Six than either of them, after all two sixes make 12!

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Caught On Camera!

    At the end of ‘Living In Harmony’ Number 22 confessed to Number 6 that she wished it had been real. But to Number 8, and as Number 22 finds out much to her distress {if it wasn’t bad enough witnessing your own violent murder on the screen} just how real the situation actually was!

Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

    During the debriefing session with Number 2 in ‘Arrival’ we are shown pictures from the Prisoner’s life from the cradle to his childhood, his time playing for the school cricket team, and in the School Cadet Force. And eventually of a most important day, he was getting ready to met Chambers, who was about to become late of the Foreign Office. He was hoping to change his mind before the big boys found out. He went to the rendezvous and waited and waited, but he never turned up. A nice guy Chambers, and so he talked, apparently having been abducted to The Village. Then there was that time the Prisoner had returned from Singapore, a change of climate, feeling a bit shaky, he was sickening for a cold. He sneezed himself out of their camera. Then he was deciding to take a vacation, where could he go, Ireland….a bit too cold that time of the year. Paris? Maybe not. What was that, sounded like a click, something in the mirror? Or was it over there? Yes over there too!
     So it was agents working for The Village who were watching ZM73 through the closest possible surveillance. That leaves but one question, which department of British Military Intelligence does The Village come under? Chambers, well on the face of it, it looks as though he was about to either defect or resign, and ZM73 was going to try and stop him. But the meeting with Chambers never took place, because agents working for The Village, possibly two undertakers, abducted Chambers who eventually ended up in The Village. It’s possible that Chambers was like Cobb, he talked and allowed himself to be turned and then returned home to take up his place once more in the Foreign Office. Who knows just how many such people are “sleeping” within the Foreign Office, the Home Office, departments of British Military Intelligence, even in the House of Lords?! Just waiting to be used by The Villages administration.
   ZM73 {for want of a better name} having just returned from Singapore was deciding to go on holiday when he discovered that he was under surveillance. Why was he under such close surveillance, and from whom? Had he become suspect in some way, and people either from his own department or possibly Special Branch, were keeping a close eye on him. No, agents working for The Village had been keeping him under the closest possible surveillance, but why? Possibly because they had chosen him for abduction to The Village, a man of ZM73’s calibre would be most useful to them. But when was this exactly, before or after the Prisoner resigned his job? If before, then it means agents working for The Village had been keeping tabs on ZM73 long before he resigned. It might be that that action of resigning his job upset the apple cart. If the design was to abduct ZM73, extract all information from him, then turn him so that he became an operative for The Village, then to return him to his home, his work as a “sleeper” to be used as and when required by The Village’s administrators. The trouble is the Prisoner had no position to return to, he had resigned. And that effectively made him useless to them in the outside world.
   On the other hand, it might be that ZM73’s resignation was a put up job on both his part and that of his department. It could be that ZM73 reported the hidden cameras in his home, that person or persons unknown had him under surveillance. Then the idea being, to

allow things to take their course, after all there had been a number of

disappearances recently. Chambers, Cobb, Roland Walter Dutton,

even the Colonel and Fotheringay had been away from the department for a time, which could not be explained. So instead of waiting for something to happen ZM73, for whatever reason, resigned his job and was going on holiday. That forced The Villages administrators hand, and sent two undertakers to abduct ZM73 from his home. Whatever happens he must not be allowed to leave for the continent! But

unbeknown to them, ZM73 was playing a double game, he was although he didn’t know it, about to follow Chambers, Cobb, and Dutton to The Village.

    So having allowed things to take their course he had infiltrated the Village, and having gained adequate information, then once he escaped and returned to an office he knows very well in London he set about making his report to The Colonel. But as we know The Colonel was working for The Village. But that did not deter Number 6, for having escaped The Village for real, he made a call on the Colonel at his country residence in order to make his report about The Village to him, but this time armed with photographic evidence! But of course “they” couldn’t allow Number 6 to go about telling all and sundry about The Village, so they put him back in it! 

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    Pictured in the Control Room, during the episode of ‘Checkmate’ with the Supervisor Number 56, is Number 219 I have often wondered if he might not have once been an assistant to Number 2, in the same way as the one time assistant to Number 2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ He like Number 219 ended up working in the Control Room as a possible assistant to the Supervisor. Well there was little enough for Number 2 to do during that episode to warrant him having an assistant. All he had to do was oversee Number 6’s escape plan, and he seemed a capable administrator, and much the same can be said of the current Number 2. He’s happy to administer from his office, which he leaves occasionally, and to allow others to do their jobs. So perhaps like his predecessor he didn’t feel the need for an assistant who was then relegated to duties assisting the Supervisor in the Control Room.

Be seeing you

Ah, You React!

    During ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ Number 2 has Number 6 brought to his office by Number 14 and 2 guardians, who unceremoniously dump him in a chair. That’s because Number 6 defied his instructions to go to the Green Dome, as he didn’t have anything to talk about. But Number 2 saw it a different way, he saw that he and Number 6 had things to discuss, the girl for example. The girl whom Number 6 accused Number 2 of having murdered, Number 73. Technically 73 committed suicide, as she had attempted suicide before when she slashed her wrists. Number 2 might be guilty of driving 73 to her death, but he didn’t physically murder her. In any case Number 73 was lying in her hospital bed at the time, it wasn’t until Number 6 came bursting into the room that she leapt out of bed and threw herself to her death through the hospital window. You will observe how Number 6 leant out of the window and looked down. Now what motivated him to do that, a remembrance of Cobb’s supposed suicide perhaps? Number 6 just making sure that 73 jumping to her death wasn’t a put up job!
    But never mind the girl, she is easily dismissed by Number 2, he wants to talk about Number 6. But then many before this current Number 2 have tried that. Number 2 sees them as amateurs, while he is a professional, a professional sadist, doesn’t sound much like Thorpe! Number 2 then produces the blade of a sword from his shooting stick. How did he manage to smuggle that into The Village? One might have thought the ordinary shooting stick would have been taken from Number 2, and replaced by the regular umbrella shooting stick. How come Number 2 was allowed to keep his own shooting stick? Perhaps there was a laxity in security. After all Number 2’s sword shooting stick had not been the only illicit object which had been successfully smuggled into The Village, there had been Number 34’s transistor radio in ‘dance of The Dead.’
    Light blue eyes. Number 2 saw Number 6 as being fearless, or was he, after all everyman has his breaking point, and he sees Number 6 as being no exception. That’s what the two doctors thought in ‘Dance of The Dead’ and ‘Checkmate,’ and neither of them got anywhere near Number 6’s breaking point. But then they were not allowed to!

    As for Number 2, why the need to smuggle a sword shooting stick with him into The Village, perhaps he had a fear of the unknown and felt the need for self preservation, something to protect himself with should the need arise. But once Number 2 revealed the weapon, then why wasn’t it taken away from him? Perhaps Number 1 was giving Number 2 a sporting chance, that he who lives by the sword will one day perish by the sword!

   Footnote: in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ there is one point when Number 2 does carry an umbrella shooting stick, when he and Number 14 have left the Green Dome, having descended the steps, on their way to the Town Hall. Of course the two men as Number 2 and Number 14 are stand-ins for Patrick Cargill and Basil Hoskins. But that is no excuse for the continuity error!

Be seeing you

The Village Was Deserted!

   The Village was deserted! Number 6 had woken up in a thoroughly deserted Village, the only two creatures in it were himself and a cat. Where had everyone gone, had they all escaped and left him behind? Perhaps there had been some calamity, or emergency which caused the evacuation of The Village. So why had he not heard anything, as surely the upheaval of such activity would have woken him. And really would it be possible to evacuate The Village during one might? Remember those helicopters used in ‘Fall Out,’ and even those would not have been enough to airlift all the citizens out of The Village. The senior citizens in their wheel chairs, the patients in the hospital, nurses, doctors, medical orderlies, gardeners, painters, electricians, the guardians, the prisoners, not to mention the admin staff, where would they have all gone? And would they be allowed to go free, the danger that so many people would spill the beans about their incarceration in The Village. Surely that could not be allowed to happen, security of The Village would have to be maintained, even after such an evacuation. And what about the people born of The Village, young people who knew nothing of the outside world, where they did not exist, what were they supposed to have done?
   So Number 6 escaped the Village, he sailed away on his voyage of discovery, what then? If The Village had truly been evacuated that would be that. But as it is when Number 6 is unceremoniously returned to The Village, it’s still deserted. But then the coffee percolator begins to boil, that’s not right is it? If the electricity is only just returned to 6 Private, there is no-way the percolator should be boiling, and water spouts from the shower tap in the bathroom. Mrs. Butterworth, now Number 2, perhaps has been Number 2 all the time the first of her kind to operate in two places, enters bearing a cake. “Many Happy Returns” are the words she greets Number 6 with. And outside The Village has returned to life with citizens promenading around the Piazza. If The Village had really been evacuated simply for the benefit of Number 6, then where were all the people taken? Wherever it was, they must have begun to bring them back the moment Number 6 was out of sight aboard his raft. In turn did that then mean that before Number 6 was due to be returned to The Village the people were evacuated once again so The Village would again appear to be deserted? If so they were damned quick about it! No, all that would have been utterly ridiculous, and extremely time consuming. Better to give the citizens a larger dose of sedative at night so that they slept until Number 6 had built his sea-going raft, and set sail aboard it. But how many days was that exactly? At least one day, possibly two, maybe three, it’s difficult to say exactly. But at least it’s a more plausible solution as to why The Village appeared to be deserted, even though it wasn’t!

   If its evacuation you want, in ‘Fall Out’ you get it, and Number 6 was the cause! He put the launching of the rocket into motion, and yet was it really necessary to evacuate the entire Village? After all the rocket must have been present in its silo long before the advent of ‘Fall Out,’ along with the intention of eventually launching the rocket at some point, otherwise why have it? What then, an evacuation of The Village? Or did Number 1 think it possible to launch the rocket without causing damage and possible harm to the citizens? It could be that the President panicked, and lost his head when he realized the

countdown to the launch of the rocket was underway, and so initiating the evacuation of The Village. When all he really had to do was evacuate the cavern!

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

    “Don’t tell me that time travel is in it as well!”
                                            {Number 6 – Dance of The Dead}
    I know it was meant sarcastically when he saw the maid Number 54 wearing a late 18^th century dress. Don’t tell me that time was in it as well? Even if it was it would be no good to Number 6, time travel would only put Number 6 in The Village at another time, unless of course he was able to go back in time before The Village’s existence. That would put him in a wooded wilderness! With time travel one never moves anywhere, but simply occupies the same space but in a different time. And if Number 6 were able to travel forward in time, say to a point after the evacuation in ‘Fall Out,’ that might make Number 6 the only inhabitant in The Village. But at least he would be able to escape like he did in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ if he could face that ordeal a second time! And yet to go too far forward in time Number 6 might end up living in an abandoned overgrown, derelict Village!

  And yet as it is, if time travel, at least by the clock, wasn’t in it he wouldn’t have reached ‘Fall out’ and subsequently escaped back to London!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      “A Stranger In Paradise!”

BcNu

No.6 For Further Investigation!” by our own reporter

    After a meeting with the Committee this morning, when No.6’s complaints were discussed, of which he said he had several, it was decided that No.6 required further investigation, having been found to be disharmonious!  It couldn’t have helped him when he deliberately tore up the questionnaire. It seems No.6 has an aversion to questionnaires. So further investigation of No.6, hardly surprising when you think what a troublemaker he is. When he’s not attempting escapes he’s always putting in his oar where it isn’t wanted! Apparently it all began with two bully boys who stirred things up when they provoked No.6 into a fist fight. No.6 who vanquished the pair was left with the promise of having to face the committee! Only in this case No. 6 is the innocent party, his only crime is preferring his own company, his own privacy, but then that could be seen as being anti-social. But just a minute, what about No.61 who ignored No.6’s greeting, is she going to be under investigation? After all that’s what happened to No.42 when she ignored No.10’s greeting, because she said she was preoccupied composing poetry.
    I asked No.2 if he was above investigation? He assured me that no-one is above investigation, he went on to say that “failure to co-operate makes one an outcast.” And it could all begin with the taking away of privileges, no more taxis or credit, and that could only be the beginning. I went on to ask No.2 if he was a member of the Committee. He assured me that the Committee is completely independent. And to the people of the community, and the Committee No.6 is merely that, and if necessary shaped to fit! Speaking to No.6 he explained himself as being “Public enemy No.6!”    No.86 attempted to help No.6 by taking him to one of the Social Group meetings, which he disrupted by dividing the question of No.42’s rehabilitation, and disrupt her social progress! No.6 was accused of being a reactionary, a rebel, and disharmonious!    A second meeting with the Committee didn’t go at all well for No.6, as he was declared unmutual until further notice! And any further unsocial incident involving Number 6 should be reported immediately to the appeals sub-Committee, of which No.42 is now all of a sudden a member! Now 42 is one of “them,” describing the attitude of the people against No.6 as being “Socially conscience citizens, who are provoked by the loathsome presence of an unmutual!” No.6 describes them as sheep. If that’s the case, he must be a goat, because there’s been nothing but trouble since he arrived in The Village! Needless to say No.6 rejects help from the ladies appeal sub-Committee, and quickly discovers that unmutualism is more than just a game. It’s a witch-hunt aimed at him! And when friendly persuasion fails, then good old fashioned brute force, which No.6 is so keen on, is the last resort. More then that, mob rule. As No.6 is roughly manhandled all the way from his cottage to the hospital. But when he emerges he’s a new man. In fact eventually since his social conversion, No.6 has the desire to address the entire community. So there he stood with No.2 on the Gloriette, with the entire community waiting to hear what No.6 had to say. It wasn’t so much a confession, as an accusation, that unmutualism has nothing to do with the Committee, but that its No.2 who wishes to possess the minds of the citizens! No.86 stepped out of the crowd shouting “Social conversion for Number Two the unmutual.” With the help of No.86 No.6 had been able to turn the tables on No.2 who took to his heels, and was chased back to the relative safety of the Green Dome  with the people in pursuit chanting “Unmutual, unmutual, unmutual.” I telephoned the Green Dome for a statement from No.2. But unfortunately he was not available for comment! 

Be seeing you

   

Do You Think That’s Wise?

   Those words “Do you think that’s wise?” might have been wise words spoken by Number 2 at this point. Why? Because Number 6 is taking the Polaroid photograph from the breast pocket of his cream blazer {the Polaroid taken by Alison in Number 6’s cottage after the incident with the soda siphon} which mush have been removed along with the day/date calendar and the wristwatch. But in the Polaroid he is wearing a dark coloured blazer! In producing that Polaroid it could, and should have spoilt the whole plan at that point. I’m surprised no-one picked up on that at the time, if not Number 2, then surely Number 6, and if not him, then Doris Martin who was responsible for continuity at that time. She should have pointed that out to Patrick McGoohan the moment the decision was made to change the colour of one of the blazers. Mind you McGoohan should have realized there was something wrong himself, the mistake he was making!

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Caught On Camera!

    “This is our chance…. This is our chance, take it now. I have command, I will immobilize all electronic controls…. Listen to me…. You are free to go… you are free to go…free to go…free to go, you are free, free to go…. I am in command obey me and be free!”

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A Mish-Mash of Affairs!

    The thing about ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ is, it’s a muddle, a mish-mash. For example, irrespective of whether or not the Prisoner is John Drake, ZM73 was certainly in the same line of work. He would have to accept and adapt instantly to unforeseen changes in circumstances without giving anything away to a third party. In this case ZM73’s mind might be in a turmoil, but he doesn’t panic. He goes to see a man who might be able to help him, his boss Sir Charles Portland, if he can prove his identity!
    All unpleasant memories of The Village over the past year had been erased from the Prisoner’s mind, so that mentally his mind had been regressed back to the day he was due to hand in his letter of resignation. So that when ZM73, for want of a better name, woke up on the recliner in his study it was simply the next day, and not a year later. He checked the time by his wristwatch but that in itself should have told him that something wasn’t quite right. After all that’s not his wrist and hand he sees, he should have recognized that. Then he looks out of the window {we’ll forget the fact that he’s looking out on the wrong scene outside} he looks at Janet’s photograph and thinks to himself of her birthday present hoping she likes it. Then going over to the writing bureau he looks at the ‘Things To Do Today’ pad, and thinks to himself about what’s on for the day, and treats it like any other day, except it isn’t. He’s meant to be resigning his job, surely he should have had that on his mind and not the servicing of his car, the cancellation of a dental appointment, and if he was about to resign his job he wouldn’t have been contemplating having a long lunch with his boss and future father-in-law Sir Charles Portland. Because he was supposed to be about to take a big step that would have changed all that, his job gone and his immediate future with it, his relationship with Sir Charles wrecked, and his engagement with Janet placed in jeopardy. She might well have reacted badly by giving him back his ring, as she wanted a husband that could give her security, not a man who was about to throw all that away.
   And there’s the question of the service of his Lotus Seven. Can’t he carry out a simple service of the car himself, such as greasing nipples, changing the oil, checking the break fluid, cleaning and resetting the spark plugs making sure they are set at the right gauge. Checking and topping up the levels of distilled water in the battery, break pads, tyre pressure and tread? After all he does know every nut, bolt, and cog having built the Lotus with his own hands, and to have been able to do that, he must have had access to a garage. So why pay someone else to carry out a service of the car? Because the way he says “Car service” does suggest the Lotus is being taken to a garage. Perhaps it was a question of time, after all there was also that dental appointment in the morning which he thought to cancel, as he was supposed to be having a long lunch with Sir Charles.
   And yet any plans, and appointments made by ZM73 all went by the board the moment he saw the Colonel’s face staring back at him in the mirror, and having done so, all those unpleasant memories of The Village suddenly came flooding back. That in turn calls into question the strength and effectiveness of the technique used to remove all such unpleasant memories from the subject’s mind in the Amnesia Room. Because in ZM73’s case he seems to have been able to recall those memories of The Village quite easily!
   For the first time in the series, Number 6 had a dependency on The Village, because if he could not return there, his mind would have had to have remained in a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonel’s!
   And then there’s the question of the Colonel. The last time Number 6 saw the Colonel it was in ‘Many Happy Returns just before he set out on a search for The Village. Are we to suppose that there has been yet another change in Colonel, after all there have been two different Colonels already. If so how did Number 6 know of this latest incarnation when he’s been a prisoner in The Village, when he woke up and said that Professor Seltzman’s mind now occupied a body perhaps not to his liking….the Colonels? If Number 6 wasn’t unconscious at the time, did he encounter the Colonel in the Amnesia Room, or when they about to undergo the mind transference? Certainly Sir Charles Portland made no reference about the Colonel, he didn’t seem to know who he was when ZM73 went to see him in the guise of the Colonel. In fact no reference is made to the Colonel at all outside of The Village!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

   A view of the Bell Tower, and the man who was never there!

   The Prisoner looks up and sees a man leaning out of the window and out over the balcony. He rushes round the steps to the Bell Tower. He races up to the top only to discover that the man is not there, only to be faced with a statue!

    The man replaced by a statue!
    It’s a surreal moment in ‘Arrival,’ and this image makes me wonder why the statue was hauled all the way to the top of the Bell Tower, instead of being placed at the same window the man was seen looking out from? Perhaps it was because the window doesn’t afford an all round view, unlike the top of the Bell Tower!

   Production note: The real person being assistant director John O’Connor.

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                   “Nonplussed!”

BcNu

Thought For the Day

    What jolly music is played as Number 6 approaches the steps of the Recreation Hall, and what disappointment Number 6 must feel. Not only because he’s right back where he started, but he hardly left the Village in the first place! The fact that Nadia had betrayed him, was something Number 6 could live with. But then people who he was once colleague to, the Colonel and Fotheringay had also betrayed him, and that had to hurt. There was nothing to say, what could he have said, so he simply accepted and walked on his way back to his cottage, after all as one Number 2 said “It’s the only place he can ever go.” The music was jolly and uplifting, when Number 6 was feeling anything but, and as if that wasn’t enough, there was that public announcement, about the local Council organising a great new competition, this time seascapes. Was that planned to rub salt into the wound? It’s always struck me to be so.

Be seeing you Number 6, better luck next time!

Citizen No.8

    Well that didn’t go so well did it Number 8? Your process might well have always worked before, but the subject matter in this case is of a somewhat different calibre. That and the fact that you, Number 2, and Number 22 all became involved, couldn’t control the situation, and did what you would do in a real situation. Is that it? Well that doesn’t say very much for you, you turned out to be a psychotic killer! No I’m not talking about being a gunslinger, it’s the strangling of Cathy with your bare hands! Such was your fixation about her, the jealousy you felt if anyone showed any friendliness towards her. But what was she, a saloon girl, and you a two-bit gunslinger! That bit wasn’t real, but it was more than just a game, virtual reality you might say. It should have ended with you being gunned down in the street, lying there in the dirt. But no, it’s quite obvious that your fixation for Cathy stemmed from your fixation with Number 22. What was it, you made a pass at 22 and she knocked you back? And in the end you strangled Number 22 with your bare hands, just as you had Cathy, and in the Silver Dollar Saloon. What’s that, life imitating art?! And then you took what is termed the easy way out, just because the Judge slapped you. Finally you were the only male Number 8, all the others were female, I trust there’s nothing significant in that!

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

    In ‘The General,’ what’s Number 12 doing lurking in the bushes? In fact what was he doing on the beach at that time of night, its almost curfew time! Obviously he was there to retrieve the Professor’s tape recorder Number 6 buried in the sand. It then follows that he must have seen Number 6 dig it up after the Professor had buried it in the sand. For why? So that he could micro reduce the Professor’s message about Speedlearn and the General, and transmit that message subliminally to the students. Think of it, if that message had actually been transmitted, the entire people of The Village would have but one thought……to destroy the General. This would cause everyone to riot through the streets, searching here, there, everywhere until they found the General, when they would smash the computer to pieces, behaving like Luddites!  
   But what happened then, after Number 6 had wrestled Number 12 out of the bushes? He asked Number 12 if there was anything he could do for him? Number 12 suggested that Number 6 wanted to get out of The Village, and so handed Number 6 his passport. After all Number 2 had offered Number 6 a deal in exchange for the tape recorder. That deal was later cancelled by Number 2, seeing as the Professor didn’t need the tape recorder any more, but then neither did Number 6. But Number 12 did, in order to make a micro reduction of the Professor’s message, so in handing the tape recorder back to Number 6, who then gave it back to Number 2 because he no longer needed it, would have made it more difficult for Number 12 to get his hands on it again! But at least on the beach Number 12 was able to give Number 6 an important lesson about what not, when. Because Number 6 simply gave the wrong answer!

   Actor John castle as Number 12 appears to have been another of those actors who were on the wrong end of some rough treatment from Patrick McGoohan when he wrestled John Castle from out of those bushes!

    And where was Fenella Fielding during the production of ‘the General?’ Because it was actor Al Mancini who made the announcement about it being 15 minutes to curfew!

  {Luddites were textile workers in the 19^th century who protested against newly developed labour-economising technologies, primarily between 1811 and 1816. The stocking frames, spinning frames and power looms}

Be seeing you