This Evening I Am Mostly Watching THEPRIS6NER

Darling 

    The ‘Modern Love Bureau’ is the modern way for couples to meet in The Village, which is an interesting commentary for today, because couples today are more likely to meet via dating websites on the Internet, rather than going out and meeting people socially. But one thing the ‘Modern Love Bureau’ has is “Blink Match” technology, in other words matched marriages!
   Six is matched with 4-15, and they fall in love with each other. Yet the love Six feels for her has been manufactured by Two and 313 in a laboratory. This might be a new Village, a new Six, but they still come for him in the night when Six is asleep, three times in fact. Rather like the three times in the original series of ‘A B and C.’
   Six’s love is generated through gene symmetry therapy. They scanned the brains of people who were likely to fall in love, they discovered, and Two said Six would like this, that the more there was gene similarity between people, the more they fell in love. And so they replicated by transplanting 4-15’s genes into Six! His feelings for 4-15 are manufactured! 313 doesn’t like what she’s doing to Six, but lets not pretend she has any choice in the matter.
  There’s a touch of ‘Free For All’ about this episode, when 1891 of the “Modern Love Bureau” speaks to Six through his television set. Six presses the off button. Within seconds the doorbell to Six’s apartment rings. He goes to open the door to find 1891 standing on the threshold!
   Holes are beginning to appear in The Village, Two tells his son 11-12 that it’s something to do with the weather, an ambiance anomaly. But really they are oblivion, and beyond all hope for anyone who falls into one of the holes. And yet, for anyone courageous enough to take a leap of faith………..they mean escape!
  And so the episode of ‘Darling’ is reached in this screening of THEPRIS6NER, and is fair to say the weakest of the six episodes, which arguably mirrors ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ for being the weakest episode in the original series. The modern Love Bureau uses "blink match" technology to find anyone in The Village a partner. 1891 appears talking to Six about the Mordern Love Bureau through his televison set. Six slams the TV and the picture goes blank. The next moment 1891 is standing on the doorstep of Six's apartment. Now where have we seen such a scene before?   Holes begin to appear in The Village!
   Six "What is it?"
   Two "It's a nothing! It's oblivion! It's beyond all hope!"
    147's daughter 832 fell down such a hole as this. Six said he would go into the hole and bring her back. But Six is weak, he has not the strength of his convictions. He is afraid to take that “leap of faith,” for if he had, Six would quickly discover that through the holes is escape! Or is there? perhaps not, seeing as when 4-15 dived into one of these holes, in New York 4-15's counterpart Lucy Dies in Michael's apartment when it is blown up  due to a gas explosion!
  This is one anomaly that runs through the entire series. It should be Helen who is dreaming The Village, and that does appear to be the case. Lying heavily sedated in a recliner in her apartment in New York. So why is that reflected by M2 who spends the majority of her time lying in bed heavily sedated, and can only be allowed a few minutes of wakeful time before holes begin to appear in The Village? There is no reason for M2 to be in this unconscious state, as its Helen in New York who dreams The Village, and her counterpart M2 should be free to enjoy The Village and her time with her son. After all that’s why she and her husband Curtis, volunteered for The Village experiment in the first place. So that they could have a son! M2 has never been with her son, has not seen him grow up, and relies upon her husband Two to tell her about their son 11-12 during her brief wakeful minutes. The Village was created in order to bring broken people there to be made better. Its seems that does not work for M2 and Two himself. They wanted a family, and Two places much reliance on family life, as he did in ‘Harmony.’ But in The Village M2 and Two appear to suffer as much as anyone.
   Did I say this is the weakest episode of the series, I think I've reassessed my opinion on that score! 

Breathe in…breathe out…Village life goes on!
Be seeing you

In An Emergency!

    In an emergency the electrician walks. Well that garden truck is a bit slow, but they get you there in the end, and that’s what counts. Besides where’s the emergency here? But it’s a bit more than a broken loudspeaker, it’s been trampled to pieces underfoot by the Prisoner, if the Observers had been watching they would have seen that. And there’s a rule about that, deliberate destruction of official property is an offence, according to Number 12 of administration, which could result in one of two things, imprisonment, or a fine. But seeing as it was his first day perhaps they let him off!
   That garden tractor, it’s fitted with the canopy that was originally attached to a Penny Farthing bicycle. Obviously it didn’t work too well being part of the bicycle which appeared in the series minus the canopy, and for some reason someone in the properties department decided to attach said canopy to this garden tractor. I can see that such an attachment would make the Penny Farthing top heavy, but isn’t such a canopy supposed to give protection against the elements? It doesn’t look as though it would afford the driver of this tractor much protection, it’s way too tall, leaving the driver open to the elements! Perhaps it’s a metaphorical canopy, being symbolic rather than to have any practical use. After all such canopies can be seen all around The Village, on taxis, bicycles, sign posts, and over speakers of the public address system, such is its practical use, the protection of public property. As for the citizens themselves, mostly they carry with them an umbrella, again symbolic of the protection The Village affords them. Besides it only rains in The Village occasionally, what other use could an umbrella afford anyone...perhaps as a parasol against protection from the sun!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                           “Portrait of No.22”

BcNu

Village People

    Why are these citizens so happy for Number 6? Number 6 who is just being driven home from the hospital having undergone the process known as Instant Social Conversion. They think he has been pacified, lobotomized, all the aggression taken out of him, why should they be happy about that? It might well be that many of them are pleased it’s been done to Number 6, and not to them!
     It might be supposed that the “Lobo” man is the only person in The Village to have undergone Instant Social Conversion, whom Number 6 encountered in the hospital, and later while listening to a silent speaker of the public address system.
    All that the doctor-Number 86 did to Number 6 is to heavily sedate him, but then the good people of the community didn’t know that. All they knew was Number 6 would turn out a model citizen, no more trouble making, no more going about causing disruption, or attempting to escape. Well that last one is right, Number 6 hasn’t attempted to escape The Village since over two episodes ago in ‘Checkmate.’ Perhaps he finally came to realize that escape is not possible, after all there are only a few ways one can try to escape. By boat, well he tried that no fewer than four times, by land, he tried that twice and failed the once, and found it impossible the second time. But he never tried going the other way, not out into the estuary, but along the river in a dug-out canoe. That would have meant felling another tree and carving out the wood of the tree trunk, which he once did before. It may be supposed that he had simply run out of options. Mind you, remembering Number 8, who once said she would help him to escape if he had a good plan. She told him that she had often helped others with their plans. I just wonder how many different plans she helped with? Were there several different plans, or variations on the ones attempted by Number 6? Anyway for the moment, even though he’s merely sedated, Number 6 has peace of mind, but as we know that will not last long!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    No.2 “I see you are still here.”
    Supervisor “Where else would I be?”
    “Nowhere I suppose. They say you can’t keep a good man down.”
    “Who says that?”
    “Oh I don’t know, some people.”
    “I’m worried for you.”
    “For me?”
    “Are you a good man?”
    “I told Number One I was a good man, I am a good man.”
    “I spoke to Number One once.”
    “Really, what did you say to him?”
    “Well I was here in the Control Room, and he asked if Number Two was here.”
    “And what did you say?”
    “I said yes sir.”
    “Well what else could you say? Do you know that apart from myself, and all of my predecessors, you are the only other person in the entire Village ever to speak to Number One?!” 
    “But that’s not all.”
    “Not all?”
    “It was the voice, I recognized it.”
    “Really, who was it?”
    “Number Six!”
    “Not your voice?”
    “My voice?”
    “Yes.”
    “That would mean I’d be talking to myself!”
    “We all want to be Number One.”
    “Not me.”
    “Not you?”
    “I like my job here in the Control Room, it’s safe and secure. You don’t see Supervisors being changed every five minutes!”
    “But you do have to be loyal to any Number Two who takes up office.”
    “Yes but I’ll still be here when Number Two has gone!”
    “Does that include me?”
    “N....no, I’d hate to see you go.”
    “Well I am going, and for one week, one teeny weenie week it’s all yours.”
    “You mean I’m Number Two?”
    “Well there’s no time to bring in anyone else is there.”
    “I’ll be seeing you then.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because I might be gone by the time you get back!”
    “If you’re gone when I get back, how can I be seeing you?”
    “It was a parting greeting.”  
    “Oh you’ll be alright, at least for you Number Six will be out of the picture for a while. It’s me I’m worried about, having to deal with a five year old child. Is the ice cream parlour open do you know?”

Be seeing you

Report On No.6

    During the episode of ‘Checkmate,’ the doctor-Number 23 reads from a medical report on Number 6 upon whom a series of tests had been carried out by the doctor herself. The result being that Number 6 showed a negative reaction to pain, something which would take super-human will-power. So just how much pain had the doctor put Number 6 through? Earlier in the episode the doctor is quoted in wanting to find Number 6's breaking point. Well if she was conducting physical pain on Number 6, there was her opportunity to do so.    When you stop and think about it, Number 6 is put through all manner of conditioning, physical pain, emotional disappointment, and remains unaffected by it all. Number 2 is on record saying that he sometimes thinks Number 6 isn't human, I think he's right. And yet when it does come to physical pain, by the time of ‘Hammer Into anvil’ when Number 2 puts the point of his shooting stick sword to 6’s forehead, he appears to have lost the ability of having a negative reaction to it!

Be seeing you

Citizen No.212

     “There can be no mitigation, we all have a social obligation to stand together,” this oriental gentleman sounds like one of Mao Tse-tung’s young cultural revolutionaries spouting something from Mao’s little red book.

   At one time I thought the young man was wearing an extra badge other that his Village badge, but in my keenness to see what it was, I quickly identified it as a simple button on his coat!

Be seeing you

Election Time!

    A vote for Number 6 is a vote for the security of the citizens as your local candidate stands for election! And yet “there are those who come in here and deny we can supply every conceivable civilized amenity within our boundaries. You can enjoy yourselves, and you will. You can partake of the most hazardous sports and you will the price is cheap. All you have to do in exchange is give us information you are then eligible for promotion to other and more attractive spheres. Where do you desire to go? What has been your dream? I can supply it, winter spring, summer or fall they can be yours at any time, apply to me and it will be easier and better.”
   The hazardous sports he’s talking about probably includes Kosho, and in return all the citizens have to do is given him information, Number 6 is talking like Number 2 already, especially when the citizens have absolutely no choice in the matter. But there’s more, give him the information and he’ll release you from The Village, like Cobb was released to go onto more attractive spheres as he goes to serve his new masters. This new candidate for the position of Number 2 is trying to manipulate the citizens by telling them if they apply to him he’ll make it easier and better for them. But are these actually Number 6’s own words? The candidate did undergo therapy, brainwashing during the night before via the pulsator hidden in the overhear light. His first speech was off the cuff, as Number 6 wouldn’t have had time to prepare that speech, and the same seems to be said of his final speech and vocal exchange on the hustings with Number 2.

   “Place your trust in the old regime their policies defined the future certain, the old regime forever and the old Number Two forever. Confession by coercion is that what you want? Vote for him and you have it, or stand upon firm upon this electoral platform and speak a word without fear the word is…..freedom. They say six of one and half a dozen of the other, not here, it’s Six for Two and Two for nothing and Six for free for all for free for all vote, vote.” Number 6 seems to be doing pretty well, but it’s not like him to carp, but what about Number 2, what does he do in his spare time? Sadly he cannot afford spare time, he’s working to his limit, we’re all entitled to spare time leisure is our right. But in Number 6’s spare time, if he gets it, what will he do? The answer is a simple one, less work and more play! Well that’s pretty obvious, and at least the words of that speech appear to be the candidates own. Whereas before, when he addresses the electorate from the forecastle of the Stoneboat apparently the candidate needed his speech to be written on an “idiot board” as a memory reminder for him to read. The question is who wrote that third speech for Number 6 {in all probability it was Patrick McGoohan} and why the need for the “idiot board” as it’s suggestive that those are not the candidate’s own words. And when he made that speech during the lunchtime news he already sounded like a newly elected Number 2, but one of the old regime, not of a candidate whose intention was to find out who the prisoners and warders are, to stand on a platform for free speech and freedom!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      “Your Local Candidate!”

BCNU

Thought For The Day

    During the de-briefing of the Prisoner on the day of his arrival in The Village, we learn that at some point, he had been under close surveillance. “What was that?” said Number 2 “Sounded like a click, something in the mirror over there, yes, over there too!” So who had been keeping ZM73 under such close surveillance? Had it been by his own colleagues, Special Branch, or agents working for The Village administration, why, and for how long? Had ZM73 become suspect, perhaps thy thought he was about to sell out…..no that’s not the reason. But there must have been a reason, perhaps by those who were soon to abduct him from his home and take him to The Village. Perhaps there had become something doubtful about the Prisoner, that he jumped before he was pushed, and then The Village administration picked up the pieces by having him abducted. Perhaps the Prisoner went the same way as Chambers soon to be late of the Foreign Office. ZM73 was going to meet Chambers to try to get him to change his mind before the “big boys” found out, but they had Chambers, and so he talked!
    What would have ZM73 done once he discovered that cameras had been secreted in his house. Would he report it to the department that someone was watching him? He was thinking of going on holiday at the time, Paris was one place considered, also Ireland but it was a bit too cold there at that time of the year. The trouble is we do not know how long ZM73 had been under surveillance, and what the cause. It must have been before his resignation, as was that fact he was considering going on holiday, because there wasn’t enough time since his resignation. Because once having handed in his letter of resignation ZM73 couldn’t get away quick enough, but they came for him before he was expecting them. Was he expecting them? Well seeing as how ZM73 was in such a hurry to get away, it would appear so, unless he was simply in a hurry to get to the airport to catch his flight. But perhaps not quite so soon, and perhaps not in the guise of two Undertakers, not that he saw who it was who came for him.
   So where was the Prisoner going in such a hurry? Abroad obviously, since the airline ticket tells us that much. Paris perhaps after all he had a contact in Paris, Madam Engadine!                 

Be seeing you

Smoking In The Village!

    Although we never really see smoking in The Village, apart from Number 6 trying to smoke a cigar of his favourite brand, the fact that there are some Russian cigarettes in a box, Number 6 lights Alison’s cigarette, and The Man With No Name rolls, and smokes, a cigarette using brown liquorice paper, it must have occurred. When Number 36 attempts to buy a bag of sweets from a kiosk in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ when her weekly credit allowance had been all used up, originally it was a packet of cigarettes she was trying to buy!

   Alison was a smoker and must have bought her cigarettes from either a kiosk, or the General Store, because on the wall just inside the door there is a cigarette machine. And Number 6 was supposed to smoke a particular favourite brand of cigar. Perhaps as being their “prize prisoner,” as Number 2 once described him, they indulged Number 6 by importing his favourite brand of cigar specially for him even though we never see him actually smoking them!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “You’re safe protected by the Queen.”
    “Good.”
    “What I mean is, you won’t be caught L.B.W like I was yesterday.”
    “L.B.W?”
    “Leg before wicket!”

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    Number 6 has escaped The Village by use of a sea-going raft. He struggles with gun runners, and is forced to jump overboard and swim for it, well that’s not the first time he’s had to do that. Then he’s washed ashore, at Beachy Head scales the cliff, and travels inland. He encounters a gypsy camp and it treated not only to a cup of tea or broth, but the first genuine act of kindness since his abduction to The Village.
    Eventually he returns to London, and does a very stupid thing by leaping out the back of that Luton van and into the busy road of Park Lane. And just because he heard a police siren which is instinctive of an escaped prisoner to run away from the police! But Number 6 gets lucky, and isn’t run down by the passing traffic. He makes his way across London on foot, eventually arriving in Buckingham Place. On the doorstep of what used to be his home, he encounters Martha, a housemaid who looks down her nose that the raggedy man stood making the doorstep look untidy. And has no sympathy for this apparent vagrant! Mrs. Butterworth however is a different matter. She takes pity on this “exile,” and invites him into her home and leads him into the study. After a few moments Mrs. Butterworth  leaves Peter Smith, a name he adopted on the spur of the moment {well I think it was, even after 50 years it’s still uncertain either way, whether Peter Smith is his real name, or that he was simply unwilling to give even that piece of information away} alone in the study. After all that has happened to him since escaping The Village some 25 days ago, he’s still uncertain of his surroundings. Because standing there in that study that was once his own, he could still be in The Village. Perhaps his feeling of uncertainly stems from the fact that once before he was supposed to have returned to London, to find himself in an office he knew very well, only to discover that he had been in The Village all the time. So he looks for reassurances in order to convince him of place of being, the dialling tone of the telephone, the view from the window. The patch of dry rot behind the bureau which he had made good about 6 months ago, and the hot and cold taps of the shower which had been put on the wrong way round........I wonder if that’s how they were fitted to the shower in the bathroom back in his cottage in The Village?
    Mrs. Butterworth said he didn’t need to convince her, but it wasn’t for her benefit, it was Number 6 convincing himself. After all Number 2 and the administration of The Village are damned clever. Everything which had happened to Number 6, between his escaping The Village to arriving back to his former home, could all have been induced to take place purely in his subconscious, and as he stood there in the study he could still have been in The Village for all he knew. But then if it had been that way, what could they possibly have achieved, what did they achieve anyway, except for the teaching Number 6 another lesson! If only Number 6 or Peter Smith, had gone away and forgotten all about it, he might have finished as a free man! But then as the newly retired Number 2 said in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ “They’ll find me eventually, wherever I go.”

Be seeing you

Tonight I Am Mostly Watching Anvil

    Tonight 'Anvil,' and the question of surveillance. And it would seem that surveillance cameras have taken a big step backwards since the days of the original 'Prisoner' series. Because "Undercovers" have to go and physically install what are called "Roach Cams." And then two "Undercovers" have to sit on places like roof tops, and record the surveillance film footage on a lap top! What's more "Undercovers do not even try to blend in. 909 and Six while working together as "Underovers," go the to swimming pool. They are wearing ordinary clothes, instead of swimming trunks, and they both stick out like sore thumbs!
   We also learn that there is no Number 1. There has never been a Number 1, and there never will be. This according to Village history, as told by schoolgirl 1,100.
   Two offers Six the opportunity to work against him as an “Undercover,” and Six will do anything to work against Two. It is a trap set by Two, but Two wants to see if Six can turn the situation to his own advantage!
   Anvil questions surveillance, which is part of our everyday lives today. No-one knows who is watching who in the Village. "Undercovers" themselves may be under surveillance by other "Undercovers." So much so that everyone in the Village could be watching everyone else, and everyone is suspect!      
    Six is recruited by Two to work as an Undercover, to work with 909 who is Two’s best undercover, he thought Six would have noticed that! Would Six really work for Two? Oh no, no, no, not for him, but for the people he would be watching. Six pronounces so loudly his opposition to Two, his disbelief of everything Two and The Village stands for, people might trust him. Two already has his suspects, and he knows that Six wants to meet with dreamers. So Two offers Six the apparatus and expertise of their highly trained and well financed undercover operations to do just that.
  Six “Why would you give me all that, if it wasn’t a trap?”
  Two “My dear Six, it is a trap. You have such a high opinion of yourself. I wondered if you would be clever enough to turn this opportunity to your own advantage. Still….”
  “Everything you say is a trap. Alright lets do it.”
 Cue opening credits………………..
    In THEPRIS6NER-09 scriptwriter Bill Gallagher employed this idea in the episode ‘Anvil.’ When Six, working undercover as a school teacher, he asks the pupils in his class the oldest question in Village history. 1,100 replies “There is no Number One. There has never been a Number One, and there never will be." The concept of the Number Two is an act of humility. The title reminds us all that we are all public servants, even Number Two.” As for Number Two, it was Number 2 the 14^th who oversaw the reformation of The Village. As for the first woman Number 2, well it wasn’t Lady Two the Great, as suggested by one pupil. I thought it was Mary Morris! But as for there being no Number 1, that that there has never been a Number One, and that there never will be, what about Six being the One, as suggested by Two and proclaimed by both 147 and the people of The Village? Perhaps 1,100 got it wrong, and Six was the first Number 1!

“Breathe in.......breathe out......Village life goes on.”
Be seeing you

Village Sports!

   When Number 6 was standing for election against Number 2, in that speech he gave from the forecastle of the Stone boat he tells the electorate “You can partake in the most hazardous sports and you will,” perhaps Kosho is one such dangerous sport he had in mind. It certainly looks pretty dangerous! I recall when I used a trampoline at school many of my classmates used to have to stand around the trampoline in case if an accident. But it’s not just the danger of falling from one of the trampolines, one could lose ones footing and slip off the top of the wall. There might be a handrail, but the top of the wall has a slope to it. One wrong slip, lose grip of that railing...... And then there’s the water tank. When you have your opponent at your mercy you’re supposed to dunk him into the tank of water. It’s no wonder they have to wear crash helmets, without one you could crack your head open if it hit the side of that tank. Death could be instantaneous! Health and Safety today would have a field day if they saw anyone taking part in this outlandish and dangerous sport!

Be seeing you

There’s Nothing No.6 Cannot Do!

    Thinking about it, Number 6 built himself a sea-going raft, survived 25 days at sea on it, in all elements, spending only 4 hours out of each 24 asleep. And during that time he fought off the two gun runners, and swam the best part of the English Channel! He wasn’t aboard his raft in the English Channel, he was picked up by the gun runners in the Atlantic Ocean. He then jumped overboard and swam for it, towards the light in the distance, which turned out to be the lighthouse at Beachy Head, where Number 6 was washed ashore. So it stands to reason that he swam perhaps the greater part of the English Channel between England and the French coast, depending on where that motor cruiser was in the Channel. The light from the lighthouse can be seen 26 miles out at sea, and it was a small dot of light when first seen. So it’s possible that when Number 6 jumped overboard he was some 20 miles from the south coast of England. Plus the English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. You see there is nothing Number 6 cannot do, as The Girl Who Was Death said “You’re a born survivor!”

Be seeing you

What’s Number Six?

    “What’s number six?” When originally I heard Sir Charles Portland say that I thought what does he know about Number 6? Yet in this instance its a photographic slide he’s talking about, but perhaps in Sir Charles saying those words they are designed to put the viewer on the alert, to expect a little more than just a change in photographic slide! It could be one of those “in jokes” Patrick McGoohan wasn’t so terribly keen on, unless it was one of his! After all its a bit of a coincidence that Sir Charles should say those exact words “What’s number six,” when the main character’s number in ‘the Prisoner’ is Number 6. But in that may lie the design. If Sir Charles had said “What’s number eleven, or what Number twenty three” any number other than 6 it wouldn’t have been so noticeable.
   Did Sir Charles know of The Village, and if he did did he know his future son-in-law had been abducted there? If not then he was telling his daughter the truth, and yet even after 50 years its still not clear either way. Don’t forget ZM73 had handed in his letter of resignation, but his fiancee Janet Portland was still under the impression that her finace was still working for her father. So her fiance had not informed her of his decision to resign his position in her father’s department, and if Sir Charles was aware he certainly kept it to himself! And if he didn’t know, then either the Colonel or that bureauocrat to whom ZM73 had handed in his letter of resignation, had not passed it on. And yet that cannot be right, as the two previous Colonels knew of their ex-colleagues resignation, one even attempted to extract the reason behind it from Number 6 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Oh well it is ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ after all.
    But I digress, what’s Number 6? It’s a badly under-developed picture of Doctor Seltzman!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    50 years of ‘the Prisoner’ and so much remains a complete mystery, unfathomable, unanswerable. What matters that we do not know the meaning and reason for something we cannot explain? We shall not suffer for it, we are not the poorer for it. It’s just as Number 2 once said, one like to know everything, unfortunately because the lack of some details the file on the Prisoner and his Village will remain open, and sadly never to be brought up to date!
    I wonder what happened to Chambers? I like to think that the Prisoner followed in Chambers footsteps in having been abducted to The Village. It’s just a pity that Cobb wasn’t Chambers then late of the Foreign Office, that would have made more sense. After all Number 2 had told the Prisoner of Chambers being a nice guy, and so talkative. Or perhaps instead of Dutton it could have been Chambers Number 6 encountered at the cave in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ After all ‘Dance of The Dead’ was originally to have been the second episode.
    It seems to be that British Military Intelligence was very susceptible to having its operatives abducted to The Village. More than that, they are turned, and then put back into the original place of work, but kept on ice so to speak, ready to be called on to act for the Village. The Colonel and Fotheringay are two such excellent examples. It maybe supposed that that is what they intended to do with Number 6. Abduct him to The Village, extract all information from him, then turn him, and send him back. Only he had resigned from his job, and the department he worked for within British Military Intelligence, so the Village administration had nowhere to send him back to. Having resigned he was ineffective to them. He would have to remain in The Village....for life!
   Perhaps the reason why they wanted to know the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation is because they thought they might be able to put it right. Then he could rescind his resignation and so return to the fold so to speak. To carry on the good work but for The Village! That would of course presuppose that the Prisoner having resigned his job was unknown to The Village administration. That they had always intended to abduct him to The Village, and that ZM73’s resignation was purely incidental to the act of his abduction. But it could have been an inconvenience to them….had he disappeared somewhere on holiday!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                  “Surprise!” 

 BcNu

Citizen No.12

    You come whistling into Number 6’s cottage as though you own the place, which as we both know you do not! Granted you look like Number 6, however you don’t wear the same colour blazer as he does. And its blatently obvious that you have not taken the time to read Number 6’s peronnel file, otherwise you would know not to wear that badge. Number 6 never wears his badge!
     How was it for you after you woke up here in The Village, anything like the way Number 6 woke up as you? I can understand the makeover they must have given you in order to make you look more like Number 6, if he looked anything like you when he woke up. Tell me, are you naturally right-handed or were you conditioned to be so? Perhaps as Number 6 was undergoing conditioning to make him like you Number 12, you were experiencing the same conditioning to make you like Number 6. But they put the wrong blazer on the wrong man, and do take that badge off!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

   Mind out there Number 6, make way, can’t you hear vehicle horns? Two fast approaching Mini-Mokes come speeding along the road, each driven by a medic. But just a minute, whose the chap on the bicycle peddling for his life, he appears to be trying to keep up with the two taxis. Perhaps he has a mania for chasing ambulances. Maybe there’s a life in danger, and the chap on the bike had ridden to the hospital to get help!

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Thought For The Day

     At Madam Professor’s art seminar there was a man tearing pages out of a book, and to Number 6 the man appeared to be doing just that. But not to Madam Professor, according to her he’s creating a fresh concept, destruction arising out of the ashes. Perhaps he just didn’t like the book, perhaps it reminded him of something unpleasant. Or perhaps he just didn’t like books in general. Then there was, according to Number 6, a woman standing on her head, but no, you see that’s an easy mistake to make. Again according to Madam Professor the woman is developing a new perspective, but why can she not simply be standing on her head, why complicate it and for what, art’s sake? And finally a man is sitting in a chair, he’s asleep, apparently the mind learns only when it wants to. But then the man might simply be tired, or had become bored. I remember becoming bored once, it was during a screening of ‘Brand,’ Patrick McGoohan was playing Brand. I do not care for Ibsen’s plays, they are too dark and damned depressing for me. Anyway there he was, McGoohan as Brand, ranting and raving about something. Eventually I fell asleep, and about half an hour later I woke up. And there he was, this Brand, still in the same place, still ranting and raving on about something and I felt as though I had missed nothing! After the screening people were saying marvellous things about it, how wonderful Patrick McGoohan’s performance was, they enthused about it, and coming out with the most profound things. But you see I didn’t get it, if truth be told I didn’t want to get it, and as far as I was concerned Patrick McGoohan was simply playing the role of another angry man, he was good at that. For me people were seeing things I couldn’t, or they were simply trying to sound clever, which is worse. I’m like Number 6, if I see a man tearing up a book that’s just what he’s doing no matter what the interpretation. A woman standing on her head is doing nothing more than that, perhaps she likes to feel the blood rushing to her head! As for the man asleep in the chair, well that was me!

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Mind Games!

    Oh no not again I hear you sigh, but if there’s one thing, apart from its unique incidental music, ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ has provided a goodly amount of material to write about. And it was while I was replying to an email recently that I thought here’s something I’ve not touched upon before.
    No.2 “We call this our amnesia room, we’re rather proud of it. With it we can erase the memory back to any point we choose. This man was extremely co-operative, told us all we wanted to know in three days {what like A B and C} with hardly any persuasion. So now we wipe out all unpleasant memories of The Village, and put him back into circulation to gather more information.”
    If it’s possible for them to put the mind of their choosing into an enemy agent, then send him into circulation in order to gather information. Then to bring him back to The Village in order to extract that information, why should they need to use any form of persuasion, why shouldn’t their agent give up any such information voluntarily? Furthermore, why is it necessary to wipe any unpleasant memories from the mind of their own agent? Surely if they do that, then send the agent back into circulation in order to gather more information, when they bring the agent back to The Village surely he wouldn’t know where he was {a possible flaw in the plan} therefore he would resist, and refuse to give away the information in his head. That could account for the need to use persuasion in order to extract information!

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This Evening I Am Mostly Watching THEPRIS6NER

   Having been attacked by the Guardian {I do not write Village Guardian, as the Guardian never appears in The Village in this series} at the end of ‘Arrival,’ Six is left unconscious in the desert! Then there is another remembrance, Michael returning to his New York apartment with Lucy. While as a boy he is on the beach looking for  his brother, as 16 is in the desert looking for his brother Six!
  Six didn’t recognise 16 as his brother, because his bother was lost at sea on one of their trips to the beach when they were boys. 16 is not Six’s brother. Two gives Six his brother back, and a family. Family is important to Two, its just a pity that Two’s own family is so disjointed!
   Two recommends Six undergo some therapy, The Talking Cure. Unless Six is afraid that Two will mess with his mind, or that Six will discover that he is the problem after all!
   Six spends time with 16 and his family, discovers that he’s a bus driver, learns that he does like pork after all. He also learns about Wonkers, the television serialisation of the book Wonkers, about life in The Village. One of his “nieces” explains the current storyline Six……….okay, so, 765 is in love with 23-30, but 23-56 is pregnant to 46-5, and 9-13 had an affair with 23-30. So 765 is jealous of 23-30, and so she, like, took her revenge by sleeping with 46-5. While on the television screen……………
   765 “I’m leaving you.”
   “No.”
   “Yes.”
   “Oh no! Why?”
   “I love your brother.”
   “Oh.”
   In Palais 2, Two’s residence,11-12 sits on his mother’s bed as she sleeps on, dreaming The Village, and then spies on Two as he feeds his wife, M2, three more pills. And Six helps 16 with a bicycle repair, before he goes to the Clinic for his first therapy session with the brothers 70. For Six The Village is a dark place, his home is not his home, his brother is not his brother, nothing’s real!
But at least Two got Six to admit to who he is, Six. And we learnt a little more about Michael, that he worked for a company called Summaker, and was connected to surveillance as an observer, watching people, writing reports about people living in New York. And he once had a brother, no I don't mean that impostor in The Village. A brother who was lost at sea, drowned, well you saw that for yourself. But how Six knew where that buried tin was, well is that simply a memory?
   Nice to be seeing a pair of twins in The village, 70, who tried talking things out with Six. Two doesn't believe in this sort of therapy, but then it's not important for Two to believe, just as long as Six believes! But did I say there was something dark and dangerous about Two, if I did, then I left something out, he's also twisted. I mean keeping his wife drugged like that, then sleeping with her!
    Most of what we see takes place out in the desert, looking for the ocean this week. An ocean through which the Village guardian comes along and takes 16 into the depths. A terrible way to die. But then, if the ocean was never there in the first place, when you think about it, 16's death was even worse for him than we saw on the screen.
   I think it was very clever of Two to give Six a family, through which Two hoped to see Six accept his situation through his brother, and finally settle down. It appears that Six used to work at the bus depot, as a bus driver!
   Harmony I found to be a surreal episode, with a surreal ships anchor in the desert, along with a long abandoned railway halt! It's all to do with the mind isn't it, and that takes some getting my mind round. 16 was never Six's brother, and people go on the bus tours of The Village day after day, seeing the same old thing, described in the same old way. And what about that Solar Cafe, rebuilt, as though the explosion in Arrival never took place. What's more there's something very 1950's about The Village. What with the Bubble car, and the black Bedford van. They come for you see, and in broad daylight, just like they came for Six, those men in their white suits and black Bedford van. They come for you, and take you to the clinic. I wonder what they'll do to Six?
    So surreal, with so much happening, I'll really have to watch this episode a second time before I can really get into it. Because I was determined not to give up on the series. And that was a brilliant Village guardian effect, the way it moved though the water, which really wasn't water, but sand.....poor 16!

Breathe in…breathe out…more Village
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Thought For The Day

     On the morning of ‘Free For All’ there comes an early morning greeting, made by a female announcer “Congratulations on yet another day,” probably meaning that if you're awake, you've made it through the night! Well they come for you in the night you see, at a time when your guard is down and you’re heavily drugged, and take you away. They did that to Number 6 three nights running in ‘A B & C’ as they carried out a running experiment. And if it hadn't been for the doctor-Number 14 there would have been the possibility that Number 6 might not have made it through the night, so keen as Number 2 was to continue with the experiment! But at least they took him back to his cottage, because there is that time in ‘The Schizoid Man’ when they didn’t! They came for Number 6 in the night, two doctors, but his sleep was light, so they deepened it for him! Then he was supposed to have woken up the next morning, not as himself, but as someone else. There have been times when I’ve woken up not realizing what day it was, but ‘The Schizoid Man’ takes things to extremes. It’s between four and six weeks when Number 6 wakes up in a strange apartment, but at least he did, and lives to face the day as someone else, Number 12, and told that his job is to impersonate himself. Life cannot get much worse than that, or can it? There’s the time in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ when they came for Number 6, but this time it was different, as four “Snowdrops” military policemen manhandling him from his cottage. I’ve wondered why it is that Number 6 is taken from his cottage that way, it’s the odd one out, when it would have been much easier to take him from his cottage in the night when he’s asleep and heavily sedated!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                         “Portrait of No.2”


BcNu

A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

    In ‘Many Happy Returns,’ Number 6 dodges passed the police roadblock, they are apparently looking for an escaped prisoner, which I find particularly ironic. Anyway, he jumps aboard and into the back of a large Luton van with the name NETCO, on the tailgate of the van, it’s a sign which doesn’t look quite right to me, I suppose it’s the white background. It’s as though the sign has been contrived for the camera, because I would have thought such a sign would have been on the side of the van, not just on the tailgate. A sign on the side of the van wouldn’t be seen so well on camera, but on the tailgate the sign is ideal for the camera!
   He climbs up onto a ledge above the driver’s cab, gets himself a sack to cover himself, and goes to sleep. Suddenly Number 6 awakens to the sounds of a police siren, instinct suddenly kicks in. I don’t know why, but he gets up and he leaps out of the back of the van........into the busy road of Park Lane! I’ve never understood why Number 6 suddenly leapt out of the back of that van, after all he had no idea where he was, certainly the sound of the siren had an effect upon him. But having leapt out of the back of that van he might easily have leapt under a London bus, been hit by a taxi or car, and laid badly injured, or worse, lay dead in the road! I’ve always thought what a terrible risk he took by doing that, it was so unnecessary because no-one knew he was there, least of all the van driver. And really I suppose, Number 6 was most fortunate that the van was travelling to London in the first place.

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What The Devils That?

   It looks very much like the Prisoner is about to have a nasty experience! If only he had kept his head, his hands on the steering wheel, and foot to the accelerator. Perhaps that’s what made the Mini-Moke jolt suddenly, taking his foot off the accelerator stalling the vehicle with it still in gear? Had he not done so, the vehicle’s impact with the membranic Guardian would have caused it to rise into the air, and the Prisoner could have driven on at speed into the distance with the Guardian in pursuit! But then had that taken place perhaps one of the Posts, like Post 14 could have shot out one of the Mini-Moke’s tyres using a high-powered rifle, thus causing the vehicle to crash, throwing the driver out onto the sand, leaving the driver to the merciless Guardian!

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The Village!

    Is The Village simply for the benefit of Number 6? After all everything which goes on there appears to revolve around him. At least that is the impression given. Can we be sure that The Village even existed before the Prisoner Number 6 arrived there? There is no evidence that it did, perhaps Number 6 built The Village himself in order to make his own prison.  And did The Village still exist after Number 6 left? Certainly The Village was abandoned, evacuated of all its citizens, and no-one in their right minds would ever go back there................would they?     

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The Bureau of Visual Records

    ZM73 should have kept that receipt for the roll of photographic film in his wall safe rather than give it to Janet Portland for safe keeping. Then mister “Carmichael” couldn’t have laid his hands on it, and with it the photographic slides for Sir Charles Portland! I wonder if that wall safe was replicated in Number 6’s cottage back in The Village? Shouldn’t think so.

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The Pri50ner

    50 years of ‘the Prisoner,’ you would think by now I’d have gotten it out of my system, but no I’m still writing about it, trying to think of new ways to come at the series. Oh I know some people who have given up on ‘the Prisoner,’ having got all they need from the series, and have moved on having found new interests to keep them occupied. Well it does happen you know. I know of a couple of people who have thought themselves to be “over” and “beyond” the Prisoner now, I wonder what they mean by that? Obviously they are not one of Number 2’s so called “lifers.” Some people have obviously escaped, and moved on to pastures new. But they will become prisoners again, oh not of ‘the prisoner,’ but of something else.
    Yes writing of ‘the Prisoner,’ my very first letter to be written on the subject of ‘the Prisoner’ I submitted to Number 6 magazine, the society magazine for Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation society back in 1987. It was a short letter as I recall about nothing in particular, rather insignificant as I recall.
   ‘The Prisoner’ used to be a rather private affair as I once wrote in an article, but now since writing my ‘Prisoner’ based blog I’ve made it a rather public affair. Well the majority of us feel the compelling need to share our thoughts, ideas, interpretations, and the different ways we look at the series, with like-minded enthusiasts. Although we might not agree with the other guy’s points of view, but then that’s human nature. It goes on you see, the playing around with ‘the Prisoner,’ it gives pleasure. “Questions are a burden to other. Answers a prison for oneself,” meaning, as Norma West once recalled in an interview “There are perfect questions, and only imperfect answers.” But even that doesn’t stop us moving pieces around, trying to make them fit, in order to make the jigsaw complete. But what then? You have the jigsaw in front of you, the picture could not be clearer, you break the jigsaw up into its individual pieces and put them back in the box............only to take them out again at some future date to begin all over again.

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Thought For The Day

    In the construction of ‘6 Private’ they incorporated a perfect reconstruction of ZM73’s study of his London house right down to the last detail, and I’ve wondered if they also incorporated the wall safe behind the television set. And seeing as how the bathroom door slides to the left as you go in, did they also put the hot and cold taps on the wrong way round when the plumbers installed the shower? They certainly installed a camera behind the mirror in the bathroom.............just a minute! What was it Number 2 said during his de-briefing of the Prisoner, “What was that, sounded like a click, something in the mirror?” But there is no mirror in the study of his London home, not when he’s getting ready to leave after handing in his letter of resignation. Not when Mrs. Butterworth lived there, and certainly not when the Prisoner woke up back in his London home, but in the guise of the Colonel. Unless of course Number 2 was referring to the mirror in the hallway which seems unlikely as they wouldn’t see much through that, apart from the opposite wall, and part of the front door. So where was ZM73 while he was under such close surveillance, and if ZM73 was at home to which mirror is Number 2 referring during that debriefing in ‘Arrival?’

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                               “Rescue!”

BcNu

I’m Just As Much A Prisoner

    I find that I’m just as much a prisoner today as I was yesterday and the days before that! I suppose it had to happen to someone, and today it happened to me. This morning I woke up to find the Village deserted, everyone had gone but me! The silence was broken only by the wind and the squawking of the sea birds. I washed and dressed then went out into The Village. The General Store was locked, as was the cafe, there were coffee pots and half drunk cups of tea and half eaten cheese cakes on the table on the patio. The Old People’s home was deserted, no-one clambering about the Stone Boat’s rigging. I forced my way into the Green Dome, then into Number 2’s office, I was sure he was behind what wasn’t going on that morning. But he wasn’t there, but there was a note, I read it. It said “Would the last man to leave The Village please turn off the light!” It was signed Number 2 Chief Administrator.
    I went back out into The Village, there was no helicopter, and even if there was I couldn’t have piloted it. I could have set off on foot towards the mountains, but I wasn’t much of a walker, and even less a mountaineer. Then I saw it, an abandoned Mini-Moke. The key had been left in the ignition, I climbed aboard and turning the key the engine fired into life. I drove out of The Village and into the countryside along a well used track way. After a few miles the track ran out, I could go no further, it was the mountains. So having driven back to The Village I wondered what best to do. It struck me that I could do one of two things, the first seemed unlikely as I was no seaman, and besides even if I were there was no boat. I might be able to fashion myself a sea-going raft, but then there was the question of navigation, of where I was sailing to and not knowing where I was sailing from. I was not prepared to risk my life at sea. The alternative was to sit it out, wait for someone to come to The Village and find me.
   I made myself as comfortable as I could, I still have my home, and after breaking into the General Store I had ample provisions. True there was no electricity, but there were candles, and I had two torch lights with plenty of spare batteries. I decided to build a beacon, a distress beacon, and there was no-one more in distress than me marooned in this Village. The Bell Tower was the highest point in The Village, so I found myself an axe in a workshop and with it felled three small trees, stripped them of their branches then chopped the trees up, and hauled the logs, branches and all to the top of the Bell Tower. Then from a supply shed I took a can of petrol and emptied its contents over my beacon and set light to it as night was falling. My beacon burned half the night, I’ve no idea if my distress beacon was seen but no-one came. I rebuilt the beacon deciding to light it only when I saw a sign from my world beyond The Village. I kept a daily watch from the Bell Tower, there was never any sign of a light, boat, or plane.
    Two weeks had now passed by and I was beginning to get fed up with my own company. Then one morning I woke to find the tide had gone out, all I could see was flat sand stretching out into the distance. This was my chance. First I found two wooden crates into which I filled as many provisions from the General Store as I could, mostly tinned stuff. I found an old wooden keg which I filled with fresh water from the waterfall. I remembered that Number 14 had a camera, so I hurried round to her cottage, found the camera and a spare roll of Village film, and took photographs of all points of the Village.......for evidence. Then I drove the taxi round to a workshop, I found a dipstick which I used to check the petrol tank, the Mini-Moke not being fitted with something as simple as a fuel gauge! The dipstick indicated the petrol tank was only a quarter full. So I topped it up from a large fuel tank, found not far from the workshops, as well as filling four large green Jerry cans. These I placed in the Mini-Moke along with my boxes of provisions, together with the roll of film. I drove through The Village for the last time, it was quite, peaceful, the only sounds were the wind, the squawking of the sea birds, and of course the engine of the Mini-Moke. It had never occurred to me until I drove passed the Town Hall and down the road to the Old People’s Home, that there had been no sight nor sound of the white membranic Guardian. I could only imagine, indeed hope that it had been deactivated, and had not been left to patrol the deserted Village.
   At the Old People’s Home I steered the Mini-Moke round to the left, then after a short way right down the slipway and onto the beach. I stopped the Mini-Moke and looked all about, and waited. Then depressing the clutch I engaged first gear, pressed down on the accelerator while at the same time lifting the clutch and the Mini-Moke moved slowly forward. When I was well out onto the sand I stopped the Mini-Moke once more, looked, listened, and waited. There was nothing, so I revved the engine, engaged first gear and pressed the accelerator to the floor and the Mini-Moke raced across the sand, away from The Village and into the distance..................

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