Rover MK II

    Was it Number 6, Patrick McGoohan, or the scriptwriter Terence Feely who gave the Guardian a name, Rover. It might well have started as an in-joke, because of the way the Guardian behaved, acting like a guard dog, or a retriever. In the series Rover is a name which did not stick, only in the minds of its devotees. Before ‘The Schizoid Man’ the Guardian had no name, it wasn’t even referred to as the guardian, in fact it wasn’t referred to in anyway. The word guardian only refers to the human guardians, not to that membranic thing. In ‘Arrival’ the Prisoner asked Number 2 What was that?” “That would be telling” Number 2 replied. And after ‘The Schizoid Man’ the Guardian went back to its anonymity and was only referred to once more, when in ‘Once Upon a Time’ Number 2 told Number 1 that he could remove that thing! So if it had not been for ‘The Schizoid Man’ the Guardian wouldn’t have had a name, would have been hardly referred to at all!

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