In The Village!

    One minute there is a local election, and a few episodes on the democratic process has been dispensed with, on the grounds that democracy is terribly inefficient. Which is fair enough I suppose. However had ‘Dance of The Dead’ preceded ‘Free For All’ as the film library order for ‘the Prisoner’ suggests, there would have been a much bigger problem, how to stage a local election when there is no opposition, no democratic process in The Village? Number 6 would have smelt a rat straight off! And yet as the episode sequence stands, it isn’t until after ‘Many Happy Returns’ that democracy in The Village has been dispensed with, because when it came to the question of a town council, Number 6 told the Colonel that the town council is elected once a year, and that he could have been a member. So it makes perfect sense for ‘Dance of The Dead’ to follow some time after ‘Many Happy Returns.’ The proof that there is no longer a town council in The Village becomes evident in ‘A Change of Mind,’ the council chamber has been given over for use by the Committee which stands against disharmonious and unmutual citizens.

Be seeing you