Dance of The Dead

   As the original script has it, “No.6 destroys the Telex machine by throwing a heavy ashtray at it.” He seems to like doing that to machines. You’ll recall the incident of the television set and ashtray onboard M.S. Polotska.
   Having left No.2 surrounded with paper rolls and broken springs, No.6 and No.240 rejoin the Ball. There is a hectic formation dance in full swing. Faster and faster Elizabeth the first, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon are dancing in a ring, their hands joined to the quick music. The ring is broken to include No.6 and 240. They all dance as if the Devil is playing. This as noted in my book The Prisoner Dusted Down is the Dance of Death. The music continues faster and faster. The village is brightly illuminated, no-one is about, and the camera pulls back so that the sea is between the viewer and the village, until the village is only a glow in the darkness of night. The prison gates clang shut in the foreground. A white dot appears like a bullet fired from a gun, it is the Prisoner’s face. It stops behind the bars.

    A number of years ago I had read somewhere that during that final scene of the dance of the dead, which was not filmed for the finished episode, everyone at the ball died, everyone except No.6. I was misinformed. However having read the scene in the original script, it would have been better if they had filmed the dance of death, because it would have made better sense of the title of this episode as it would have concluded with the Dance of the Dead!

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