You
know there’s more to this episode than first meets the eye, and I’ve never
really thought about it in this way before, but then it didn’t really occur to
me until the other week. Okay if you want a childminder, one who will read your
child a gentle bedtime story, perhaps the last person you should ask is our
friend No.6! So why allow someone who was only recently a grumpy old
disharmonious unmutual, to lull your children to sleep with a story? An action
and adventure story commencing with a cricket match and exploding cricket
balls, together with all the fun of a funfair, and a car chase which would only
stimulate and excite the child’s mind so the child would not be able to go to
sleep. More than that, such a story about a psychotic murderess, sex, death
traps, a poisoning, drink abuse, and vomiting, not to mention the planned
destruction of a city, along with the mass murder of millions of people would
only bring about nothing but nightmares to young impressionable minds!
See you soon
"So why allow someone who was only recently a grumpy old disharmonious unmutual, to lull your children to sleep with a story?"
ReplyDeleteVery simple. As I see it, the original running order has the last 4 episodes perfectly arranged: Hammer Into Anvil, Girl, Once Upon a Time, Fall Out.
Hammer is a Crisis Episode. #6 learns the Village's big weakness: The paranoia goes all the way to the top. Having broken one #2 this way he might break future ones. Life can never again be the same after this episode. They can no longer play footsie with him. There is an immediate critical need to settle things with #6 one way or the other.
After Cargill is hauled off, Kenneth Griffith is rushed in as an Emergency Replacement. He is told NOT to engage with #6, interact with him, or have more to do with him than absolutely necessary. They don't want #6 messing with his mind too. Kenneth is just to sit on #6 and do NOTHING until they can rush their best man in to deal with the crisis.
Although told to do nothing, KG can't resist trying to score a point or two, so why not let #6 tell a story to children? He might possibly let something slip. And if he doesn't, nobody could accuse KG of violating the Do Nothing order. They're supposed to at least be monitoring him. #6 lets nothing slip, and KG is furious. Of course he knew it probably wouldn't work, but he couldn't try anything bigger. (This is really the only way to explain why KG would be so upset that such a simple plan had failed).
When Leo arrives, he's understandably fit to be tied. He recognizes the danger presented by #6 breaking a #2, but the higher ups still only have one foot in the water. They want to have it both ways. To have #6 taken care of, but without taking any of the extreme risks necessary to do that.
Hello Graeme,
DeleteYours is a very interesting comment, and I enjoyed reading it. Personally I don’t see ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ as a crisis episode. It is however rather like ‘Once Upon A Time,’ a one-to-one situation with No.14 assisting in the one as the Butler does in the other. The only paranoid person I can see in the village is No.2, simply because he’s afraid of his masters, which makes him a weak link in the chain of command. I’m surprised they promoted this chap to the position in the first place!
If, as you say “there is an immediate critical need to settle things with No.6 one way or the other,” after ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ Why bring No.2 {Kenneth Griffith} into it at all? ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ shouldn’t exist, they should have brought the former No.2 {Leo McKern} back straight away for ’Once upon A Time.’ However I take your point that it would have taken time to bring back No.2 {Leo} to the village, so No.2 {Kenneth} would have acted as an interim No.2. Have you considered ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’ could have run consecutively, because No.2 died, and originally wasn’t to have been resuscitated.
The thing with ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ is, we do not know whose idea it was to have No.6 tell three children that fairytale. To my mind No.2 isn’t upset simply because trying to get No.6 to open up to children had failed, but that a man of his ability {I’m guessing here} was put to such a simple task, and wasn’t used in a more complex plan. Certainly No.2 {Kenneth} didn’t simply monitor No.6, they must have met, and interacted with each other, and that goes for No.2’s assistant as well, before ‘The Girl Who Was Death, ‘ otherwise how would No.2 have been able to put them in his fairytale?
No.2 {Leo} wanted to get No.6 to answer one question “Why did he resign?” No.6’s resignation isn’t that important, only in the fact that if he will answer one simple question he will then tell them everything. And if he does that, that will give him to them. Because people are brought to the village for two reasons, to have the knowledge they have protected or extracted, or to be turned and be made to work for the village as with the two Colonels, Cobb, and Fotheringay for example. No.2 {Leo} is, was a good man, but if they get No.6 he will be better. No.2 was definitely a good man because he put his life on the line for the cause, and paid the ultimate price. And as I said, No.2 would have remained dead, had it not been for the advent of ‘Fall Out.’ So with Degree Absolute being the ultimate test, there was nowhere else to go but one final manipulation of No.6, and there was one man who could carry this out No.2 {Kenneth Griffiths} who offered the former No.6 ultimate power, then to face No.6 with the truth, that he is responsible for his own situation. Face him with that and it will break him. But of course it didn’t!
Best regards
David
Be seeing you